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Homily for the feast of
Pentecost - Year C - Jn. 20:19-23
by
Father Daniel Meynen
" On the evening of that
day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the
disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them
and said to them, «Peace be with you.» When he had said
this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were
glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, «Peace be
with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.» And
when he had said this, he breathed
on them, and said to them, «Receive the Holy Spirit. If you
forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of
any, they are retained.» "
Homily:
" Then the disciples were
glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, «Peace be
with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.» And
when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them,
«Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they
are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.» "
After ten long days of
waiting, the Apostles, along with Mary, finally received the one whom
Christ had promised to them many times: the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete,
the Comforter! Just after his Resurrection, on Easter evening, Jesus
had given the Apostles the power of forgiving sins: "He breathed on
them, and said to them, «Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive
the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they
are retained.» " But this was not sufficient to make them holy as
he and the Spirit are holy: it was still necessary for Jesus to leave
them and go to Heaven in order to open the door to them, in a manner of
speaking, and in order to send them the Spirit who sanctifies.
While the Apostles, their
successors the bishops, and, with them, all the ministers of the Church
have received the power of forgiveness of sins, they must nonetheless
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for themselves if they want to
become holy, like the Spirit who comes fortify them. The ministers of
the Lord don't lose the quality of being believers: they remain so
always, having as their model Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the perfected
image of the Church and model of all believers. For on the day of
Pentecost, the Apostles were there in the Cenacle with Mary, all of
them praying together, awaiting the coming of almighty Lord: "All these
with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers (...) When the day
of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place..." (Acts
1:14 - 2:1)
What a mystery is this
presence of Mary in the midst of the Apostles! Isn't this the very
mystery of the Church? How indeed could the believers welcome the Holy
Spirit within themselves if Mary were not there, mysteriously, to help
them in recognizing the Lord, he who is so great and so sublime in his
depth and magnificence? Truly, the Holy Spirit is great, he is
immeasurable, for as Saint Paul says: "The Spirit searches everything,
even the depths of God." (1 Co. 2:10) How then could we grasp or
understand, to any extent, this Spirit who is so great? How could we
keep him in us, when Jesus himself could not give him to the Apostles
except in the form of a breath: " He breathed on them, and said to
them, «Receive the Holy Spirit.» "
Mary is there on the day of
Pentecost! With her, all is possible! For she is "full of grace" (Lk.
1:28). In other words, Mary has in her something of the holiness of
God. She is not holy in the way that Christ is Holy, but she possesses
in her this fullness that characterizes her and that gives her a rank
so near the divinity that, through this grace which God gave her, she
became the Spouse of the Holy Spirit on the day of the Incarnation of
Word. But, if Mary was elevated so high, it was in order that the Holy
Spirit might become, through her, completely accessible to the poor
believers we are, sinners among sinners. If Mary is there on the day of
the Pentecost, it is in order that the Holy Spirit be given to us!
" «As the Father has
sent me, even so I send you.» "
Jesus was sent to us by the
Father in order to give us his Spirit of Love, at the cost of his
sacrifice on the Cross of Calvary. We too are sent by Jesus to bring
the Holy Spirit to the world, at the cost of our participation in the
unique sacrifice of Christ. This is what we are going to do
sacramentally today. Through the Eucharist, gift of the Holy Spirit, we
shall be able to unite ourselves to the sacrifice of the Cross: we
shall be able to receive the Body of Christ, who died and was
resurrected! Through the Eucharist, insofar as we shall be united to
Jesus Host, we will receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that the
Body of Christ, the Church, grows in unity and love! Let us pray to
Mary, let us ask her to help us on this day: may eternal Life, through
her, be given to us forever!
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