Message from Abbot Paul - Pentecost

 A very happy Whitsun to all those reading this short message. Whitsun, of course, is the traditional English word for Pentecost, a contraction of White Sunday, the day on which the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, who were accompanied in prayer by Our Lady, pouring out on them the light and life promised by Christ before his Ascension. Pentecost, the traditional Greek and Latin name for the feast, refers to the fact that the Holy Spirit came on the fiftieth day of Easter, a Jewish feast. The Festival of Weeks is a harvest festival that is celebrated seven weeks and a day after the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. According to the Acts of the Apostles, our first reading at Mass, today is the day on which the Holy Spirit descended in a very dramatic way on the apostles. You will remember the “tongues of fire” and the fact the apostles were taken for drunks when they went out into the streets of Jerusalem proclaiming in “other tongues” that Jesus was risen from the dead.

  The interesting thing about today’s readings is that we have two quite different versions of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost takes place on the fiftieth day of Easter, as is quite clear from Acts. However, St John, true to his Christological viewpoint and the concept of “realised eschatology,” which I mentioned yesterday or the day before, sees Jesus breathing on the apostles on the evening of the first Easter Day and saying to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain they are retained.” This takes place after he suddenly appears before them in hiding behind locked doors “for fear of the Jews.” He stands among them and says, “Peace be with you.” He greets them twice and shows them his hands and his side. He then says, “As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.” Here it is Jesus himself who bestows on his disciples the gift of the Spirit, thus confirming their mission to be sent (which is what the word apostle means), just as Jesus himself was sent by the Father. They are empowered as missionaries by Jesus himself to preach a gospel of salvation and the power they’re given is the Holy Spirit. That’s not all: by receiving the Spirit, they are given the power to forgive or to retain sins. Just as Jesus was able to reconcile men and women to God, so they, in Jesus’ name and in the power of the Spirit, will continue his work, God’s work, the work that Jesus had accomplished and was now handing on to his disciples.

 Like the apostles, we too have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, at our Baptism and Confirmation, in all the Sacraments and whenever we simply open our hearts to his gentle invitation to guide and sanctify our lives. On this feast of Whitsun, let us renew our invitation that the Holy Spirit dwell in our hearts through faith. “Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth. O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.”