Power Of The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit Brings Harmony

[simpleazon-image align=”left” asin=”159325105X” locale=”us” height=”375″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517Xm37n%2BML.jpg” width=”246″]More than skin colour, language informs us that we are different. While language can pass on knowledge it could also be an inhibition to interaction. We often describe individuals by stating “We do not speak the exact same language”, implying that we have very varying views on things. A multiplicity of languages suggests fragmentation and disharmony. This appropriately describes the globe in which we live and extremely commonly the organizations where we discover ourselves.

Yet that was not God’s plan for the globe. Guide of Genesis explains God’s prepare for the globe. It is consistency within ourselves, consistency with others, harmony with nature, and consistency with God. This is still God’s prepare for the world. Humans discourage that strategy, nonetheless we, the followers of Jesus Christ, by baptism and verification commit ourselves to working for that strategy.

As we consider it that strategy appears difficult but the Feast that we celebrate, Pentecost tells us that it is feasible. It is feasible to have harmony in our organizations, in our nation, in our globe.

The initial reading for the Mass these days is the account from the Acts of the Apostles of the coming of the Holy Spirit.

We are told that after the experience of the Holy Spirit, individuals of various tongues and languages could possibly understand the messages of the Apostles, all which were Galileans.

Individuals were so surprised that they said loudly, “Are not all these which are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his very own indigenous language … … We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God“

The Spirit changed what caused division into the cause of unity. They all could hear, they all could understand. The Holy Spirit was and is the cause of unity.

In the Gospel reading the disciples through the Holy Spirit are given the power to remove the cause of division and disharmony from the world; “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,” 

The lesson is very straight forward. Where God’s Spirit is, there we find unity. Where God’s Spirit is not, there is only division and misunderstanding.

So the Feast of Pentecost calls us to be bearers of God’s Spirit so that we be agents of harmony in our broken and divided world. We are called to ask incessantly for God’s Spirit, for our homes, our organizations, our country and our world.

If we are truly people of faith, then we ask for God’s Spirit always. It is only with God’s Spirit that the harmony which God wants for the world will be brought about.

Prayer 

All powerful and ever-loving God we thank you for the gift of your Spirit who changed the disciples from cowards who betrayed your Son into men willing to die for the project of your Son give us also your Spirit so that we too will be able to dedicate our lives to the pursuance of your project, a world of total harmony because of the justice, peace and love which your Spirit brings. We ask this through the intercession of Mary our mother and your Son, Jesus. Amen 

First Reading – Acts 2:1-11

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his native language? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”

Gospel  – Jn 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.”