Pentecost Sunday

Today's Mass Readings

Today we celebrate Pentecost: the 50th day of our Easter celebration, the conclusion of the Paschal Season, which goes all the way back to the beginning of Lent. This is the time when we reflect again on our redemption and what it all means and who we have become, that is, we are God’s children. That’s the great gift we have been given through the death and resurrection of Christ.

When I was growing up in St. Joseph, Missouri, I was aware of the feast called Pentecost. I learned that it came at the end of the Easter Season and that it had an “octave” – seven more days of celebrating. The priest wore red vestments. There was a “sequence” sung each day: “Come O Holy Spirit, Come.” I recall several verses of the sequence: In our labor, rest most sweet; Grateful coolness in the heat; Solace in the midst of woe. And others: Heal our wounds, our strength renew; On our dryness pour your dew; Wash the stains of guilt away: But in those years, it was not so clear just what this feast was about. The coming of the Holy Spirit, tongues of fire, a great wind, speaking in many languages.

Over the years I’ve come to grasp more completely what this great feast is all about. Just as Jesus had said before he left his apostles (and us): I will send you the Holy Spirit who will lead you to all truth. And, “the Father and I will come to you.” All of this speaks of God with us—not just with us, but in us.

Fr. Karl Rahner spoke about this feast in a sermon on Pentecost. Paraphrasing Rahner: Do we comprehend the wonder of the gift we have received? That we have become God’s children “in a way God is ours. God is our God. We belong to God. You shall be my people and I will be your God.” The Holy Spirit of our eternal God has come. The Spirit of Jesus the redeemer is living in us, sanctifying us, empowering us, and in a way, doing all things in us. God has given us Himself.

You could say that today we celebrate that day when at last the Lord’s apostles finally got it, as if to say, “Do you understand what I have done for you? Do you get it? Do you understand? Do you finally see what everything is about? They could say “yes, we understand. We get it.”

Once that happened then, there was no stopping them. And so, the Church was born. And the history of the church has been the history of one generation after another leading all to understand more deeply what Jesus has done for us and what Jesus calls us to do.

Come, O Holy Spirit, come. Come into our hearts again this year. Fill us with your Love. Empower us to do your will.

Reflection by Fr. Peter Ullrich, OSB