Pentecost Sunday – Year B

Published on 18 May 2024 at 17:12

When you think about the Holy Spirit, what comes to mind? Perhaps some vague image of a powerful spirit that moves and acts “like a dove” comes to mind or perhaps an actual figure of a Person, or, perhaps nothing at all comes to your mind as you have a hard time imagining him. The last scenario is probably the one that best describes our collective inability to imagine who the Holy Spirit is, or even, who the Heavenly Father is and what they look like. After all, we’re dealing with the infinite God. Jesus, on the other hand, we have a clearer idea, a clearer picture, and yet, he too, is God.

In the lead up to Pentecost, it has been Jesus who has been telling us about both the Father and the Holy Spirit, knowing precisely, that we can never truly imagine them. And so he made it simple for Philip and the others, for example, when he revealed that to “see” him, was to “see the Father” John 12:45.  Jesus is the image of the invisible God, and the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him (Colossians 1:15).

Jesus had been telling his apostles that when he ascended to the Father, only then would he be able to send the Holy Spirit, whom he called the Advocate, or the Paraclete and the Spirit of Truth because first, all these things: the Incarnation, passion, death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord into Heaven, had to happen, before the Holy Spirit could glorify them in Jesus and in those who try to follow him and “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14) in their lives.

One of the first tools necessary for receiving, digesting and understanding truth, is language. We need to be able to communicate so as to get to the bottom of things and arrive at the truth. Imagine speaking French in an Aramaic court of law. How would the facts be established? We need a common language to open the channels of communication.  

One of the first things we’re told in the Acts of the Apostles when reading the Pentecost account is that when the Holy Spirit descended, he opened up these communication lines so that people were speaking languages they never spoke before and they were understanding languages they had never studied. It becomes evidently clear that one of the principal hallmarks of the Holy Spirit will be unity of peoples in goodness and holiness. All nations are going to be called into the Kingdom of God now, being constructed on earth and realised perfectly in our heavenly homeland, and we are already getting an indication that supernatural things are going to be happening in this Divine Kingdom.

Here we already have a glimpse into the nature of heaven, which the Holy Spirit so wonderfully gave them as a foretaste. An interesting question is whether we will need to study languages there, in paradise, if by the grace of God we get there. Why? Because God will be all in all and we will all communicate in an extraordinary way, just as they did at Pentecost, without necessarily having to learn the language. These extraordinary abilities will be ordinary in heaven and even if we did need to learn languages, one would have the eternal luxury to do so. Either way we’re covered and we shouldn’t worry about that right now, because our main concern right now is as Saint Paul puts it: working out our salvation with fear and trembling just as we saw that he did, and just as the Lord recommended: “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to” Luke 13:24.

Heaven. Who doesn’t want to get to heaven? But what will heaven be like? Can you think for a moment of what interaction with other people in heaven will be like, apart from the language? Actually, this is a very good spiritual exercise for our mental prayer. I think we would all agree it would look very different than the kind of interaction we’re used to here.

Will there be anger in heaven? No. Jealousy? No. Impurity? No. Selfishness? No. Greed? No. Pride? No. … in other words, the holiness God desires from us in this life, is not only so that we live this life to the full as Jesus said (I came so that they may have life and have it in abundance, John 10:10) but so that we may prepare ourselves for the modality of living in heaven. But this isn’t easy. And so God does something incredible to help us. He gives us, not only his help to get us through the valleys and the mountains of our lives, but he gives us his very self!

Just think of the Eucharist. This isn’t just a grace that we receive, but it is God himself. And now today, on Pentecost, when it is said that the Holy Spirit has been given to us, this is God himself being given to us. God’s greatest gift to us is always himself. In the Athanasian Creed, we are reminded that the Holy Spirit, although divine in his own distinct Person, proceeds, from the Father and the Son: “the Catholic Faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all One, the Glory Equal, the Majesty Co-Eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father Uncreate, the Son Uncreate, and the Holy Ghost Uncreate. The Father Incomprehensible, the Son Incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible. The Father Eternal, the Son Eternal, and the Holy Ghost Eternal and yet they are not Three Eternals but One Eternal. As also there are not Three Uncreated, nor Three Incomprehensibles, but One Uncreated, and One Incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not Three Almighties but One Almighty... We [are] forbidden by the Catholic Religion to say, there be Three Gods or Three Lords. The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone; not made, nor created, but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the Father, and of the Son neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

The Father gives himself and shares his very self with us in Creation. The Son gives himself to us in Redemption, stretching out his arms and having his hands nailed to a cross, and the Holy Spirit gives himself to us in outpouring grace for our sanctification. The Triune God, Almighty and all-good, is continually in an act of giving.. even when we’re not aware of it.

In the Trinity we always see this generous act of self-giving, and we also see One divine Person giving another to us. So, the Father sends the Son. And in today’s Gospel what did we see? The Son.. gives the Holy Spirit. And it is in the context this time, of the forgiveness of sins. Another good reflection during Pentecost and our consideration on the splendour of the Holy Spirit is how He is operative in all the Sacraments. There’s so much to consider, but suffice it to say that the Sacraments were all given to us by our Lord and animated by the Holy Spirit, so as to help us in this life, and to open the doors and bring us to the next, to be united with the Father forever. The Holy Spirit proceeds from Father and Son, and it is through the Holy Spirit that the Father and Son take up residence in us. So, again, we can see how each Person in the Divine Trinity gives us another Person as complete gift, the supreme gift, the treasure beyond treasures, a perfect and concrete manifestation of this is to be found in the Eucharist, each time we celebrate the Lord’s Passover from this life to his glory and receive him beneath such humble a means.

I will conclude today with a prayer through the most glorious Spouse of the Holy Spirit: Dearest Queen of Heaven, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, intercede for us, so that he may be poured out on us as well, in abundance. Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Come, Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well-beloved Spouse. Amen.


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