Feast
of Pentecost- Year B
Acts
2:1-11; Gal 5:16-25;Jn 20:19-23
Different
Gifts, the same Spirit.
Today the universal
Church celebrates with great joy the feast of Pentecost. This feast is
traditionally known as the birthday of the Church. As we have it in the first
reading, when the Holy Spirit descended upon people of different races and
nations, they were able to understand each other, though they spoke in their
various languages. What an amazing experience! That the people Pamphylia,
Phrygia, Asia, Mesopotamia, Edumea could understand each other. This is the
special Charisma of the Church. The church speaks the language of all peoples
under heaven. The miracle is in the fact that the foreigners all heard the
proclamation of God’s wonderful deeds in their own language. God wants us to worship
him without losing our cultural identity. That is why inculturation is an
integral part of the liturgy. The binding force of believers is the love of
Christ. The common Hymn by Reinale says it all: “In
Christ, there is no East or West, In him no South or North; but one great
fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth; join hands then, members of
the faith; whatever your race maybe!”
The church as a family of
God is open to all peoples without racial prejudice. No one is required to
purchase a ticket or code to have access into the church as the case may be,
for instance, with the baseball match. There are no reserved places in church
on account of longevity of service. This is because at Baptism and Confirmation
we all receive the same Spirit and it is by the power of the Spirit that we are
able to call God Father, and Jesus, Lord.
There is one body, one sprit, and we are called to one hope (Eph 4:4).
After having received the
Holy Spirit, the people began to praise God for His marvelous deeds. This is
usually the natural response whenever and wherever the Spirit is at work among
a people; there is life and joy, songs of praise and thanksgiving. When Mary
conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, she started to sing a song of joy,
the “Magnificat”. Similarly, about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of
praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; and suddenly
there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were
shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were
unfastened(Acts 16:25-26).
Unfortunately, as the Christians
continued to praise God after having received the Holy Spirit, those who
didn’t understand the powerful effect of
the spirit began to laugh and said, they were drunk. But Peter vehemently
declared that the Christians were not drunk, for it was only 9 O’clock in the
morning. Then he went on to tell them about the fulfilment of the prophecy of
Joel. “On the last days, God says I will pour out my Spirit on mortals. Your
sons and daughters will speak through the Holy Spirit; your young men will see
visions and your old men will have dreams(Jl 3:1)
Whenever we gather
together as the Body of Christ, the Holy Spirit can work wonders, that is if we invoke him with the disposition to let
him melt and mold us like the apostles did together with Mary, the mother of
Jesus. The Holy Spirit blows wherever it pleases, He is not limited to a
particular moment at Mass. It blows! It blows!
It is therefore an
anomaly for Christians to complain about this or that liturgical activity as being
boring. Someone once said if Christians fall asleep in church, it means the
preacher needs to wake up. This is not necessarily true. What kind of spirit do
we bring with us to Church? What were
you doing just before coming for mass? Are you coming as a spectator or with an
expectation? Here is a hymn in Music Issue 657, worth meditating upon in
preparation for Mass:
O breathe on me, O breath of God,
fill me with life anew that I may love
the things You love, and do what you would do.
O breathe on me, O breath of God,
until my heart is pure;
until my will is one with Yours,
to do and to endure.
fill me with life anew that I may love
the things You love, and do what you would do.
O breathe on me, O breath of God,
until my heart is pure;
until my will is one with Yours,
to do and to endure.
O breathe on me O breath
of God, My will to yours incline, until this selfish part of me, glows with
your fire divine.
If we deeply love him who
is present in our celebration; if we attune our wills to his, we would always
come to church with great expectation. If we invoke the Holy Spirit prayerfully
in this song he will purify our lips and take away the lustful passions of
impurity, immorality, idolatry, sexual orgies, rivalry (Cf Gal 5). Indeed we are imbued with the Holy Spirit at
baptism and at confirmation, but what is that if we don’t let the spirit guide
our lives from day to day. The priest or
the choir cannot just infuse the Spirit in you if you are not ready for it. A
little boy was asked by his mom after mass, ‘how did you like the mass?’ He
said the music was good, but the commercial was too long. We can’t afford to
always make it short with things of the Spirit. Our liturgical celebration is
not a concert where the audience depends on the actors for animation. No, it is
time when we want the Holy Spirit to fill us, so that the fruits may shine
forth in our lives: love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal 5).
We rejoice today for the
manifold gifts that the members of our community have received from the Holy
Spirit. The talents of our children in school, their success in examination,
special prices, our singers, supporters from the background, those who just
smile and encourage us and so on. All these gifts come a long way to build our
community. Once at the end of the academic year, I asked a young boy: “How was
your result?” He said “my conduct was good.” All is not lost even when we don’t
do well in exams. Some may be brilliant,
but may lack a good conduct.
The different gifts we
have received are meant to complement each other’s, and not to compete with
each other. And every gift is given for the benefit of the community, the
school, the family, the society or the church. All gifts are equally important
just as all the parts of the body are. The eye can’t say I am more important
than the ear. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;
there are different forms of service but the same Lord(1Cor 12:3). Without the
choristers, the choir directors can’t do it with the benches, and without us,
even with our crooked voices, the cantor can’t do it alone.
Let no one boast of his
or her talents; neither should we expect the world to revolve around us because
we have been blessed with a much needed talent. Because it was given to you without
charge, do well to be generous with it, lest it be taken away. No matter how
gifted we may be, always give others the chance to do their own part. We should
never overestimate ourselves, desiring to do everything so as to receive all credits.
God alone is all-knowing.
As we celebrate this feast, I pray that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
may have an effect in our lives this
day; that the same Holy Spirit, the advocate should come to the aid of all who
are in any kind of physical or spiritual need. Come Holy Spirit, fall afresh on
us and enkindle in us the fire of your love.
