Acts 2:1-11; Ps. 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34; Rom 8:8-17; Jn. 20:19-23
Receive the Holy Spirit! Pentecost Sunday is the gift of the Holy Spirit to each according to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. What is our gift and how are we using this gift to serve God and the greater good? For the apostles, the Holy Spirit is the “Advocate”. In legal terms the advocate speaks for them but it does so through the inspiration it gives them. It allows them to speak for Christ and not for themselves.
The Apostles spoke as one voice through prayer, fasting, and discernment. We too share in the gift of the Advocate by listening to the voice of God in prayer, fasting, discernment and by the voice of the Church. Since the early days it was the one voice of the Church that addressed many of the questions of the people such as circumcision, ritual foods, or moral behavior. This was a time when there was no “bible” to study only the word given to the apostles and the traditions carried forth and those left behind. It was a time of major change in matters of “God” and Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit to guide this transition.
Just today, I was walking through the grocery store and I heard two men discussing a religious matter when one spoke up with a louder voice saying “even the Pope said, ‘who am I to judge’” (a quote attributed to Pope Francis) making his final argument. The moral clarity of the Church and for the Pope is not to pass personal judgment but to defend the judgment that has already been passed on from Christ to his people. There are certain judgments that are not left for re-litigation but for enforcement through obedience. The Lord has passed judgement on issues of life and death, right and wrong, truth and lies and these judgements are not hidden but defended so that ignorance of the truth is not an excuse.
The Ten Commandments are a judgment that separates holiness from sinfulness. Hell welcomes all sinners without conditions or exceptions “as is” but Christ welcomes all sinners to repentance “as called to be” for heaven. The Holy Spirit comes not to affirm us as we choose to be but to purify us with the fire of holiness to be all that God is calling us to be. The “call” is for transformation, renewal, and the fire to change the world by the change that starts from within the soul.
In the first reading the Holy Spirit comes in the form of “tongues as of fire” but the “tongues” were different to each as evidence by those who heard them speak in different languages. For some Christian groups the gift of tongues has become a litmus test as proof of being saved. The gift of the Holy Spirit is not simply the gift to speak in tongues as a charismatic revival of the spirit. For those who receive this gift they must still pick up their cross and follow in the footsteps of Jesus by the daily practice of the faith. Even those who spoke in tongues spoke in different languages to be understood by various native people of different regions. Speaking in tongues is just one of many gifts that the spirit produces according to God’s purpose.
The Holy Spirit comes in many forms with various gifts to be a servant of the Lord and fulfill a calling. The gift may be to step up as a martyr as did St. Maximillian Kolbe, or the gift of love for the poor as did St. Teresa of Calcutta, or the gift of defending life in all its forms from conception until natural death as a voice in public office, or the gift of raising a future priest, Nun, or Pope by faithfulness to the Church in the domestic church at home. There are many gifts but the same spirit and the gift of tongues is just one gift. Again, “What is our gift and how committed are we to this calling?” The answer is in the fruit of the gift and taking time daily for a spiritual inventory is a good way in making progress for what we have done or failed to do.
Receive the Holy Spirit and you shall live in the spirit as we bury the flesh. We bury the flesh when we deny ourselves not what is good but what excess. It is good and essential to feed the body but it works against the body and the spirit when excess is given to the body bringing sickness and disease. We bury the flesh when we deny ourselves the pleasure of sexual temptation in all its form of lust but not the sexual union that comes in marriage. We bury the flesh when we deny ourselves the pride of desire to be first but welcome the desire to be the best that God created us to be. We bury the flesh when we deny the need to control others according to our will and allow God’s will to be done. In this we set the spirit free to work its grace in our lives.
The apostle also reminds us that “if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him”. Suffering with the Lord begins with our self-denial of the flesh. Self-denial is our invitation to the Holy Spirit to come and take possession of our hearts and strengthen us by his grace. It is easy to question the Lord as to why our prayers are not answered without even giving a thought as to why we have not made a sacrifice of our own for the Lord. It is good to ask but it is important to make an offering to the Lord. The great sacrifice of the Lord was an act of love for humanity and thus our greatest act of love comes through sacrifice.
We are one body in Christ but it is our many gifts from the Lord that allows us to love, grow and support each other called to serve one another, lift each other up and help each other get to heaven.
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