They Were All Filled with the Holy Spirit!
Introduction: May you continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that you may use the gifts (charismata or charisms) that GOD has given you for the edification (building up) of the community of believers.
On this Pentecost Sunday, people throughout the world will gather to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. We celebrate the empowerment of the apostles and disciples so that they can then go out and continue the ministry of the Risen and Ascended Lord Jesus. This is truly a special day and a fitting close to the Easter Season. Yet, we do not just celebrate what happened nearly two thousand years ago. We also remember that we are part of the apostolic church and therefore have the privilege and obligation to continue the work of the Lord Jesus by furthering the ministry of Jesus and proclaiming the GOoD News. Each of us who call ourselves Christian are commissioned to use the gifts that GOD has given us for the spread of the faith. We are also empowered to carry the Gospel to others, to those in our families, to those in our work place/school, to those who are in need of help throughout the world.
Today we celebrate Pentecost – the coming of the Holy Spirit, the birthday of the Church, the end of the Easter Season. Our readings speak of the gift of the Holy Spirit and what that means for the Church, i.e., us. Today is all part of the paschal (Easter) mystery. In fact, the Gospel reading comes from a Resurrection appearance on Easter Sunday afternoon.
First Reading, Acts 2:1-11: ‘They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak.’
Commentary: The ministry of Jesus starts with the coming of the Spirit at his Baptism, and so the ministry of the Church begins with the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. There can be no witness to Jesus or to his message, no spreading of the Kingship of God, without the Spirit of Jesus. Another lesson from this parallelism is that the task of the Church and the life of the Church are the same as those of Jesus himself: to bring God’s kingship to its fulfilment by bringing healing, love and joy through the message of the Risen Christ. The rushing wind and the tongues of fire are an allusion to the coming of God’s Spirit in the Old Testament upon Moses and the elders. So the new message is the fulfilment of the Old Testament, breaking out beyond the borders of Judaism to include all peoples of the world. The union of all these peoples, all understanding one language in their own way, is a deliberate contrast to the scene at the Tower of Babel, when all the peoples of the world were split up by their inability to understand one another’s languages. The list of unpronounceable peoples is itself a witness to the universality of the Church!
Responsorial Psalm 104:1ab, 24ac. 29b-30. 31, 34. Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.
Psalm 104 praises God's greatness, wisdom in creation, and life-giving Spirit. It reminds us that His glory endures forever, and our joy is found in Him.
Second Reading, 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13: ‘In one Spirit we were all baptised into one body.’
Commentary: The slightest glance round a churchful of people is enough to show the variety within the Christian community. But it needs the hints given us by Paul to remind us that every member of that community has his or her own special gift to contribute. Mercifully, these gifts are all different. It is valuable to reflect on the natural gifts that we find all around us. It is also valuable to reflect how dull, or even intolerable, life would be if I lived with a lot of clones of myself, all with the same gifts and the same faults as myself! Every one of us contributes something different and valuable in its own way, whether it is the baby squeaking as a sign of new, developing life or the older person contributing wisdom, experience and even the suffering of Christ. The other inspiring thought is that all these varied and diverse people go to make up the Body which is Christ. We all have experience of various corporate bodies, organisations and companies, but none of these other bodies makes up a person. That Person is Christ, since as Christians we all live and operate through Christ’s Spirit.
Gospel John 20:19-23: ‘As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. Receive the Holy Spirit.’
Commentary: At first sight this is a surprising gospel reading for Pentecost, but of course the event of Pentecost came too late to be a subject for the gospels, and we read the account of another incident where the Risen Christ gave the Spirit to his disciples. There are two emphases in the account. The first is peace. Christ brings peace to his disciples with the double greeting of peace, and peace is a Christian watchword. Peace was the song of the angels at Jesus’ birth. Each of Paul’s letters opens with a greeting of peace. The letter to the Ephesians proclaims that Christ is our peace, the reversal of all worry, strife, envy, jealousy, self-seeking ambition. ‘Go in peace’ is Jesus’ dismissal of those he cures, and also the dismissal at the end of Mass. Peace was Jesus’ bequest to his disciples after the Last Supper. The second watchword is forgiveness, for God was always known as a God of mercy and forgiveness, as Jesus came to show by his constant approach to sinners. But the Lord’s Prayer shows that if we do not ourselves forgive, we block God’s forgiveness of ourselves too.
Reflection: Do you know and experience in your own life the gift and power of the Holy Spirit? After his death and resurrection Jesus promised to give his disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit. He said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit! (John 20:22) Jesus knew that his disciples would need the power of the Holy Spirit to carry out the mission entrusted to them. The gift of the Holy Spirit was conditional upon the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of the Father. That is why Jesus instructed the apostles to wait in Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). Why did they need power from on high? The Gospels tell us that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit when he was baptized at the Jordan River:
"And John bore witness, 'I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on him... this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit'" (John 1:32,33; Mark 1:8; Matthew 3:11).
"And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness... and Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee" (Luke 4:1,14).
Just as Jesus was anointed with the Spirit at the beginning of his ministry, so the disciples needed the anointing of the Holy Spirit to carry out the mission entrusted to them by Jesus. The Holy Spirit is given to all who are baptized into Jesus Christ to enable us to live a new way of life - a life of love, peace, joy, and righteousness (Romans 14:17). The Holy Spirit fills our hearts with the love of God (Romans 5:7), and he gives us the strength and courage we need in order to live as faith-filled disciples of the Lord Jesus. The Spirit helps us in our weakness (Romans 8:26), and enables us to grow in spiritual freedom - freedom from doubt, fear, and from slavery to our unruly desires (2 Corinthians 3:17; Romans 8:21). The Spirit instructs us in the ways of God, and guides us in living according to God's will. The Spirit is the source and giver of all holiness. Isaiah foretold the seven-fold gifts that the Spirit would give: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2).
The gift of Pentecost - the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the spiritual gifts and blessings of God - are made possible through the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus. After his resurrection Jesus "breathed" on his disciples and gave them the Holy Spirit. Just as God breathed life into Adam, so the gift of the Holy Spirit is an impartation of "new life" for his people. With the gift of the Holy Spirit a new creation begins. God recreates us for his glory. Jesus' gift of peace to his disciples was more than an absence of trouble. His peace included the forgiveness of sins and the fullness of everything good. Do you want power to live a faith-filled life as a disciple of Jesus? Ask the Father to fill you with the power of his Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13).
Basil the Great (329-379 AD), an early church father, explains the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives:
"The Spirit restores paradise to us and the way to heaven and adoption as children of God; he instills confidence that we may call God truly Father and grants us the grace of Christ to be children of the light and to enjoy eternal glory. In a word, he bestows the fullness of blessings in this world and the next; for we may contemplate now in the mirror of faith the promised things we shall someday enjoy. If this is the foretaste, what must the reality be? If these are the first fruits, what must be the harvest?" (From the treatise by Basil on The Holy Spirit)
The Lord Jesus offers each one of us the gift and power of his Holy Spirit. He wants to make our faith strong, give us hope that endures, and a love that never grows cold. He never refuses to give his Spirit to those who ask with expectant faith. Jesus instructed his disciples to ask confidently for the gift of the Spirit: "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Luke 11:13). Do you thirst for God and for the abundant life he offers through the gift of his Spirit?
Lord Jesus, I thank you for the gift of Pentecost and for the new life you offer in the Holy Spirit. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and set my heart ablaze with the fire of your love that I may serve you in joy and freedom.
Daily Quote from the Early Church Fathers: The Holy Spirit at Pentecost, by Leo the Great, 400-461 A.D.
"To the Hebrew people, now freed from Egypt, the law was given on Mount Sinai fifty days after the immolation of the paschal lamb. Similarly, after the passion of Christ in which the true Lamb of God was killed, just fifty days after his resurrection, the Holy Spirit fell upon the apostles and the whole group of believers. Thus the earnest Christian may easily perceive that the beginnings of the Old Covenant were at the service of the beginnings of the gospel and that the same Spirit who instituted the first established the Second Covenant." (excerpt from Sermon 75.1)
the spirit illuminates the word: “Receive the Holy Spirit.” —John 20:22
Ask the Lord to stir up the Holy Spirit you received in Baptism and Confirmation (Lk 11:13). Read the Bible often, even daily, to give the Spirit an opportunity to open your mind “to the understanding of the Scriptures” (Lk 24:45). Ask the Holy Spirit for the gift of teaching (Rm 12:7) so you can be empowered to share the Word of God fruitfully with others. God “does not ration His gift of the Spirit” (Jn 3:34; Ti 3:6).
Thirst for the Holy Spirit (see Jn 7:37-38). Each day before reading the Holy Bible, pray the “Come, Holy Spirit” prayer, asking the Spirit to illuminate the Word for you (see the “Prayer” below). Some Catholic Bibles quote that prayer in the introduction, recommending to pray it before reading the Scriptures. “The more I say ‘No’ to myself, the more I say ‘Yes’ to the Holy Spirit.” Decrease so Jesus and the Spirit may increase (Jn 3:30), not just in your own life but in a world which desperately needs the Spirit.
Prayer: “Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created, and You will renew the face of the earth.” “All were filled with the Holy Spirit.” —Acts 2:4. “Come, Holy Spirit, come. And from Your celestial home shed a ray of light divine.”
The personal question/action for today: When have I experienced the Holy Ruah–Spirit of GOD breathing life into me? How did I feel at that moment? What was the result of GOD’s Spirit being made evident in my life? What gift do I wish to receive from the Holy Spirit at this time in my life? How can I make use of this gift in the spread of Gospel (Good News)?
*Saint William of York: A disputed election as archbishop of York and a mysterious death. Those are the headlines from the tragic life of today’s saint.
Born into a powerful family in 12th-century England, William seemed destined for great things. His uncle was next in line for the English throne—though a nasty dynastic struggle complicated things. William himself faced an internal Church feud.
Despite these roadblocks, he was nominated as archbishop of York in 1140. Local clergymen were less enthusiastic, however, and the archbishop of Canterbury refused to consecrate William. Three years later a neighboring bishop performed the consecration, but it lacked the approval of Pope Innocent II, whose successors likewise withheld approval. William was deposed, and a new election was ordered.
It was not until 1154—14 years after he was first nominated—that William became archbishop of York. When he entered the city that spring after years of exile, he received an enthusiastic welcome. Within two months he was dead, probably from poisoning. His administrative assistant was a suspect, though no formal ruling was ever made.
Despite all that happened to him, William did not show resentment toward his opponents. Following his death, many miracles were attributed to him. He was canonized 73 years later.
“Good things come to those who wait” might be the catch phrase for today’s saint. We don’t always get what we want when we want it. Sometimes we have to wait patiently, trusting that if it is for our good, God will bless us.
