June 4^th 2017. PENTECOST SUNDAY

GOSPEL: John 20:19-23

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL: John 20:19-23

On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, "Peace be with you."
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
"Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained."

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . The apostles speak at Pentecost and everyone can understand them as if the words were proclaimed in the hearer’s native language. When we truly proclaim the Gospel two miracles occur: the first is the sensation that the words we speak come not from ourselves but have a power than comes from a divine source; but the greater miracle is the second one, which is the activity of the Holy Spirit in the ears of the listener that enables him to receive this life-giving word. In the Gospel passage from John, the gift of the Holy Spirit is inseparable from the forgiveness of sins. Jesus “breathes” the spirit on them. This recalls the breath of God in Genesis by which God gives life to the form made of clay. The gift of the Holy Spirit creates us a second time. We are given new eyes, new ears, a new mind and new words. We are drawn out of ourselves into relationship with God. It is sin that closes us up in the stagnant room of loneliness and egoism. That is why the forgiveness of sin is the central event in the gift of the Holy Spirit. By that forgiveness we are liberated from this closed room of solitude. And when we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit we are also called to bring the forgivess of God to others. If we do not carry the mercy of God to the world, who will?

Only the love and mercy of God can give meaning to our lives. And we are commissioned to bring this forgiveness and love to others. If we do not do it, who will?

The first reading for Sunday tells the story of what happens at Pentecost. This story is not found in the Gospels, since it concerns that which follows from the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. It is the story of the door of life that has been opened by the redemption wrought by Christ. The Gospel passage, however, gives us, in summary form, the essence of this new story that arises from the resurrection. “The people whose sins you forgive shall be forgiven, the people whose sins you do not forgive shall not be forgiven”. The central issue is the forgiveness of sin. If we carry this pardon to others, then they can avail of it, but if there is no-one to carry this pardon to them, then how can they avail of it? Forgiveness is a central question in life. We have a fundamental need for it. It is not possible to float along on the surface of life on our own merits. We are simply inadequate as we are in ourselves. To begin living a true and authentic life, we need the scandalous, unconditional love of Christ who pardons our sins. Only this love can give meaning to life. All the possessions and achievements of this world are insufficient. We need love. We need to be loved and to experience that others are happy on account of us. This, in essence, is the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the essence of redemption. The Father created us for this, Christ rose for this, that we might live in union with him, and this necessitates mercy. Our mission in life is to be people who bring this pardon and mercy to others. If we do not bring this pardon to others, who will do it? This is the meaning of the phrase, “Those whose sins you do not forgive shall not be forgiven”.

Human mercy is conditional and incomplete. Only God can pardon in the fullest sense of the word.

Does human mercy exist? Yes, it exists, but it tends to be of the conditional sort. It requires a good heart and a good disposition, a willingness to forge ahead and forget the past. This is all very fine, but it does not truly resolve the central issue of pardon. It leaves a residue that is unresolved, a fracture that is not fully healed, old wounds that are difficult to even express clearly. Only God can pardon in the true sense of the word.

The gift of the Holy Spirit creates us a second time. We gain new words, new ears, a new mind and new perception.

This scene of the resurrection in John’s Gospel describes a gift of the Holy Spirit bestowed by Christ on the apostles on the very day of the resurrection. Christ breathes on them. This is an image of creation. In the second chapter of Genesis, God gives life to a form made of clay by breathing upon it. This clay becomes, life, experience, relationship. Thus the coming of the Holy Spirit is a call to being created a second time. The gift of the Holy Spirit is a gift of being pardoned, a gift of unconditional love. This gift is a new creation that transforms our relationships, prompting us to speak in a new way, listen with new ears, understand with a new mind, see with new eyes.

When we truly proclaim the Gospel, we realize that we are speaking with a power that does not come from ourselves. But the greatest miracle is the action of the Holy Spirit in the ears of the listeners: he gives them the gift of perceiving this life giving message in terms that are “native” to them

The listeners to the preaching of the apostles at Pentecost are amazed. “Are these men not from Galilee? How do we hear them speaking in our own language?” Something happens which is not merely in the words of the apostles but in the ears of the listeners. When one preaches the Gospel, one has two extraordinary experiences: the first is the sense that what one is saying does not merely come from oneself; if this word comes solely from human analysis and reasoning, then generally it is a word that is boring both for the hearer as well as for the speaker; but in preaching the Gospel, one has a feeling of joy that comes from the sense that what one is saying does not originate in oneself; it is too high, more sublime, greater than that which we could produce by ourselves. The second miracle is the greater one and it is what happens in the heart of the listener; the real issue is not whether or not I am able to say something that touches the listener: the more important goal is that the listener should be affected by what is proclaimed, that the Holy Spirit should operate in the heart and in the ears of the one who listens.

The action of the Holy Spirit is an action that brings us out of the solitude and individualism of sin. We are closed in the stagnant rooms of our self-absorption. The Holy Spirit pardons us and draws us into the open, into relationship with the Lord, into a new interpretation of our lives in which we begin to see the providential action of God is everything, an action that draws us into communion and is driven by His love for us

It is not that the apostles received the gift of being able to speak different languages simultaneously. Rather they received the gift of being able to speak out with courage. Previously they were afraid, closed within themselves and unable to communicate. All of a sudden, these tongues of fire entered into them. They were able to come out of themselves and communicate. They became capable of speaking a “new language”, of saying that which they were unable to say. The listeners were able to understand in their own native languages because of the gift that was being bestowed on them by the Lord. This gift is inseparable from the forgiveness of sins, which consists in the establishment of authentic relationships and the end of solitude. We are impoverished, alone and closed within ourselves because of our sins. Yet God is able to break into our solitude, into the stagnant, closed rooms of our loneliness and bring us out into the fresh air. He speaks to us in our own native language. The listeners at Pentecost heard tell of the great works of God. When we bring the forgiveness of God to others, we bring them to the awareness of the wonderful works of God. They no longer see life as a succession of chance events, but as the working out of the providential plan of God. They begin to see the hand of God hidden underneath things and they finally open themselves to this activity of God. They feel a sense of contact with the love of the Father, a Father who is working constantly in subtle ways to take care of them. The gift of the Holy Spirit which we celebrate at Pentecost marks the victory over solitude, especially in terms of our relationship with God.