HOMILY for Pentecost Sunday (A)
Acts 2:1-11; Ps 103; 1 Cor 12:3-7. 12-13; John 20:19-23
It’s the fiftieth and final day of the Easter season today but the Gospel takes us back to the first day, to the evening of Easter Sunday, when the Risen Christ first appeared to his apostles gathered together. So Christ comes to his Church and imparts his peace and mercy by giving the Holy Spirit, the grace of forgiveness for sins. Fifty days later, on Pentecost Sunday, the apostolic Church is gathered together again. Now, the Holy Spirit appears to the apostles, and gives to the Church the gift of tongues.
So, whereas on Easter Sunday, Christ the eternal Word breathes over the apostles, and gives the Holy Spirit, today on Pentecost Sunday, the Holy Spirit breathes over the apostles as they heard a sound “like the rush of a mighty wind” (Acts 2:2), and the Spirit gives them the eternal Word. Hence, as soon as the Holy Spirit descends on the apostles, the Church catholic, in many different languages, begins to preach “the mighty works of God” (Acts 2:11). For this is what the Church is for: she exists to communicate to all peoples what God has done.
What God has done, his mighty works – this is crucial. Because, very often it can seem that we Christians are here to do good works, to carry out works of social justice, of education, health care and so on. It is true that the Catholic Church is still the single largest charitable organization delivering humanitarian services and aid in the world, and all this good work, we must say, comes ultimately from God as we human beings co-operate with his grace and live out his commandments. As St Paul says: “there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one” (1 Cor 12:6).
But, as we know all too well, the Church – or, really, the Christian people – often also fails to do good works. In fact, we Catholics have been complicit in some very bad works. This week’s news from the recent history of the Irish Church – at least, as the Press widely reported it – shocked and dismayed me, as I am sure it would have horrified you and so many other people too. And so, as we gather today for Pentecost, for this feast which is often called “the birthday of the Church”, some might wonder if we have much cause to celebrate. What do we, a Church of sinners, have to say to our world especially on Pentecost Sunday?
We have but one Word: Jesus Christ. And the Church exists for one purpose which is to proclaim “Jesus is Lord” (1 Cor 13:3). The Church must proclaim “the mighty works of God”: Christ’s compassionate solidarity with sinners in becoming Man; Jesus suffering alongside victims, becoming a Victim of Man’s hatred and violence; Christ dying on the Cross to show the depths of God’s undying love for sinful humanity; Jesus rising from the dead, and as a sign of his divine mercy and tender forgiveness, saying to us: “Peace be with you” (Jn 20:19). Today’s Gospel takes us back to that Easter evening, a time of dusk and gloom; the apostles are frightened, huddled together in a locked room, confused and scared; the air is thick with heat and tension in that little room – this was the Church. Then the Risen Lord comes. He is present, God-with-us, and he says: “Peace be with you” for Christ is our peace. Christ is our Saviour. Christ is our Word.
And so, we as a Church have a Word to proclaim. It is a Word that the world still needs to hear, maybe even more than ever before because it is a Word that we Christians need to hear and listen to. Jesus. Which means, “God saves”.
On that first Pentecost day, St Peter stood up and proclaimed this. And on his first day as St Peter’s Successor, our holy father Pope Francis also stood up and proclaimed Jesus Christ. He said: “We can build many things, but if we do not confess Jesus Christ, nothing will avail. We will become a pitiful NGO, but not the Church, the Bride of Christ”. So, if we are to be the Church, we must proclaim Jesus Christ. He is the one Word we have to offer the world; the one Word we need on our lips and in our hearts; the one Word that the Holy Spirit gives us courage and strength and grace to confess. Let us say: “Jesus is Lord”!
And what does it mean for us to say that Jesus is my Lord? On Pentecost day, when St Peter had proclaimed Jesus to be “Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36), the peoples on the streets of Jerusalem ask him: “What shall we do?” And St Peter said: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).
So, he preaches repentance and forgiveness of sins through the power of the Risen Lord and through the receiving of the Holy Spirit. That is to say, St Peter recalls what happened on Easter day: the Risen Lord came to the apostles and gave to his holy Church the divine power to forgive sins through the action of the Holy Spirit. As such, the Church is called to be, like the one whom she calls ‘Lord’, an instrument and sign before all the world of God’s forgiveness, of his saving love, of his endless mercy. But as a Church of sinners, then, we must also repent. For only then can truly proclaim the forgiveness and mercy of God. It is something we have first experienced ourselves. And this, I think, is what we’re reminded of this Pentecost.
For we are, often, a broken people, we are shamed sinners, we have a deep awareness of our faults and failures. And so, we sit in the ashes as we did ninety days ago when Lent began on Ash Wednesday. Except that today, Pentecost Sunday, is a day of fire and flame. Thus we are also being reminded, I think, that new life comes from the ashes. The early Church occasionally depicted a phoenix in church art as a symbol of the Resurrection. For our faith is that, from the ashes, we will rise with Christ to a new life, filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit, the fire of divine love. So, the ashes are important, even necessary – the ashes of repentance, of penitence and of dying to sin. But Jesus does not leave us in the ashes. He breathes his life-giving Spirit upon his Church.
The Holy Spirit, Jesus has told us, is the Spirit of truth (Jn 14:17). And so, hard though it is, there is a certain joy that in this week, this Novena of Pentecost, the truth is being brought to light. For truth, Jesus says, will consecrate us (cf Jn 17:19), that is, make us, his Church, holy for God’s purposes. And God’s Spirit of truth comes like tongues of fire to purify the Church, to burn away the lies and fear, and so, to renew all things in Christ. God does this, not so much to punish us but to save us. He sends his Spirit to save his beloved Church, the Son’s pure Bride, from the sinful folly and evils of a few of our brothers and sisters. By moving us to repentance, and then forgiving us when we truly repent, the Holy Spirit thus brings Christ’s peace and new life to his Church.
Hence, the Church prays today: “Send forth your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth”. We ask to be renewed, to be moved to repentance and to receive God’s forgiveness and peace, so that we can worthily proclaim the mighty works of God; can speak God’s one Word of salvation to the whole world; can say with deep joy: “Jesus is Lord”!
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