Posted by The WORD in other words (2013) by Brother Romualdo Abulad SVD – University of San Carlos, Cebu City
Solemnity of the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles – Pentecost / C
Today is the birth of the Church! In the Gospel written by Saint John, we are told of the resurrected Christ showing himself to his disciples, who are gathered in secrecy “for fear of the Jews.” There are three significant thing Christ did according to this account. First, he greeted his disciples, “Peace be with you!” Then, he repeated that greeting of peace and added, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Finally, he “breathed” on them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
All three utterances are significant and worthy of lengthy meditation. However, today’s focus is on the third utterance, specifically where Christ says, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” accompanying that with the act of “breathing” on the disciples. Breathing on his disciples, he assures them that they are receiving the Holy Spirit.
The breath of Christ is his very own self as the Holy Spirit. With that the disciples are commissioned by Christ to continue his mission, the mission of the Father, missio Dei , which is also mission of the Church, the reason why the Church was formed.
The completion of the story of the birth of the Church, at the Pentecost, is narrated in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, which is the first reading in today’s celebration. By this time Christ has already ascended into heaven and is visible no more. But, as he once said, he did not leave us orphans.
The Spirit has no specific physical form and thus cannot be said to be of any particular gender or nationality. There were, however, at this juncture some physical signs, like the “strong driving wind” that filled the entire house where the disciples where gathered, the “tongues of fire” that rested on each of them, and then the marvelous event that caused them to ask, “Are not all of these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his own native language?”
The birth of the Church was accompanied by such astounding sign that could only make it stand out as a singular, unrepeatable event. These are different times already, and the paradigm shift has thus already taken place.
Christ once said that it would be good of him to go, or else the Spirit would not come. Had Jesus stayed, the playing field of mission could be limited by the very factor his own specificity, the singularity of his birth and the mortality of that life. But he chose to go and give way to the Spirit, which blows as it wills. The playing field of mission is thus now borderless and universal, knowing no limitations of language or race.
The Church has flourished like no other institution on earth. The greatest of human conquerors, such as Alexander and Napoleon, as well as Bismarck and the despicable Hitler, have all failed and seen thoroughly routed; geographical boundaries have split and merged and thus cartographically altered mapping locations sometimes beyond recognition. But the reign of the Spirit continuous its silent expansion, ever growing amidst chaotic earthly changes, conquering the invisible core of all humanity as well as all creation — that core where peace dwells, that core which, on that fateful day, Christ has remarkably chosen to bequeath to us: “Peace be with you!”
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