Receive the Holy Spirit

Receive the Holy Spirit

Jn 20: 19 - 23

Solemnity of Pentecost

Introduction

Today is Pentecost Sunday. It is a day when we remember how the Spirit was sent and given to the apostles. In today’s reading in the Gospel of John, the Spirit is given to the apostles with Jesus breathing on them. The Spirit is the breath of God. He is the Spirit who breathes new life to the Church.

The Gospel

(An alternative reading is Jn 14: 15 – 16, 23b – 26)

Today’s reading is taken from the Gospel of John. In John’s Gospel, the sending of the Holy Spirit to the apostles happens when the risen Jesus appears before them.

As the gospel narrates, it was evening that day, the first day of the week when the disciples met behind locked doors for fear of the Jews. Jesus had just been crucified and the trauma of his cruel and brutal death was still upon his disciples. They feared the Jews because they were afraid that they would be apprehended and be put to death just like Jesus.

Then out of nowhere, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “ Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side, indicating that it was really him; he whom they have crucified still bore the marks of his suffering.

At seeing the Lord, the disciples rejoiced. Then Jesus said to them again, “ Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. “ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “ Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. “

Reflection

Today is Pentecost Sunday. We celebrate today, the sending of the Spirit to us as a pledge of Jesus’ presence in our midst. There are different versions of the Spirit’s sending. Luke’s version is the more popular one. In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke describes the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles in quite a remarkable way. As they received the Spirit, tongues of fire can be seen resting upon their heads.

In John’s gospel, however, it is Jesus, who has just risen from the dead who  gives the Spirit to his disciples by breathing on them and saying “Receive the Holy Spirit.” John portrays to us the Spirit as one who proceeds from the risen Lord. The Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. He is one who is named by Jesus as the Advocate, the one who will teach and remind us of the things that he has said and done. The Spirit makes the presence of Jesus real in our midst.

But what seems to be remarkable in John’s account of the sending of the Spirit is the context in which the Spirit was given to the disciples. First of all, the disciples were afraid. They locked themselves behind closed doors for fear of being apprehended by the Jews. In giving his disciples the Spirit at a time when they were most afraid, Jesus is telling us that the Spirit is one who can indeed free us from all our fears whether these are real or imagined fears. The disciples assumed that they would suffer the same fate as Jesus had. But just like most of our fears, much of the disciples’ fears were most probably imagined and not real. These imagined fears that are created by our imaginative mind at times cripples us and renders us paranoid. The Spirit frees us from all these fears and anxieties and allows us to live our lives afraid of nothing and of no one.

Secondly, Jesus gives the Spirit and assures us his peace. He tells his disciples, “ Peace be with you.” The gift of the Spirit brings peace in our hearts. In the midst of a troubled world, the spirit allows us to experience the peace that Jesus himself gives. It is a peace that no one else could give; not as the world gives it, but as Jesus alone can give. The word peace comes from the word Shalom in Hebrew. Shalom is a state and a condition of well being, where one’s relationship with God, with one’s fellowmen, with oneself and with the created world is harmonious. Such a state and condition is possible only with the kind of peace that the Lord gives.

Thirdly, the gift of the Spirit brings with it the healing that comes from the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus tells his disciples, ” If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” By the Spirit’s power, the forgiveness of our sins, brought about by the Lord’s death and resurrection, is granted to us. With the forgiveness of our sins, the Lord heals the  wounds that our sins have brought upon us, restoring us once more to our original image and likeness which we have shared with God since the beginning of the world.

It is interesting too, how John describes the Spirit as the breath that comes out of Jesus. This breath is comparable to the breath of God in Genesis that gave the lifeless Adam his vitality. It is the Spirit who breathes life into everything. This is why the Spirit is also called the Life giver.

Today, we ask the Spirit to come; we ask him to come visit us so he may create a new heart and a new spirit in us. We ask him to pour out his blessings on us so that he may transform us into the image and likeness of Jesus our Lord and Savior.  

Prayer

Come Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit
and they shall be created.
And You shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.

“ For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given one Spirit to drink.” – 1 Cor 12: 13