AS the finale to our celebration of Easter, Pentecost 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus focuses on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles. The gospel account (John 20:19-23) powerfully summarizes the meaning of the coming of the Spirit upon us all, leading to the birth of the Church.
‘Peace be with you’
IN the evening of “that first day of the week,” that unforgettable day when Jesus rose from the dead, as the disciples were behind locked doors out of fear, Jesus suddenly came and stood in their midst. Although forewarned (John 14:1-27), His death had thrown them into confusion; Mary Magdalene’s report about the empty tomb was not enough to release them from the deep bend. Jesus alone could do that. His salutation of “Peace be with you” spelled it out, the message of messianic fulfillment itself: forgiveness and healing for humanity, reconciliation and communion with God. Jesus was delivering personally the promised and awaited salvation.
As the risen one accepted by the Father, Jesus could now show that the reason for the gloom of His followers is actually the basis for their new joy. The wounds in His hands and side make obvious the continuity from the crucified one to the living Lord now in their midst. His flesh bears the signs of His sacrifice of love that restored the broken covenant between God and humankind and made peace a reality. To recognize their Lord by the signs of His passion is to enter into the joy that faith brings, enabling them to overcome the “scandal” of the cross and to appreciate His death as the loving sacrifice of the Son to His Father.
‘Receive the Holy Spirit’
Reunited with the Father in glory and given all the power in heaven and on earth, Jesus can now share the Spirit with those who believe in him (7:39). He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” God’s breath gave life to man (Genesis 2:7); now the breath of the one through whom “all things were made” (John 1:3) enlivened his disciples into new creatures, regenerated in a paschal world where the Spirit of God has returned and where anyone who receives the Word of the Lord is reconciled with God. This Word is “spirit and life” (6:63).
Jesus was identified by John the Baptizer as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (1:29). He went about preaching conversion and the forgiveness of sins, claiming to Himself the divine power to actually forgive sin as He absolved the woman caught in adultery (8:11). In giving the Holy Spirit to His disciples Jesus is conferring on them His full power. As He promised, when He returns to the Father they will do what He does and more (14:12), because in their ministry of reconciliation the word of forgiveness is to be offered to everyone.
Alálaong bagá, receiving the Holy Spirit means mission. For the Spirit is the power of God creating and recreating humankind, healing and reconciling the world to Him. That is why the Church, the katipunan (assembly) of Christ’s followers reborn and reshaped by the Spirit, is a community of forgiven sinners now commissioned to extend forgiveness to others and to announce to all peoples the gospel of reconciliation. In the multiplicity of gifts and charisms from the Holy Spirit in the Church, everyone is called to be somehow an instrument of the peace the risen Lord has brought definitively to the world.
The risen Lord is now in our midst in the efficacious signs of His presence and continuing action in the ministry and liturgy of the Church, most especially in the Eucharist. We participate in his peace and covenant with God even as we are told to give each other the sign of peace. In the power of the Holy Spirit, the bread and wine become his body and blood for the life of the Church, in the same power his disciples themselves today are transformed to be peace-makers and ambassadors of reconciliation to the world (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, from 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio streaming on www.dwiz882.com.