God’s perfect plan for our involvement might seem over the top with the original Pentecost filled with a “strong driving wind,” “tongues as of fire” and speaking in different tongues, but why shouldn’t it be? We are created out of God’s love to build the Kingdom of God by bringing people to God. Without God’s help, we would not be able to accomplish this. We need to be of the same Spirit to spread His message of love through preaching, healing and forgiving.
As St. Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” That being the case, we need to take the spiritual gifts God has given us and use them as directed by the Holy Spirit. It is by working together under God’s direction that we will fulfill the commission given to the Apostles and us as baptized Catholic Christians.
Preaching is not doing homilies at Mass like bishops, priest and deacons do. It is sharing our faith journey with relatives, friends, neighbors, co-workers, fellow worshippers and strangers of how God has changed our life. It is an honest assessment of how we have grown despite difficulties we have faced either because of our own mistakes or because of others taking advantage of us.
Healing is something we all have to do; internally and externally. We need to seek truth about ourselves so we can overcome and change those areas which are creating negative outcomes. We need to adopt a posture of humility and put aside judgment of others because of what they say or do to us or others. All of us can be at fault at various times, but we need to be accountable and accept responsibility for our life.
Forgiveness is probably the most difficult of actions. Each of us has the power to admit our sinfulness and ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. And, yet, we know statistically alone that it is one of the least sacraments of participation. We often justify what we do and put off what we believe to be pain for a later time that may never happen. Confession is a way for us to unload the burden, give it to God and to become whole again.
The other side of forgiveness is us forgiving others who we believe have hurt us. We often delay this for various reasons, two of which are: We want them to suffer as we did or we don’t believe they deserve forgiveness. And, yet, by doing this, we suffer as much because we are holding on to something which causes us to separate ourselves from God. Indifference is the opposite of love and is not in God’s world.
Pentecost is a reminder to us that we have a new lease on life. As children of God, loved by Jesus, brought to God the Father by Jesus and together being blessed with the Holy Spirit through the practice of our faith, we are accepted. We have the oneness in relationship with God for which He has asked through our Baptism and we promise to uphold. In addition, the second part of our baptismal promise is to love all God has created as Jesus loves us. We do that by following through with the commission he gave to His Apostles and us as believers.
Since Pentecost is accepted as the birthday of the Catholic Church, let us make a promise to God as a birthday gift that we will follow through with what He has called us to do. Who knows, maybe we will speak in tongues like the Apostles did that day.
Reading 1: Acts 2: 1-11
Reading 2: First Corinthians 12: 3b-7, 12-13
Gospel: John 20: 19-23
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