20170604 UNIVERSALITY AND BREATH OF THE GOSPEL
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First reading
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Acts 2:1-11 ©
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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.’
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm
103(104):1,24,29-31,34 ©
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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!
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Second reading
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1 Corinthians
12:3-7,12-13 ©
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No one can say,
‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
There is
a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit; there are all sorts of service
to be done, but always to the same Lord; working in all sorts of different ways
in different people, it is the same God who is working in all of them. The
particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a good
purpose.
Just as a
human body, though it is made up of many parts, is a single unit because all
these parts, though many, make one body, so it is with Christ. In the one
Spirit we were all baptised, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as
citizens, and one Spirit was given to us all to drink.
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Sequence
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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 stay
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.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them
the fire of your love.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John 20:19-23 ©
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As the Father
sent me, so am I sending you: receive the Holy Spirit
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In the evening of the
first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples
were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them,
‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were
filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be
with you.
‘As the Father sent
me,
so am I sending you.’
After saying this he
breathed on them and said:
‘Receive the Holy
Spirit.
For those whose sins
you forgive,
they are forgiven;
for those whose sins
you retain,
they are retained.’
UNIVERSALITY
AND BREATH OF THE GOSPEL
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [
ACTS 2:1-11; 1 COR 12:3-7,12-13;
JOHN 20:19-23 ]
Today, there is so much talk of
inclusivity. In itself, it is the right step towards promoting unity and
cohesiveness among all peoples. In the heart of every human person,
there is this built-in desire for unity and communion. It is in our DNA.
No man is an island. We are created for love and the expression of
love is unity. Only when there is love and unity, can there be world
peace.
Today, as we celebrate the Feast of
Pentecost, we are invited to promote unity and peace in the world through an
authentic love for all of humanity. If the Christian gospel is called the
“Good News”, it must be good news for all, regardless of language, race and
religion. The Risen Lord comes to give us peace so that we can be messengers of
peace. “He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and
his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he
said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. ‘As the Father sent me, so am I sending
you.’”
Peace, however, cannot be attained by
violence, war, guns, weapons and technology. This is the perennial
mistake of humanity. Indeed, the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles
speaks of the reversal of Babel. Those of us who are familiar with this
story in Genesis 11,
where we read that when humanity cuts itself off from God and its reliance on
Him, depends only on itself, technology, science and reason, like those who
sought to build the tower without God’s help, it will bring about further
division.
Humanity can only be united firstly when
there is a real communion between God and man and among men. It is
significant that the first reading talks about the miracle of the gift of
tongues. “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.” The gift of tongues enables us first and
foremost to communicate with God and with our fellowmen.
What is this gift of tongues? In the
first place, it refers to what most of us are familiar with, especially those
in the charismatic renewal, which we call praying in tongues. In
glossolalia, the person that is being addressed is God Himself. This language
however is made up of utterances of meaningless syllables, unintelligible to
the speaker. It was widely practiced in the early Church till the 4th
century by both clergy and laity. In our times, because of the
charismatic renewal, this use of glossolalia is once again practiced. It
is called the language of the angels or a language of the spirit. It is
used as a form of deep contemplative prayer to the Lord.
Indeed, whether we exercise the gift of
glossolalia in prayer or not, it remains the essential truth that we all need
to communicate with God. A radical religious experience like
receiving the gift of tongues is inexplicable and beyond description. All of us
in the depths of our heart remains incomplete unless we are in union with
God. As St Augustine says, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in
God!’ So regardless whether we are believers or not, Christian or of
other religions, we all need to encounter God deeply and intimately.
There is this deep thirst in our soul for the ultimate, otherwise we remain
incomplete and restless.
At the same time, this religious
experience underscores the essence of this truth that without a real encounter
with the Lord, there can be no real transformation in our lives. The
apostles, upon receiving the Holy Spirit, were transformed from fearful and
timid people to bold witnesses for the Lord. in the final analysis, it is
our religious experience of God that will determine how we worship Him and how
we share our experiences with others. At the end of the day, conversion is not
a matter of intellectual conviction alone, but it is rooted in a radical
experience of the Sacred. This explains why St Paul declared, “No one can
say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.” The
work of conversion is not the work of man, neither by force or pressure, but
ultimately it is the work of the Holy Spirit who touches the hearts of
man. So if a person comes to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, it is
because of the gift of the Spirit.
There is yet another aspect of the gift
of tongues. This is the gift of prophecy. It remains true that the
gift of prophecy is given to the universal Church and for humanity. God
raises people within and without the Church to address humanity and the world on
issues that affect society and the world at large. Today, we still need
prophets to speak courageously on the trends in the world. More than
ever, we need strong, courageous, wise, foresighted statesman and religious
leaders to proclaim the truth to the rest of humanity. The tragic
situation in the world today is that leaders are afraid to speak the truth lest
others get offended.
In the final analysis, the only language
is love. This is the only tongue that is truly universal. We need
to pray for a renewal of love in our hearts for God and for humanity. The
gift of tongues, symbolized by the tongues of fire, is a call to reignite the
love of God in our hearts. Unless we are filled with the Spirit of
Christ’s love, we cannot go out to the world and renew the face of the
earth. Love is the beginning and basis of mission. Jesus said, “As
the Father sent me, so am I sending you.” It is the love of the Father
for humanity that He sent Jesus, His only Son, for the salvation of the world.
It is this same Spirit of love that
raised Jesus from the dead that urges us to bring reconciliation to the world,
for that is what the Lord commanded the disciples to do. “Receive the
Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those
whose sins you retain, they are retained.’” Forgiveness and compassion is
the way forward for reconciliation. The Good News is that our sins are
forgiven. We do not have to live in fear and guilt like the apostles
hidden in the Upper Room. Jesus the Risen Lord came to them and offered
them peace through forgiveness of their sins. The Lord wants to liberate us
from our guilt and self-hatred so that we in turn can be His messengers of
peace to others, freeing them from their guilt and fears and healing their wounds.
Finally, it is the same Spirit of love
that invites us to appreciate and recognize the gifts of the Spirit in others
even when they are not of the same faith. We cannot be narrow
minded. St Paul reminds us that “there is a variety of gifts but always
the same Spirit; there are all sorts of service to be done, but always to the
same Lord; working in all sorts of different ways in different people, it is
the same God who is working in all of them. The particular way in which the
Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose.” So we should
recognize and appreciate what others are doing, whether they are faith
believers or otherwise. So long as they teach the values of peace, love,
joy, kindness and generosity, they too are working from the same
Spirit. Who is not against us is for us. Indeed, St Paul
reminds us that we are ultimately one body in Christ, one family of God,
whether we recognize it or not, all have been given the one Spirit to drink.
So let us be promoters of dialogue and
reconciliation wherever we are, at home, in church, in the office and in
society. Let us encourage each other in doing good regardless of
race, language and religion. Let us build bridges, not barriers!
This is what it means to carry out the mission of Christ in building a world of
unity, love and peace.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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