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 explains that we come together to
worship and serve in the Holy Spirit. Jesus comes to his friends and breathes
on them the Spirit of peace and forgiveness.
First Reading: Acts 2:1-21
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. Peter interprets the experience
for the crowd. While some could only explain the peculiar events as the result
of human dissipation, Peter calls the events supernatural generosity and the
marvelous fulfillment of an ancient promise found in Joel 2:28-32.
Acts 2:1-21
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.”
All were
amazed and perplexed,
saying to one another,
“What does this mean?”
But others sneered and said,
“They are filled with new wine.”
But Peter,
standing with the eleven,
raised his voice and addressed them,
“Men of Judea
and all who live in Jerusalem,
let this be known to you,
and listen to what I say.
Indeed, these are not drunk,
as you suppose,
for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.
No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
shall be saved.’
Alternate First Reading (RCL): Numbers 11:24-30
This reading helps us to understand
the Old Testament role of a prophet of the Lord. God speaks to Moses, who is
the pattern for later Jewish prophets. God shares Moses’ gift of the Spirit
with seventy elders. But Eldad and Medad, who were not with these elders, also receive God’s Spirit
and prophesy.
When told of this, instead
of thinking he is in control of prophetic gifts, Moses recognizes that such a
gift from God ought to be bestowed on everyone. Moses sees that prophecy is a
gift, given freely to whomever God wants. He refuses to limit God’s Spirit and
is willing to acknowledge God’s gifts in people who are not part of the “in”
group.
Numbers
11:24-30
Moses went out
and told the people the words of the LORD;
and he gathered seventy elders of the people,
and placed them all around the tent.
Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him,
and took some of the spirit that was on him
and put it on the seventy elders;
and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied.
But they did not do so again.
Two men remained in the camp,
one named Eldad, and the other named Medad,
and the spirit rested on them;
they were among those registered,
but they had not gone out to the tent,
and so they prophesied in the camp.
And a young man ran and told Moses,
“Eldad and Medad are
prophesying in the camp.”
And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said,
“My lord Moses, stop them!”
But Moses said to him,
“Are you jealous for my sake?
Would that all the LORD's people were prophets,
and that the LORD would put his spirit on them!”
And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.
Psalm: Psalm 104:24-35, 37
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 104:24-35, 37
O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In
wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Yonder is the sea, great and wide,
creeping things innumerable are there,
living things both small and great.
There go the ships,
and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.
These all look to you to give them
their food in due season;
when you give to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
When you hide your face, they are
dismayed;
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—
who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke.
I will sing to the LORD as long as I
live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the LORD.
Bless the LORD, O my soul.
Praise the LORD!
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:3b-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-13
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.
To one is given through the Spirit
the utterance of wisdom,
and to another the utterance of knowledge
according to the same Spirit,
to another faith by the same Spirit,
to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,
to another the working of miracles,
to another prophecy,
to another the discernment of spirits,
to another various kinds of tongues,
to another the interpretation of tongues.
All these are activated
by one and the same Spirit,
who allots to each one individually
just as the Spirit chooses.
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.”
Alternate Gospel (RCL): John 7:37-39
In this passage, Jesus
affirms once again, as he had earlier in his encounter with the Samaritan
woman, that he is indeed the source of the “living water” that will nourish us
for eternal life. In this context, however, he makes it clear that this water
is the Holy Spirit that will pour forth after they receive it when Jesus has
departed.
John 7:37-39
On the last day of the festival, the great day,
while Jesus was standing there, he cried out,
“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me,
and let the one who believes in me drink.
As the scripture has said,
`Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”
Now he said this about the Spirit,
which believers in him were to receive;
for as yet there was no Spirit,
because Jesus was not yet glorified.
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...
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