Pentecost : Acts. 2:1-11; I Cor. 12:3b-7, 12-13; Jn 20:19-23

Today is the Solemnity of Pentecost. For the ancient Jews, Pentecost was one of the top three religious holidays. It had two important meanings. First, on Pentecost, 50 days after the Passover (the word "Pentecost" comes from the Greek for "fifty"), the first fruits of the spring grain harvest were offered to God in a special sacrifice at the Temple. In this sense, it was highly appropriate that God sent the Holy Spirit to his Church in a public way on Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is the first fruit of the harvest of the New Covenant. The New Covenant is Christ giving us a new, redeemed life of grace. This life begins here on earth under the action of the Holy Spirit, but it will only reach its fulfillment - the full harvest - in heaven.

But there was a second meaning to the Jewish festival of Pentecost. It commemorated God giving Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt Sinai. Soon after the Israelites had miraculously escaped from Egypt, God sent them the Law, a guide for how they should live now that they were freed from slavery to Pharaoh. In this sense too, it was appropriate that God sent his Church the Holy Spirit during that Festival. The Holy Spirit is the bond of unity between the Father and the Son. And the Law of the New Covenant, the Law of the Church, is unity. On Pentecost 3000 people speaking different languages were unified when they all listened to the Apostles speaking one language, while they listened in their own languages.

As St Paul says, the Church is a body with many parts, but it remains one, united body. It is the Church's mission to reunite the human family that has been torn apart by sin. That's why as soon as the risen Jesus breathes on his Apostles; he instructs them to forgive sins. Forgiveness brings reconciliation and unity.

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Blessed Trinity. He is the love between the Father and Son lived so intensely that he is a person himself.

When we are baptized, that same Spirit takes up residence within our souls, and he brings Jesus and God the Father along with him - because where one is, all three are. The influence and action of the Holy Spirit in our lives increases when we are confirmed. This gift surpasses all other gifts.

How beautiful is the thought that the Holy Spirit lives within us!  Saint Paul reminds the Corinthian community of this fact when he asks, "Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?" (I Corinthians 3:16).  It is the Holy Spirit who develops our intimacy with God.  "God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, ‘Abba!' ('Father!’)” (Gal 4:6).  "God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us" (Romans 5:5). "No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit" (I Corinthians 12:3).  Moreover, we know that it is the Holy Spirit Who teaches us to pray (Romans 8:26).  By the power of the Spirit, we also know the Lord Jesus through his Church.  Pentecost Sunday is the birth date of the Church.  It is the Holy Spirit who enlivens, enlightens, guides, and sanctifies the Church. The Psalm refrain for this Sunday says it so well, “Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.”  We know Jesus through the Sacramental Mysteries of the Church, and Holy Spirit is at the heart of the sacramental life of the Church.  Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders are the Sacramental Mysteries through which people receive the seal of the Holy Spirit.  It would be impossible for us to receive Jesus in the Eucharist without the descent of the Holy Spirit at the Epiclesis of the Divine Liturgy.  Even the forgiveness of sins comes through the Holy Spirit (John 20:21-23).  The Holy Spirit both confirmed the apostles in Holy Orders as priests and empowered them to forgive sins by His power, a work which He continues today in each of our priests. 

We need to permit the Holy Spirit to direct our lives:  1)By listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us through the Bible and through the good counsel of others 2) By fervently praying for the gifts, fruits and charisms of the Holy Spirit. 3) By renewing our lives through the anointing of the Holy Spirit. As Saint Paul exhorts us, "Walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.  If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:16, 25). 

Pentecost is not just one day, but every day.  Without breath, there is no life.  Without the Spirit, the Church is a field of dry, dead bones.  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."  Today is a great day to ask the Holy Spirit to rekindle in us the spirit of new life and enthusiasm, the fire of God's love.  Let us repeat Cardinal Newman’s favorite little prayer, “Come Holy Spirit:”

 “Come Holy Spirit 

Make our ears to hear 

Make our eyes to see 

Make our mouths to speak 

Make our hearts to seek 

Make our hands to reach out 

And touch the world with your love.  AMEN.”