Today’s readings welcome the arrival of God’s Spirit at Pentecost. In Acts, God's Spirit, poured out on the disciples, astonishes and empowers the community. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, explains that we come together to worship and serve in the Holy Spirit. In the gospel, Jesus comes to his friends and breathes on them the Spirit of peace and forgiveness.

 

First Reading: Acts 2:1-11
Pentecost is the Greek name for the Jewish Feast of Weeks, celebrated 50 days after Passover. The first fruits of the wheat harvest were presented, and the covenant with God was renewed. The promised outpouring of the Spirit and the beginning of the Church's mission occurred during this feast.

Luke sees the gift of the Spirit as a reversal of Babel (see Genesis 11:1-9) and the fulfillment of the promise of a new covenant (see Jeremiah 31:33). The law will indwell each individual believer.

The words given by the Spirit are not babbling but proclamation. The variety of languages in which the message about God's powerful works was communicated represent the potential spread of the gospel to all nations.
Acts 2:1-11
When the day of Pentecost had come,
they were all together in one place.
And suddenly from heaven there came a sound
like the rush of a violent wind,
and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them,
and a tongue rested on each of them.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in other languages,
as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews
from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered,
because each one heard them speaking
in the native language of each.
Amazed and astonished, they asked,
“Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
And how is it that we hear,
each of us, in our own native language?
Parthians, Medes, Elamites,
and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene,
and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them
speaking about God’s deeds of power.”

 

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34
This hymn to God as Creator shares the imagery of many near-Eastern nature poems and myths but changes their emphasis. Leviathan, the primeval water monster of chaos, is God's plaything. The created world is under God's sway and owes God praise. Sin disrupts the harmony of creation, and the psalmist prays for a restoration of the original wholeness.
Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34
Bless the LORD, O my soul.
O LORD my God, you are very great.

O LORD, how manifold are your works!
The earth is full of your creatures.

When you take away their breath,
they die and return to their dust.

When you send forth your spirit, they are created;
and you renew the face of the ground.

May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD rejoice in his works.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the LORD.

 

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13
The Corinthian community was torn by dissension over the characteristics, distribution and use of "spiritual gifts" (12:1). Paul emphasizes that these are gifts of grace to all, not just the private possession of certain people. He points out the triune operation of God in these gifts: the Holy Spirit as the giver, Jesus as the One to whom service is given, and God the Father as the One at work in the gift.

The gifts are complementary and meant for the common good. Every gift has an important place in the life of the community. The list of gifts is not exhaustive, for other lists differ (12:28-30; Romans 12:6-8). The purpose of all the gifts is to create not division but unity in diversity. Paul illustrates this by using the image of the body to show the Corinthians the interdependence of all in the Christian community.
1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13
Brothers and sisters:
No one can say “Jesus is Lord”
except by the Holy Spirit.
Now there are varieties of gifts,
but the same Spirit;
and there are varieties of services,
but the same Lord;
and there are varieties of activities,
but it is the same God
who activates all of them in everyone.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit
for the common good.

For just as the body is one
and has many members,
and all the members of the body,
though many, are one body,
so it is with Christ.
For in the one Spirit
we were all baptized into one body
—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—
and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

 

Gospel: John 20:19-23
This postresurrection appearance of Jesus is shared with the other gospels. Jesus shows his wounds to establish that the crucified Jesus and the risen Christ are one and the same. John's account stresses the fulfillment of the promises made in the Farewell Discourse: Christ’s return and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For John, the coming of the Holy Spirit is intimately linked to the resurrection. Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, creating humanity anew for eternal life. To this new creation, the Church, he then bestows the power to mediate forgiveness. Its mission will divide people by their response.
John 20:19-23
When it was evening on that day,
the first day of the week,
and the doors of the house
where the disciples had met
were locked for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood among them and said,
“Peace be with you.”
After he said this,
he showed them his hands and his side.
Then the disciples rejoiced
when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again,
“Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me,
so I send you.”

When he had said this,
he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive the sins of any,
they are forgiven them;
if you retain the sins of any,
they are retained.”

 

Reflection and Response
As we celebrate the birthday of the Church, we can compare this feast to the birthdays of human beings. The early ones are filled with thanksgiving as parents rejoice in the marvel of their child. Successive birthdays mark maturation in appearance, abilities and moral development. In later years, birthdays are still the occasion for gratitude, simply because we've survived another year!

How does that progression parallel our annual celebration of Pentecost? The first one had the rawness of birth, along with the overflowing joy that accompanies new life. Dare we even call this tiny cluster of first believers a church? Although Jesus was physically present with them, they constantly misunderstood his message. Their loyalty and belief were shaky. When crisis struck, they disintegrated completely. We see them in today's gospel huddled fearfully behind locked doors. Hardly heroic.

But their flaws make their rebirth seem even more spectacular. Once before, they had left everything to follow Jesus. On this day, he prompts them again to forsake a former life and focus on him. In so doing, they would abandon their fear and timidity. They would discover surprising new powers and a whole new way of life. As individuals and as a community, they would find what miracles Jesus, breathing on and in them, could accomplish.

In the letter to the Corinthians, we find marks of a more mature community. Originally, Christians esteemed the phenomenon they witnessed on the first Pentecost: speaking in tongues. But later, Paul must temper their enthusiasm. He recalls them to the centrality of the cross and broadens their perspective to include an appreciation of all the Spirit's gifts.

As adults we need Paul's reminder about the value of diversity. If each birthday finds us more calcified, more convinced that ours is the only way to do things, we are regressing. The apostle called the early Christians to celebrate diversity. Appreciating multiplicity means that although things may not be done the way we would have done them, by the people we would have chosen, we can still rejoice in the myriad ways the Spirit works.

Perhaps a birthday is a good time to take stock. Do we believe the Spirit is still at work in 21st-century North America? Does the Spirit ignite our homes and our hearts? If so, we can be grateful for another year of growth.
Quietly consider: In what ways is the Spirit at work today in me?
in my family? in my faith community?

Prayer Starter
Holy Spirit, develop in me a greater awareness
of the many ways in which I am gifted...