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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, June 9, 2019: We were all given to drink of one Spirit...

We were all given to drink of one Spirit…

How does the Spirit dwelling within us transform our world?

  Left to themselves, humans tend toward self-centeredness.  We read in the Book of Genesis the story of Babel, in which the people build an enormous ziggurat, not to deepen their relationship with God but to make a name for themselves.  The end result?  God scatters them over all the earth, and any hope for union is lost. 

  Paul recognizes the dangers of self-centeredness in his epistles to the Corinthians and to the Romans when he notes that if we remain in the flesh, self-centered, self-focused, our only concern is what we can accomplish ourselves, and we will remain disconnected, isolated, separate, without anything larger that connects us.  But if we drink of the Holy Spirit, and allow our existence to be defined in terms of God rather than of ourselves, then it is possible for love to be eternal.  For no one can say, Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.  Paul also notes that we know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now – we long for forgiveness, long for redemption, long for union, but have not yet found them, and so we wait for adoption.  But the Spirit allows us to transcend our own self-centeredness when it intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings and enables an ever more full relationship, and union, with God.

  All of this is only possible because Jesus, by his death and resurrection, promised to create an open passage between God and us, such that, as he says in John’s Gospel, rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes.  This is the work of the Spirit that those who come to believe in him were to receive at Pentecost and beyond.  Later in this same Gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples in the upper room to transfer his mission to them:  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.  Receive the Holy Spirit.  The disciples are thus tasked with opening the way of salvation to all by going out and loving their world through a love facilitated by the Advocate, the Spirit.  It is the Spirit that will allow that love to flow from them, that they might renew the face of the earth (Psalm 104), fostering union among all peoples.  The Pentecost story as told in the Acts of the Apostles is different, but with the same ultimate result:  the apostles are filled with the Holy Spirit, which will dwell in them and flow from them as they proclaim the mighty acts of God.

  We are called to no less!  May we too be filled with the Holy Spirit every single day, that we might proclaim God’s manifold works and bring his forgiveness to all, fostering union as God’s love flows from us to the world.

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, June 4, 2017: We were all given to drink of one Spirit...

 We were all given to drink of one Spirit… 

Are you filled with the Holy Spirit? 

   As believers, we know that our very life breath is at the command of God, who, as Psalm 104 reminds us, sends forth his Spirit so that we may be created – created at birth, but also created anew, constantly, throughout our lives.  Creation is always a process, dynamic and ongoing.  As Paul writes to the Romans, the Holy Spirit is constantly changing us, transforming us, coming to the aid of our weakness, and interceding for us in our prayer.  The Feast of Pentecost celebrates the ongoing change we have the opportunity to enter into, the transformation that helps us, eventually, to reach perfect union with God. 

   When, in the Book of Genesis, human arrogance causes the people to make a name for themselves by building a tower with its top in the sky, God is dismayed:  rather than grounding their identity in God alone, the people seek to locate their identity in a physical structure, one we will come to call the Tower of Babel.  As a consequence, God confuses the speech of all the world, resulting in divisions among God’s creation.  When, therefore, in the Acts of the Apostles, the twelve, open to and filled with the Holy Spirit, are able to speak in different tongues, they are reversing the arrogance of Babel with an eye to reuniting humankind.  Christ, having died, risen and ascended, is now present in them, and they do not hesitate to allow his presence to flow from them, touching everyone in the crowd who hears them speaking in his own language.  God can therefore once again be glad in his works, as the Christian community, redeemed, allows God to work through it on behalf of the world. 

   Both Pentecost readings from John’s Gospel make this clear:  following Jesus’ death, rivers of living water flow from those who believe, as Jesus had foretold (Jn 7), once they receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Jn 20).  All are given to drink of one Spirit (1 Corinthians); as a result, they have been transformed, changed, and will continue to be created ever anew as they proclaim that Jesus is Lord, sharing the love of God with all.  It is this love that defines them, that gives them identity as God’s creation, a people God calls his own. 

   Does that love define us?  Are we open to the life breath of God, open to the transformation the Spirit calls us to every day?  May this Feast of Pentecost remind us to allow the Spirit to fill us, and to flow from us, touching all of creation with the overabundant love of God.

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.

Image source:  Wordle