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Feast of Pentecost

CHENNAI : Christians celebrate May 27, 2007 as Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost means fifty days after the Feast of Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Son of God. Mary, the Mother of Jesus and the group of the disciples of Jesus receive God, the Holy Spirit, sent by God the Father, as promised by Jesus Christ. On receiving the Spirit of God, the church comes into being and starts functioning to fulfil the mission entrusted to it. It represents a community of people who trust in the Lord and who sincerely seek ways to spread the message that God loves us all, and that no one should be in despair. The arrival of God, the Holy Spirit, is presented in the Bible in the Acts of the Apostles 2, 1-11. There are some symbols used in this narrative to mark the presence of the Spirit of God in the church, the community of believers in God. Meditating on these symbols proves immensely beneficial to us.

The First symbol is a sound like a strong rushing wind filling the whole house where the disciples of Jesus, along with Mary, stayed. This implies that God enables every creature to experience His Presence. The wind blows where it blows, says the Bible. The Second symbol spoken of in this narrative is the appearance of tongues as if of fire. Fire has a fine quality of bringing people together. We make use of fire to burn all that is dry and unwanted waste in us. Fire here represents a force that unifies and purifies.

The Third symbol is language. The people gathered on the Pentecost day belong to every nation, obviously speaking in different languages. But there was the expression of wonder among them all: How is it that we hear everyone in our own tongue? God, the Holy Spirit, grants them grace to speak the language of love. These strangers are brought together. Together they form one community.

The Feast of Pentecost reminds us that we have to cultivate our talents and skills to speak the language of love. Love is imaginative. Love is to surprise everybody. Love can never shock people, under any circumstance.

Fr. A. G. Leonard SJ

in Chennai

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