SEND FORTH YOUR SPIRIT

FEAST OF PENTECOST - Acts 2:1-11

Fifty days after Passover - that is the meaning of Pentecost - during the Jewish feast of Shavuot or feast of weeks, which was a harvest feast - the community of disciples had an extraordinary experience. While the Jews were celebrating with great joy the receiving of the Law, which constituted them into a people (a nation), the disciples received the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord, who made it possible for them to become the new people of God, founded on a new covenant and a new law, the law of love.

The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles makes it very clear that the new people established by the receiving of the Holy Spirit is open to all, being inclusive, not exclusive, made up of people from all languages, tribes and nations. Our God speaks all languages and his message of salvation can be heard “in our own language” (Act 2:11). In spite of the differences of languages and cultures, they can unite and live in communion, because they are moved by the same Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the divisions symbolised by the tower of Babel and caused by jealousy, hatred and pride come to an end. Pentecost is the opposite of Babel. Instead of confusion and disorder, there is peace and sharing. Our diversity is no more a cause of separation, but a contribution to the common good, putting us together in building up the body of Christ.

With the psalmist, we must pray: “Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.” (Ps 104:30). The Spirit leads us to Jesus Christ, giving us the understanding and the openness to recognise and proclaim him as Lord (1 Co 12:3). In the community of disciples, there is a great variety of gifts and of services, but it is the same Spirit that acts in all and makes all that variety possible. And the gifts of the Spirit are given to each one of us for the benefit of all. The Spirit makes possible an attitude of service, because he has filled our hearts with love.

St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians points out that we were all baptised “in the one Spirit”, be it “Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as citizens”, because “one Spirit was given to us all to drink.” (1 Co 12:13).

The second reading can be taken from 1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13 or from Romans 8:8-17. Because “the Spirit of God has made his home in you”, we are able to put our minds and hearts in the spiritual things that are pleasing to God. And it is the Spirit that transforms us and makes alive with a new life in Christ. It is “by the Spirit that you put an end to the misdeeds of the body”, so that we may live. We were baptised in the Spirit, and the Spirit has made us children of God, in such a way that we can address God with love and tenderness, calling him: Daddy (Abba). We are children, not slaves. And because we are children, we will have a share in God’s inheritance, a share in his glory.

In this Jubilee of Mercy, let us open our hearts and our minds to the Spirit, that he may have his dwelling in us and our hearts may be filled with his love, the love that leads us to service. The Holy Spirit leads us to experience the merciful love of God, and so it makes it possible for us to be merciful.