May 23, 2021: Feast of Pentecost
Acts 2:1-7, 12-21
Psalm 104:3-4; 24-31
1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 13
John 16:1-15
Bishop Ariel P. Santos
I have good news and some bad news in the Kingdom. The bad news first: after God created us good, man fell and sinned and this sent us into a downward spiral leading to death. The good news is: we have a Savior; the dying world has a Savior and His name is Jesus! As soon as man fell, God already embarked on a plan of salvation for His creation. This plan doesn’t culminate with the passion and death of Jesus. It doesn’t end with Good Friday and Easter Sunday; but it culminates with Jesus’ Ascension and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in Pentecost.
Today, in the Prayers of the People, it says, “We celebrate God’s completion of the Paschal mystery with the impartation of His Holy Spirit.” Also, the Preface says, “Today, You sent the Holy Spirit on those marked out to be Your children by sharing life of Your Son, and so brought the Paschal Mystery to completion.”
The Gospel story doesn’t end with just the death and the resurrection of Jesus. In the Church Calendar, it starts with Advent where the prophets tell us the good news that there is a coming Messiah. We anticipate the coming of our Savior. Christmas comes – the birth of the Savior and His incarnation. We celebrate this for twelve days and it is revealed to the whole world in Epiphany. Following this, we celebrate the Lenten season where we contemplate the price God paid in order to give us this salvation. This leads to Holy Week where Jesus gives His life for our sake. Three days after His death, He rose on Easter to celebrate Jesus’ victory over death.
The Church Calendar doesn’t end here. After Easter, forty days after, He ascends to heaven, not to leave us but all the more to be present among us because now, He is seated at the right hand of God in authority so that He can govern all the more the Church, His kingdom in heaven and on earth. Ten days after, we come to Pentecost where the Holy Spirit comes down from the heavenly realm to dwell in us. Heaven and earth are being reestablished as one as Jesus ascends to heaven and the Holy Spirit now comes to us, to indwell in us for a purpose. This is the Church being given birth so that we can walk through Ordinary Time so that we can display the will and the purpose of God, as in heaven and on earth, as His representatives. We embody the kingdom of heaven and the nature of God through the Church. This leads to the Feast of the Christ King, the last Sunday of the Church Calendar, as Jesus is crowned as the Lord and King of heaven and earth. This is the whole plan of the Lord, and we are called to display heaven on earth.
Pentecost is the birth of the Church. Why? This is because we are the expression of God’s will and purpose on earth. John said in his letter, “As Jesus is, so are we in this world.” Who He is, we are in this world because we are His representation. Jesus told Philip, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.” I wish we could say this truthfully one day, “Any one who has seen the Church, has seen Jesus.” We are Jesus’ exact representative, which is our calling. It is about the Church, not individuals. Don’t reduce Easter and Pentecost to individual salvation or to individual spiritual experience.
I believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit which is given to individuals, but the point of Pentecost is unity in the Holy Spirit. It is using the individual gifts for the unity of the Church as we collectively become the representative of God on earth. There should not be a spirit of independence, which is the opposite of Pentecost. The song “Spirit of God Within Me” says, “The Spirit of God within me possess my human frame; fan the dull embers of my heart, stir up the living flame. Strive till that image Adam lost, new minted and restored... Spirit of love within me possess my hands and heart; break through the bonds of self-concern that seeks to stand apart.”
Before, people would say, “I don’t need to go to Church. I am with Jesus – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit right at home. I don’t need to fellowship with my brothers and my sisters.” This is not correct for to love God, we love our neighbor. To have a relationship with God, we need to have a relationship with our neighbor because God has made Jesus, as the Head, and us, as the Body, one. We are members of one another. Individualism is standing apart from God and from our brothers.
Psalm 2 says, “Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed.” In the Tower of Babel, there was unity but it was against God. It is breaking free from God where the people took their stand against God. On Pentecost, it is reversed; it is unity according to the will of God. Psalm 2:1-3 (VOICE Translation) says, “What has provoked the nations to embrace anger and chaos? Why are the people making plans to pursue their own vacant and empty greatness? Leaders of nations stand united; rulers put their heads together, plotting against the Eternal One and His Anointed King, trying to figure out how they can throw off the gentle reign of God’s love and step out from under the restrictions of His claims to advance their own schemes.”
Another translation of Psalm 2:3 TPT says, “Let’s come together and break away from the Creator.” This is standing apart from God and His will. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit so that we can submit to God’s will and to preserve the unity of the Holy Spirit. I read one comment from our FB page with regards to unity, “We are to submit to God’s authority so that unity can be manifested.” We may be right, better, and wiser, but we are to submit nonetheless to what God has set. St. Paul was wiser and better and more knowledgeable than the first apostles of Jerusalem that even St. Peter, the leader of the Church, said that St. Paul’s letter are hard to understand. St. Paul was wise and yet, he submitted to the leader, to the Church.
We ask the Holy Spirit to possess our human frame, our thoughts and our mind. Ask the Holy Spirit to possess our mind, hands, and heart, and our life so that we can be molded into the image and likeness of God to the world. The Holy Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies so that we can be empowered to do God’s will. This is how He renews the face of earth and restores all things – through the Church. Psalm 104 says, “You send forth Your Spirit and they are re-created.”
Ephesians 1:10 talks about an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up, the restoration of all things in Christ, things in heaven and on earth. In another translation, (TPT) it says, “And because of God’s unfailing purpose, this detailed plan will reign supreme through every period of time until the fulfillment of all the ages finally reaches its climax - when God makes all things new in all of heaven and earth through Jesus Christ.” In the JUB translation, it says, “… that in the dispensation of the fulfillment of the times, God might restore all things by the Christ, both those which are in heaven and those which are on earth.”
Ephesians 3 says that it is a mystery, once hidden, now in the fullness of time revealed. What is to be revealed? Ephesians 3:10 shares about the manifold wisdom of God that will be made known through the Church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. God uses us, the Church, as His instruments. What is the manifold wisdom of God? It is Christ crucified – God’s power and wisdom which is the wisest and strongest force in the universe. The message of the cross of Christ is: humility; meekness; the giving of self for the sake of others. It is not our supposed better knowledge. God’s plan is restoration, not evacuation.
Why are we confirming catechumens this Pentecost day? It is to stir up the Holy Spirit in them, and to involve them in the work of the Church. In every Baptism and Confirmation, those in attendance are asked to renew their vows to remind them of their calling and that they are part of the Church and they are Spirit empowered so that they can bring heaven on earth.
The story leads to Christ the King when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess; when all things are summed up in Christ and restored in Him. We embody the Church. All things are in unity and there is a symbol of unity – believing in Jesus, the King, the Lord, the Pastor, the Shepherd, and the Leader. He is the Person that we all gather to and are summed up to. This is the concept that we, as the Church, embody. This is why we are to be in unity, under one Lord and King. We are instruments of this happening; we hasten the coming of the Kingdom. The establishment of this Kingdom is what will renew the face of this earth and will save God’s creation.
In Ephesians 2:1-10, St. Paul says, “We were dead in sin, but because God so loved us, He saved us through Christ and seated us with Him in heavenly places so that He might show His rich grace and kindness, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, prepared beforehand so we would walk in them.”
Hence, we have Pentecost. This is why the Holy Spirit empowers us to participate in this. We hasten the coming of the Kingdom because the establishment of this Kingdom on earth is what will renew the face of the earth and will save God’s creation. And this is exactly the way it is in the kingdom of our God.
