First Reading Genesis
11:1-9
Psalm – Psalm
32(33):10-15 ©
Second Reading – Exodus
19:3-8, 16-20 ©
Canticle – Daniel 3:52-56
©
Psalm
– Psalm 106(107):2-9 ©
Fifth
Reading – Romans 8:22-27 ©
Gospel Acclamation
The Gospel According to
John 7:37-39 ©
Sixth Reading – Acts 2:1-11
©
Psalm
103(104):1-2,24,27-30,35 ©
Seventh Reading 1
Corinthians 12:3-7, 12, 13 ©
Sequence – Veni, Sancte
Spiritus
Gospel Acclamation
The Gospel According to John
20:19-23 ©
(NJB)
The Eighth Sunday in
Ordinary Time (Pentecost) Year A
It
is the feast of Pentecost, and the beginning of the Apostolic Age.
Christians
throughout the world celebrate this day; tradition tells us that on this day we
commemorate the gift of the Holy Spirit, given by Jesus of Nazareth (Joshua son
of Joseph), to the nascent Church that was founded in his name.
For
the Church, this moment marks the beginning of a new era. Jesus has gone and care
for community of believers is now in the hands of his disciples.
The
departure of Jesus marks the beginning of the age of prophecy for the Christian
community. It is a time of discernment in which the Church evolves, becoming a
new creation. From this point forward Christianity is no longer merely a sect
of Judaism. It becomes an international movement, transcending Palestine as it
spreads throughout the Mediterranean region, North Africa and the Near East,
all the way to India and around the world.
The
Church becomes responsible for teaching the way of Jesus, the new way, preached
in new languages, in every tongues, told through new stories shaped by every
culture, and in this stories Joshua son of Joseph becomes something new, a
myth, a man of power, godlike.
In
Christian doctrine Jesus becomes God’s own self, the second person of the Holy
Trinity, the creator of the universe in whom all things exist, without whom not
one thing comes into being.
In
his time and throughout his life Jesus preached the way of love, of
service, of caring, of justice, of mercy of humility.
Remember
this always keep it in the forefront of your mind when you are reading
scripture:
God
is a God of law and order. God, the creator of the universe, God is not a purveyor
of magic tricks, God does not dabble in the supernatural or trade in miracles.
The
narrative in The Book of Acts from the reading for today must be understood
as a metaphor.
The
meaning is this:
The
Church had grown to include a great number of people from all parts of the
Roman Empire, from Egypt and North Africa, from Arabia and Persia, from all
around the Mediterranean Region, and from North and South of the Black Sea.
In
the company of believers there were speakers and translators capable of sharing
the Good News in every tongue that was known; from Ethiopia to Brittania, from
Carthage to India.
The
gift of tongues is to be understood as the blessing of a multi-national, multi-ethnic,
multi-cultural blessing. An individual possessing the gift of tongues, was
someone who had the ability to interpret between one language and another, so
that everyone gathered to hear the Gospel and the Scripture expounded on, would
be able to understand them.
The
myth of Pentecost, as related here in the Gospel of Saint John, narrates some
of the struggles of the early Church. It was written more than one hundred
years after the death of Jesus, and decades after the Romans destroyed the
Temple in Jerusalem. It was written for the Church, for John’s community, in an
era when the differentiation among Christians and Jews had concretized, when
the leaders in the new Christian movement were trying to establish their bona fides, as the true heirs of Jesus’
ministry.
These
new Christians imagined the gift of the Holy Spirit as something that was released
in a breath of ritual remembering, they imagined it as something new, something
new to them, but they were wrong.
The
Holy Spirit had always been with them, has always been with humanity, the Holy
Spirit did not suddenly come to the world with Jesus’ death and subsequent ascension.
Listen
to Jesus!
Jesus
said: let the thirsty come, your thirst will be relieved.
Do
not be confused on this point; belief is not the coin you exchange for access
to God, simply come if you are thirsty. Drink and be restored.
Jesus
call us to follow the way, and the way is life, trust him and keep
to the way.
Do
not muddle around in the rhetoric of John, do not let John’s confusion stop you
from understanding. When John attempts to qualify the hopeful message of
Christ, to circumscribe it, then John deviates from the way.
Remember
this!
The
spirit has always been with us, all things come into being in the spirit of
God, are sustained by God’s spirit and to God’s spirit all things and beings will
return, just as the rain falls to the sea.
Reflect
on the teaching of Paul:
God
is the creator of the universe; the eternal God is the first source and center
of all things. The infinite God engenders all potentialities and yet interferes
with none of them, having created the universe in freedom.
God
does not coerce creation, and yet the entirety of what is moves according to
God’s eternal purpose, and there is no contradiction in this mystery.
The
Spirit of God animates all beings, sustains all of creation throughout all
time. Pentecost is a feast that celebrates the acknowledgement of this reality,
not its instantiation at this point in time.
The
mission and ministry of Jesus is passed
on through this revelation, it is heard in the calling to love and care for, to
serve those in greatest need, to love justice and be merciful in the face of
the world’s horrors.
It
is wise and good to anticipate the coming of God. It is wise and good to desire
to be in the divine presence. Anticipate that moment, relish it, cherish it, but
remain present to the people and events that are actually occurring in the
world.
When
you are in prayer, and your thoughts are unformed, when your feelings are
unclear and no words come to your mind, or when the words that do come are
inappropriate for prayer; then be silent, quiet your mind, still the murmurs in
your heart, let go of the voices; be silent and listen.
Remember
this and be mindful: the prayers we pray for ourselves, we are called on to
pray for everyone, even our adversaries, including our most bitter enemies.
If
you pray for light and understanding, if you pray for life and peace, if you
pray for solace and grace, if you pray for healing and guidance, if you pray
for any blessing at all, make that prayer for everyone, knowing that all who
call on God will be saved.
Remember
the wisdom of Isaiah who says: in the end every knee shall bend, and every
tongue confess the name of God.
Remember
what the Psalmist wrote: Let us affirm our trust in God; that God, the creator
of the Universe is good, that God is not a partisan, that God made us in this world, and that God made
us free, God made the world itself is free from coercion.
It
is impossible to hide our sins, our guilt, our anger, and our self-loathing
from God.
All
sins are forgiven by God, though for us to forgive ourselves and for us to
forgive each other, that is a much more difficult task.
We
experience misery in our guilt until we admit our faults and ask forgiveness,
until we give up our anger and forgive those who have hurt us, we are bound by
it.
Have
faith, trust: the death of the body is not an impediment to God’s salvific
will. God will go beyond any threshold to save God’s children, including the veil
of death.
There
is nothing done that cannot be undone, nothing is impossible for the
omnipotent.
If
you follow the way Jesus encouraged then you are on the path of love and
mercy, seeking reconciliation, you are forgiving and the forgiven.
God,
the creator of the universe, God does not require or even desire our praise and
exaltations, except insofar as those praises take the form of mercy expressed
toward our fellow human beings.
Serve
God through the love and kindness you show one another. God’s salvation is
close.
Have
no fear.
The
glory of God does not come and go according to our deeds and merits.
Have
no fear; God’s salvation reaches everyone.
God,
the creator of the Universe, the God of Jesus Christ, God is the God of all
people, and Pentecost reveals this.
All
of those things which we imagine, which we hold in hearts and minds, the things
that divide us one from another, these are illusions born of fear, a lack of
trust (faith) in our neighbors, in ourselves, and in God.
We
are all the children of God, of the living God who dwells in our beating hearts.
God
speaks with the voice of love.
Remember
this!
First Reading Genesis 11:1-9
©
The
Tower of Babel
Throughout
the earth men spoke the same language, with the same vocabulary. Now as they
moved eastwards they found a plain in the land of Shinar where they settled.
They said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them in the fire.’
(For stone they used bricks, and for mortar they used bitumen). ‘Come,’ they
said ‘let us build ourselves a town and a tower with its top reaching heaven.
Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we may not be scattered about the
whole earth.’
Now
the Lord came down to see the town and the tower that the sons of man had
built. ‘So they are all a single people with a single language!’ said the Lord.
‘This is but the start of their undertakings! There will be nothing too hard
for them to do. Come, let us go down and confuse their language on the spot so
that they can no longer understand one another.’ The Lord scattered them thence
over the whole face of the earth, and they stopped building the town. It was
named Babel therefore, because there the Lord confused the language of the
whole earth. It was from there that the Lord scattered them over the whole face
of the earth.
Happy
the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
He
frustrates the designs of the nations,
he defeats the plans of the peoples.
His
own designs shall stand for ever,
the plans of his heart from age to age.
Happy
the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
They
are happy, whose God is the Lord,
the people he has chosen as his own.
From
the heavens the Lord looks forth,
he sees all the children of men.
Happy
the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
From
the place where he dwells he gazes
on all the dwellers on the earth;
he
who shapes the hearts of them all;
and considers all their deeds.
Happy
the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
Second Reading – Exodus 19:3-8,
16-20 ©
Moses Led the People Out
of the Camp to Meet God
Moses went up to God, and
the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Say this to the House of
Jacob, declare this to the sons of Israel:
‘“You yourselves have
seen what I did with the Egyptians, how I carried you on eagle’s wings and
brought you to myself. From this you know that now, if you obey my voice and
hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own, for all
the earth is mine. I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated
nation.”
‘Those are the words you
are to speak to the sons of Israel.’
So Moses went and
summoned the elders of the people, putting before them all that the Lord had
bidden him. Then all the people answered as one, ‘All that the Lord has said,
we will do.’
Now at daybreak on the
third day there were peals of thunder on the mountain and lightning flashes, a
dense cloud, and a loud trumpet blast, and inside the camp all the people
trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood
at the bottom of the mountain. The mountain of Sinai was entirely wrapped in
smoke, because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. Like smoke
from a furnace the smoke went up, and the whole mountain shook violently.
Louder and louder grew the sound of the trumpet. Moses spoke, and God answered
him with peals of thunder. The Lord came down on the mountain of Sinai, on the
mountain top, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain.
Canticle – Daniel 3:52-56
©
To you glory and praise
for evermore.
You are blest, Lord God
of our fathers.
To you glory and praise
for evermore.
Blest your glorious holy
name.
To you glory and praise
for evermore.
You are blest in the
temple of your glory.
To you glory and praise
for evermore.
You are blest on the
throne of your kingdom.
To you glory and praise
for evermore.
You are blest who gaze
into the depths.
To you glory and praise
for evermore.
You are blest in the
firmament of heaven.
To you glory and praise
for evermore.
Third Reading – Ezekiel 37:1-14
©
A Vision of Israel's Death
and Resurrection
The hand of the Lord was
laid on me, and he carried me away by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in
the middle of a valley, a valley full of bones. He made me walk up and down
among them. There were vast quantities of these bones on the ground the whole
length of the valley; and they were quite dried up. He said to me, ‘Son of man,
can these bones live?’ I said, ‘You know, Lord.’ He said, ‘Prophesy over these
bones. Say, “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. The Lord says this to these
bones: I am now going to make the breath enter you, and you will live. I shall
put sinews on you, I shall make flesh grow on you, I shall cover you with skin
and give you breath, and you will live; and you will learn that I am the
Lord.”’ I prophesied as I had been ordered. While I was prophesying, there was
a noise, a sound of clattering; and the bones joined together. I looked, and
saw that they were covered with sinews; flesh was growing on them and skin was
covering them, but there was no breath in them. He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the
breath; prophesy, son of man. Say to the breath, “The Lord says this: Come from
the four winds, breath; breathe on these dead; let them live!”’ I prophesied as
he had ordered me, and the breath entered them; they came to life again and
stood up on their feet, a great, an immense army.
Then he said, ‘Son of
man, these bones are the whole House of Israel. They keep saying, “Our bones
are dried up, our hope has gone; we are as good as dead.” So prophesy. Say to
them, “The Lord says this: I am now going to open your graves; I mean to raise
you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel. And
you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from
your graves, my people. And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live,
and I shall resettle you on your own soil; and you will know that I, the Lord,
have said and done this – it is the Lord who speaks.”’
Psalm – Psalm 106(107):2-9
©
O give thanks to the Lord
for he is good, for his love has no end.
Alleluia!
Let them say this, the
Lord’s redeemed,
whom he redeemed from the hand of the foe
and gathered from far-off
lands,
from east and west, north and south.
O give thanks to the Lord
for he is good, for his love has no end.
Some wandered in the
desert, in the wilderness,
finding no way to a city they could dwell in.
Hungry they were and
thirsty;
their soul was fainting within them.
O give thanks to the Lord
for he is good, for his love has no end.
Then they cried to the
Lord in their need
and he rescued them from their distress
and he led them along the
right way,
to reach a city they could dwell in.
O give thanks to the Lord
for he is good, for his love has no end.
Let them thank the Lord
for his love,
for the wonders he does for men:
for he satisfies the
thirsty soul;
he fills the hungry with good things.
O give thanks to the Lord
for he is good, for his love has no end.
Alleluia!
Fourth Reading – Joel 3:1-5
©
I Will Pour Out My Spirit
on All Mankind
Thus says the Lord:
‘I will pour out my
spirit on all mankind.
Your sons and daughters
shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men see
visions.
Even on the slaves, men
and women, will I pour out my spirit in those days.
I will display portents
in heaven and on earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.’
The sun will be turned
into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the day of the Lord dawns,
that great and terrible
day.
All who call on the name
of the Lord will be saved, for on Mount Zion there will be some who have
escaped, as the Lord has said, and in Jerusalem some survivors whom the Lord
will call.
Fifth Reading – Romans
8:22-27 ©
The Spirit Himself
Expresses Our Plea in a Way that Could Never Be Put into Words
From the beginning till now the entire creation, as
we know, has been groaning in one great act of giving birth; and not only
creation, but all of us who possess the first-fruits of the Spirit, we too
groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free. For we must be content
to hope that we shall be saved – our salvation is not in sight, we should not
have to be hoping for it if it were – but, as I say, we must hope to be saved
since we are not saved yet – it is something we must wait for with patience.
The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness. For
when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself
expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who
knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what he means, and that the
pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God.
Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia!
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Alleluia!
The Gospel According to
John 7:37-39 ©
'If Any Man is Thirsty, Let
Him Come to Me!'
On the last day and greatest day of the festival,
Jesus stood there and cried out:
‘If any man is thirsty, let him come to me!
Let the man come and drink who believes in me!’
As scripture says: From his breast shall flow
fountains of living water.
He was speaking of the Spirit which those who
believed in him were to receive; for there was no Spirit as yet because Jesus
had not yet been glorified.
Sixth Reading – Acts 2:1-11
©
They Were All Filled with
the Holy Spirit and Began to Speak
When Pentecost day came round, they had all met in
one room, when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from
heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting;
and something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these
separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled
with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave
them the gift of speech.
Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from
every nation under heaven, and at this sound they all assembled, each one
bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language. They were amazed and
astonished. ‘Surely’ they said ‘all these men speaking are Galileans? How does
it happen that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians,
Medes and Elamites; people from Mesopotamia, Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and
Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya round Cyrene; as well
as visitors from Rome – Jews and proselytes alike – Cretans and Arabs; we hear
them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.’
Psalm
103(104):1-2,24,27-30,35 ©
Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face
of the earth.
Alleluia!
Bless the Lord, my soul!
Lord God,
how great you are,
clothed in majesty and glory,
wrapped in
light as in a robe!
Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face
of the earth.
How many are your works, O Lord!
In wisdom
you have made them all.
The earth is full of your riches.
Bless the
Lord, my soul.
Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face
of the earth.
All of these look to you
to give them
their food in due season.
You give it, they gather it up:
you open
your hand, they have their fill.
Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face
of the earth.
You take back your spirit, they die,
returning to
the dust from which they came.
You send forth your spirit, they are created;
and you
renew the face of the earth.
Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face
of the earth.
Alleluia!
Seventh Reading – 1 Corinthians
12:3-7,12-13 ©
In the One Spirit We Were
All Baptised
No
one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy
Spirit.
There
is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit; there are all sorts of
service to be done, but always to the same Lord; working in all sorts of
different ways in different people, it is the same God who is working in all of
them. The particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a
good purpose.
Just
as a human body, though it is made up of many parts, is a single unit because
all these parts, though many, make one body, so it is with Christ. In the one
Spirit we were all baptised, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as
citizens, and one Spirit was given to us all to drink.
Sequence – Veni, Sancte Spiritus
Holy Spirit, Lord of Light,
From the clear celestial height
Thy pure beaming radiance give.
Come, thou Father of the poor,
Come with treasures which endure
Come, thou light of all that live!
Thou, of all consolers best,
Thou, the soul’s delightful guest,
Dost refreshing peace bestow
Thou in toil art comfort sweet
Pleasant coolness in the heat
Solace in the midst of woe.
Light immortal, light divine,
Visit thou these hearts of thine,
And our inmost being fill:
If thou take thy grace away,
Nothing pure in man will stay
All his good is turned to ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew
On our dryness pour thy dew
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will
Melt the frozen, warm the chill
Guide the steps that go astray.
Thou, on us who evermore
Thee confess and thee adore,
With thy sevenfold gifts descend:
Give us comfort when we die
Give us life with thee on high
Give us joys that never end.
Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Come,
Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and
kindle in them the fire of your love.
Alleluia!
The Gospel of John 20:19-23
As the Father Sent Me, So
Am I Sending You: Receive the Holy Spirit
In
the evening of the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room
where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among
them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his
side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to
them again, ‘Peace be with you.
‘As
the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’
After
saying this he breathed on them and said:
‘Receive
the Holy Spirit.
For
those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you
retain, they are retained.’
