PENTEC0ST – CYCLE C - 2019
With the
Solemnity of Pentecost we have reached
the end of the Easter season.
We will see how
Pentecost has had different names and meanings over the centuries.
During the Jewish
celebration of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father to the Church.
PENTECOST
v Every Israelite had to present himself before YHWH,
three times a year: the second of these
feasts became Pentecost.
In
Ex 23:16 it is called the Feast of the
Grain Harvest.
v In the book of Number 28:26 it is called the Feast of the First Fruits.
v In the book of Deuteronomy 16:10 it is called the Feast of weeks because this
feast was celebrated seven weeks after the feast of the Unleavened Bread
(Passover.)
v It was also called the Feast of the 50th day(Pentecost) because it was celebrated 50 days after the
first grain offering Lev 23,9-14
v This feast became a historical feast in which the
people remembered the Covenant on Mount
Sinai, and the New Covenant
promised by God through the prophets
Jeremiah 31,31-34 and Ezekiel 36 :22-28,
and fulfilled by Jesus in his Paschal Mystery.
v On the day of Pentecost,
the Father sent on the Church the Spirit Jesus had promised.
FIRST READING: Acts
2:1-11
Ø The strong driving wind that filled the house, takes
us to the beginning of creation when the Spirit of God as a mighty wind covered
the abyss.
Ø The noise, the fire, all these strong forces of nature
remind us of the theophany on Mount Sinai, when God talked to Moses and made a
Covenant with his people, giving them the Law.
Ø The tongues of fire : fire, enthusiasm, to proclaim
the marvels accomplished by Christ Jesus.
Ø The "miracle" of the tongues that made
possible for all to understand what the Apostles were announcing to them. This
takes us to Babel, where people of one tongue could not understand each other, due
to greed, pride, sin. Pentecost is the opposite of Babel; the Holy Spirit makes
those who are different, opposite, enemies to become brothers and sisters, to
love one another.
Ø I will copy below two quotations from the Jewish
tradition about the event on Mount Sinai:
·
God did not have
mouth or tongue, but by means of a wonderful act he decided that a thunder
should be heard in the air and a blast should be articulated into words putting
them in motion. This became fire that
had the shape of flames... a voice resounded in the midst of the fire and
descended from heaven and this voice spoke the dialect of each one of those who
heard it. (Jewish Philosopher called Philon explained in
this fashion the divine theophany on Sinai.)
·
When the voice of
God was pronounced on Sinai, it divided itself into seventy voices so that all
the nations could understand. The Hebrew people believed that there were 70
nationalities in the world.
(My
translation of both quotations which have been taken from the book Gianfranco Ravasi Según
las Escrituras- Ciclo C").
Ø All were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to
speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
Ø Through the 2000 years of history since the First
Pentecost, the Church has made present the wonderful event of Pentecost among
all the nations, sometimes silently, some other times loudly, through the life
and mission of men and women from all nations: parents, missionaries,
catechists, priests, sons and daughters, .... the complete list would be too
long. The enemies become friends, the foreigner and
stranger are welcomed into the local community.
RESPONSORIAL
PSALM: Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31,
34
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and
renew the face of the earth.
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
How manifold are your works, O LORD!
the earth is full of your creatures;
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD be glad in his works!
Pleasing to him be my theme;
I will be glad in the LORD.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
If you take away their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
How manifold are your works, O LORD!
the earth is full of your creatures;
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD be glad in his works!
Pleasing to him be my theme;
I will be glad in the LORD.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
If you take away their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
SECOND READING 1 Cor 12:3b-7,12-13
Paul says that no one can say, "Jesus is Lord"
except by the Holy Spirit. But it is not
enough to pronounce words or sounds, but this sentence must come from our
faith, our trust, our love for Jesus.
Paul makes his community realize that there are different
gifts, that everyone has his or her own gifts, which God gives to us to
accomplish a mission in the community.
And to help his community to understand better, he makes the
wonderful comparison of the human body, which has many members but it is one
body.
Through baptism we are united to Christ
We were all given to
drink of one Spirit.
In the first reading, Luke uses the symbol of fire, wind and
tongues. In the second reading water is the symbol used to describe who the
Spirit is.
GOSPEL
Lk 20:19-23
v
In the first reading, we have seen how Luke explains the coming of the
Holy Spirit upon the Church using images taken from the Old Testament, from the
traditions of Israel and even of the peoples around it.
v
In the Gospel, the Church invites us to reflect on the mystery of the
coming of the Holy Spirit in the way John explains it.
v
According to the Gospel of John, the Lord came and stood in their midst,
on the evening of the same day of his Resurrection.
v
And in this meeting with them he gave the Holy Spirit
·
But before giving them his Spirit
·
Jesus gives them Peace thus they will be able to offer
it to others.
·
Jesus sends them. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. We know that through baptism we have been
submerged in Christ to participate of his life and cooperate in his mission
"the salvation of all men and women."
·
Jesus gives to them the
power to forgive sins. He will cooperate with them; he will accept and support the decisions they
will make.
We have seen the two accounts of the coming of the
Holy Spirit; one from the Gospel of John, Jesus gives his spirit the same day
of his resurrection. In fact in the Gospel of John Jesus gives his Spirit, on
the cross.
On Pentecost the Church is born,
·
it has been conceived and nurtured in the heart of God the Father from
all eternity.
·
Jesus began to form it with his disciples
·
now it is made visible to the world by the Spirit of God on the day of
Pentecost.
CLARETIAN CORNER
Since I began to serve my God and
Lord, He has always been my counselor and master in everything. And he never
neglects me even in the most insignificant and domestic things. And He tells me
how I have to deal with certain persons, what I must tell them as well as the
time and moment to speak. Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian
Missionary Sisters , Autobiography 85.
The same Holy Spirit, by
appearing in the form of tongues of fire above the Apostles on Pentecost,
showed us this truth quite clearly: an apostolic missionary must have both heart
and tongue ablaze with charity. One day the Venerable Avila was asked by a
young priest what he should do to become a good preacher. His ready answer was,
"Love much.'' And both experience and the history of the
Church teach us that the greatest preachers have always been the most fervent
lovers. Saint
Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography
440.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
CLARET, Antonio María , Autobiography
HAAG, H; VAN DER BORN, A; DE
AUSEJO, S. Diccionario de la Biblia (Bible Dictionnary), Editorial Herder 1981.
PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiography
RAVASI, Gianfranco, Según Las Escrituras (According to the
Scriptures), Year C, 2006.
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