Pentecost Continues

Catholic Online ^ | 5/10/08 | Deacon Keith Fournier

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They were not the most confident lot, this group of early followers of the One who was crucified and then raised from the dead.

Even though they had seen Him defeat the final enemy, death, they were afraid as they gathered in that upper room. Right before He ascended He had promised that He would not leave them orphans but would send another comforter once He returned to the Father.

He told them they would receive power from on high and be able to continue His work on earth until He returned.

In that Cenacle, along with His mother, they gathered in prayer, waiting and hoping. She probably understood more than most of them. After all, she would have remembered another day when she heard an angel tell her to not be afraid.

On that day, when she was first overshadowed by that same Holy Spirit of God, the Word became flesh, heaven touched earth, and the work of redemption began.

Now, in the Church of which she was a member, the Body of her Son and Savior, she awaited the same Holy Spirit to overshadow them.

This promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit came upon this nascent Church, just as He had promised. Through the Church, clothed in the power of Pentecost, Jesus Christ did continue His mission.

They left that upper room as a different community. They turned the world upside down with their message. Many even watered it with their own shed blood. When the Holy Spirit came upon them, they became the bearers of the life and promises of God to a needy world.

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The Christian Church is the seed of a kingdom that is to come. The sons and daughters of the Church are first fruits of what was sown by the Grain of Wheat Who fell to the ground and was raised up - the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Church, taken from his wounded side on that Hill called Golgotha, was clothed for mission in the upper room by the Holy Spirit and that same Spirit still animates, inspires and empowers her to this day, because Pentecost continues.