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Sunday Scripture Study

Pentecost Sunday

June 12, 2011

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Opening Prayer

First Reading: Acts 2:1-11

Psalm: 104:1,24,29-31,34

Second Reading: Romans 8:22-27

Gospel Reading: John 20:19-23

This Sunday’s Gospel is a reading that we just heard on the 2^nd Sunday of Easter. For this Pentecost Sunday, therefore, we will instead be looking at the First Reading for this Sunday, taken from the Acts of the Apostles.

The setting is at Jerusalem in the upper room where the Last Supper had been held. It is10 days after the Ascension, at which time Jesus had left them specific instructions (Acts 1:45). About 120 people, including Mary, were present. It is the time of the Jewish feast of Pentecost.

Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks (in Hebrew, Shavout), was one of three major Jewish pilgrim feasts, celebrated seven weeks after Passover (Deuteronomy 16:16). Devout Jews from all over the known world would be in Jerusalem for these two feasts (verses 9-11). Originally a harvest festival where God’s people would offer him the first fruits (best part) of the harvest, it came to be also a commemoration of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai on the fiftieth day after the Exodus from Egypt (from the Greek Petekoste, meaning “fiftieth”).

Christians now celebrate Pentecost as the “birthday” of the Church, and a celebration of the giving of the New Law of the Spirit written on the hearts of believers (Jeremiah 31:31-34; 2 Corinthians 3:4-6) as was promised to the Apostles by Our Lord (John 15:26;16:13; 20:22, Luke 24:49).

QUESTIONS:

Even though as Christians, we have “the first fruits of the Spirit” (2^nd Reading, verse 23). How is it, then, that we are “groaning within ourselves as we are awaiting adoption” [by God]? How do verses 24 through 26 help to answer this?

What was the original meaning of the Feast of Pentecost for Jews (Deuteronomy 16:9-10)? What theological significance did they add to this feast? Why do you think God chose the Jewish Feast of Pentecost to give the Holy Spirit to the Church? What is the meaning of Pentecost for Christians (Acts 2:32-33; CCC 715)?

How far have these pilgrims come (verses 9-11)? What attracts them to the disciples? Would you respond more like those in verse 12 or those in verse 13? Why?

When have you experienced an empowering from God to witness about Christ? How does being filled with the Spirit relate to bearing witness about Christ?

Have you ever had a strong religious conversion experience? If so, how did your behavior change, and what did your family and friends think about it? What did you think about it?

Closing Prayer

Catechism of the Catholic Church: §§ 2623, 696, 1287, 715

Those who are led by the Holy Spirit have true ideas; that is why so many ignorant people are wiser than the learned. The Holy Spirit is light and strength.

–St. John Vianney

A Glass of Water on the Altar

Pastor’s Column

Pentecost Sunday

June 12, 2011

Let’s suppose for a moment that I have placed a glass of water on our altar. What might your first reaction to this glass sitting there be? That it should not be there! As a matter of fact, the altar is a holy place. It is the place where the Holy Spirit comes down like a dove during the Eucharistic prayer and changes ordinary bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. This same Spirit flows out like water to you, the body of Christ, when you look on him or adore him, believe in him, and then consume him, and he becomes like fire within you.

All of what I have just described that God is doing is invisible. This is why not everyone on earth believes what we believe! But still we are left with a glass of water on the altar. Actually, this glass of water tells us a lot about why God chooses to remain invisible to our bodily eyes (this analogy is taken from the words of Pope Benedict XVI). There is no doubt that there is a glass of water on the altar. It is a simple fact. So what’s the point?

God is not going to plop himself down -- on the altar – or in this world –- or in our lives – like this glass of water, because this would completely take away our freedom to choose, and that is exactly what we are here to do. Life is just one little choice after the other, ending in that final choice for or against God at the end of our lives. But if God made his actions so obvious that we could not avoid knowing he really exists, like you could not help but see the glass is a reality, then we would no longer be free to say no to God either.

This explains why the Lord, at present, appears to be hidden, though he is in fact very real. His Holy Spirit really will descend like a dove on this altar; he really will flow like water out from here into your hearts; he really will blow like the wind in the words of scripture; he wishes to put a fire in your heart. But we must want this; we must ask for the gift of faith; we are free to reject these gifts. He will almost never make himself so obvious in YOUR life or OUR church or THIS world that we have NO CHOICE but to accept him!

You and I are like a glass of water on the altar. You are the glass and the Holy Spirit is the water. We are a vessel that God keeps trying to mold and expand and shape all our lives. He does this through suffering; through experiences; through the scriptures; through the church; through our service to each other, and in many other ways. At the moment of death, the size of this glass -- your soul -- will be set forever. Then God will perfect the glass and fill it in heaven. But we will not all have the same size of glass (though we will all be as full as we are able to be), and that is why it is so important to try to cooperate with the Holy Spirit now during this brief life, once we understand what he is trying to do. The level of spiritual maturity that we have reached at the moment of death is the level that we shall be perfected at for all eternity. The Holy Spirit may not be as obvious as this glass of water is on the altar, but he is no less real.

Father Gary