Pentecost
Sunday -
Lectionary:
63
Solennita’
tal-migja ta’ l-Ispirtu s-Santu
Messalin B
320
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
und, 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 Qari mill-Ktieb tal-Atti
tal-Appostli. 2, 1-11
Responsorial
Psalm PSALM 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31,
34
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. Alleluia.
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. Alleluia.
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. Alleluia.
Salm
Responsorjali Salm 103(104)
R/ Alleluja `
Bierek
ruħ tiegħi, lill-Mulej!
Mulej, Alla tiegħi, inti kbir bil-bosta!
Kemm huma kotrana l-għemejjel tiegħek, Mulej!
Mimlija l-art bil-ħlejjaq tiegħek. R/
Jekk teħdilhom nifishom, imutu,
u lejn it-trab jerġgħu jmorru.
Malli tibgħat in-nifs tiegħek, jinħolqu,
u inti ġġedded il-wiċċ ta' l-art. R/
Jibqa' sebħ il-Mulej għal dejjem!
Jifraħ il-Mulej bl-għemejjel tiegħu!
Ħa togħġbu l-għanja tiegħi,
Għax jien fil-Mulej l-hena tiegħi. R/
Reading
2 GALATIANS 5:16-25
Brothers and sisters, live by the Spirit and
you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh. For the flesh has
desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed
to each other, so that you may not do what you want. But if you are guided by
the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious:
immorality, impurity, lust, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy,
outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of
envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before,
that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God
It-Tieni
Lezzjoni Qari mill-Ittra lill-Galatin 5 16-25
Ħuti, jien ngħidilkom, imxu fl-Ispirtu u
taqgħux għall-passjonijiet tal-passjoniet tal-ġisem huma kontra l-ġisem; dawn it-tnejn huma kontra xulxin, ;biex ma
jħallukomx tagħmlu dak li tixtiequ. Jekk lilkom imexxikom l-Ispirtu, m'intomx
taħt il-liġi. L-għemejjel tal-ġisem huma magħrufa: żina, faħx, nuqqas ta' rażan, idolatrija,
seħer, mibegħda, ġlied, għira, korla, ambizzjoni, firda, partiti, invidja,
sokor, tbaħrid, u ħwejjeġ bħal dawn.
Inwissikom, bħalma wissejtkom
qabel, min jagħmel dawn il-ħwejjeġ ma jiritx is-saltna ta' Alla. Il-frott tal-Ispirtu huma: l-imħabba, l-hena, is-sliem, is-sabar, il-ħniena, it-tjieba,
il-fidi, il-ħlewwa, ir-rażan. Kontra
dawn ma hemmx liġi. Dawk li huma ta'
Kristu Ġesu' sallbu l-ġisem bil-ġibdiet u l-passjonijiet tiegħu. Jekk ngħixu bl-Ispirtu, ħalli nimxu bl-Ispirtu. Il-Kelma tal-Mulej
Sequence:
Veni,
Sancte Spiritus
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!
Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine.
You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul's most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;
In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!
Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;
Give them virtue's sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end. Amen.
Alleluia.
Sekwenza
Spirtu
s-Santu, ejja fina,
raġġ ta'
dawl qaddis agħtina,
xerrdu f'ruħna mis-smewwiet.
O Missier il-foqra tiegħek,
inti ġġib id-doni miegħek,
tagħni b'dawklek qalb l-ulied.
Inti l-aqwa faraġ tagħna,
fik kull hena xħin tkun magħna,
tħossok fewġa ħelwa r-ruħ
Fl-għaja, lejn is-serħ twassalna;
jekk imħeġġa wisq, trażżanna;
mil-għajnejn tixxotta d-dmugħ.
O dawl ħieni ta' qdusija,
nitolbuk li bik mimlija
tkun il-qalb ta' kull fidil.
Mingħajr dawlek li jmexxina
ebda ħajr ma jkum hemm fina,
ebda safa fl-għemil.
Naddaf kull fejn hemm it-tbajja',
fejn hemm nixfa reġġa' l-ħajja,
lill-miġruħ agħtih fejqan.
Rattab fina l-ebusija,
agħti lill-berdin bżulija,
għin fit-triq lil min beżgħan.
Agħti s-seba' doni tiegħek
lil min jimxi fidil miegħek
u li fik jistrieħ kull hin.
Agħti 'l kull virtu' sabiħa
ħlas ta' salvazzjoni sħiħa,
agħti
l-ġenna lit-tajbin.
Ammen.
Hallelujah.
Gospel JOHN
15:26-27; 16:12-15
Jesus said to his disciples: "When the
Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that
proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because
you have been with me from the beginning. "I have much more to tell you,
but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will
guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he
hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me,
because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that
the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what
is mine and declare it to you." This
is the Word of the Lord.
L-Evanġelju Qari skont San Ġwann 15, 26-27; 16,12-15
F'dak iż-żmien, Ġesu' qal lid-dixxipli
tiegħu: "Meta
jiġi d-Difensur, li se nibagħtilkom mingħand il-Missier, l-Ispirtu tal-verita',
li ġej mill-Missier, huwa jixhed għalija.
U intom ukoll tixhduuu, għax intom kontru miegħi sa mill-bidu. Baqagħli
ħafna ħwejjeġ x'ngħidilkom, imma għalissa ma tifilħux għalihom. Meta jiġi hu, l-Ispirtu tal-verita',
iwassalkom għall-verita' kollha; għaliex hu ma jgħid xejn minn minn minn
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Viewing the Church through the Lenses of Pentecost –
A
Biblical Reflection for the Solemnity of Pentecost
By
Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB
Pentecost is the fiftieth day that signals the
start of the universal mission of the Church -- a mission that overcomes human
obstacles and has the Spirit as its driving force. The mighty breath of God and the fire of the
Spirit's presence engulf the group of disciples gathered in prayer around Mary,
Mother of the Lord in the upper room.
Luke's narrative of Pentecost in today's first
reading from Acts (2:1-13) consists of an introduction, a speech ascribed to
Peter declaring the resurrection of Jesus and its messianic significance
(14-36), and a favorable response from the audience (2:37-41). The Twelve were not originally in a position
to proclaim publicly the messianic office of Jesus without incurring immediate
reprisal from those religious authorities in Jerusalem
Psalm 104 reminds us that this Holy Spirit,
this breath of God that we as Christians have received, is the same Spirit that
sustains the constant renewal of all created things.
Paul's theology of charisms
In today's second reading, (I Cor 12:3b-7,
12-13) St. Paul
Ecstatic and charismatic activity were common
in early Christian experience, as they were in other ancient religions. But the
Corinthians seem to have developed a disproportionate esteem for certain
phenomena, especially tongues, to the detriment of order in the liturgy. Paul reminds the Corinthians that ecstatic
phenomena must be judged by their effect.
Power to confess Jesus as Lord can come only from the Spirit, and it is
inconceivable that the Spirit would move anyone to curse the Lord. We learn that there are some features common
to all charisms, despite their diversity: all are gifts (charismata), grace
from outside ourselves; all are forms of service (diakoniai), an expression of
their purpose and effect; and all are workings (energemata), in which God is at
work. Paul associates each of these aspects with what later theology will call
one of the persons of the Trinity, an early example of
"appropriation."
The image of a body (12-26) is introduced to
explain Christ's relationship with believers (12). Paul applies this model to
the Church: by baptism all, despite diversity of ethnic or social origins, are
integrated into one organism. The reading then develops the need for diversity
of function among the parts of a body without threat to its unity.
He breathed on them
The Gospel of John (19:20-23) describes
another way the Holy Spirit is given to the apostles: the risen Jesus breathing
on the apostles to impart the Holy Spirit. The power of the Spirit not only
authorizes, but also empowers the apostles to forgive and to retain sins. Jesus
formally sends out to the world his apostles, as he had been sent to the world
by the Father. Jesus' breathing on the
apostles huddled in the Upper Room recalls Genesis 2:7, where God breathed on
the first man and gave him life; just as Adam's life came from God, so now the
disciples' new spiritual life comes from Jesus.
The lenses of Pentecost
In my work at Salt and Light Television
Network in Canada
I would like to offer three lenses through
which we might consider this feast: 1) the wide-angle lens that looks at our
belonging to the Church; 2) an intermediate lens that focuses in on the
ideologies at work in the Church today, and 3) a zoom lens to sharpen our hope,
the great manifestation of the Holy Spirit to the Church.
"Sentire cum ecclesia"
Pentecost is considered to be the birth of the
Church. Our baptismal consecration in
service to Christ cannot be separated from consecration in service to the
Church. One of the main themes
permeating the thought of St. Ignatius of Loyola is his exhortation Sentire cum
ecclesia or think with the Church. Sentire cum ecclesia also means to feel with
the Church and to love the Church.
Pentecost invites us once again to walk with the Church, breathe with
the Church, hope with the Church, feel with the Church, sentire cum ecclesia.
What does the Church mean for me as an individual? What is my personal relationship with the
Church? Do I love the Church? Do I feel
loved by the Church?
Moving Beyond Ideology
From the wide-angle view of the Church, let us
take a closer look at our current ecclesial reality. Today, some of us seem to be stuck in the
ideological battles that followed the Second Vatican Council. Perhaps we are frozen in categories of left
and right; traditional vs. avant-garde; male vs. female; hierarchical vs.
lay-led, or prophetic vs. static. Our
inter-ecclesial and inter-community fixations and polarizations on all sides of
the ecclesial spectrum can distract us from addressing with requisite depth and
discernment the issues facing us today.
Whatever is not purified and transformed within us is transmitted to
others- especially to the next generation.
When we sell ourselves to cynicism and despair, meanness of heart,
smallness of spirit and harshness in ecclesial discourse, we betray our deepest
identity as bearers of joy, hope and truth.
Is joy present in our Christian witness?
What prevents me as an individual and us as a community from giving a
robust, joyful witness to Jesus Christ, the Catholic Faith and the Church?
Hope: a manifestation of the Spirit
Finally, let us zoom in on hope, a true
manifestation of the Spirit at Pentecost.
Is it not true that many of us in the Church today feel like we are
caught in a flash flood that is unexpected, powerful, destructive and filled
with despair? The flame seems to have
gone out and our influence is terribly diminished. The media exerts a powerful influence on the
thinking, the attitudes and the faith of people. The flash flood bears down with immense
force on all of us. Some view our
present situation with great pessimism and grow disheartened, depressed, and
even cynical. Perhaps we have chosen to
look at everything only from the data of sociology, psychology, polls and
predictions, blogs and brief Twitter messages, and foresee an inevitable,
almost deterministic future designed more or less by demographic, social, and
economic forces, a future which is dismal and dark. For the world of sound bites, hope usually
means that we make ourselves believe that everything is going to turn out all
right. We use the word hope lightly and
cheaply. This is not the hope of Christians.
We must be icons of hope, a people with a new vision, a people that
learn to see the world through the lenses of Christ, the Spirit, and the Church.
Signs of the times and signs of hope
The Second Vatican Council encouraged
Christians to read the signs of the times, and for Pope John XXIII these were
signs of hope and glimpses of the Kingdom's presence in our midst. It is not a kingdom of this world, so that it
cannot be identified specifically in this or that location, but it is
nevertheless here already, fostered by the Eucharist which is the pattern to be
reproduced in all society, as well as still to come. The Kingdom manifests itself through the
gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, courage, knowledge,
piety, and fear of the Lord. And the
Spirit's fruits make the Kingdom palpable and palatable: love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, long suffering, mildness, faith, modesty,
continence, and chastity.
It is also possible to follow a via negativa
and to say where the Kingdom is not. Where there is no justice, no peace, no
sharing, no mutual trust, no forgiveness, there is no Kingdom. Where there is rancor, envy, distrust,
hatred, ignorance, indifference, unchastity, cynicism, there is no Kingdom and
certainly no life.
"Duc in altum!"
We cannot weigh the life of faith and judge
the vitality of the Church solely on the basis of demographical or sociological
indicators, numbers, polls, and outside statistics, as helpful as they may
be. The fire of Pentecost invites us to
rediscover the depth, beauty and vastness of the Church's mission. What is required of those imagining and building
the Church is to think big, and to cast our nets into the deep. Duc in altum! We must shape our vision on the
firm conviction in the victory of the Cross and in Jesus Christ's triumph over
sin and death. Individuals and
communities without vision and a Church without a mission are like a person
without relationships. Unless we are
able to go beyond ourselves, we will remain undeveloped personalities. When the Spirit truly dwells within us, we
will be blessed anew with creativity, imagination and hope.
Guarantee of the Spirit's presence
What is the deepest and surest assurance and
intimation that the Holy Spirit is present in our world and Church today? The answer is: joy. If there is joy present
you can bet that the Holy Spirit has something to do with this precious gift. St. Augustine
Whenever people must labor hard they begin
with songs whose words express their joy. But when joy brims over and words are
not enough they abandon even this coherence and give themselves to the sheer
sound of singing. What is this
jubilation? What is this exultant song?
It is the melody that means our hearts are bursting with feelings that cannot
express themselves. And to whom does
this jubilation most surely belong?
Truly to God who is unutterable, if words will not come and may not
remain silent what else can you do but let the melody soar? This is the song of the Holy Spirit.
On this great feast of the birth of the
Church, let us ponder anew the whole reality of the Church, from the wide-angle
view of its vastness and beauty, to the sometimes turbulent and complex
surface, zooming in finally on hope, one of the deepest manifestations of the
Spirit alive in the Church. In doing so,
we can marvel once again at the mercy and generosity of God and give thanks to
the Lord who continues to call us to fidelity and joy.
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your
faithful, and reignite in us the fire of your Love!
Make us joyful witnesses to your hope in the
Church!
Move us beyond our ideologies that divide and
blind us.
Lord, send us your Spirit, and renew the face
of the earth...
the face of our Church, the face of our local
communities, our own faces, our own hearts.
Amen.
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