A direct encounter with the Risen Christ (Fr. James Martin)

    [F]rom a spiritual point of view, [the disciples’] fear makes no sense. In John’s Gospel, Jesus had, towards the beginning of his ministry, told them about his death and resurrection (2:19). More recently, they had just seen him raise Lazarus from the dead (not to mention all the other “signs” they witnessed during his public ministry). Moreover, Mary Magdalene, whom they knew well, had told them a few hours before that Jesus had risen from the dead. 

    What keeps them locked behind closed doors is what keeps us locked behind closed doors: not simply fear, but the belief that God could never bring anything good out of a bad situation. It’s a form of despair. Thomas Merton wrote that despair is “the ultimate development of a pride so great and so stiff-necked that it selects the absolute misery of damnation rather than accept happiness from the hands of God and thereby acknowledge that God is above us and that we are not capable of fulfilling our destiny by ourselves.” 

    That’s a pretty harsh judgment on those who fall into despair, but it basically means that despair is refusing to believe that God can do more than we can imagine. Ultimately, it’s a form of pride because it says, “I know better than God. And what I know is that God cannot change this.” 

    What enables the disciples to be fearless, to not despair, is a direct encounter with the Risen Christ. 

--Fr. James Martin 

Image source: https://friarmusings.com/2018/04/12/opening-hearts-witnesses/
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The Spirit frees us (Lance Lambert)

   
   The Holy Spirit, whenever He comes, brings life. 

   

   Why? 

   We read in Romans 8:2, The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 

   That’s what the Spirit of life does. He frees us from all these guilty fears, all this evil conscience, all this sense of condemnation, all this bondage from the past, all these things we carry over from the old life. 

   He frees us again and again, progressively. 

--Lance Lambert,
The True Anointing

Image source: Khrystyna Kvyk, Pentecost (2020), https://digitalcollections-staging.lancaster.ac.uk/view/VS-ICON-10410/1
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Those who have died in the cause of freedom (Franklin D. Roosevelt)

Those who have long enjoyed
such privileges as we enjoy
forget in time that men have died to win them.

--Franklin D. Roosevelt

God of power and mercy,
you destroy war and put down earthly pride.
Banish violence from our midst
and wipe away our tears,
that we may all deserve to be called
your sons and daughters.
Keep in your mercy those men and women
who have died in the cause of freedom,
and bring them safely into
your kingdom of justice and peace. 

We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen. 

Image source: https://whyy.org/articles/what-is-memorial-day/
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Peace be with you (Fr. Ron Rolheiser / Yunuen Trujillo)

Name your deaths. Claim your births.
Grieve and adjust. Stop clinging and let go.
Receive the Spirit of new life.

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser

    “Peace be with you.” Now, let me say that again—but this time, try to feel it in your heart. Close your eyes and take a deep breath: “Peace be with you.” 

    We are living in tumultuous times—both for our country and for the world. Tumultuous because a toxic theology and worldview have become mainstream in the halls of power. A worldview that tries to convince us that marginalized groups—whoever is “the other” for each of us—are to blame for everything that goes wrong. A worldview that wants us to fight each other for resources and for God’s love, as if God’s love were a pie to be divided among us. 

    Sometimes, it feels as though any hope for peace is far away. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. 

    For those of us who believe in the Gospel, this sense of hopelessness and fear might feel familiar. After Jesus' death, his disciples were in despair and fear. When the apostle of the apostles Mary Magdalene reported seeing the risen Jesus early on the morning of the resurrection, the other disciples struggled to believe her, continuing to live in fear. That evening, the resurrected Jesus appeared to them, greeting them with "Peace be with you." He told them the Holy Spirit would come to them, yet they still remained afraid. It wasn't until Pentecost, which we celebrate today, that the Holy Spirit came, and their hope was renewed. Filled with the Spirit and with enthusiasm, they were transformed, boldly proclaiming the message of the Gospel. 

    The main event that filled them with enthusiasm was the realization that, despite their differences—in language and otherwise—they could finally understand one another. They finally had a shared purpose, understanding, and language. 

--Yunuen Trujillo 

Image source: Gabriel José Ramírez, mosaic, Iglesia Luterana Cordero de Dios, Puerto Rico, https://www.facebook.com/corderodedios.iglesialuterana/
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Living water (Pope Francis)

    Christ, in fact, is the Temple from which, according to the prophets, flows the Holy Spirit, the living water which purifies and gives life. Whoever thirsts for salvation can draw freely from Jesus, and the Spirit will become a wellspring of full and eternal life in him/her. 

--Pope Francis 

Image source: Susan Bradbury, Water of Life, Ayr Cathedral (2000), https://www.visitstainedglass.uk/location/ayr-roman-catholic-cathedral-ayrshire
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We go to our Mother (Pope St. John Paul II / Pope Francis)

May Mary, who in the freedom of her ‘Fiat’
and her presence at the foot of the cross,
offered to the world Jesus the Liberator,
help us to find him in the Sacrament of the altar.

--Pope St. John Paul II

    Our Lady listens to our cries and heals our sorrows. We should learn this: when there are difficulties in life, we go to our Mother; and when life is happy, we also go to our Mother to share these things. We need to go to these oases of consolation and mercy, where faith is expressed in a maternal language; where we lay down the labours of life in Our Lady’s arms and return to life with peace in our hearts, perhaps with the peace of little children. 

--Pope Francis 

Image source: Josef Janssens, Crucifixion, Cathedral, Antwerp, Belgium (ca. 1903-1910), https://airmaria.com/2009/04/11/there-at-the-foot-of-the-cross-2/
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 24, 2026: We were all given to drink of one Spirit...

We were all given to drink of one Spirit…

Are we ready to become sources of living water for our world? 

    We are a people of hope, hope in a promise. Our first reading for the Vigil Mass of Pentecost is the Genesis story of the Tower of Babel, whose inhabitants desired to make a name for themselves, an act of pride that ultimately led to division. Come, let us build ourselves a city and so make a name for ourselves, they say. But God then confuses their language and scatters them all over the earth. In so doing, the people are humbled, but, sadly, they are also divided. It is that division that Pentecost reverses. 

    We see hope for the people of Israel in the remaining readings for the Pentecost Vigil. In the Book of Exodus, Moses reminds the people that God desires relationship with them, so long as they hearken to God’s voice and keep God’s covenant. Unfortunately, they do not do so, and yet God remains faithful, promising the prophet Ezekiel that he will open their graves and have them rise from them, and bring them back to the land of Israel. The prophet Joel similarly speaks of God’s desire for renewal: I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; then everyone shall be rescued who calls upon the name of the Lord. Before Jesus’ death and resurrection, renewal and reunification were not yet possible, but in John’s Gospel, Jesus promises that, not only will they be restored to God, but his disciples will become a source of living water pouring out to renew the earth. And, at the time Paul writes to the Roman community, although the Spirit has come to all believers, Paul knows our ultimate union in Christ will be in heaven: we hope for what we do not see, and wait with endurance. 

    The readings for Pentecost Sunday turn our attention even more closely to the workings of the Holy Spirit. When, in John’s Gospel, having risen from the dead, Jesus comes to the disciples who are hiding behind locked doors, he breathes on them, saying, Receive the Holy Spirit! They are now fully one in him and he in them. At last, filled with the Holy Spirit, they are ready to give witness and speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim – a total reversal of the sin of Babel, as we see in the Acts of the Apostles. The language the disciples now speak is a language that is universal, for it is the language of love, and they are returned to the world, that rivers of living water can flow from them onto the world. 

    As Paul reminds the Corinthians, we were all baptized into one body, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit. It is the Spirit that banishes division, the Spirit that makes our union in Christ possible. And so, may we pray, as we hear in Psalm 104, Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth. In Pentecost we are created anew, drenched in the Spirit, that we too might offer hope as we proclaim that Jesus is Lord… to all! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture Class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com