PENTECOST SUNDAY, MAY 27, 2007

Scripture: Acts 2:1-11. Psalm 104:1,24-29-31,34. romans 8:8-17. John
20:19-23. Lectionary #63

We all love to celebrate birthdays! And Pentecost is the birthday of our
Church. Luke gives us the most dramatic presentations of this event in our
first reading. Probably, the famous painting of El Greco with the apostles
and Mary and the tongues of fire is one of the greatest of the many
paintings dealing with Luke's account of the coming of the Holy Spirit. On
this day we, too, should remember our birthday into the Church which came
when we were baptized. That was a new birth, too, into the life of Christ
for each of us. Like the verse from Genesis 1:27 we were then started on
the image and likeness of God through our sacrament of initiation and
identity. Maybe like Rabbi Kleonicki said, " We receive through God's
creation our image of God at our conception and birth; what we do with that
gift is the "likeness." This thought can be applied to our development of
the Christ life after Baptism. It would be good to celebrate the date of
our baptism as we do our birthday. Do you know the date of your baptism?
Try to find it out if you do not. I did that recently and have profitted
from reflecting upon that date in my life and what it means today. The
reading from Romans chapter 8 is one of the greatest about prayer and the
Holy Spirit and could be read entirely during this Feast and throughout
this week. The lesson is about hope as well. Then we turn to the Gospel
and see that its message is one of peace and reconciliation through Jesus'
breathing upon the Spirit of God. In John's Gospel this happens on Easter
Day probably in the evening. We join our selves to the Risen Christ and
end the Easter season only to begin Pentecost with his giving us the
Spirit. Twice Jesus tells us "Peace be with you." He does this while
showing us his wounds. He has passed from this life to the next and
together with the Father sends us their love in the Person of the Holy
Spirit. This is the peace that the world cannot give and never will give.
Jesus leaves us with this hope and this promise if we can learn how to
reconcile and forgive each other no matter what the offense has been. The
Spirit continues with us and we are not left as orphans as Jesus departs
from this world to the eternal realm of God his Father. Both Jesus and the
Spirit are real Persons which we become aware of through our baptism and
its continued journey within us. I am led to return to chapter 17 of John
and to Romans chapter 8 in order to understand what Luke is narrating in
our first reading from Acts. "Come, Holy Spirit, come! And from your
celestial home shed a ray of light divine. Fill the hearts of Thy faithful
and enkindle in us the fire of your divine love and renew the face of the
earth. Amen."