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Q269: There is an “explosion” of activity in the budding Christian community, beginning with the outpouring of gifts from the Holy Spirit on this Pentecost celebration. There must be a reason?

The first thing one notices is how the “timid” and fearful disciples, gathered in prayer in a locked room, are empowered by the Holy Spirit for a purpose: to speak about the mighty acts of God (Acts 2:1-11). St. Paul later teaches that each of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given for a purpose: to empower one to act for the benefit of the common good of all (1 Cor 12:3-7).

The real purpose of such an abundance or outpouring of gifts from God becomes clear when we meditate on today’s short Gospel (Jn 20:19-23). Jesus appears to the fearful disciples and immediately gives them his peace. He then does something very significant: he shows them his wounds, which -- as Peter would later teach (1 Pet 2:24) would remind them of Isaiah’s words, “by his wounds you were healed.” Jesus then empowers them to go forth, and to be forgiving just as he was forgiving.

We hear nothing about “avenging” him because of His agony and death; we hear nothing about using “force” to spread His message; we hear no words of condemnation from his lips. Instead he shows us his wounds to remind us what he endured for our salvation, gives us the Holy Spirit, and commands us to continue his mission of loving forgiveness. Now it is our turn. We know that we have been empowered (baptism, confirmation) and have received gifts to use to benefit others. What are my gifts, and what am I doing with those gifts?

Know Your Catechism! The “mighty deeds of God” that the first “pentecostals” were proclaiming certainly included God’s mercy and forgiveness (CCC #277). By being forgiving, we share in God’s divine power (CCC #1441), because God’s grace is always the source of all forgiveness (CCC #2010). Sacramental forgiveness is God’s revealed way to become reconciled with God and with all the Church, through Baptism and Reconciliation: there is no offense that the Church cannot forgive (CCC #981-982). Do I have a forgiving heart? Do I receive Sacramental forgiveness at least monthly?

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Each heard them speaking in his own tongue

At Babel, says the Book of Genesis, God "confused the speech of all the world." Since then one of the most powerful factors keeping people apart and unfriendly is the inability of one nation to understand what the other nations are saying.

This is sad, and certainly out of harmony with God's ideal. Occasionally, He shows us that to remind us that after the resurrection of the dead the whole world will once more "speak the same language" (Gen. 11, 1).

Sometimes He hints at this by natural means. In our time, for instance, He has given us Pope John Paul II, who has a gift for learning languages. When he addresses people of the major language groups, he speaks in their own vernaculars.

God gave a miraculous gift of tongues to the Apostles on Pentecost. They spoke to the crowds of Jerusalem in their own Aramaic tongue; but those who did not speak Aramaic heard the words in their own languages: "Each of us hears them speaking in their own tongue" (Today's first reading).

Even if we are not gifted by wit or miracle to speak many languages, there is one language which we all can speak and all men can understand.

Blessed Rose Philippine Duchesne spoke this language. Rose (1764-1852) was the foundress in this country of the Society of the Sacred Heart. She spent most of her life in the United States in Missouri, teaching school to children of European background; but it was her dream to teach Indian children. Finally, in 1841, when she was 72, this devout nun got her wish, establishing a school in Kansas for Potawatomi Indian girls. Practically, she proved a failure as a teacher because she could not learn the difficult Indian language. But she could and did take care of the sick and pray for the Indians. This, the Potawatomi understood and appreciated. In fact, they called her "QUAH-KAH-KANUM-AD. Woman Who Prays Always".

People of every nation appreciate the language of love. Like Pentecost it reverses Babel.

-Father Robert F. McNamara

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Q425: The doors were locked “for fear of the Jews” (Jn 20:19-23). What was this “fear” all about?

I remember reading some time ago about a Jewish man who said, “I always keep my suitcase packed, because we Jews are always between pogroms!” A “pogrom” is violence targeted against a specific group of people. Today we almost exclusively associate the word with attacks against Jewish people or Jewish settlements. I don't know if the reading I quoted or paraphrased was said in jest, but I suspect it was also a deadly serious comment on the continued history of society's treatment of the Jewish people, and therefore a constant threat. But religious persecution between Christians and Jews really started the other way around.

John's gospel was written a couple of generations after the resurrection of Jesus. In the political economy, the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Roman army a generation earlier than his gospel. In the religious economy, the early Christians were considered a threat to Judaism because of their non-adherence to things such as ritual circumcision and various purity/dietary laws, not to mention their insistence that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. So the Christians were banned from the Synagogues. This led to a vigorous polemic between the two groups, and it shows in several places in John's gospel. Closer to the time of Jesus' passion, we saw how Saul (Paul) and other Pharisees persecuted the Christians, with Saul even following them into Syria to arrest them and bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment. Deacon Stephen had been stoned to death for defending his faith.

All of these things were foreshadowed or hinted at in the earlier conflicts with the Pharisees, and the arrest, trial and execution of Jesus the Christ. Peter showed his personal fear during that process, denying he even knew Jesus. For all of those reasons, the apostles had real cause to “fear the Judeans” (the actual Greek translation). But when Jesus appeared, his Presence brought Peace.

KNOW YOUR CATECHISM! Jesus gave the apostles his Peace, and the awesome gift of the power of sanctifying (CCC #1087): “If you forgive men's sins, they are forgiven them…” In this way they became sacramental signs of Christ. In turn, this power was entrusted to their bishop successors (ibid.).

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Q581: There seem to be a lot of themes packed into John’s gospel on this Pentecost Sunday. Which one are we to embrace as the intended message of Jesus (and John)?

Once again in a powerful sequence of events that begins in Holy Week and continues through Pentecost, we see a repeated emphasis on forgiveness. One cannot look at the cross of Jesus, and not remember our redemption through the forgiveness of our sins! That cross is the sign of our salvation, and is an additional symbol of our own call to be unconditional forgivers by imitating the love and forgiveness of Jesus.

Our gospel (John 20:19-23) is short and powerful. Jesus bestows upon his disciples the gift of peace, and then gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit. These are missionary gifts – the call is to repeat the mission of Jesus, who sends them out just as his Father had sent him. The goal: to witness to the love and forgiveness of God, as manifested in the life of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, now to be acknowledged in faith as the only Son of God.

Jesus gives them still another powerful gift, the power to forgive sins! It has to be clear to the disciples by now that the element of forgiveness is fundamental and constitutive of a truly Christian life! After all, had not Jesus taught everyone that we must ask our heavenly Father that we be forgiven to the same extent that we forgive others? Did Jesus not also say “if you do not forgive others, neither will your heavenly father forgive your transgressions” (Matthew 5:15)? With evangelist John, it appears to be more important to address the sin of disbelief that Jesus is the Son of God; this sin is a theological failure rather than moral misbehavior (SHH). So there is a real connection between today’s gospel themes of peace, empowerment by the Holy Spirit, and the mission of making the Good News known (i.e., that we have been redeemed by the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who is indeed the Son of God).

KNOW YOUR CATECHISM! Christ entrusted the ministry of reconciliation to his apostles, and this mission is continued today by their successors, the bishops. By virtue of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, they have the power to forgive sins in the name of the Holy Trinity (CCC #1461).

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