Pentecost Sunday
Reflection: Pentecost ties God to us, us to God
By SISTER MARY McGLONE
We’re celebrating one of the greatest feasts of the church year and all we have for evidence of it is a short account from the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, also called the second volume of the Gospel of Luke.
Since the story is so short, we should look very carefully at what Luke wrote, assuming that he meant this brief narrative to tell us much more than we might expect.
He begins, “When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled.” That indicates that Pentecost, a word that comes from a Greek expression referring to the 50th day, is not originally a Christian feast. For the Jewish people, this feast commemorates the time when God gave Moses the Law, the greatest expression of God’s deepest connection to humankind. Thus, celebrating Pentecost indicates that we are living in the fulfillment of that living relationship.
The allusions to Jesus’ Jewish tradition continue in many of the details of the story.
When Moses went up the mountain, the entire people were gathered below waiting for what he could tell them of God and God’s will. Luke tells us that, on the Christian Pentecost, “they were all in one place,” but he doesn’t tell what they were waiting for.
The sound like a great wind recalls the noise the people heard when Moses met with God on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19-20). The immensity of that moment with wind and tremendous thunder-like sounds is reinterpreted in the Christian Scripture where it is more inspiring than frightening.
Luke tells us that the Pentecost time of remembering God’s law was “fulfilled.” That word, sumpleroo, speaks of completion, the achievement of all that the law was meant to be. Something new is afoot. This sumpleroo “filled the house,” it became the disciples’ new way of dwelling together, there was a new atmosphere among them.
The “tongues as of fire,” recall John the Baptist’s proclamation that the one to come would baptize them not with water, but with fire.
The essence of the experience was that they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Their relationship with God had gone beyond dialogue and commandments and became indwelling. The disciples’ ability to speak in other languages, their preaching, everything that would result from their discipleship, rested on that one reality: They were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Today’s other readings and the sequence comment on this event. In the psalm, we beg for the experience of God’s indwelling that renews our Earth. St. Paul’s message to the Corinthians explains that because the gifts of God are too much for any one person to receive, they can only be experienced in community, where the diversity of people (cultures, languages, experience, viewpoints) can begin to express who God is.
Writing to the Romans, Paul describes his mystical vision of the Spirit dwelling in us and creating us anew, not as mere mortals, but as people of the Resurrection. That is exactly what we ask for in the sequence: “Come Holy Spirit … shed your light, fill our inmost being.”
John’s Gospel brings us back to the end of the day of the Resurrection. Jesus overcomes all barriers, offering peace instead of fear to his beloved disciples. That lack of fear and awareness of God in them was all they needed to carry forth Jesus’ mission — until the end of time. The sign that best expresses it was the forgiveness of sins.
The message the disciples were to carry forward proclaimed that no one need be tied to their past, whether it is a past of oppression like that of the people enslaved in Egypt or being defined by their worst moments instead of their potential. Forgiveness ushers everyone into the realm of God’s future, far beyond any sad or sinful past.
Pentecost completes our celebration of Easter. Today, we remember each moment in which we have felt the influence of God’s Spirit. Before you say that it’s beyond you, the very fact that you are reading the Scriptures and reflecting on them demonstrates that the Spirit is leading you toward something deeper than you yet know.
Paul said that there are many kinds of gifts. We ought not disparage the Spirit’s influence in our lives just because tongues of fire haven’t brightened our way or we have trouble with other languages or even our own words. The marvels we read about are nothing more than that, signs and symbols of what the Spirit is constantly working in the world.
Today’s feast reminds us that God not only chose to dwell among us, but to dwell in us. That mutual indwelling grows for a lifetime. It fulfills every human life.
Vigil Mass
Reading I
(Genesis 11: 1-9)
The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words.
While the people were migrating in the east,
they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.
They said to one another,
“Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire.”
They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city
and a tower with its top in the sky,
and so make a name for ourselves;
otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.”
The LORD came down to see the city and the tower
that the people had built.
Then the LORD said: “If now, while they are one people,
all speaking the same language,
they have started to do this,
nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do.
Let us then go down there and confuse their language,
so that one will not understand what another says.”
Thus the LORD scattered them from there all over the earth,
and they stopped building the city.
That is why it was called Babel,
because there the LORD confused the speech of all the world.
It was from that place that he scattered them all over the earth.
OR
(Exodus 19: 3-8a, 16-20b)
Moses went up the mountain to God.
Then the LORD called to him and said,
“Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob; tell the Israelites:
You have seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians
and how I bore you up on eagle wings
and brought you here to myself.
Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant,
you shall be my special possession,
dearer to me than all other people,
though all the earth is mine.
You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.
That is what you must tell the Israelites.”
So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people.
When he set before them
all that the LORD had ordered him to tell them,
the people all answered together,
“Everything the LORD has said, we will do.”
On the morning of the third day
there were peals of thunder and lightning,
and a heavy cloud over the mountain,
and a very loud trumpet blast,
so that all the people in the camp trembled.
But Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God,
and they stationed themselves at the foot of the mountain.
Mount Sinai was all wrapped in smoke,
for the LORD came down upon it in fire.
The smoke rose from it as though from a furnace,
and the whole mountain trembled violently.
The trumpet blast grew louder and louder, while Moses was speaking,
and God answering him with thunder.
When the LORD came down to the top of Mount Sinai,
he summoned Moses to the top of the mountain.
OR
(Ezekiel 37: 1-14)
The hand of the LORD came upon me,
and he led me out in the spirit of the LORD
and set me in the center of the plain,
which was now filled with bones.
He made me walk among the bones in every direction
so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain.
How dry they were!
He asked me:
Son of man, can these bones come to life?
I answered, “Lord GOD, you alone know that.”
Then he said to me:
Prophesy over these bones, and say to them:
Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!
Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones:
See! I will bring spirit into you, that you may come to life.
I will put sinews upon you, make flesh grow over you,
cover you with skin, and put spirit in you
so that you may come to life and know that I am the LORD.
I, Ezekiel, prophesied as I had been told,
and even as I was prophesying I heard a noise;
it was a rattling as the bones came together, bone joining bone.
I saw the sinews and the flesh come upon them,
and the skin cover them, but there was no spirit in them.
Then the LORD said to me:
Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man,
and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord GOD:
From the four winds come, O spirit,
and breathe into these slain that they may come to life.
I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them;
they came alive and stood upright, a vast army.
Then he said to me:
Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.
They have been saying,
“Our bones are dried up,
our hope is lost, and we are cut off.”
Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD:
O my people, I will open your graves
and have you rise from them,
and bring you back to the land of Israel.
Then you shall know that I am the LORD,
when I open your graves and have you rise from them,
O my people!
I will put my spirit in you that you may live,
and I will settle you upon your land;
thus you shall know that I am the LORD.
I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.
OR
(Joel 3: 1-5)
Thus says the LORD:
I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.
Your sons and daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
your young men shall see visions;
even upon the servants and the handmaids,
in those days, I will pour out my spirit.
And I will work wonders in the heavens and on the earth,
blood, fire, and columns of smoke;
the sun will be turned to darkness,
and the moon to blood,
at the coming of the day of the LORD,
the great and terrible day.
Then everyone shall be rescued
who calls on the name of the LORD;
for on Mount Zion there shall be a remnant,
as the LORD has said,
and in Jerusalem survivors
whom the LORD shall call.
Responsorial Psalm
(Psalm 104: 1-2, 24, 25, 27-28, 29-30)
Reading II
(Romans 8: 22-27)
Brothers and sisters:
We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now;
and not only that, but we ourselves,
who have the first fruits of the Spirit,
we also groan within ourselves
as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
For in hope we were saved.
Now hope that sees is not hope.
For who hopes for what one sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.
In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.
And the one who searches hearts
knows what is the intention of the Spirit,
because he intercedes for the holy ones
according to God’s will.
Gospel
(John 7: 37-39)
On the last and greatest day of the feast,
Jesus stood up and exclaimed,
“Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.
As Scripture says:
Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.”
He said this in reference to the Spirit
that those who came to believe in him were to receive.
There was, of course, no Spirit yet,
because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Mass during the Day
Reading I
(Acts 2: 1-11)
When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.
At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd,
but they were confused
because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
They were astounded, and in amazement they asked,
“Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?
Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?
We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites,
inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene,
as well as travelers from Rome,
both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs,
yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues
of the mighty acts of God.”
Responsorial Psalm
(Psalm 104: 1-2, 24, 25, 27-28, 29-30)
Reading II
(I Corinthians 12: 3v-7, 12-13)
Brothers and sisters:
No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.
As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
OR
(Galations 5: 16-25)
Brothers and sisters, live by the Spirit
and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh.
For the flesh has desires against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh;
these are opposed to each other,
so that you may not do what you want.
But if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are obvious:
immorality, impurity, lust, idolatry,
sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy,
outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness,
dissensions, factions, occasions of envy,
drinking bouts, orgies, and the like.
I warn you, as I warned you before,
that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law.
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh
with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.
Sequence Veni, Sancte Spiritus
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!
Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine.
You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul’s most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;
In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!
Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;
Give them virtue’s sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end. Amen.
Alleluia.
Gospel
(John 20: 19-23)
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
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.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”
OR
(John 15: 26-27, 16: 12-15)
Jesus said to his disciples:
“When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father,
the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father,
he will testify to me.
And you also testify,
because you have been with me from the beginning.
“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,
he will guide you to all truth.
He will not speak on his own,
but he will speak what he hears,
and will declare to you the things that are coming.
He will glorify me,
because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.
Everything that the Father has is mine;
for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine
and declare it to you.”