20250608 A SYNODAL CHURCH: MISSION IN COMMUNION AND PARTICIPATION
08 June 2025, Pentecost Sunday
First reading | Acts 2:1-11 |
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak
When Pentecost day came round, they had all met in one room, when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech.
Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, and at this sound they all assembled, each one bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language. They were amazed and astonished. ‘Surely’ they said ‘all these men speaking are Galileans? How does it happen that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; people from Mesopotamia, Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya round Cyrene; as well as visitors from Rome – Jews and proselytes alike – Cretans and Arabs; we hear them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 103(104):1,24,29-31,34 |
Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.
or
Alleluia!
Bless the Lord, my soul!
Lord God, how great you are,
How many are your works, O Lord!
The earth is full of your riches.
Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.
or
Alleluia!
You take back your spirit, they die,
returning to the dust from which they came.
You send forth your spirit, they are created;
and you renew the face of the earth.
Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.
or
Alleluia!
May the glory of the Lord last for ever!
May the Lord rejoice in his works!
May my thoughts be pleasing to him.
I find my joy in the Lord.
Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.
or
Alleluia!
Second reading | Romans 8:8-17 |
Everyone moved by the Spirit is a son of God
People who are interested only in unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God. Your interests, however, are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you. In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would not belong to him. Though your body may be dead it is because of sin, but if Christ is in you then your spirit is life itself because you have been justified; and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.
So then, my brothers, there is no necessity for us to obey our unspiritual selves or to live unspiritual lives. If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put an end to the misdeeds of the body you will live.
Everyone moved by the Spirit is a son of God. The spirit you received is not the spirit of slaves bringing fear into your lives again; it is the spirit of sons, and it makes us cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Spirit himself and our spirit bear united witness that we are children of God. And if we are children we are heirs as well: heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, sharing his sufferings so as to share his glory.
Sequence |
Veni, sancte Spiritus
Holy Spirit, Lord of Light,
From the clear celestial height
Thy pure beaming radiance give.
Come, thou Father of the poor,
Come with treasures which endure;
Come, thou light of all that live!
Thou, of all consolers best,
Thou, the soul’s delightful guest,
Dost refreshing peace bestow.
Thou in toil art comfort sweet;
Pleasant coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
Light immortal, light divine,
Visit thou these hearts of thine,
And our inmost being fill:
If thou take thy grace away,
Nothing pure in man will ;All his good is turned to ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour thy dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
Thou, on us who evermore
Thee confess and thee adore,
With thy sevenfold gifts descend:
Give us comfort when we die,
Give us life with thee on high;
Give us joys that never end.
Gospel Acclamation |
Alleluia, alleluia.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Alleluia.
Gospel |
John 14:15-16,23-26 |
The Holy Spirit will teach you everything
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘If you love me you will keep my commandments.
I shall ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate
to be with you for ever.
‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we shall come to him and make our home with him.
Those who do not love me do not keep my words.
And my word is not my own:
it is the word of the one who sent me.
I have said these things to you while still with you;
but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything
and remind you of all I have said to you.
A SYNODAL CHURCH: MISSION IN COMMUNION AND PARTICIPATION
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ACTS 2:1-11; PSALM 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34; ROMANS 8:8-17; JOHN 14:15-16, 23-26]
Today, we celebrate the feast of Pentecost which concludes the Easter season. During the seven weeks of Easter, we have been focusing on the various apparitions of Jesus to His disciples and also the proclamation of the Risen Lord in the early Church, especially through the work of Saint Paul and his collaborators. Again, and again, we see how those who encountered the Risen Lord had their lives changed radically. They arise and shine once they encounter the Risen Lord. Encountering the power and presence of the Risen Lord brings about transformation of life and a renewed faith. But we also know that the Risen Lord ceased to be encountered directly after the Ascension when He returned to His Father. Jesus no longer appeared to the disciples in His risen body. How did the early Church mediate the presence of the Risen Lord if not through the presence of the Holy Spirit?
As Church, we are called to continue the mission of Christ, each participating in our own way but always in communion with each other. In the first place, it is the Holy Spirit that gives birth to mission. This explains why the Lord ordered the disciples not to leave Jerusalem “but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This is what you have heard from me; for John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now'” (Acts 1:4f). We will not have the capacity for mission unless we experience anew the Risen Lord in our midst.
The Holy Spirit brings about the indwelling of the personal love of the Father and the Son in us. Jesus said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments. I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you for ever. ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him.” Like the early Church, when they were baptised in the Holy Spirit, they received a tangible experience of the presence of the Lord manifested in the gift of tongues.
Anyone who encounters the love of God deeply would want to share the love of God with others. When someone encounters God’s love during a retreat, in prayer, or through a religious experience, he cannot but share that joy with others. Indeed, the joy of encountering the Lord cannot be contained. Catholics who lack the zeal to share Jesus with others clearly have only a cerebral faith in the Lord but lack the radical personal experience of His presence to push them to tell the world how great God is.
It is the Holy Spirit that makes us realise we are children of God. St Paul wrote, “Everyone moved by the Spirit is a son of God. The spirit you received is not the spirit of slaves bringing fear into your lives again; it is the spirit of sons, and it makes us cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Spirit himself and our spirit bear united witness that we are children of God. And if we are children we are heirs as well: heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, sharing his sufferings so as to share his glory.”
First, one effect of receiving the Holy Spirit is a clear consciousness that we are not only loved by God but we are truly His sons and daughters. We experience His fatherliness and divine protection over us. But most of all, it makes us aware Jesus is our brother and we are called to share in His life and love. For this reason, we act and live like Jesus. We will no longer live unspiritual lives. “People who are interested only in unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God. Your interests, however, are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you” (Romans 8:8-10).
Second, the readings of today underscore the unitive power of the Holy Spirit when He descended upon the Christians. At Pentecost, they received the gift of tongues and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. They proclaimed the Risen Lord, and Peter’s first homily converted 5,000 souls to the Lord. People from all nations, languages, and cultures were united in their belief in Christ. We see the beginning of the universality of the Church. The Spirit that came upon the disciples of our Lord brought them together as one. Sharing in the one Spirit of Christ, Christians will feel with and for each other, but always in union with the Lord. This explains why everyone was able to understand the teaching of the apostles. St Paul wrote, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptised into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:12f).
The mission of the Church is to bring unity to the human race. This is why the Church is called to be a sacrament of unity and love for humanity. Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34f). It is our hope that our life of love and unity will be able to attract others to join us and come to find their meaning and happiness in Christ. The mission of the Church is communion, bringing people to the Lord so that, in Christ, all of us will find our union, not just with God but with each other. Only in the Lord, by believing in Him and all He has taught us, can we be united in truth and charity. Indeed, the fruits of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are seen in the love among fellow Christians. We read in the Acts of the Apostles: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:44f).
Third, the Holy Spirit is not the principle of communion in mission and mission in communion, but He is the giver of gifts. “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7). St Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-13). The gifts are therefore given to us for the building up of each individual in the stature of Christ, and together, the Church of Christ.
It is important that all of us who have been given gifts of the Spirit must use them to build the Church and spread the Gospel. We would be abusing the gifts if we used them only for ourselves and our loved ones – they are for the Church and the whole of humanity. It behoves each one of us to be involved in the mission, contributing and participating in the life of the Church.
Equally important is that we should be content with how and where the Lord is asking us to serve, and not compete with each other for recognition, power, glory, or personal gain, but instead complete each other in the service of God’s people. We must not allow the gifts of the community to separate and divide us because of pride and selfishness. Rather, we should contribute what we have so that together we can proclaim the Gospel effectively. Every role and ministry is important because we are all members of the body of Christ and we need each other.
Hence, it is important for us to ask for a release of the Holy Spirit given to us at our baptism so that we can feel anew His love and presence. We should also ask if we have had a personal encounter with the Lord in the Spirit. If our relationship with the Lord is distant or merely cerebral, we cannot be great evangelisers. If we work for the Lord using the spirit of the corporate world, we will lack the Spirit to motivate and to help others see the real mission of the Church, which is to bring everyone into communion with the Lord in the Spirit, and into communion among themselves. It is not about building an efficient Church, but building a people of faith that expresses itself in love and unity.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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