“SPRINGS OF LIVING WATER”
Daily Spiritual Reflections
23rd May 2021
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SUNDAY, SOLEMNITY OF THE PENTECOST
Reading 1: Acts 2: 1-11 Here we have an account of the coming of the Holy Spirit on the apostles on Pentecost Sunday and the effects of that coming on them.
Reading 2: 1 Cor 12: 3-7, 12-13 People have different gifts, but it is the same Spirit who gives these various gifts for the building up of the Christian community, which is the Body of Christ.
Gospel: Jn 20: 19-23 On Easter Sunday evening Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit upon his apostles, a Spirit of forgiveness and of peace
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PENTECOST: A GIFT OF MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING
Today we come to the high point of our Easter celebration, the feast of Pentecost. Pentecost, meaning “fifty days” after the Passover, was the feast on which the Jews celebrated the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. On Sinai, the different tribes of Israel entered into a covenant with God and with one another, and so became the people of God. God gives humanity the commandments as a guide to life, because without God, we are dead.
Whenever human beings forget their limitedness and try to go their own way, what inevitably follows is a disaster. An example of this is the story of the tower of Babel, in Genesis 11, where people decided to build a tower that would reach the gates of heaven. They wanted to have access to God whenever they wanted, in the way they wanted. God, seeing their selfish motives, confused their languages. They began to speak different ‘tongues’; there was no more communication, no more understanding among them, and they could no longer work together. The result was the proliferation of languages and human misunderstanding.
Does not the story of Babel remind us of the story we read today from the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples of Jesus speaking in other languages? The two stories are indeed related. That which took place on the Pentecost day, is a reversal of Babel; and this for three reasons:
1. At Babel, human beings decided to build a tower to God by their own effort; at Pentecost it is now God who decides to build a bridge to humans by sending the Holy Spirit. Babel was a human initiative, a human effort; Pentecost, a divine initiative, a divine activity through the Holy Spirit.
2. Babel was a lament of misunderstanding; Pentecost, a chorus of mutual understanding. The miracle of Pentecost is very different from the miracle of Babel. At Babel, the people came together with one language, understanding themselves. After God’s intervention, they dispersed not understanding each other. It was confusion. At Pentecost, on the other hand, confused people understood each other after the intervention of the Holy Spirit. As Peter spoke, people of every nation, culture and language gathered there heard him in their own tongue. The miracle of Pentecost was a miracle of mutual understanding, a restoration of that precious gift that humanity lost at Babel. Now, someone might ask, is there such a language that one could speak and everybody would understand in their own mother-tongue? The answer is yes. And the name of that language is love. Love is the language that all women and men understand irrespective of ethnic background. Everybody understands when you smile, reach out in need. Love is the language of the children of God, the only language we shall speak in heaven.
3. Finally, Pentecost differs from Babel in its result. Babel resulted in the disintegration of the human family into different races and nationalities. Pentecost, on the other hand, brought all peoples together and reunified them as one universal family under Christ, the head. This universal family embracing all races and nationalities is called the Church. “Catholic” means “universal”.
On Pentecost, we celebrate the birthday of the Church. Today is, therefore, an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to be active and faithful members of this family of God, the Church. Venerable Fulton J. Sheen once said about the Church that even though we are God’s chosen people, we often behave more like God’s frozen people – frozen in our prayer life, frozen in the way we relate with one another, frozen in the way we celebrate our faith. Today is a great day to ask the Holy Spirit to rekindle in us the spirit of new life and enthusiasm, the fire of God’s love.
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 104:1,24, 29-31,34 Lord, send forth your spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
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