Daily Gospel Reflection
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May 23, 2021
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
Considering that today is my graduation day, the image of being sent into the world is remarkably timely. Needless to say, this whole year has been hectic and trying as I experienced my senior year in the course of a global pandemic. My grounding through it all was the belief that God would send me where I was needed most after graduation.
I am very grateful to continue my education at Notre Dame on the graduate level while answering the call to serve the Church in the Echo Graduate Service Program. Today’s gospel, however, reveals a fallacy in my thinking about graduation. Throughout my undergraduate experience, I had conceived of graduation as one of those few pivotal ceremonies through which God would send me out into the world. And, once sent, I would do my best to pursue holiness wherever it led me.
But such an approach is not necessarily reflective of the words that we read today. Jesus tells his apostles that he sends them now, in the present moment. His message is not a recognition of a previous action nor a foretelling of a future one, it is a description of a continuous reality. And this is a reality with which we as Christians must still engage. God does not use just a few ceremonies to send us out into the world, rather Jesus unceasingly desires to send us into the world and is always present to help us along that journey.
And with this in mind, I recognize that graduation from Notre Dame is an important day, but my vocation to grow in holiness neither begins nor ends with this ceremony. Rather, every moment of everyday we have a choice to say yes, thereby allowing God to send us into the world.
Prayer
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit instructed the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy your consolations, through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Today is the birthday of the Church!
After Jesus rose, the disciples continued to meet every Sunday morning to pray together and to remember and celebrate the resurrection. Christ was present among them until his ascension. The disciples gathered in the upper room where they shared the Last Supper with Jesus, where he appeared to them after rising, and where Thomas touched his wounds. They were hopeful, but afraid—the factions that had killed Jesus were still in power and posed a threat to them if they were to continue Jesus’ work.
On the seventh Sunday after the Resurrection, after Christ's Ascension into heaven, as the disciples gathered for prayer, a supernatural wind filled the room, and tongues of flame seemed to flicker above their heads. These were signs of a divine reality—the sending of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2:1-13).
Pentekoste, the Greek word for “fiftieth day,” was the name of a popular harvest festival in the region (crops in Palestine become ripe in May). Later, Israel adopted the feast to celebrate the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Sinai 50 days after Passover. Pentecost was one of the three festivals during which Jews from all nations were required to travel to Jerusalem.
When this crowd of people from all over the ancient world beheld the rush of wind, or heard about it from others, they gathered around the upper room. The disciples, empowered by the Spirit, went among them and spoke to them, and each heard them speak in their own native language.
It was a radical reorientation for that first community of Christians. They had been huddled around Jesus during his ministry, and were uncertain about what to do after Christ's ascension. Christ promised to be with them "until the end of the age" (Mt 28:20), but he was not with them in the way he had been before. At Pentecost, the young Church was strengthened for their mission. They were sent out into the city to proclaim Jesus’ good news—no matter the consequences—to people of every nation. More than 3,000 people who heard them that day accepted baptism as a sign of their new faith in the Lord, and they, too, received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
This outpouring of the Spirit made the Church manifest to the whole world. It marked a new era in salvation history that continues to today—an era in which Jesus works to save the world through the ministry of the Church.
This stained glass window depicting the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Mary and the disciples stands in the east transept of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, and the woodcut of Pentecost comes from the chapel at Moreau Seminary. Fragments of the upper room and the table that stood in it rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
On this feast of Pentecost, let us pray for the Holy Spirit to continue to direct us outwards to share the good news!