Shortly before the end
of his earthly ministry, Jesus said to his disciples: “It is to your advantage
that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but
if I go, I will send him to you” (Jn 16:7). Today, we celebrate the fulfillment
of Christ’s promise of the Holy Spirit—the Paraclete to the world. The word Paraclete
is from the Greek parakletos, meaning “advocate”, “intercessor”. This
phenomenal event is popularly known as the Pentecost. The Pentecost has no
Christian origin. So why do we refer the descent of the Holy Spirit as
Pentecost Sunday?
The name Pentecost is
derived from the Greek “pentecoste” which means “fiftieth (day)” It corresponds to the Jewish feast called Shabuoth or the Feast of
Weeks. This Jewish feast was a thanksgiving for the wheat harvest and took
place seven weeks after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Christian association of
this feast started in Acts 2:1-45. Fifty days after the resurrection of Christ,
the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles while they were in the Upper Room.
This happened on the day when all Jews gathered to celebrate the “Shabuoth”. A
little wonder today is exactly fifty days after Easter Sunday.
At Pentecost, God
reversed the Babel event with the Upper Room event. In Genesis 11:1-9, the
Tower of Babel was built by the proud in the land of Shinar after the flood, to
affirm their power. But God defeated their design by confounding their
language, and hence the name Babel, meaning "confusion." On the contrary, the Pentecost was
accompanied by great signs among which was the speaking in various tongues by
the occupants of the Upper Room. The apostles began to speak in other languages
as the Spirit enabled them (Acts 2:4); all were able to understand them in
their local tongues (Acts 2:8). Thus, humility, prayer and total dependence on
God led to the unification of human language, showing that with God all things
are possible.
Before the Pentecost,
they were locked up in the Upper Room in an atmosphere of fear and anxiety. As they
were inside the room, they were unable to confront the injustice, prejudice,
hatred, violence, idolatry, pride, immorality that were being perpetuated
outside the Upper Room because they the Spirit has not come. When the Holy
Spirit came upon the disciples, He endowed them with his gifts (as we shall receive
today). They are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety,
and fear of the Lord (Is. 11:2-3). The doors of the Upper Room were thrown wide
open. There was a radical transformation that pushed the apostles to leave the
Upper Room with the zeal to love; to change world. They healed, prophesied and
made converts. The whole community
noticed something exceptional.
My dear friends, what do
we do when we live our various churches today with the gifts of the Spirit we received?
Let us allow the Holy Spirit to transform us. The fire which rests upon the heads
of apostles is a symbol of transformation, renewal and power. Allow the this Fire
to burn down the Tower of Babel in you which is a road block to your spiritual
growth. Be docile to the promptings of the Holy Spirit so that you can begin to
transform the world. The church buildings represent the Upper Room. When we
leave this Upper Room can we be able to see level of immorality, hatred, injustice
and abject poverty in our neighborhood? Can we be able to do something to
better people’s helpless condition?
Finally, in as much as
we thrive with the variety of gifts as St. Paul mentioned in 1Cor. 12:3-13, let
us be also familiar with his admonition: “If I speak in the tongues of men and
of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I
have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I
have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If
I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not
love, I gain nothing” (ICor. 13:1-3). HAPPY PENTECOST SUNDAY TO ALL MY FRIENDS.
