From the Gospel acclamation: “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 20:19-23)
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.”
The Gospel reading for Pentecost takes place just after the resurrection of Jesus. Earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus first appears to Mary Magdalene and then to the disciples in the upper room. He wishes them peace, showing them his hands and his side so that they know it is him and not a ghost. The disciples rejoice when they see the Lord and Jesus says to them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” While Luke describes the descent of the Holy Spirit as a strong driving wind and tongues of fire, John describes the quiet outpouring of the Holy Spirit as Jesus breathes on them. The result is the same: filled with the Holy Spirit, the disciples go out to proclaim the Gospel to every nation on earth.
Father in heaven, help me understand that the accounts of Pentecost are not frozen in time as musty historical accounts of the disciples who lived long ago but relate to me today in the reality of the risen Christ in the Eucharist and in the invisible presence of the Holy Spirit. Through the saving work of Jesus your Son, he sent the Advocate as he promised, infusing the disciples with the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit. The same spirit of Truth lives today in the Father, in the Son, and in the love between them, the Holy Spirit. “Come, Holy Spirit, come! / And from your celestial home / Shed a ray of light divine! / Come, Father of the poor! / Come, source of all our store! / Come, within our bosoms shine.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.