PENTECOST SUNDAY
28 MAY 2023
On
this fiftieth of the Easter Season, we hear the same account of the risen
Christ revealing himself to the disciples which we heard on Easter Sunday. That first Easter Sunday had been a busy
day. Early in the morning, Mary
Magdalene approached the tomb with a darkness of grief that matched the morning
darkness. To her surprise, the heavy
stone had been moved away from the tomb.
When she saw that the tomb was empty, she ran to Peter and the beloved
disciple to report that the body of Jesus had been stolen. Then they ran to the tomb. While Peter could not connect the dots
between the raising of Lazarus and the resurrection of Jesus, the beloved
disciple did. Then Mary Magdalene returned to the tomb to continue
her grieving. She failed to recognize
the risen Christ. Mistaking him for the
gardener, she wanted to know where they had taken her Lord’s body. When he addressed her by name, she recognized
him and worshipped him. He told her to
announce the good news to the other disciples.
Apparently,
the disciples could not believe what she had told them. They were afraid. Just as the stone had blocked any entrance
into the tomb, they locked the doors and blocked entrance into the upper room. Those locked doors do not keep the risen
Christ out, just as the stone did not prevent him from emerging from the
tomb. He gives the gift of peace twice
to his frightened disciples, just as he had promised them at the Last Supper. He had told them that their hearts need not
be troubled. They recognize him in the
wounds which are forever fixed in the act of love in which he had died. He gives the gift of the Holy Spirit and
removes their fear. That gift will give
them the courage to forgive others, just as he had forgiven them.
The original Easter Sunday is often
called the “eighth day,” because the resurrection of Jesus Christ recreates the
world. In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke
reports that the Holy Spirit is given on the fiftieth day. Just as the wind hovered over the chaos
before the first day of creation in the first chapter of Genesis, the presence
of the Holy Spirit is given to the Apostles gathered in the upper room. Just as God breathed life into the clay and
formed the first human being in the second chapter of Genesis, so the mighty
wind of the Holy Spirit is given to the Body of Christ to carry on the work of
the new creation. Just as fire shook
Mount Sinai as the people of Israel traveled to freedom in the desert, so the
Holy Spirit is given as tongues of fire to enable the disciples to speak a
language of love that everyone could understand. The confusion of tongues at the tower of
Babel is reversed through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
That same
gift of the Holy Spirit is given to us, the Body of Christ, on the Solemnity of
Pentecost. As Saint Paul reminds us,
this gift of the Holy Spirit is given for the common good, for the building up
of the Body of Christ. As members of his
Body, we all have different gifts. We
all engage in different forms of service.
The Lord works in different ways in each of us. In the Corinthian Church, people were
bragging about the individual gifts they had received. They saw those gifts as ways of building
themselves up and making them holier than others in the community. As we emerge from the Easter Season filled
with a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we cannot imitate their mistake.
The first
and best gift given on the eighth day was the gift of forgiveness. In our broken, fractured, and divided world
and Church, we need to allow the Lord to remove the heavy stone of fear that blocks
us from listening to one another and extending forgiveness and mercy. We too bear the wounds of the risen
Christ. Though the power of the Holy Spirit,
we can allow the Lord to heal our wounds by giving the gift of forgiveness.
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