June 12, 2011
The Pentecost as depicted in stained glass.
We celebrate Pentecost on Sunday, June 12. In honor of this feast, the Paulist Fathers offer three reflections. Father Ron Franco, CSP, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Knoxville, Tenn., explains this feast day of the Holy Spirit and what it means to us. Father Paul Lannan, CSP, director of Adult Religious Education and Programming at the Paulist Centre for Ministry, offers his reflection on the Sunday readings, and talks about the Paulist understanding of the power of the Holy Spirit. Father Gilbert Martinez, CSP, pastor of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City, asks how you walk with the Holy Spirit of God in your life and in your community.
Father Ron Franco, CSPPentecost is a Greek word referring to the 50th day, originally the 50th day after the Jewish feast of Passover. Its Hebrew name, Shavuot, means “weeks,” in reference to the week of seven weeks that began with Passover. Shavuot was the second of the three great pilgrimage feasts in the Jewish calendar – the first being the spring feast of Passover, and the third the great autumn harvest festival of Sukkot, which the New Testament typically calls “the Feast of the Tabernacles.”
Pentecost originated as a joyful thanksgiving for the early summer harvest of grain, strawberries, cherries, peas and asparagus. Two loaves of bread made from new flour would be offered to God as the fruits of the grain harvest. Fully leavened loaves were offered, whereas unleavened bread was offered at Passover seven weeks earlier.
Over time, Shavuot, became primarily a commemoration of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, which happened about seven weeks after Israel’s escape from Egypt. (Exodus 19). Just as summer fulfills the promise of spring, the giving of the commandments fulfilled the promise of nationhood, of which the exodus event itself had been but a beginning. So, too, the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost fulfilled the promise of the Resurrection, transforming the disciples from frightened friends of an absent Jesus to faith-filled witnesses testifying to the whole world.
Pentecost is often called the “birthday of the church” since it was as a direct result of their having received the gift of the Holy Spirit during the festival of Shavuot that followed Jesus’ Ascension that the Apostles began their mission of preaching the Gospel to the whole world.
The word “Pentecost” was once also used to refer to the entire Easter season since Pentecost and the church are what fulfill and complete the promise of Easter and carry Easter out into the day-to-day life and work of the world.
In the Christian calendar, Pentecost marks the transition from the Easter season to Ordinary Time – the time of fulfillment, the time of the church when the promise of the resurrection takes place in daily life. Just as the new life promised by spring continues into summer, the new life promised by the Risen Christ continues in our world thorough his church.
Thus Pentecost is the annual liturgical observance of what happens every week with the transition from Sunday to Monday. From our Sunday celebration around the unleavened bread which has become the body of our Risen Lord, we are sent forth to renew the face of the earth as one body and one spirit in Christ as the Risen Lord’s permanent presence in the leavened bread of our daily lives in this world.
Father Ron Franco, CSP
Pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Knoxville, Tenn.
Father Paul Lannan, CSPOn Sunday June 12 the church celebrates the feast of Pentecost. It is celebrated 50 days after the Resurrection of Jesus. The main account of the event is in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles 2, 1-11. It is the powerful story of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that Jesus promised when he told his disciples he would not leave them orphans on his departure.
The day of Pentecost was celebrated by the Jewish people. It was a thanksgiving for the harvest of wheat and they would go to Jerusalem to celebrate this event. It so happened on that Pentecost day with pilgrims from all over that area showing up for their harvest festival that the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles gathered as the Acts says: “they were all together in one place. And from heaven there came a sound like rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues of fire, appeared on them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other’s languages” All of those visiting in Jerusalem were able to understand each other even in their different languages, a unique event of unity in Jerusalem that day.
That Pentecost event happened over 2,000 years ago. We believe as Catholics that the Holy Spirit remains with us as Jesus predicted for all time. Today we experience many complexities in our world, war, terrorism, financial losses, and among other things loss of faith of many in the church. In this time much is required for us to remain faithful to our calling, to live out our lives in the light of Christ, no matter how difficult it is.
We believe the Holy Spirit empowers us to have the courage of our convictions in spite of so many other interests. The Holy Spirit transforms our lives, helps us to go deeper in our relationship with God and others. It may be a painful pursuit and we might surrender to the many charms that are available to us today. If we continue our lives of faith the outcome will be much more rich and satisfying. Salvation history has confirmed this over centuries. The Holy Spirit remains with us always.
For the Paulists and others one person embodied this understanding of the Holy Spirit, Father Isaac Hecker, the founder of our community. In times when the Paulist community, which has always been relatively small in numbers, new initiatives have developed over the years: evangelization, reconciliation and ecumenical and interfaith ministries. It is in our consciousness; all we do in ministry reflects the Holy Sprit that Father Hecker was so devoted to.
On Saturday, May 28 this year Father Dat Tran was ordained a priest in the Paulist Fathers in New York. It was an occasion of great joy for his family and the Paulist Fathers. In the ceremony, the Archbishop lays his hands on the one to be ordained, followed by the Paulist priests who also place their hands on him. It is symbol of calling down the Holy Spirit on the one being ordained. In the background we hear the traditional hymn; Veni Sancte Spiritus. Come Holy Spirit; renew the face of the earth. This hymn reminds us of the renewing power of the Spirit in our life that leads us to mission bravely in a new era in the world and in our church.
Father Paul Lannan, CSP, is the director for adult religious education and programming at the Paulist Centre for Ministry in Toronto, Ontario.
Father Gilbert Martinez, CSPDo you believe that the Holy Spirit leads and guides you? Guides our church? On this Feast of Pentecost, we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, the very breath of God sharing his love with us through Jesus the Christ whose own journey among us began with the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary.
We celebrate that very same Spirit today. Because this gift is so freely given to us by God, the power of the Spirit takes on fresh flesh and flavor in every generation. The writings and sermons of Paulist founder Father Isaac Hecker show us an unflappable attentiveness and confidence in the presence of God’s Holy Spirit among us. This feast day is a gift to help us remember and celebrate that the Holy Spirit lives in you as a shrine, frees you from sin and death, makes you sons and daughters of God, helps you in your weakness and intercedes for you with the Father.
Only in the power of the Spirit can you believe the unbelievable, hope for the grace beyond your grasp, the glory beyond the grave, love with God’s own love poured into your hearts. If you walk by the Spirit, St. Paul insists, you will be kind and good, grow gentle and prove faithful and experience incomparable peace, a joy the world cannot give.
And so we often invoke the power of the Holy Spirit to walk with us. How do you walk with the Spirit of God in your life and in your faith community?