Holy Spirit Sunday — Pentecost, Year B: Homily by Fr Isaac Chima
Theme: Come, O Holy Spirit and renew the face of the earth
Readings: Acts 2:1–11; Gal 5:16–25; Jn. 15:26–27,16:12–15
Dearest brothers and sisters, today the mother church celebrates her birthday, the solemnity of the Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples with tongues of fire, and they spoke many languages. It was on the Pentecost that the mission of the Church to all tongues, all peoples and all nations was inaugurated.
Actually, the Pentecost means the fiftieth day, and it was on the fiftieth day after the resurrection that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit upon the disciples. According to the Old Testament tradition, the feast of the Pentecost was already an important feast in the life and history of the Jews. On that day, the Israelites celebrated two events in their lives. First, on the Pentecost, the Jews commemorated the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses by God on Mount Sinai, which happened fifty days after the Passover. They called it the feast of weeks (in Hebrew language, ‘chang ha shevout’). Second, on the day of the Pentecost, the Jews also celebrated their agricultural feast, the offering of the first loaves from their farm to God. They called it the festival of Harvest (in Hebrew language, ‘Yom ha-bikkurim’). These two great Jewish feasts, which the Jews celebrated on the Pentecost, drew a good number of Jews from all over the world to Jerusalem to identify with their religion and their country. It was on account of this that many people from all over the world were present the day the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples as we read in the first reading. So, Christ chose the best day to send the Holy Spirit upon his disciples and to inaugurate his Church, the day when the whole world would be gathered in Jerusalem, so that the message of the resurrection will reach the whole world.
The feast of the Pentecost is very important in the life of the Church because of the impact of the Holy Spirit in the life of the early Church, in the life of the present Church and in the life of all of us. It was the Holy Spirit that changed the apostles from men who were afraid into men who were filled with strength and courage to preach the Good News to all humanity. Recall that before the day of Pentecost, the disciples were afraid of going out to preach the Good News, but when the Holy Spirit came upon them, they dashed out of the House and started proclaiming the message of the resurrection without fear. The presence of the Holy Spirit made the difference, and has continued to make a difference. Let us, therefore, pray for the presence of the Holy Spirit in our own Churches and Homes, to free us from fear and to empower us with the courage to be good testimonies of Christ wherever we live and wherever we go.
The coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles also signified that the hand of God has once more taken control of humanity. In the book of Genesis chapter eleven, as we read in the first reading of the vigil mass of this feast, which told us the story of the tower of Babel, God used the power of different languages to confuse and disperse humanity all over the world when humanity wanted to build a tower of equality with Him. But on the feast of Pentecost, God used the same instrument of many languages to unite humanity again. The first reading of today told us that the disciples spoke many languages, but people of other languages understood them in their own tongues. What a great unity through language. Dear friends, what that unity of language tells us is that the Pentecost is a feast of unity and new life. It is the celebration of the outpouring of new life into the church and into the world because the hand of God has touched humanity once again. It is a feast that challenges us who have received the gifts of the Holy Spirit to live the life of unity and newness. If the hand of God has touched you through the Holy Spirit, your life should bear the fruits of unity and newness.
Dear brothers and sisters, we should also remember that on the feast of the Pentecost, the Holy Spirit broke the wall of division and misunderstanding among human beings by creating a common understanding between many different languages. On that day, those who spoke Italian understood Arabic, and those who spoke Russia understood Aramaic, those who spoke English understood French; there was no misunderstanding. We can say that the Holy Spirit, the author of unity, spoke our language on the day of the Pentecost, and created unity among men. Hence, the same Holy spirit wants us to speak His own language too. This is the challenge for all of us. But then, what is the language of the Holy Spirit. The language of the Holy Spirit is clearly written in the second reading of today. It says the fruits of the Holy Spirit are love, joy, patients, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These fruits are the languages of the Spirit. The church wants us to start speaking this language. Speaking this language means living our lives according to these wonderful fruits of the Holy Spirit. If you are living your life according to these fruits of the Holy Spirit, you are already speaking the language of the Holy Spirit
It is however sad that many people in our world have chosen to constantly speak the language of the devil instead of the language of the Holy spirit. The second reading also told us what the language of the devil is. It says: ‘now the works of the flesh are immorality, impurity, licentiousness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing and the like, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. These evil things listed above are the languages of the devil. Those who live their lives according to them are speaking the language of the devil.
Let us pray in today’s Mass that the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit which have been poured on us and on the church: the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, understanding, piety, and fear of the Lord will help us to speak the language of the Holy Spirit everyday of our life. Amen
Happy Feast Day
Fr Isaac Chima