Pentecost Sunday John 20: 19-23 “Receive the Holy Spirit”
Today we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost — the memory of that first outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church, born in fear and reborn in fire. The Gospel takes us back to Easter evening, to the Upper Room, where the disciples had locked themselves in, gripped by fear and doubt. And there — precisely there — Jesus comes and stands among them.
His first words are not of reproach, but of mercy: “Peace be with you.” This is not just a greeting. These are words that forgive. Words that gather up a scattered group of disciples, who had abandoned Him, and make them a community again. A reconciled community, ready for mission. Because where there is no forgiveness, there is no mission — only division, regrets, and nostalgia for a past that cannot return. But Jesus doesn’t dwell in the past. He sends us forward: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
Then something extraordinary happens: Jesus breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” That breath, that Spirit, transforms everything. It burns away fear and lights a fire of love. It is not a harsh fire, but one of tenderness — a fire that prefers the little ones, the poor, the forgotten. It is the Spirit that sends us out, that gives us courage to leave behind our comforts, our closed circles, our “Upper Rooms.”
Dear friends, each of us has received this Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation. And with Him, His gifts — wisdom, courage, joy. The Holy Spirit does not make us afraid of God. No! He gives us holy fear — the awe of knowing we are loved beyond measure.
Let us look to Mary, Mother of the Church and Mother of mission. She was there at Pentecost. May she help us not to stay closed in, but to go out with joy, bringing the fire of the Spirit to the world. Amen.
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