Jesus Christ goes up to heaven and gives gifts to men and women.  He wants them to grow up fully and be wholly human as he.

We ask our Father in heaven many things.  And the good things we ask for are summed up in his gift of the Holy Spirit (Lk 11, 13).  Hence, this gift is the greatest and most precious of all gifts.

It is the basic gift.  For through it, we who are shaped from dust become living beings (Gen 2, 7).  This to say, the Holy Spirit is the gift of life.  And if we are not alive, what other gifts can we enjoy, what gifts will matter to us?

Yes, the Maker gave the breath of life to what he had fashioned out of clay.  He thus made it a living man, the crown of his creation (Gen 1, 26-30; Ps 8).  And he told man and woman to be fruitful and to multiply.

But now Jesus breathes the breath of life on his disciples and sends them on a mission.  In this way, the Risen One brings about the new humanity.  And he also brings in the new creation and the last days.

Fit, through the Holy Spirit’s gifts, to bear their share in the hard work for the Good News

Yes, Jesus sends out his disciples to do a task.  For he tells them, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  And sent are those who, out of fear, showed lack of faith in Jesus at the time of his passion.  They were as fragile as clay pots.  But he forgave them when he gave them the first greeting of peace.

And the second greeting makes known that the sending has to do with peace also.  It is about the peace of the last days, the fruit of his death on the cross (Eph 2, 16).  About the peace Isaiah prophesies, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.”  Indeed, in the last days, many peoples will walk in the light of the Lord (Is 2, 2-5).  And they will worship the Father in Spirit and truth.

Yes, it is the duty of those who now know the gifts of life, forgiveness, peace, courage and joy to share them.  For the different gifts are for the good of all.  They are to be Jesus’ images before others as he is the Father’s image.  This means that they will breathe out the Spirit Jesus breathes on them, which they also breathe in.

Hence, they will live by his death, die by his life, hide in him and be full of him (SV.EN I:276).  They will know too that to die like him, they have to live like him.

Thus, they will be full to the brim of hope, love, understanding and mercy.  They will lead people who do not speak the same language to understand one another.  And they will not fail to eat the Lord’s Supper.  And so, they also will not let those who are poor to go hungry.

Lord Jesus, fill us with the Holy Spirit’s gifts.  Make us turn bitter valleys into places of springs as we walk as pilgrims and seek the city yet to come.

5 June 2022
Pentecost Sunday (C)
Acts 2, 1-11; 1 Cor 12, 3b-7. 12-13; Jn 20, 19-23