Pentecost
Red, taken from the tongues of fire....
Readings for: Pentecost
Reading 1 Acts 2:1-11
Psalm Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34
Reading 2 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13
Gospel John 20:19-23
REFLECTIONS:… from Father Daniel
The Church goes all out today with a special color red, taken from the tongues of fire, a variety of readings and with a sequence on Sunday. The first reading and the Gospel talks of the descent of the Spirit.The stories of Luke and John complement each other and teach us that the Spirit is the new law, the force that leads us to do good. The Spirit is the source of unity. It pulls down barriers and wherever it enters it destroys sin. The second reading describes a consequence of the presence of the Spirit. Each of us has been given gifts by the same Spirit and they must not be a source of competition but must rather be put at the service of unity; together with God, we work to renew the face of the earth.
There are many ways the Holy Spirit is active in our lives and in our dealings with one another, but not so easy to picture. It’s better to picture the Holy Spirit by what the Spirit does- just as it’s easier to picture the wind by what the wind does than to picture the wind directly. The Holy Spirit is like air we breathe which we cannot live without, the light that goes on when we have an idea, the fire that burns in our heart. I hope you can see the Spirit does a lot. On Pentecost the Spirit changed the disciples from being fearful witnesses into brave and fearless preachers of Christ’s victory over sin and death in the streets of Jerusalem, and Jewish residents from every nation and each understands in his or her native language. The Holy Spirit reverses the confusion of the tongues at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). May the Spirit continue to work on us into fearless witnesses of God’s good news to us. Pope Francis, in his encyclical “Laudato Si”, he writes: “The Spirit of God has filled the universe with possibilities from the very heart of things, something new can always emerge”. Always remember life is like a book, some chapters will break you, some will make you smile and some will change you forever. But every page, good or bad, is part of the story that makes you who you are, so don’t close the book too soon, your best chapter might be the next one.
