Pentecost

Acts 2:1-11
Ps 104:1, 24, 35, 29-30, 31, 34  
1 Cor 12:3b-7,12-13
Jn 14:15-16, 23b-26

Today we draw the Easter Season to a close.  We celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, fifty days from Easter the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and the disciples of Christ and subsequently commemorating the birth of the Church.  It would be very easy to diminish this as just another Sunday, but let us take a closer look at what has happened.

A little over three months ago, we started with Ash Wednesday – the remembering and preparing for Holy Week and Easter: the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  But it didn’t end there, forty days after His resurrection, we celebrated the Ascension and then we come to today, fifty days after Easter: Pentecost.

If we simply observed all these celebrations of Our Lord as “significant” moments in a famous person’s life, we have completely missed the point.  What’s the point of observing this famous man’s life?  What does this man Jesus Christ have to do with us?  We could just as well have observed other moments of famous people like Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, King, Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama.  Why do we observe these times?

As great as some of those famous people were, none of them did what they did as if they were the only person that ever existed.  There’s a quote from St. Augustine written on our parish office white board, “God loves us as if there was only one of us to love.”  Jesus was the only one to do what he did on a personal level: us individually; and on a universal level –redeeming all of creation.  That is truly worth honoring and remembering and also what brings us today.

The celebration of Pentecost reminds us that although Christ has ascended to the Father, we are not orphans and we are not alone.  We have the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that gift continues to be present in a special way in the Church – in and through the inspiration of Scripture and Tradition.  Whereas other religions suffer division and discord, the Catholic Church – the Church founded by Christ continues to be the oldest institution in the world.  Fortunately, it is not purely human – as the Holy Spirit guides her and the Church always seeks to listen to the Spirit.

The Body of Christ has many parts and there is no one part that is greater than the other.  We all have a share in that dignity of being part of the Body of Christ.  We have different strengths and weaknesses, each complementing each other so that we may continue to bring followers to Christ.  We know we are on the right path when we keep His commandments and we follow the Holy Spirit – the Advocate.  The Holy Spirit is always speaking to us in our lives, but are we listening?  If He is difficult to hear, we must seek Him in the Church, where we know that He has been guiding and inspiring her since the first Pentecost.  The Catholic Church is rich in the faith! The witnesses of the countless disciples, the martyrs, and the wisdom of holy men and women through the ages; all these people testify to the Holy Spirit’s action in the faith.

Let us not make today simply a remembering of the event of Pentecost, but rather let us be connected personally to Jesus Christ, and the Father, and the Holy Spirit.  Let us continue to be inspired, to be bold in proclaiming the Gospel message to all around us like the disciples did over two thousand years ago.