Pentecost Sunday

This week we celebrate the great Feast of Pentecost when God the Father fulfilled the promise Jesus made to the disciples and sent them the Holy Spirit.  According to St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, that first Pentecost was a spectacular event, “there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind” that “filled the entire house in which they were” (Acts 1:2).  And then “there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them” (Acts 1:3).  When the Spirit filled the disciples they “began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim” (Acts 1:4).  This event marks the beginning of the Church. 

God our Father sends the same Spirit that descended on the disciples to each of us. At our baptism, we received the gift of the Holy Spirit marking us as members of the Body of Christ, the Church.   And at our confirmation we were anointed again to perfect our “Baptismal grace” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1316). Although our baptisms and confirmations probably were not accompanied by driving winds and tongues of fire, the Holy Spirit was there. And each of us received special gifts to build the Body of Christ. St. Paul tells us in today’s second reading from 1 Corinthians 12, “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit” (4–7). 

How we use God’s gifts of the Holy Spirit is entirely up to us.  We can deny them.   We can hoard them.  Or we can use our gifts to help fulfil our mission to build of the Body of Christ.

In every generation, O God of Easter glory,
you send forth your Spirit
to breathe upon the world and make it come alive!
Fulfil the promise of these Fifty Days
with the abundant harvest of your Spirit's gifts.
May we, the community of believers in Christ,
adorned with various ministries and gifts,
be continually formed into one body
by the one Spirit which has been poured out on all of us.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who sends us the Spirit of truth from you,
and who lives and reigns with you,
God for ever and ever.

AMEN.