Pentecost Sunday
When the Lord told
his disciples to go and teach all nations
and to baptize them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, he conferred on them the
power of giving men new life in God.
He had promised
through the prophets that in these last days he would pour out his Spirit on
his servants and handmaids, and that they would prophesy. So when the Son of God became the Son of Man,
the Spirit also descended upon him, becoming accustomed in this way to dwelling
with the human race, to living in men and to inhabiting Goad’s creation. The Spirit accomplished the Father’s will in
men who had grown old in sin, and gave them new life in Christ.
Luke says that the
Spirit came down on the disciples at Pentecost, after the Lord’s ascension,
with power to open the gates of life to all nations and to make known to them
the new covenant. So it was that men of
every language joined in singing one song of praise to God, and scattered
tribes, restored to unity by the Spirit, were offered to the Father as the
first fruits of all the nations.
This is why the
Lord had promised to send the Advocate: he was to prepare us as an offering to
God. Like dry flour, which cannot become
one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without moisture, we who are many could
not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from
heaven. Through the baptism that
liberates us from change and decay we have become one in body; through the
Spirit we have become one in soul.
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit
of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of God came
down upon the Lord, and the Lord in turn gave this Spirit to hsi Church, sending
the Advocate from heaven into all the world.
Since we have our accuser, we need an Advocate as
well. And so, the Lord in his pity for
man, who had fallen into the hands of brigands, himself-like the Good
Samaritan-bound up our wounds and left for our care two coins bearing the royal
image, entrusted us to the Holy Spirit. Now, through the Spirit, the image and
inscription of the Father and the Son have been given to us, and it is our duty
to use the coin committed to our charge and make it yield a rich profit for the
Lord. (Edited from a treatise by Saint
Irenaeus, bishop. kvs)
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