Pentecost Sunday Year B I Homily for 19th May 2024

 

The Venerable Fulton J. Sheen once said about the Church, "Even though we are God's chosen people, we often behave more like God's frozen people--frozen in our prayer life, frozen in the way we relate with one another, frozen in the way we celebrate our Faith." My dear friends today we celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost also called Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost marks the end and the goal of the Easter season.  The Paschal mystery i.e. the Passion, the Death, the Resurrection, and the Ascension of Jesus -- culminates in the sending of the Holy Spirit to the disciples. The feast also celebrates the beginning of the Church through the apostolic preaching of St. Peter, which resulted in the conversion of 3000 Jews to the Christian Faith therefore we won't be wrong to term it as the birthday of the Church.

Today’s first reading taken from the Acts of the Apostles must be interpreted in light of last Sunday's reading of the Ascension of the Lord (Acts 1:4-8), where the risen Lord Jesus instructed the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit. The reading describes in detail the miraculous events which took place during Pentecost. Far from the image of the Holy Spirit being a quiet innocent dove, the spirit comes suddenly, even violently upon the gathered disciples. The Holy Spirit plays an important role in the ministry of Jesus and the ministry of the disciples. We have three symbolic phenomena which accompany this initial outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. First, there was the sound of a violent rushing wind that filled the house. The wind, a physical manifestation of the presence of the Holy Spirit, symbolized the Spirit of God, just like the dove that alighted on Christ at his baptism. Second, there was the visible sign of tongues of fire resting on each person. The fire was another symbol of the divine presence. Finally, there was the miraculous speaking in foreign languages which none had previously learned. The miracle of tongues is symbolic of the reversal of the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel, as described in Genesis 11. 

The reading reminds us that the gift of the Holy Spirit is something to be shared with others.  After the coming of the Holy Spirit the disciples did not stay in that room enjoying what they had been given rather they burst out to tell the whole House of Israel that God has made Jesus Christ both Lord and Messiah (Acts 2: 32-36). Essentially the significance of Pentecost is this – God equips His church with the power of His Spirit so that He will be glorified among the nations. We are called to ask ourselves: Is my daily life consciously dependent on the Holy Spirit?  Do I desire to bear witness to Christ? The power of the Spirit isn’t given just to make us happy. The spirit is given to us so that our life and our words bring glory to God. Pentecost is an event of both the past and the present. The Spirit didn’t stop working after Pentecost. Just like the Father and the Son, the Spirit is still in us and among us.

In the second reading, St. Paul explains how the sharing of the various spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit enhances the Church. He refers to the varieties of gifts e.g. prophecy, healing, tongues etc. given to the Church as coming from the same Spirit for the common good.  Rather than celebrating one another’s gifts, the Corinthian Christians had become prideful concerning their particular gifts and dismissive of the gifts of others resulting in division among them. Paul insists that these spiritual gifts are to be used in the present time for the benefit of others, for the common good and the building up of the Body of Christ. He urged the Corinthians to think of their church, and the worldwide church, as a human body. A human body is just one object but it is made up of many different parts, all with different functions. In the same way, the church is made up of many believers, all connected by the Holy Spirit in them, and it is just one thing: Christ's body on earth. It's something like playing the guitar. In the guitar, all the strings must be tuned properly to get the perfect music, but what happens if even one of the strings is not tuned? Chaos is the result. Given that we are imperfect human beings our aim is not to have a perfect community but rather a loving and understanding one.

In the gospel taken from John, we hear about another rather overlooked narrative of the Pentecost. Jesus greets the afraid disciples by saying “Peace be with you” or Shalom in Hebrew. What's so significant about this greeting? We need to bear in mind that the disciples had totally and publicly disowned Jesus. Jesus had been scourged and crucified like a criminal, yet, without a single word of accusation, His first word to his disciples was Peace be with you and that too without any expression of sorrow or conversion from any of the disciples. Jesus’ love was free, unconditioned and limitless. The disciples are then sent on a mission. The mission of the disciples would be to reveal to the world the face of God – the loving and saving God revealed in Jesus. In a symbolic action evocative of God’s breath that gave life to the first human being (Gen 2:7) and of the demand to be begotten of water and Spirit (Jn 3:5-8), Jesus breathes on them and gives them a Holy Spirit with power over sin, continuing his own power over sin.

Today’s Gospel passage also tells us how Jesus gave the Apostles the power and authority to forgive sins.  “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” These words, which bind together the presence of the Holy Spirit with the gift of forgiveness, are referred to directly in the Sacrament of Reconciliation in the prayer of absolution said by the priest “God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son has reconciled the world to Him­self and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins…”  These words remind us of the Christian vocation we all have, to love and forgive just as we have been loved and forgiven.

Both love and forgiveness are not one-time activities but they are processes which take time. They are decisions we need to constantly and regularly keep making. The feast of Pentecost offers us the chance to relook at our relationships. Are we at peace with everyone in our lives or we are carrying burdens in our hearts? Every day can be a small Pentecost if we can cleanse our hearts of all unforgiveness and recognize the Spirit’s working in our lives. Every day we can praise God’s deeds of power. I pray that this Pentecost we may all grow in awareness of the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives and that we truly transform from God’s frozen people to become God's chosen people. In a previous video, I explored the significance of Pentecost from a different perspective, feel free to refer to that video as well. You will find the video link up here. And before I end, I request all of you in India to cast your vote. In Mumbai especially the date for voting is 20^th May, hence please don’t miss it. Each and every vote matters. I wish you all a very Happy Feast, take care and God bless.