Reflections on the readings for Pentecost – Mass during the day (May 31, 2020): ACTS 2:1-11; PS 104:1,24,29-30,31.34; 1 COR 12:3-7,12-13; JN 20:19-23
MISSIO offers “Preaching Mission,” as a homily help, providing connections to mission from the readings of Sundays, Feast Days and Holy Days.
After the Resurrection, Jesus shared His peace with the Apostles...
Today we celebrate Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. Before His Ascension, Jesus promised to send the Spirit to His Apostles. They and other disciples, including the Blessed Virgin Mary, were gathered together in prayer when they heard the sound of a great wind and saw tongues of fire appear and rest on each person. “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” (Acts 2:4-6). The Holy Spirit brought a variety of gifts to the followers of Christ. The gift of tongues was certainly meant to be a very public one, since so many different people were aware of it. But what must have been even more amazing to the Apostles themselves, and to those who knew them, was the courage that enabled them to speak out.
Only weeks before they had abandoned Jesus to the injustice of the Sanhedrin and the Roman authority. After the Resurrection, Jesus shared His peace with the Apostles and they knew they were forgiven and still loved by Him. Yet in the days after He ascended to heaven, they must have realized they were still incapable of going out to preach the Good News on their own. However, Christ had promised they would not be left alone and, with the coming of the Holy Spirit and the gifts and guidance the Paraclete brought, they realized it, too. Through the Holy Spirit we are truly united with the Father and the Son. The relationship that was broken between God and His people through original sin has been healed. We can recognize ourselves as the Father’s children, recalled to Him by the sacrifice of the Son and the power of the Spirit. The love of God opens our hearts and souls to return His love and to reclaim our eternal inheritance.