Pentecost Sunday Reflection

What is Pentecost?

Pentecost is the feast of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is the day when we remember the birth of the Church as we know it. For once the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church, she began to carry out her mission. The Church’s mission is simple: the Church is called to carry out the very mission of Christ. Just as Christ was anointed priest, prophet, and king, so the Church is called to teach, lead, and sanctify. The Holy Spirit gives the Church the power to act in the person of Christ for the salvation of the world.

Pentecost celebrates the creation of the Christianity

Pentecost is the birthday of the Church, because without the Holy Spirit there would be no Church, and there would be no mass. It is the Spirit that brings us together today, it is the Spirit that breathed into the authors of the Sacred Scripture we read together at Mass, it is by the Power of the Holy Spirit that bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, it is the Spirit that fills us here at Holy Mass, but it is also the Spirit that accompanies us when we leave this Mass. Just like those first disciples, when we leave this Holy Mass we are empowered by God to carry forth the Good News to the entire world.

The mission of Christians

Jesus gives us a task: testify what you have seen. Let us remember this fundamental calling. Let us remember that this mission was not given to the apostles alone, but to the whole Church. Each one of us is called to embrace this mission and fulfill it in our own special vocation. Whether we are married, single, priests, sisters, lay persons, we have all received God’s Spirit, given to us to empower us to lead others to Christ.

Every one of us is responsible for carrying out the mission of Christ. All of us are responsible to preach the gospel, to lead others closer to Christ, to make this world a holier place where God can dwell. I think that now, more than ever, the world needs the truth of the gospel. There is a bunch of crazy stuff going on in our times. There is war and violence. There is poverty and pain. There is immorality and the weakening of the life of the family. These things are all around us.

But, in many ways, things are not so different than what the apostles faced. Look at what they accomplished. Because of their preaching millions and billions of people throughout the whole world came to know Christ. They started with nothing, outside of a few people in Jerusalem, no one had heard of Jesus. They were able to do great things. If we can zero in on how they were able to carry out their mission, it will enlighten us as to how to carry out our mission. Jesus explains it well: the Father will send the Spirit of Truth, he will testify to me, then you will testify.

It is the Holy Spirit that empowers the Church to carry on the mission of Christ. It was the Spirit that moved in the hearts of the apostles to preach the good news. The same Holy Spirit is alive and with us today, it is this spirit that allows us to fulfill our mission as well.

Pentecost – the call to testify that Jesus is Christ

First, the Spirit testifies. It is perfectly natural and ok to remember that we still have a lot to learn. None of us is there yet. We all need to open our hearts to the message of the Spirit. Where do you still need to grow? Maybe it is in accepting some truth of the gospel. So many people in today’s society fail to understand the unbreakable bond of marriage. So many people struggle to see the value of every human life. So many people find it difficult to move away from sin. No matter where we are on this continuum, today is a day for us to open our hearts to the Spirit of Truth. He will teach us and strengthen our faith in the truth.

Then we testify. Once we listen to the Spirit of Truth, he will strengthen us for our ministry. It always works like that: we are growing in our personal faith, but then we express that in our lives. One without the other is incomplete. If we grow in our life of faith, but it doesn’t move us to look beyond ourselves, we become that inward looking Church that Pope Francis has been denouncing. But, if we are working in the world without being guided by the Spirit of truth we become political activists or social workers. Both have their place, but that is not the same as carrying out the mission of Christ.

Is Pentecost the end of the Easter season?

In one way this is the end of something, the end of the Easter season. But, it’s the beginning of something too: the beginning of Ordinary Time. This is no accident. Ordinary time is the time of the Church. This is the time of the Holy Spirit, at work in the world. From the day of Pentecost until this moment, the Church of Christ carries out his work. So, as we head back into Ordinary time we think about the gift of the Spirit, and the whole Church prays for the gifts of the Spirit to be renewed in the Church.

Remembering our confirmation during Pentecost

When was the last time you reflected on your own confirmation? It may be the sacrament we think least about once we received it. Pentecost is a good day for all of us to reflect a bit upon the great gift of the Holy Spirit that we received at our own confirmation. If you think about it, the sacrament of confirmation is for us the event of Pentecost in our own lives. Those of us who are confirmed already have received the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit. While the Holy Spirit may not have come upon us in the form of tongues of fire, without question, the Spirit certainly came upon us.

Confirmation is an important sacrament. It is the Pentecost in the life of every believer since the time of Jesus. So, if we reflect a bit on the event of Pentecost we will gain an insight into the gift of the Holy Spirit we received at confirmation.

Pentecost is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit

First, notice the state of the Apostles at the time before the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Apostles were locked in the upper room out of fear. In this part of John’s gospel, Mary Magdalene had already told the disciples that Jesus was alive, but they hadn’t seen him for themselves. This seems comforting: it is ok to have some fears, doubts, and anxieties about the faith, it happened to the Apostles! What is it that takes away fear? Jesus says: Receive the Holy Spirit.

We received the same Holy Spirit on the day of our confirmation.
It is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives that will confirm our faith, make it strong, give us the courage to believe in Christ. The first movement of the Spirit is to take away our fears and to firm up our faith. But, the Holy Spirit is not simply inward looking, the Spirit looks to take us out into the world.

After the Spirit comes upon the Apostles, they go out and proclaim the Good News. The gift of the Holy Spirit is so powerful that it cannot stay bottled up inside one person. When we receive the gift of the Spirit, when the Holy Spirit dwells within us, it drives us to share this gift with others.

Notice that those who received the gift of the Holy Spirit were able to speak in tongues. You might ask: why doesn’t that happen anymore? It does; the Church can speak in all the tongues and languages of the earth because there are those who have received the Holy Spirit in all countries, everywhere across the world. You too are called to speak in tongues, because there are people in the world who will only listen to you, maybe not simply by what you say, but also by what you do. There are people out there who are starving for Christ and will find him through you.

Contributing our gifts to the Church

Take some time to reflect on the gifts of the Spirit. What gifts do you need to fulfill your mission, your vocation in this world? Let the Holy Spirit work through you to build up the Church and to reach out to the world in need. Let the Holy Spirit help you to walk in the way of Christ.

Let us reflect a little bit on the Apostles. It can be easy to think of the Apostles as Christian super heroes. Like they received some super power by being bit by a spider or something. But, this isn’t true. They were poor, simple, uneducated, normal people. They were certainly not perfect. Yet, with the power of God, they did amazing things. The preached the Word. They healed the sick. They raised the dead. Amazing things. They carried out the ministry of Christ.

The Apostles’ work was all possible by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can do amazing things through the lives of his saints. The apostles allowed the Spirit to work through them, great things resulted. The same can be true of us. We can do great things, the Holy Spirit can make us great saints, if we allow him to flow through us and to work through us.

Challenges of living out the faith in public

But, I think the story of the Apostles can highlight a tension in our lives, especially in the work place. This is the tension between personal and public, between internal faith, and external expression of the faith.

The Apostles say: even if we have to die with you, we will never deny you. Then they all abandon him. Jesus rises from the dead. They meet Jesus. They are filled with joy. They are filled with faith, right? Jesus is raised from the dead, they see him, they know him. So, what is the result? Do they go out and set the world on fire? Actually, no… they don’t. What do they do? They are waiting in the upper room, almost like they don’t have a mission. At this point they are certainly believers in Christ. They’ve seen him. They know he’s alive. But, they are pretty private about it. Then, the Holy Spirit comes upon them and they are empowered to carry out their mission, they break down the doors and tell everyone about Christ.

The same thing can happen to us sometimes. We are believers. We have connected with Christ. Through our prayer, we have come to know that Christ is alive. But, the faith was never meant to be a purely internal and private kind of thing. Our relationship with Christ is not simply something that lives inside of us and makes us feel good. Christ also wants every one of us to carry out his work in the world. Sure, we need that deep and internal love of God that allows us to be connected to him. But, we also need to live our faith out loud, we need to be able to share it. This is the way, walk in it. This means that our faith should live out in our lives. For the apostles, this was only made possible through the Holy Spirit. It will be the same for us.

We join in with the whole Church to pray today for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit made the apostles great saints. He can make us great saints too. Let us pray for the gift of courage especially. Life is hard. We can all just agree that life is hard. Life can be great and rewarding, but it’s tough. It was certainly tough for the apostles too. But, the Spirit empowered them to do great things. Come Holy Spirit and help all of us to be great saints. Help us to live our vocation. Help us to bring the love of God to this world. Give us the wisdom to know the path; give us the courage to walk in it every day of our lives.

Pentecost Sunday Gospel

John 15:26-27; 16:12-15
Jesus said to his disciples:
“When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father,
the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father,
he will testify to me.
And you also testify,
because you have been with me from the beginning.

“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,
he will guide you to all truth.
He will not speak on his own,
but he will speak what he hears,
and will declare to you the things that are coming.
He will glorify me,
because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.
Everything that the Father has is mine;
for this reason, I told you that he will take from what is mine
and declare it to you.”

 

About the Author

Father Jake Runyon is a priest in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend where he serves as the Rector and Pastor of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne. This post was originally published on his personal blog Docete and is shared here with permission.

 

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