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Today, Pentecost,
we celebrate the birthday of the church. What do we think of when we
think of church? Perhaps we think of the organization: the Vatican,
the pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, deacons, etc. Maybe we think
of the truths we believe: the Commandments, the Creed, the
Catechisms, etc. Perhaps it is the sacraments and other rituals: the
Mass, Baptisms, weddings, May Crowning, etc. Perhaps it is all who
claim to be Catholic or at least those who attend Church.
But as we read the story of Pentecost, none of those are present.
All of those things we commonly think of as church were present at
or even near the time of Pentecost. All of these things are about
structure which the church develops over time. In the story of
Pentecost we had in our first reading describes the coming of the
Holy Spirit as a driving wind and tongues of flame. This is not a
Spirit of structure but rather it is dynamic. Wind is elsewhere in
scripture described as something we don’t know where it comes from
or where it goes. This is not a controlled Spirit but one that is
unpredictable and burns for change.
The Apostles had practically no structure as they received the
Spirit. What they did have was the experience of following Jesus and
seeing how he found his strength in his relationship with his
Father. They saw what Jesus did. In John’s Gospel, Easter, the
Ascension, and Pentecost all happen the same day. Jesus has told
them that he needs to go to the Father so that they can receive the
Holy Spirit. As long as he was on the earth, they would just follow
him. But as Jesus prepares to depart, today he says to the Apostles,
“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Then, as they prepare to
take on his mission, he breathes on them and tells them to receive
the Holy Spirit.
What the Apostles have to go on is their experience of Jesus and
what they saw of his relationship to his Father and how he cared for
the people he met. They are being transformed by the Spirit as they
accept the mission of doing in the world what Jesus did. They too
will rely on their relationship with their Father; they too will
care for the people. Jesus’ last words to them in today’s gospel
tell them they have the power to forgive.
This is the sign of God’s power, the power of love and mercy. This
is to be their prime mission in the world.
In the story of Pentecost we have in the first reading we are told
that these Apostles, who were all Galileans, were understood by
people from various nations and ethnic backgrounds. The “miracle”
here is not about the Apostles speaking multiple languages but that
their message was understood by all these different people who
represented all the peoples of the known world. Their message of
living like Jesus was a message all people could understand.
Like the Apostles at Pentecost, we too receive the Holy Spirit. The
Spirit is dynamic and unpredictable as we seek to be about the
mission of Jesus in our world. It is a message primarily from our
hearts that all people can hear. To be church is to be a people who
have accepted the mission of Christ. Let us pray that we may indeed
be church created and strengthened by the Holy Spirit as we are
about the mission Jesus has given us.
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