Pentecost – B

The feast of Pentecost is so important in the life of the Church that it would not be an exaggeration to say that it deserves a fifty-day season of celebration as much as Easter does.

The feast of Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. It marks another major milestone in what we call the Paschal Mystery – the mystery of the suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus which is completed by His sending the Holy Spirit as His enduring presence among us.

The feast of Pentecost is sometimes called the birthday of the Church. On this day we remember that one the marks of the Church – its holiness – is the result of the presence of the Holy Spirit as the source of animation, inspiration, and indeed holiness and grace in the life of the Church.

On the feast of Pentecost we might also remember how the Holy Spirit is present in our own lives in so many ways. We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in Baptism, and because the Holy Spirit comes to dwell with us in this sacrament we can truly say that we share the life of God and are indeed sons and daughters of God. We might also remember today the sacrament of Confirmation – that sacrament in which the gifts of the Holy Spirit that we received in Baptism are strengthened and confirmed so that we might be not only members of the Church but also witnesses to our faith as well.

We remember today the gifts of the Holy Spirit, given in Baptism and strengthened in Confirmation, gifts of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, right judgment, courage, piety, and fear of the Lord, which enable us to live out our vocations as disciples of the Risen Lord. We remember today the fruits of the Holy Spirit – love, joy, patience, peace, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control – which when evident in our lives are signs of the Holy Spirit's presence in our hearts.

We also remember today the presence of the Holy Spirit in our celebration of the liturgy, the many ways the Holy Spirit is present every time we celebrate the Mass.

The Holy Spirit is present when we celebrate the Eucharist before the Mass even begins. It is the Holy Spirit who inspires each one of us to be here today, to acknowledge God's presence in our lives, to give thanks to God for gifts received, and to bring to God our prayers for those in need.

We invoke the Holy Spirit when we begin the Mass with the sign of the Cross, and begin our prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Our greeting too recalls the Holy Spirit present in our midst as we pray that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit may be with us all.

When we begin Mass with the Penitential Rite, we recall that it is through the power of the Holy Spirit that our sins are forgiven. During the Easter season, our sprinkling rite reminds us of our Baptism when we received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Our hymn of Glory and Opening Prayer both remind us that the Spirit's presence in our Church and in our hearts inspires every prayer of praise we offer to God.

The Holy Spirit is present in the Liturgy of the Word – the Holy Spirit is the one who has inspired the authors of the sacred texts of the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit inspires us to hear from those who proclaim the Word and preach the message God wants us to hear each time we celebrate the liturgy, and the Holy Spirit enables us to profess our faith in the creed and to offer our petitions to God in the Prayer of the Faithful.

The Holy Spirit inspires generosity to the Church and those in need in our offertory collection, and the Holy Spirit is the cause of the gifts of bread and wine becoming the Body and Blood of Christ for us on our altar.

Before we even come to the words of consecration in the Eucharistic prayer, our prayer over the gifts dedicates the bread and wine as offerings that are given to God to be made holy, and one of the most significant signs of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our celebration of the Eucharist is when the priest extends his hands over the gifts of bread and wine and says “Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.” After the consecration of the bread and wine, we invoke the Holy Spirit again when we pray that “all of us who share the Body and Blood of Christ [may] be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit who makes us sons and daughters of God gives us the courage to call God “Our Father” when we pray the Lord's Prayer. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Peace, enables us to reach out to extend a sign of peace to one another. The Holy Spirit gives us humility to say that we are not worthy to receive the Lamb of God in Holy Communion and the faith to believe that by the Word of God we are healed. The Holy Spirit enables us to recognize and celebrate the presence of Christ in the Eucharist and our unity with Him and one another in our Holy Communion, and the Holy Spirit is the one who sends us forth to go in peace, to love and serve the Lord and our neighbor as our Mass concludes in church and our week of living our vocations in the Church and in the world begins once again.

There is indeed much to celebrate on this Pentecost Sunday. Among the many blessings we celebrate today, let us thank God in a special way for the many ways the Holy Spirit is present today and every time we celebrate the Mass, the liturgy of the Word and Eucharist, as God's People formed as one family of faith in the Church.

Thomas P. Ferguson
June 4, 2006