Pentecost Sunday (John 15:26-27; 16:12-15)
Today is the Birthday of the Church and there is much to celebrate! The Word of God was made flesh at Christmas time today the Body of Christ, the Church, becomes a reality. We are the Church and we celebrate our beginnings and our graduation.
The readings of today’s liturgy are from Luke (Acts of the Apostles), Paul (Galatians) and John’s Gospel.
With John we celebrate our own involvement in the building up of the Kingdom of God. Jesus, now glorified and seated at the right hand of the Father has sent the Spirit and that Spirit gives us peace and enables us to live as a forgiving and compassionate people.
In Luke we celebrate the dynamism of the Spirit seen in the preaching of the Good News and the way that the Kingdom of God has expanded on earth.
Paul explains that to live under the guidance of the Spirit is to share in the death and resurrection of the Lord. It is to be freed from our sinful nature and it is to be led in a way of life in which Jesus himself is the standard: ‘it is no longer I who live, but he who lives in me’. With Paul we celebrate the many gifts of the Church community and the fruits of the Spirit in the lives of individuals.
The signs and symbols of the Feast of Pentecost are wonderful; the mighty wind and the tongues of fire. The wind expresses the movement of God through all of God’s creation. The tongues express the proclamation of the Good news. These tongues are of fire, which is the symbol of love and the agent of purification or judgement. The foreign languages symbolise the many nations that are called into the Kingdom of God.
We pray that the wind of God’s Spirit will blow into our lives and that our tongues will be loosened to proclaim the Good News.