\u201cWe hear them speaking in our tongues of the mighty acts of God.\u201d This verse captures the meaning of Pentecost. Fifty days ago, the Lord rose victorious over the grave, thus redeeming our fallen human nature. Ten days ago, He ascended into heaven, having completed His mission. And yet, there remains a problem: humanity remains divided. There remains discord and disunity among men and women, a discord that began with Adam\u2019s sin and a scattering that began at Babel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus, in order to continue bringing humanity back to God, the Lord sends His Holy Spirit. For the crowds outside the upper room did not hear babble – the word coming from \u201cBabel\u201d. They heard the \u201cmighty acts of God\u201d in their own language. The \u201cmighty acts of God\u201d may perhaps be Christ\u2019s miracles and teachings, but fundamentally the \u201cmighty acts of God\u201d are Christ\u2019s Incarnation, His Passion, death, and Resurrection. This is the essence of Peter\u2019s first sermon on Pentecost. Because if it was human ego that scattered humanity across the face of the earth, then divine condescension and grace would gather the nations once again into a pleasing offering to God in the Son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pentecost has to be seen as an extension of the Lord\u2019s recapitulation of humanity. To be recapitulated means to be \u201cbrought to a head again\u201d because, with Adam, we decapitated ourselves from God by sin. The Holy Spirit, then, allows us to be members of Christ\u2019s Body with the understanding that Christ is our Head. Because the Church\u2019s unity is not a human creation, but the gift of the Holy Spirit. And this unity serves to proclaim that \u201cJesus is Lord\u201d to all the nations, because it is for all peoples that the Son of God took on a human nature, died, and rose again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pentecost, then, is Babel\u2019s remedy. God allows us to keep our disparate languages, only to unite us in that which is not human in origin, but is certainly truly human: faith in the Son. This is because the Holy Spirit dwelt among human beings before Pentecost. St Irenaeus of Lyons says that the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ, \u201cbecoming accustomed in this way to dwelling with the human race, to living in men and to inhabiting God\u2019s creation.\u201d The Holy Spirit allows us to participate in Christ\u2019s divine sonship. Everything that the Son enjoyed with the Father while on earth is now opened to all of us. For \u201cthe Spirit accomplished the Father\u2019s will in men who had grown old in sin, and gave them new life in Christ.\u201dHappily, today is also the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin. We see in Mary a foreshadowing of the Church. Just as Mary brought the Word to Elizabeth, so the Church brings the Word to the world. And even in these times when churches are closed, the sacraments are sporadically celebrated, and fear grips faithful hearts, remember this: that on Pentecost morn, the doors were locked, the Church was gathered in deep prayer around our Lady, and they were afraid. And yet, by a sudden rush of the Holy Spirit, they were compelled to proclaim \u201cmighty acts of God\u201d from the room. For the mission of the Church to unite all peoples so that the world may be offered to the Father in Christ begins with prayer, disposing our whole being to the Lord and praying Veni, Sancte Spiritus<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Joseph Yuson <\/strong>\u2013 St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fot. Awmleer\/Unsplash.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pentecost Sunday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,18],"tags":[146,129],"class_list":["post-2278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-strona-glowna-najnowsze","category-strona-glowna-slider","tag-joseph-yuson","tag-pentecost"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n