The gift of Pentecost
The gift of Pentecost
Pentecost, which we celebrate today, is both a beginning and an ending. In terms of the liturgical season, we are ending the Easter celebration and beginning the season of Ordinary Time. During the Easter season, we have come to appreciate the meaning of Christ’s resurrection in our lives, the meaning of our personal relationship with Jesus and with one another as a community. Hopefully, we have come to understand the meaning of our mission as Church. We have come to appreciate powerful gifts inherent in Christ’s resurrection. And with Pentecost, we are founded as church, equipped with the powerful gifts of the Spirit.
The early Christian communities were having problems in utilizing the gifts for the purpose they were intended for. Some members were so excited about using their gifts that they forgot about others. Some became jealous of the gifts of others. The same experience can engulf us as a church community. There are many talents and gifts in our midst that can be utilized for the building up of our community. These talents and gifts can remain dormant and untapped because they are not given a break or chance to be shared due to some restrictions imposed by some of our members as well as leaders who think that participation is an exclusive prerogative for a chosen few. The absence of the principle of loving one another which Christ has left as legacy to his Church can worsen this atmosphere of competition and pettiness.
Pentecost invites us to reflect on our sense of becoming church in terms of how we share God’s gifts for the building up of our church community. How do we respond to the needs of others with the abundance of God’s graces in our respective lives. The spirit of giving, more than that of receiving, has to permeate our relationships as a church community. We should not ask what our church can do for us but what we can do for our church, especially for those members who need most our care and concern.
The gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is Christ’s legacy of hope as we strive to be a sign of God’s love in our world. Christ promised the coming of the consoling Paraclete. He pledged that the Spirit of truth would be within us and remain with his church. And the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, never to depart. While the Spirit animates the whole of creation and permeates the lives of human beings, He is present in a special way in the Church, in the community of those who acknowledge Christ as Lord.
As we strive to understand who God calls us to be, let us renew our resolve to be a sign of God’s love in our world. With the presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst, we commit to be more dedicated and more steadfast in our efforts to put into action the Christian values we profess to live by.
On this Pentecost Sunday, let us thank the Lord for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Let us be more appreciative of the unity that the Spirit has gifted us in the midst of the diverse and different talents that God has bestowed our members and leaders. The celebration of Pentecost is about proclaiming the unity in diversity that characterizes our becoming church. May this Eucharist always remind us of Christ’s sacrificial love that affords us that unity in the Spirit.