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Pentecost Sunday
11 May 2008
Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and forever!
Dear Friends in Christ,
The glorious season of Eastertide ends with the Solemnity of Pentecost. Sacred Scripture teaches us that forty days after His Resurrection, the Lord Jesus ascended to the glory of the Father and instructed the Apostles to wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Comforter and Advocate Who would guide, teach, and direct the Church until Christ’s return in glory at the end of days. This Counselor, Who came to them ten days later, is none other than the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, God the Holy Spirit, and on the Day of Pentecost, the young Church was filled with the fire of God’s love and emboldened to announce the Gospel to the ends of the earth, beginning at Jerusalem. Each year in the sacred liturgy, the Church implores God for a renewal of this Gift of Himself in the beautiful Sequence of Pentecost, a poetic text sung before the proclamation of the Gospel. I suggest that you take time to read and meditate on this text which begs for a stirring up in us of the zeal which first inspired the Church two thousand years ago.
Next week the sacred liturgy provides a meditation on the central mystery of our religion: the one, only, living, and true God – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – is a Communion of Three Divine Persons sharing the same Divine Substance. The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity also teaches us that because we are created in God’s image we are created as persons who need communion with other persons to fulfill our nature, and this need of our nature can be fulfilled only when we enjoy everlasting communion with the Divine Persons of the Triune God.
And in two weeks, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, customarily called Corpus Christi from the Latin title of the feast. This great celebration directs us to the extraordinary gift of Christ in the Eucharist; we receive not something from Christ, but Christ Himself. The risen and glorified Jesus now adored by the angels and saints gives Himself to us under the appearance of bread and wine, and in this way, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus fulfills His promise to remain with us until the end of the world and gives us the means for genuine communion with the Triune God.
May the great mysteries celebrated at Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christi draw us all ever more fully into God’s eternal Plan of Salvation and make us more perfect witnesses of Christ to the world.
Father Newman