Homily for the evening Mass on Pentecost Sunday
Readings for Year A: Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 103; I Corinthians 12:3-13; John 20:19-23
It is appropriate that we should be celebrating this Pentecost Mass is an ecumenical one for Churches together in Westminster. Today we remember the beginnings of the Christian Church in the coming of the Holy Spirit on the disciples. The Spirit brings together people of all nations enabling them to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ in their own language. It is the Spirt who gives us life and brings us together.
In our readings the disciples receive the Holy Spirit in order for them to do something particular. Today we celebrate the events described in the first reading. The disciples have been told that they are to be Jesus witnesses throughout the world but that they are to wait for the coming of Holy Spirit. Today the Spirit comes upon them and the go out and start to proclaim the Good News.
John puts this sending out in the context of Jesus appearance to the disciples in the upper room after his resurrection. John tells us Jesus breathes on them. The word used for breath, wind and Spirit is the same. Breath in scripture is associated with giving life. It is the Spirit that blows over the waters at the beginning of the creation story in the book of Genesis. This gesture of breathing on the disciples is very powerful and significant. The gift of the Spirit enables them to carry out an extraordinary mission. Jesus tells them that “As the Father sent me so I am sending you”. It is not just that they are to tell people about Jesus, they share in the mission of Jesus himself.
We are the successors of those disciples. What can it mean for us to share in the mission of Jesus? In general, we do not usually find ourselves called to stand up and proclaim the Gospel in the way the disciples were in the Acts of the Apostles. However, in this particular time, that can seem particularly challenging. We are unable to have our usual social contacts. We do not have the same interchange with people that we had before the lockdown. Paul tells us that the Spirit works in many different ways in different people. In this time many are called to show special dedication and courage in working on the front line, in health care in, keeping essential services going. Many are responding to the needs of others, for example in keeping an eye on vulnerable neighbours or in volunteering, for example in the project feeding the homeless in Trafalgar Square. In these things, those of us who look through the eyes of faith can see the Spirit at work. Perhaps today is a good day to be asking to be able to see where the Spirit might be leading each one of us in the present situation. What is the “good purposes”, as Paul says, for which the Spirit is given to me today.
More broadly it is a question to ask ourselves throughout our lives. What does it mean for me to share in the mission of Christ? The answer to that may look different at different times of our lives and not just in extraordinary times like these. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives us a different perspective on our lives. We do not live simply for ourselves but for Christ and especially as we encounter Christ in those around us.
Perhaps, and especially in this time of social distancing, some of us may find that the greatest service we can give is to pray. To pray for our world at this time, to pray for those in need, to pray for those engaged in serving those around them. Yes, we are called to pray, or perhaps better to open ourselves to the Spirit praying in us. In last night’s vigil readings Paul talked about the Spirit who comes to help us in our weakness and who expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words.
As individuals and as Churches Together in Westminster, as we celebrate Pentecost today let us ask to be open to the Spirit so that we can respond to the call to share in the mission of Christ and proclaim the Gospel in whatever we are called to do so. Come Holy Spirit.
Fr Chris Pedley SJ