Scripture Reflection for Pentacost Sunday

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday. The readings are from Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34; 1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13; and John 20:19-23.

This may seem like an end-of-the-school year cop out, but for this week’s reflection, I want to share part of Pope Leo’s homily from Pentecost last year. I absolutely love the Holy Father’s words here. It’s fitting to end the year with them because I went back and reflected on these sentiments throughout this school year. I pray that this Sunday is an overflowing of the Holy Spirit for you and that you enjoy a summer of rest and recreation! Sincerely, thank you for the opportunity to serve you through Delone Catholic. I am so humbled by those who share that they read and enjoy these reflections. Praise God that He continues to give me inspiration!

“Here we have an eloquent image of Pentecost, one that I would like to pause for a moment and reflect upon with you. The Spirit opens borders, first of all, in our hearts. He is the Gift that opens our lives to love. His presence breaks down our hardness of heart, our narrowness of mind, our selfishness, the fears that enchain us and the narcissism that makes us think only of ourselves. The Holy Spirit comes to challenge us, to make us confront the possibility that our lives are shrivelling up, trapped in the vortex of individualism. Sadly, oddly enough, in a world of burgeoning ‘social’ media, we risk being ever more alone. Constantly connected, yet incapable of ‘networking’. Always immersed in a crowd, yet confused and solitary travellers. The Spirit of God allows us to find a new way of approaching and experiencing life. He puts us in touch with our inmost self, beneath all the masks we wear. He leads us to an encounter with the Lord by teaching us to experience the joy that is his gift. The Spirit also opens borders in our relationship with others…We then become capable of opening our hearts to our brothers and sisters, overcoming our rigidity, moving beyond our fear of those who are different, and mastering the passions that stir within. Finally, the Spirit also opens borders between peoples. At Pentecost, the Apostles spoke the languages of those they met, and the confusion of Babel was finally resolved by the harmony brought about by the Spirit. Whenever God’s ‘breath’ unites our hearts and makes us view others as our brothers and sisters, differences no longer become an occasion for division and conflict but rather a shared patrimony from which we can all draw, and which sets us all on journey together, in fraternity.”