From the breathing of God over the chaos, through the overshadowing by the Holy Spirit over the emptiness of Mary’s womb, through this event of the sending of the Spirit upon the apostles, and in our own days, the work of the Spirit is “incarnation” or visibility, or the revelation in each of our lives, that the mysterious God desires to show off.

“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke of the great things God had done.” Acts 2, 4

Editor’s Notes: Please read also previous articles in this section about Pentecost Sunday: Pentecost Sunday: The Coming of the Holy Spirit  and Sermon for Pentecost Sunday (by The Rev. Dr. Fred Vergara). May 31, 2009 - Pentecost Sunday (Holy Spirit and Pentecost!)  and Good News on Pentecost: The Soul's Most-Welcome Guest  

Pentecost Sunday

Acts 2:1-11

Ps 104:1+24, 29b-30, 31+34

1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13

J ohn 20:19-23 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came  and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." (20) When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. (21) Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." (22) And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. (23) If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

Meditation by Larry Gillick, S.J. - Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality

PREPRAYERING

We pray for our making Jesus larger and more visible in this shrinking world. We pray that all Christians become more the church based on the excitement and preaching of the early apostles. We pray that the Spirit of the One God will mend Christ’s fractured body and that all who speak various languages will one day understand each other more compassionately.

We need an inflation, an expanding economy of God’s Spirit and a more personal investment with high interest and great returns, that our world will be God’s Kingdom.

REFLECTION

F ifty days have passed since the Jews, now gathered together for the second great feast of the year, celebrated the first feast which is the Passover or Feast of the Unleavened Bread. The last of these will be a final harvest thanksgiving. Fifty days for the spring wheat and grains to have ripened and now are presented before the Lord. All the farmers of this agricultural community acknowledge their radical dependence upon God’s care in sending rain and sun.

Luke pictures the raining down of God’s Spirit within the context of this Jewish agricultural festival. They are gathered to send up their prayers for all that has grown in their fields. God sends the Spirit of growth so that there will be even more produce, but of a new kind. The newness is that while the sun and rain bring forth fruit of the fields; the Holy Spirit will bring forth a completion of creation as the ultimate expression of God’s love. The people are gathered to praise and thank God. Luke, in this Book of Acts, will picture the Spirit moving them out and beyond the territory of the Jews so as to bless and bring about the final harvest of God’s peace and justice. They all speak different languages, which is a consequence of the Tower of Babble . They will continue speaking their various languages, but the message is to go out from them to all the world.

In today’s Gospel, we hear John’s account of Jesus’ sending, or “breathing” the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. As in Luke’s account in Acts, there is a gathering. John’s version has the group hiding for fear, but both, upon reception of the Spirit, are blest and then “sent”. Jesus’ breathing the Spirit echoes Genesis’ description of the creating God breathing form out of the abyss of nothingness. For John, the process of creation is to extend God’s peace to the, now “deformed” world.

The Holy Spirit comes constantly from the ever-loving Trinity. We are not praying in such a way that maybe God will breathe again upon our creation. We celebrate that we might be open to the Spirits’ work of giving Christ new dimensions, new visibility and new gestures of revelation within us as individuals and us as God’s people. We are praying in celebration that God is constantly sending the “breath” upon; this is not a maybe. What we do pray is that we may be more open to the Spirit’s creating of us.

We use an expression for those who think too highly of themselves: “That person has an inflated self-image.” What that means literally is that he/she is full of “air”, coming from the Latin word for wind, “flatus”. We might say, “hot air”. “Deflation” means the air has “run out”. What the early Apostles heard sounded like a strong wind and Jesus breathed air upon the hiding eleven. The Spirit was not in-flating, but in-carnating.

Pentecost is a celebration of the fruitfulness of the land, blest by the sun and rain and “breath” of God. In the Christian community, we celebrate how the Spirit, “wind” of God has “in-spirited” human hearts to live “highly” of themselves. The work of the Spirit is that all creation and that includes human beings, radiate, in-flesh Jesus. As the Spirit came upon Mary whose womanhood gave him flesh, so that same Spirit hovers over our bodies that Jesus might take new flesh. We think highly of ourselves all right, but not full of air, but Spirit, not totally Jesus yet, but the Spirit is not done with us.

Recently there was a news item about, of all things, an inflatable church. It sounded both crazy and interesting, but anything is possible.  I am not kidding. This is not exactly the kind of church to which Pentecost is calling us.

The early Apostles, “air-borne” in a sense, flew outward from hiding into humanity, from amorphous shame into figures of faith.

No balloons or blimps are we. This day we re-up for loving the flesh-bound “bone house” that gives Jesus attractiveness for all whom he meets through us. As he went about, blest by the Spirit at his anointing, so we do not float, but walk, run, limp, wheelchair, crawl, or sit, and give his light our personal refraction. The Church now, as were the first Apostles, is full of its blessed self when it longs and labors to inspire God’s good earth to bring forth fruits of holiness - not hollowness, substance not emptiness.

From the breathing of God over the chaos, through the overshadowing by the Holy Spirit over the emptiness of Mary’s womb, through this event of the sending of the Spirit upon the apostles, and in our own days, the work of the Spirit is “incarnation” or visibility, or the revelation in each of our lives, that the mysterious God desires to show off.

“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke of the great things God had done.” Acts 2, 4

The Tongue of the Wise

Supplementary Reading

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing – Proverbs 12:18

I t's easy to see how words can be used as a weapon. We've all either been "cut" by the words of others, or we've used words to put someone "in their place." The truth of the matter is when we use words recklessly or in a way that cuts others, we are not being wise. The scripture tells us that the tongue of the wise brings life and healing to others.

Today, look for ways to be wise. Find something nice to say about someone or share an encouraging word. You never know how you can bring healing to a person's heart by sharing a kind, gracious word. And remember, words are like seeds. When you plant words of life and blessing into others, you're sure to reap a harvest of blessing in your own life in return.

Heavenly Father, today I choose to be wise. I submit my tongue to You and choose to use it for good and not for evil. Show me ways to be a blessing to others. Help me find creative ways to encourage the people You have placed in my life. In Jesus' Name. Amen.—Joel and Victoria Osteen

For archive of previous Daily Meditation postings, please visit http://his-ways-better-than-our-ways.blogspot.com/

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GOD BLESS US ALL!
O Theos Na Mas Evlogisi!
PRAY as if everything depended on HIM. ACT as if everything depended on YOU.