PENTECOST

And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire.

ACTS 2:1-11

THE FEAST OF PENTECOST

The feast of Pentecost is one of the three great pilgrimage festivals of the Jews. The other two are the Passover and the Feast of Booths/Tents.It is celebrated 50 days after the Passover. For this reason it was called the Feast of Pentecost by the Hellenistic Jews (Jews influenced by Greek culture).

It was also called the Feast of Weeks or Shavuot. 7 days x 7 weeks = 49. You begin counting on the second day of the Passover and on the 49th day is the Feast of the Shavuot.

The feast of Pentecost had two other names: the Feast of the Grain Harvest and the Feast of the First Fruits. Obviously the feast of Pentecost was a feast celebrating the harvest.

Later on the feast came to be associated with the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai and with the birth of the Jews as a nation.

The Jewish feast of Shavuot or Pentecost became a Christian feast because on this day the Holy Spirit came down upon the Christian community as promised by Jesus. Just as the Jewish feast of Pentecost commemorates the giving of the Law so the Christian feast of Pentecost commemorates the giving of the Holy Spirit. Just as the Jewish feast of Pentecost commemorates birth of the Jews as a nation, so also the Christians feast of Pentecost commemorates the birth of the Christian community as a church.

TWO PENTECOST EVENTS

The New Testament recounts two Pentecost events, that is, two occasions when the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples. The Gospel of John reports that on the evening of Easter Sunday, Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to his disciples. Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive they are forgiven them. Whose sins you retain, they are retained.

The Acts of the Apostles recounts a second time when the Holy Spirit was given. While the giving of the Holy Spirit in John’s gospel was in a quiet, subdued manner, the giving of the Holy Spirit in the Acts happened in a dramatic fashion.

PENTECOST IN THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire.

Jesus commanded his disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they are clothed with power from on high. Jesus was speaking about the Holy Spirit. By manifesting himself as a strong driving wind, the Holy Spirit showed his coming as the coming of one who is powerful.

It then took the form of tongues of fire in order to manifest himself as the source of the gift of speaking in different languages.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different ton-gues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Hearing the apostles speaking in different tongues was not entirely strange to the Jews for the OT prophets did the same. In the early Church and even today in the charismatic renewal, there were Christians who spoke in an ecstatic state.

But the more important intent of the Acts of the Apostles was to show that the Holy Spirit re-established the unity which was lost with the building of the tower of Babel and at the same time, pre-figures the universal mission of the Apostles.

We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs.

The nations mentioned here represent the known inhabited world at the time. The direction of the enumeration is fom East to West with Judea at the center.

MOTHER'S DAY

ONE little boy came up to his mother in the kitchen one evening while she was fixing supper, and he handed her a piece of paper that he had been writing on. After his mom dried her hands on an apron, she read it, and this is what it said:

• For taking care of the garden – P 50.00
• For cleaning up my room this week – P25.00
• For going to the store for you – P10.00
• Baby-sitting my kid brother while you went shopping – P 30.00
• Taking out the garbage – P 10.00
• For getting a good grades in the report card – P 100.00
• For cleaning up the bathroom – P 50.00
Total: P 275.00

His mother looked at him standing there expectantly. So she picked up the pen, turned over the paper he'd written on, and this is what she wrote:

• For the nine months I carried you while you were growing inside me, No Charge.
• For all the nights that I did not sleep because you were sick, No Charge.
• For feeding you, cleaning you up, and dressing you, No Charge.
• For sending you to Kindergarten, No Charge.
• For buying you toys, No Charge.
• For all the trying times, and all the tears that you've caused through the years, No Charge.
Total: P0.00

Today is Mother’s Day. Today we acknowledge the love our mothers have been giving us through the years. Today we say to them: Thank you

BLESSING FOR MOTHERS

Holy God,
You compae you own love for your people
To the love of a mother for her children.
Look with kindness on these mothers,
Give them comfort in moments of sorrow,
And joy in their work for their families.

Listen to their prayers,
And bless + them in all they do for you.
Let them share with Jesus your son
And Mary our mother
In the everlasting happiness of heaven.

Father,
We ask this grace
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

5TH SUNDAY OF EASTER (C)

Now is the Son of Man glorified.

Jn 13:31-33a, 34-35

Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him,God will also glorify him in himself.

Jesus glorifies the Father through his obedience even unto death.

The Father glorifies Jesus by sharing with him his eternal glory. How? By means of his Resurrection and Ascension.

I give you a new commandment: love one another.

The Synoptics speak of love of neighbor. Jesus here speaks of mutual love—loving one another in the community. The early Christians so carried out this commandment that pagans were forced to exclaim: “See how much they love one another!”

This mutual love in the Christian community becomes the sign of the presence of Jesus not only in the community itself but also in the world.