PENTECOST SUNDAY: LET US BE OPEN TO THE HOLY SPIRIT.

LET US BE OPEN TO THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Our Pentecost Feast parallels the Jewish ‘Feast of weeks’ celebrated fifty days after the Passover. During the ‘Feast of weeks’ (Shavuot), the Jews celebrate the gift of being God’s holy people.

This Sunday, we celebrate the founding of God’s people, the Church, when the Holy Spirit sealed the New Covenant, engraving the Law of the Spirit, not on stone tablets but on human hearts. (Rom 8:2; 2 Cor 3:2-8; Jer 31:31-34).

“Stay in Jerusalem until you receive the power from above,” says Jesus. On Pentecost, the power for Christian mission is gifted to fulfil the prophecy of Joel 2:28, “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh”. In this way, Jesus made his home in us as a life-giving spirit (1 Cori 15:45).  

Today’s first reading, tells us that the disciples “Were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” Having been filled with such an overflowing and perfect love, the disciples’ hearts were set on fire (Luke 12:49).

This experience of God’s Perfect Love, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit caused an overflow. The weak became strong and courageous, and the uneducated were imbued with wisdom from on high. Their words and actions became empowered by the consuming fire of God’s love. Hence, the people who heard them speak had an encounter because their preaching was infused with pure love, the Holy Spirit. From the Acts 2:5, we see that it was the action of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the disciples that attracted the multitude. It wasn’t so much about new strategies, philosophies, and profound theologies, even though these might be extremely important. 

In the end, it is all about openness to the Holy Spirit.  When openness and obedience meet the Holy Spirit, then, the stage is set for the rending of hearts unto conversion and repentance. Brothers and sisters, this is what we need today when the actions of the Holy Spirit in us bring about a powerful penetration of the deafness and blindness of our world. The Holy Spirit is the one who preaches and prays in us.

Therefore, the Holy Spirit is indispensable if we are to witness with power and great love. As the scripture says, we and the Holy Spirit are witnesses to these things (Rm 8:16, Acts 5:32). Only with him could one authentically witness by yielding to the desires of the Spirit and not to the desires of the flesh. As today’s second reading from Galatians 5;16-25 says, if we are guided by the spirit we will not be in danger of yielding to that which opposes the spirit.

Yes, we received the Holy Spirit at our baptism. But we always need a fresh outpouring to rediscover the power and the beauty of our baptismal and Christian calling. That is why Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 prayed that we rediscover the beauty of being baptised in the holy spirit, a Pentecost that will spread in everyone the joy of living and witnessing to the Gospel. … I suppose the question is, are we still filled with that Joy of the Holy Spirit?

There is always a need for a fresh outpouring of God’s spirit into our hearts for the renewal of our love, vision and strength. Hence, every day we pray today’s responsorial psalm, “Send forth your spirit O lord and renew the face of the earth. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings about renewal, and revival and makes us joyful Christians since he is our Consolation. He is the Love that comes into us and overflows to others. He is that living water that wells up into eternal life and flows from the heart of believers to quench the thirst of those we evangelise (see John 7:38 John 4).

Today’s Gospel from John 15 calls him the Advocate and teacher of all truth. The Holy Spirit defends and pleads our cause, by granting us the knowledge and the revelation of the truth, Jesus, who sets us free. So, it is he who reveals God to us as Love.  No wonder the apostles couldn’t contain this Pentecost encounter that exposed them to the perfect love of the Father towards us.  

Through the Holy Spirit, we are made right with God. Only by the Holy Spirit could we ever say with St. Paul in Romans 8:1-2, “There is therefore, now, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set me free from the law of sin and death.  In fact, without the Holy Spirit, we can do nothing.  

Now, I would like to invite you to pray for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit into your lives, families, friends and every human heart. As we call upon him on this Pentecost Sunday, may he fill us with knowledge, understanding, counsel, fortitude, piety, awe and wonder for his service, may he bear in us the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentle and self-control. With Him, there are varieties of gifts. Do not be afraid or shy to pray and desire for fresh outpouring. They are gifts for our New Life in Christ.

As we pray, let the overflow begin to happen already. Let the life-giving water from the sanctuary in Ezekiel 47 begin to rush and start welling up in us into every dryness in our lives and families. May we have a new experience of his love. And in the power of the spirit with which Jesus worked, may we too go out to witness, knowing that, through the Holy Spirit he abides with us forever. Come Holy Spirit!