READINGS
Acts 2: 1-11
When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his native language? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”
Brothers and sisters:
No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. 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.
As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
John 20: 19-23
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
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By Bob Struzynski, OFM
I have been a prison chaplain for 16 years now and one thing that has impressed me is the number of men who have had genuine religious conversions in prison. This is not the “jailhouse religion” often spoken about in a pejorative sense, but a real, deep experience of God as a much needed “higher power.” There is first an experience of powerlessness over some addiction and an experience of an absolute need for a power greater than oneself, followed by a surrendering to a Higher Power. The result is a relationship with God now that is real, personal and meaningful, often for the first time in one's life.
It seems to me we all need such a conversion today without going to prison to find it. We need a fresh experience of our need for the “Power on High” - the Advocate who will be with us always, teach us all we need to know and remind us of all that Jesus taught us. We need to realize that we cannot do it on our own. When the test comes we fail without the help of the Holy Spirit.
Pope Benedict while flying to Portugal for his recent visit to the shrine at Fatima, told reporters that the church has always been tormented by “problems of its own making, a tendency that is being witnessed today in a truly terrifying way.” The prosecution of the church today connected with the clerical sex abuse scandal the Pontiff said is “born from the sins within the church” and the church needs to “profoundly relearn penitence, accept purification, learn forgiveness, but, also, justice.”
I think that means that, above all, we need to realize our need for our higher power, the Holy Spirit, in order to meet the challenges of our day. We simply cannot do it on our own, yet if we live on the surface level of our culture that is the message we “absorb.” That, perhaps coupled with a tendency toward arrogance in us, can cause a terrible fall when the challenge comes our way. You don't need to be a Bishop to know that!
Nor do you need to be a priest, but recently this priest has been led by the Spirit to pray more fervently than ever the last part of the prayer that Jesus left us. I still say it as we did in Jamaica with a few additional words: “do not bring us to the test we cannot pass but deliver us out of the clutches of our own created evil”.
Come Holy Spirit. Come!
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By Paul Kline
Reflecting on the readings for Pentecost, my imagination has been captured by the images of "each" and "together". The story of Pentecost paints a picture of Jesus’ friends and family “all in one place together”. Jesus speaks to all of them, shows his hands and his side to all of them, and blesses all of them with his peace. Through the intimate sharing of his very breath, they all receive his spirit.
At the same time, the readings also note that the Spirit “came to rest on each one of them”. Paul’s message to the Corinthians offers a beautiful, almost rhythmic movement from “all” to “each”, from “different” to “same”, and from “many” to “one”. I am reminded that individuality and collectivism are not in competition and need not be experienced as opposites. We gather together, pray together, sing together, grieve together, and suffer together. At the very same time, we listen and respond to God who whispers to each one of us a private message of love and mercy, inviting us into a personal relationship of love, calling us to realize our “true self” – a self unlike any other.
For me (and I think for so many of us) the mountain offers an experience of Church that powerfully expresses this dimension of the Pentecost experience. We may arrive as “outsiders” but, through the grace of warm hospitality, we are transformed into “one who belongs”. We “lose ourselves” as we burrow deeper into the peace of the mountain community, yet, at the same time, we are “seen”, “heard” and cherished by that community for our uniqueness.
What a joyful paradox!
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