Pentecost Sunday (C), May 19, 2013 – Acts 2, 1-11; 1 Cor 12, 3b-7. 12-13; Jn 20, 19-23
Just as locked doors are not impenetrable to Jesus, so also the infidelity, weakness and fear of his confidants, partakers of his table, fellow travelers from Galilee to Jerusalem, cannot put a stop to his largess.
Jesus does not repay them unfaithfulness for unfaithfulness. He does not give them reason to be even more afraid and ashamed. He reassures them, making clear that the same one who was abandoned by them and then crucified is offering them peace. He entrusts them besides with a mission. He enlivens them with his own breath, equipping them for this mission of preaching in his name repentance and forgiveness of sins, of granting or refusing absolution.
And this Spirit represents abundant and inclusive generosity. For he helps us who do not know how to pray as we ought and intercedes for us, so that we may attain all that will satisfy us genuinely and fully. With this Gift of gifts, our heavenly Father lavishes with riches those who pray insistently. Also, all of us disciples partake of a single divine fire. It parts and rests on each one. It enables us to speak of the mighty works of God in an astounding and understandable way to all and diverse peoples and to reverse thus the confusion and division of Babel.
Hence, the Holy Spirit means unity and common teaching, and not disunity, schism or heresy (1 Jn 2, 19-20). The generous Father of the poor has nothing to do with sectarians who forbid the sharing of spiritual gifts with those deemed outsiders and consider themselves having a monopoly on, say, prophecy, exorcism or the Scriptures that are entrusted to the community of believers who are certainly not limited to exegetes and theologians, official preachers and teachers (cf. Num 11, 25-29; Mk 9, 38-39; Common Rules of the C.M. XII, 10; Pope Francis’ address to the members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission). Sectarianism is at once exclusivist, controlling and stingy. It has nothing in common with the Holy Spirit who respects diversity. In this one Spirit we have been baptized into one body, whether citizens or strangers, documented or undocumented immigrants, chief executive officers or peons, men or women.
The building up of the body, then, is the concern of those who have truly received the anointing of the Holy Spirit. They do not look out for their own interests. They do not act like Simon the Magician—the supposed father of “Christian” Gnosticism, submerged in astounding arcane secrets and esoteric languages that are mistaken still for divine mystery—or like careerists who also believe money can do everything. Those anointed with the Lord’s Spirit have rather the attitude of Jesus who made known to us true love and extreme liberality when he laid down his life for us. Being tender-hearted, they do not refuse their compassion to brothers and sisters in need.
This is to say, those who live by the Spirit live what they celebrate in the Eucharist. Set on fire by the flame of love, those who really are workers have “big” hearts, “vast, ample,” and they know no obstacles, not even old age (Coste XI, 136, 203; XII, 307-308).
Ross Reyes Dizon
Tags: A Vincentian reading of the Sunday readings, Pentecost
