Acts 2.1-11 | 1 Corinthians 12.3b-7,12-13 | John 20.19-23

Today is the Solemnity of Pentecost! We celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit to the Church by the Father and the Son. He is God the Sanctifier together with the Creator and the Savior. Seven weeks have passed since Easter, fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus. The disciples were gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem, in the company of Mary, the Mother of Jesus and the Church. This is the third glorious mystery of the Holy Rosary.

For the Jews, Pentecost was also an important solemnity, in which they celebrated the giving of the Ten Commandments to the Hebrews by God through Moses, on Mount Sinai, seven weeks after the Jewish Passover, that is, the liberation from slavery in Egypt.

Today the evangelist John tells us about the sending of the Holy Spirit by the risen Jesus to the disciples three days after His crucifixion and burial. That’s right: in the Johannine chronology, the Holy Spirit is breathed upon the Church on the very Sunday of Jesus’ resurrection. The Holy Spirit is biblically associated with the wind, the Ruah in Hebrew. The breath of the risen Jesus recalled the Creator’s breath upon Adam, formed from the dust of the earth, making him a living being (cf. Genesis 2:7). On the same occasion, the risen Jesus transmitted peace to His fearful disciples, which is one of the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit (cf. Galatians 5:22-23). ​​Finally, the authority to forgive sins was deeply related to the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Church.

Today, let us welcome the third Person of the Holy Trinity: God the Sanctifier, the Ruah, the divine breath that takes away our fear and fills us with peace, which makes the Church an instrument of God’s mercy among men.

Today, the evangelist Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles about the sending of the Holy Spirit, in fulfillment of the promise of the risen Jesus before His ascension into Heaven. The Holy Spirit came to the disciples in prayer with the Blessed Virgin Mary in the upper room in Jerusalem as a mighty wind and tongues of fire. These signs manifested the presence and power of God, just as on Mount Sinai, which smoked like a furnace amidst earthquakes and lightning and thunder in the sky, according to the Pentecost of the Jews (cf. Exodus 19:18-19). The announcement of the wonders of God made by the disciples, inspired by the Spirit, in the language proper to the different nations present in Jerusalem on that occasion is striking. This is glossolalia, or the gift of tongues, when Christians, in spiritual ecstasy, speak unknown languages ​​that are understood by others, assisted by the Spirit. 

Let us allow God the Sanctifier to write the Law of God in our hearts and strengthen and enlighten us so that we may fulfill the divine commandments in our daily lives, proclaiming with courage and creativity the wonders of God to all nations, using profound and attractive language.

Today, the apostle Paul speaks to us in his first letter to the Corinthians about the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Church. The apostle said that we were baptized in one Spirit to form one body and that, despite the diversity of ministries and activities in the Church, it is the Spirit who acts in everyone for the good of all.

Since, in the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, the Holy Spirit was given to us by the Church, let us tell everyone that Jesus is the Lord, bearing witness through faith, hope and especially charity, which is the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit. And let us grow in unity, because division is diabolical, but unity is divine. Let us allow the Spirit to make us a well-united, healthy and dynamic body, at the service of evangelization and the salvation of humanity.

May the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, full of Grace, the Lady of Pentecost, accompany us!

Today we conclude the Easter Season and tomorrow we return to Ordinary Time, its tenth week.

Local: Praia Grande - SP, Brasil

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