Word to the Wise
Sunday, June 8, 2025 - Pentecost Sunday: Mass during the Day - A
[Acts 2:1-11; 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23]When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest of each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to speak. [Acts] "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." [John]
Important events evoke different memories in individuals and in communities. The communities for which the evangelist Luke wrote his gospel and the Acts of the Apostles and the ones for which the evangelist John wrote were different. Indeed these scriptures show that more than one person contributed to each of the written accounts, let alone the preaching by all the missionaries who carried the Good News around the Mediterranean region and Roman Empire, as we can read in the account from the Acts of the Apostles. Although these accounts tell us of the initial gift, they also bear witness to the continuation of the gift, since both Luke and John wrote their accounts years after the event they report. The Holy Spirit was given and continues to be given.
Early on, the Christian community developed Baptism and Confirmation as formal ways in which the gift of the Holy Spirit could be imparted. The seven-fold gifts and the "fruits" of the Holy Spirit represent the community's reflection on the impact of the Holy Spirit on individual as well as collective believers. But this important and broad perspective should not distract us from the presence of the Holy Spirit in the everyday life of a Christian. I know from my own experience that wisdom (one of the "gifts") can appear seemingly from nowhere in situations requiring important decisions.
The initial gift, recounted in the scriptures for this feast, is considered traditionally as "the birthday of the Church." What was born then is now more than 2000 years old, but lives in each one and all of us who believe in God's gift of the Holy Spirit. AMEN