Reflection for Pentecost Sunday
Entrance Antiphon for Pentecost Sunday
Spiritus Domini replevit orbem terrarum, alleluia:
et hoc quod continet omnia, scientiam habet vocis, alleluia, alleluia.
“The Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world, alleluia: that which is all-embracing has knowledge of man’s voice, alleluia, alleluia.” These opening words of the Pentecost Mass indicate what we are celebrating today - the marvelous working of the Holy Spirit, the fulfilment of Jesus’ promise to his disciples, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever.” (John 14:16)
On this day, the great liturgical season of Easter is brought to completion and we commemorate the birth of the Church. The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles shows the Holy Spirit being poured out upon His disciples who were gathered in prayer with Mary. The driving wind and tongues of fire, symbols of the gifts of courage, eloquence and languages now envelop and empower them who were chosen to be the beginning of Jesus’ nascent Church. We, born from the pierced side of Christ, washed in his blood and nourished by his flesh are now also the privileged recipients of His promised Spirit. And yet, much like the Apostles, are we not intensely aware of our utter frailty in the face of so great a spiritual mission? Hence our need for the profound invocation to the Holy Spirit in the Pentecost Mass Sequence, Veni, Sancte Spiritus. “Come…shed a ray of light divine! Come, Father of the poor! In our labor, rest most sweet; grateful coolness in the heat. …In your sevenfold gift descend.”
Not only this sublime chanted prayer of the Veni, Sancte Spiritus but indeed every prayer we utter to the Father on our own behalf or on behalf of the needs of the world is itself the work of this same Creator Spirit. In the Letter to the Romans, Paul writes: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.” (8:26) Pope Benedict commented with great humility on this passage of Paul in one of his General Audiences:
“And we know how true it is when the Apostle says: ‘we do not know how to pray as we ought’. We want to pray, but we do not have the words, the language, to speak with God, not even the thought. We can only open ourselves, set our time at the disposal of God, waiting for him to help us enter into true dialogue. As the Apostle says: this very lack of words, this absence of words, even the desire to enter into contact with God is a prayer that the Holy Spirt not only understands, but carries and interprets to God. It is precisely our weakness which becomes, through the Holy Spirit, true prayer, true contact with God. The Holy Spirit is almost the interpreter who makes God and us ourselves understand what we want to say.”
This brings us right back to our opening Introit, doesn’t it? “The Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world, that which is all-embracing has knowledge of man’s voice.” He is with us! We are not orphans, Alleluia! As we participate in the sacred liturgy, let us open our hearts to the transformative presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, allowing His guidance and empowering gifts to shape us into faithful witnesses for Christ.