Sunday:       PENTECOST SUNDAY
Date:         MAY 23, 1999
Year:         A
The readings: [Acts 2:1-11; 1 Cor. 12:3-7, 12-3; Jn. 20:19-23]
The message:  RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Prepared by:  CATHOLIC DOORS MINISTRY
Total words:  734

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Today is Pentecost Sunday! It is a Christian festival that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ.

To perceive the meaning of this special Feast, let us go on an imaginary trip. Visualize yourself going back in time to find yourself in the upper room where the disciples gathered daily to pray. Suddenly you hear the rush of the wind. If you have ever been in the mountains or at a Lake in the Summer, at one time or another in your life, you must have heard a similar sound of the wind that suddenly comes just before the storm. But this time, the sound is not outdoors. It is indoor!

Before you realize what is happening, you see brilliant flames of fire as divided tongues that suddenly appear and go to rest above the head of each disciples of Jesus. Then, each disciple begins to talk in foreign tongues according to the ability [Acts 2:4; Mt. 25:15; 1 Cor.12:10] he was given by the Holy Spirit.

Now, if you have ever attended Charismatic prayer groups, you would know that those who speak in a tongue do not speak to other people but to God. For nobody understands them since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit. [1 Cor. 13:2] As such, if one speaks in a tongue, he should pray for the power to interpret. [1 Cor. 14:13]

But in this case, it was different! While speaking about God's deeds and power, all those who had gathered after hearing the sound of a violent wind, these being foreigners from every land, could hear the disciples of Jesus speaking in their own tongue. This unique and remarkable power of God through the Holy Spirit marks the Feast of Pentecost. It marks the beginning of the invisible Kingdom of God on earth. It marks the beginning of the Holy Catholic Church. It marks the beginning of the growth of the spiritual children of God of the godly seed, His holy people, His holy priesthood, His holy nation.

The arrival of the Holy Spirit on earth marks the fulfillment of God the Father's promise that is found in the Old Testament, God promising to place His Spirit within His children so they will obey His commands. Pentecost marks the coming of the Holy Spirit who has arrived on earth to take over the mission of Jesus.

Had there been no Pentecost, there would have been no Holy Catholic Church, no indwelling of the Holy Spirit to guide and teach the apostles, including His guiding and teaching of each and everyone of us in the ways of Jesus. There would have been no new birth of the human spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit, consequently no salvation for anyone. For Christ said that unless we are born again of the Spirit and fire, we will not enter the Kingdom of God. That is how important the Feast of the Pentecost is to each member of the Holy Catholic Church.

If by the grace of God we have received all these undeserved blessings in the Name of Jesus, surely there must be a reason! There is! We have been called to become living members of the Body of Christ. Through the Spirit of God we were all baptized into one Body, all being called to allow ourselves to be sanctified through the same Spirit.

We have been called to unite our hearts as one in the Body of Christ for the glory of God. God has arranged the Body, giving the greater honour to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it. [1 Cor. 12:24-6]

My brothers and sisters, receive the Holy Spirit. Welcome the Holy Spirit in your lives. Do not blaspheme the Holy Spirit by rejecting His gifts that benefit the Church as a whole and your individual sanctification as members of the Church.

In appreciation of God's gift of the Holy Spirit, allow yourselves to flow as living water in the work of Jesus Christ to become shining lights in the world. Walk your living faith in the Spirit of God, always being thankful to God for the blessings He has given you and continues to give you so you may grow in your holy lives.

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The readings...

[The readings were taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (C) 1989 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America.]

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First Reading...

"When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from Heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because all heard them speaking in their own languges. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own language? Partians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts, Cretans and Arabs - in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." [Acts 2:1-11]

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Second Reading...

"No one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and we were all made to drink of one Spirit." [1 Cor. 12:3-7, 12-13]

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Gospel Reading...

"It was evening on the day Jesus rose from the dead, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the authorities. Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."" [Jn. 20:19-23]

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