Send Forth Your Spirit and They Shall be Created

readings for June 8, 2014

PENTECOST sunday

Mass of the Day - Lectionary: 63

Għid il-Ħamsin

Quddies tal-Jum  -  Missalin A  p 231

Reading 1       -     ACTS of the apostles 2:1-11

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 driving 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 on 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 proclaim. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused  because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his native language? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.” This is the Word of The Lord.

L-Ewwel Lezzjoni  -  mill-Ktieb ta' l-Atti ta' l-Appostli  2, 1-11

Meta wasal jum Għid il-Ħamsin, huma  kienu ilkoll flimkien f'post wieħed.  F'daqqa waħda ġie mis-sema ħoss ta' riħ qawwi, u mela d-dar kollha fejn kienu qiegħdin. U dehrulhom ilsna qishom tan-nar, li tqassmu u qagħdu fuq kull wieħed minnhom.  Intlew ilkoll bl-Ispirt s-Santu u bdew jitkellmu b'ilsna oħra, skond ma l-Ispirtu kien jagħtihom li jitkellmu. F'Ġerusalemm kien hemm xi Lhud, nies twajba minn kull nazzjoni li hawn taħt is-sema.  Malli nstama' dan il-ħoss, inġabret kotra kbira, ilkoll imħawdin għax kull wieħed minnhomkien jismagħhom jitkellmu bl-ilsien tiegħu. Miblugħin u mistagħġbin, bdew igħidu:   "Dawn li qegħdin jitkellmu m'humiex ilkoll mill-Galilija?  Mela kif kull  wieħed minna qiegħed jismagħhom jitkellmmu bi lsien art twelidu?  Partin, Medin u Għelamin, nies mill-Mesopotamja, mil-Lhudija, mil-Kappadoċja, minn Pontu, mill-Asja, mill-Friġja, mill-Pamfilja, mill-Eġittu, mill-inħawi tal-Libja madwar Ċireni, nies li ġew minn Ruma, kemm Lhud u kemm prose'liti, oħrajn minn Kreta u Għarab, aħna ilkoll qegħdin nisimgħuhom ixandru bl-ilsna tagħna l-għeġubijiet ta' Alla!  Kelma tal-Mulej.

Responsorial Psalm    -    PSalm 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34

R/ Alleluia.

Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
How manifold are your works, O Lord!
the earth is full of your creatures;                           R/ .

May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD be glad in his works!
Pleasing to him be my theme;
I will be glad in the LORD.                                        R/ 

.
If you take away their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.                           R/ 

Reading 2   -   1 CORinthians 12:3B-7, 12-13

Brothers and sisters:  No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.  There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;   there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God  who produces all of them in everyone.  To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit  is given for some benefit.  As a body is one though it has many parts,  and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,  so also Christ.  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,  whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.  This is the Word of the Lord.

It-Tieni Lezzjoni - mill-Ewwel Ittra ta' San Pawl lill-Korintin 12, 3b-7, 12-13

Ħuti, ħadd ma jista' jgħid:  "Ġesu' hu l-Mulej!" jekk mhux  imqanqal mill-Ispirtu s-Santu. Hemm imbagħd diversi doni, imma l-istess wieħed hu l-Ispirtu, hemm diversi done, imma l-istess wieħed hu l-Ispirtu, hemm diversi ministeri, imma l-istess wieħed hu l-Mulej; hemm diversi ħidmiet, imma l-istess Alla, li jaħdem kollox f'kulħadd.  Lil kull wieħed tingħata r-rivelazzjoni ta' l-Ispirtu għall-ġid ta' kulħadd.  Bħalma l-ġisem hu wieħed u fih ħafna membri, u l-membri kollha tal-ġisem, għad li huma ħafna, jagħmlu ġisem wieħed,  hekk ukoll Kristu.  Għax aħna ilkoll tgħammidna fi Spirtu wieħed biex nagħmlu ġisem wieħed, sew Lhud sew Griegi, sew ilsiera sew ħielsa, u lkoll  xrobna minn Spirtu wieħed. Kelma tal-Mulej.

Gospel   -   JohN 20:19-23

On the evening of that first day of the week,  when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,  for fear of the Jews,  Jesus came and stood in their midst  and said to them, “Peace be with you.”  When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.  The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  Jesus said to them again, “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 forgive are forgiven them,  and whose sins you retain are retained.”

L-Evanġelju  -   skond San Ġwann 20, 19-23

Dak il-Ħadd fil-għaxija, fl-ewwel jum tal-ġimgħa, meta d-dixxipli kienu flimkien imbeżżgħin mill-Lhud, bil-bibien magħluqa, ġie Ġesu' u qagħad f'nofshom, u qalilhom:  "Is-sliem għalikom!"   Kif qal hekk, uriehom idejh u ġenbu.  Id-dixxipli ferħu meta raw lill-Mulej. Imbagħad Ġesu' tenna jgħidilhom:  "Is-sliem għalikom!  Kif il-Missier bagħat lili, hekk jien nibgħat lilkom." Kif qal hekk, nefaħ fuqhom u qalilhom: "Ħudu l-Ispirtu s-Santu,  Dawk li taħfrulhom dnubiethom ikunu maħfura, u dawk li żżommuhomlhom ikunu miżmuma." Kelma tal-Mulej.

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Commentary:

by Fr Raniero Cantalamessa ofm cap:

Send Forth Your Spirit and They Shall be Created

The Gospel presents Jesus, who in the cenacle on Easter evening, "breathed on them and said: 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" This breathing of Jesus recalls God's action who, in the creation, "formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being" (cf. Genesis 2:7). With his gesture Jesus indicates that the Holy Spirit is the divine breath that gives life to the new creation as he gave life to the first creation. The responsorial psalm highlights this theme: "Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth."

Proclaiming that the Holy Spirit is Creator means saying that his sphere of action is not restricted to the Church, but extends to the entire creation. No place and no time is without his active presence. He acts in and out of the Bible; he acts before Christ, during the time of Christ, and after Christ, even if he never acts apart from Christ. "All truth, by whomever it is spoken," Thomas Aquinas has written, "comes from the Holy Spirit." The action of the Spirit of Christ outside the Church is not the same as his action in the Church and in the sacraments. Outside he acts by his power; in the Church he acts by his presence, in person.

The most important thing about the creative power of the Holy Spirit is not, however, to understand it and explain its implications, but to experience it. But what does it mean to experience the Spirit as Creator? To understand it, let us take the creation account as our point of departure. "In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, and the Spirit of the Lord brooded over the waters" (Genesis 1:1-2). We conclude from this that the universe already existed in the moment when the Spirit intervened, but it was formless and dark, chaos. It is after his action that the creation assumes precise contours; light is separated from darkness, dry land from the sea, and everything takes on a definite shape.

Thus, it is the Holy Spirit who transforms the creation from chaos into cosmos, who makes it something beautiful, ordered, polished ("cosmos" comes from the same root as "cosmetic" and it means beautiful!), he makes a "world," in the double sense of this word. Science teaches us today that this process went on for billions of years, but the Bible -- with its simple and image-filled language -- wants to tell us that the slow evolution toward life and the present order of the world did not happen by chance, following blind material impulses. It followed, rather, a project that the Creator inserted in it from the beginning.

God's creative action is not limited to the initial instant; he is always in the act of creating. Applied to the Holy Spirit, this means that he is always the one who transforms chaos into cosmos, that is, he makes order out of disorder, harmony out of confusion, beauty out of deformity, youth out of age. This occurs on all levels: in the macrocosm as in the microcosm, that is, in the whole universe as in the individual person.

We must believe that, despite appearances, the Holy Spirit is working in the world and makes it progress. How many new discoveries, not only in the study of nature but also in the field of morality and social life! A text of Vatican II says that the Holy Spirit is at work in the evolution of the social order of the world ("Gaudium et Spes," 26). It is not only evil that grows but good does too, with the difference being that evil eliminates itself, ends with itself, while the good accumulates itself, remains. Certainly there is much chaos around us: moral, political, and social chaos. The world still has great need of the Spirit of God. For this reason we must not tire in invoking him with the words of the Psalm: "Send forth your Spirit, Lord, and renew the face of the earth!"

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