THE SOLEMNITY OF PENTECOST (2024)

THE SOLEMNITY OF PENTECOST (2024)

Readings:

Acts of the Apostles  2:1-11

Psalms 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34

1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13

John 20:19-23

Today we celebrate what is often called the ‘Church’s birthday,’ the glorious Solemnity of Pentecost.  The formal gift of the Holy Spirit brought to completion God’s eternal plan of salvation.  Worried that the disciples would feel abandoned after Jesus’ departure from this world, God, once again, sent His very self into this world in the form of the third person of the Blessed Trinity.  The Spirit is the Paraclete, the Advocate proclaimed and promised in John’s gospel: “When the Advocate comes whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth that proceeds from the Father, He will testify to Me….  When He comes, the Spirit of Truth, He will guide you to all truth.”  The Church considers Pentecost it’s birthday, for until the Spirit descended on all of the disciples there wasn’t a common language, the language of Jesus, the Christ, which united all men and women in the shared desire to establish the kingdom preached by Jesus.

Last weekend, on the solemnity of the Ascension, the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles was proclaimed to us, which, while proclaiming Jesus’ Ascension into heaven, also predicted the arrival of the Holy Spirit: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  The “time for Pentecost has been fulfilled,” according to our first reading from the Acts, and the description of the Holy Spirit’s arrival, “when all of the disciples were gathered in one place.”  Remarkably, the event does not appear to inspire a great deal of fear.  “And suddenly there came from the sky (where all things divine seem to come from) a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house….  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.”  The transformation is one of language, and it is language that is essential to the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  As we said some weeks ago, the frightened, if not cowardly disciples, who took refuge in an upper room (today’s gospel from John), were transformed when the risen Jesus breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  When the Acts of the Apostles opens those same frightened disciples are fearlessly preaching the gospel and healing cripples.

Our first reading would have us believe that the extraordinary gift of speaking in tongues enabled the disciples to be heard and understood by all peoples of the known world.  The tongues of fire undid the confusion of Babel, for it imparted a single message highlighted by Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians: “Jesus is Lord.”  It is that message which truly changed the world for the better, and which has the power to continue to change the world to the extent that it is taken as a serious responsibility by those who call themselves Christian.

May this Solemnity of Pentecost cause us to open wide our hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit, and, like the Sequence for today says may it “shine within” our hearts , “and our inmost being fill.”  As the Sequence so beautifully ends:

“Heal our wounds, our strength renew;

on our dryness pour your dew;

Wash the stains of guilt away;

Bend the stubborn heart and will;

Melt the frozen, warm the chill;

Guide the steps that go astray.

On the faithful, who adore

And confess you evermore

In you seven fold gift descend;

Give them virtue’s sure reward;

Give them your salvation, Lord;

Give them joys that never end.

Amen.  Alleluia.