COMMENT ON THE LITURGY OF PENTECOST, COMMONLY CALLED WHITSUNDAY
Collect
O God, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by sending* to them the light of thy Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
Readings
At 2:1-11; Gv 14:15-31
Comment
In the narrative of Pentecost reported by the Acts of the Apostles we see that the contest where the Holy Spirit is given is the assembly of believers gathered in prayer, the first fruits of the Church. Jesus had promised it: "'where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them'" (Mt 18:20).
The prayer that opens us to the gift of the Spirit is therefore community prayer; and the most important prayer performed in the name of Jesus is the liturgical action.
Jesus urges us to ask courageously for the greatest gift: God himself, his power - ("like the blowing of a violent wind" (Acts 2:2) -, his wisdom - "will teach you all things" (Jn 14:26) -, his eloquence - "we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" (Acts 2:11).
The Father could have poured out his Spirit on only one believer, on one prophet, but he decided to divide it into different tongues of fire, giving each disciple a different charisma.
No one among believers can be lofty, thinking that he is the only indispensable one: the one who works, in fact, is God, and every charism conferred by the Spirit is nothing but a "ministry", an office for the good of the entire ecclesial body.
The eloquence conferred by the Spirit is not the tendency to speak to us, to be deaf towards cultures that are expressed in a language different from ours. We recognize that it is the Spirit who works in the Church when even "those outside" understand our preaching about Christ: " Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?"(Acts 2:7-8). The Church is a sacramental body open to the world.
If it is true that the gift of the Holy Spirit is made for the good of the whole body of Christ, it is also true that it is an epiphany that invests the person of the believer, an intimate and direct experience of the Trinitarian God; it is God himself who comes to inhabit our soul: "'you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you'" (Jn 14:20); "'Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them'" (Jn 14:23).
The encounter with Christ, in the Scriptures and in the sacraments, transforms us, by grace, into his image, so that when the Father bends over us, he no longer sees us but his Son, and gives us the Spirit without measure: "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:4).
To receive this gift, Jesus exhorts us to keep his commandments: "'If you love me, keep my commands'" (Jn 14:15); "'Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them'" (Jn 14:21).
Therefore, beyond our miseries, the desire for sanctification - understood as obedience to the Gospel, through the work of God's grace - must never fail.
"'So I say to you: Ask'" (Lk 11:9), Jesus exhorts. Let us not allow ourselves to be overcome by torpor, resignation, or mediocrity. Let us dare to ask for the greatest gift: a new Pentecost for us, for the Church and for all humanity.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
