Pentecost: our commissioning day

May 19, 2002, Feast of Pentecost

	Fr. Richard Ver Bust

There were three great feasts in the Jewish calendar of the time. They were pilgrim feasts during which many traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate past events. Pentecost was one of them. It was originally an agricultural feast celebrating the grain harvest. Later it took on the religious character of the giving of the Law at Sinai. This is why Luke is able to tell us that there were visitors from every nation present in the city. It also enables him to recall the event in Genesis which describes the eventual disorder when attempting to build the tower of Babel. Pentecost will reverse that disorder for the Spirit will bring unity through the preaching of the disciples. Luke is interested in telling us that the Spirit will transform the hearts and minds of people throughout the world. The gift of tongues, while significant symbolically, pales before the effect of bringing order out of chaos. The Kingdom of God was truly breaking into the lives of people and the final age was just dawning.

Our responsorial psalm praises God as creator and sustainer of life. Just as God had sent forth the Spirit to create this world, we now ask God to renew it. The author of Genesis, in the second story of creation, pictures God as breathing life into the newly created human. Now God breathes once more and sends forth the Spirit to bring the new life Jesus promised.

Faith is always important in the writings of Paul. Today's reading from First Corinthians has Paul reminding the Corinthians that their faith in Jesus as the Lord is really a gift of the Spirit. He tells them that the church there has received many gifts and that they are all gifts of the Spirit. Their diversity brings forth a new way of living and a recognition that all the gifts are given for the building up of the body of Christ, the Church. The radical equality he emphasizes is just as important as the differences that exist among them. We see this practically within our church even today as we work as collaborators and partners.

In the Gospel we, at first, may think that John is telling us only of the Easter event. Yet it also describes Jesus as giving the Spirit to the disciples on the evening of that Easter event. The disciples are gathered in the upper room fearful because of what had happened to Jesus. Jesus appears to them and greets them with words of peace. John tells us that Jesus breathed upon them using the same imagery that Luke did and the psalm used. In John's mind he is telling us that Jesus is giving to them the gift of the Spirit. Unlike Luke who has the giving of the Spirit 50 days after Easter, John ties the event closely to Jesus' resurrection. Luke's version is the one that dominates our thinking but John is not wrong, for theologically, the resurrection, the ascension or the exaltation of Jesus, and the giving of the Spirit are all part of the great mystery in which the story of salvation culminates.

Jesus tells the disciples, "Just as the Father has sent me, so I send you." This is what Pentecost is about. The mission of the church through the disciples is to spread the good news of God. Pentecost is our commissioning day. It tells us that we must share our wonderful gifts. This means the whole church not just those who are leaders. The challenge we are given is to create a new world and bring our gifts of peace and joy to all.

(Fr. Ver Bust holds the title of professor emeritus in religious studies at St. Norbert College, De Pere.)