PENTECOST IS NOT a
distinctively Christian celebration.
Originally, it was an agricultural feast that celebrated the end of the
grain harvest, much like the fiesta celebration in many villages in the
Philippines in honor of St Isidore the Farmer.
Later, however, it came to be associated in the Old Testament tradition
with the Exodus and the giving of the Covenant.
In Christianity, it acquired a new significance as it became the day in
which the Spirit of Jesus was given to the Church. But even in the New Testament, the giving of
the Holy Spirit admits of various views and meanings. Of course, these differences reflect the
diversity of the theological interests of the authors. And most of us are familiar with the Lukan
account in the 1st Reading (Acts 2:1-11) whose words and images hark
back to the giving of the Law at Sinai.
For Luke, Pentecost is the day when God’s people, represented by the
disciples, were reconstituted, and empowered to mediate salvation to all
peoples.
John, however, has a different theological concern. He already exhibits a different view of the
happening by collapsing the division of the mystery into Death, Resurrection,
Ascension and Pentecost to a single Easter event For him, the Death, Resurrection and
Ascension of Jesus are bound up with the outpouring of the Spirit, for these
redemptive deeds are essentially one. And as can be gleaned from today’s Gospel
(John 20:9-23), the giving of the Holy Spirit in John signifies the
commissioning of the Church. Jesus sent
the disciples on a mission: “I send you” (20:21b). Although the commissioning is placed in a
post-resurrection setting, it really picks up a theme in the Last Supper
Discourse in which Jesus prayed for the consecration of the disciples, whom he
would send into the world (17:17-19).
In the understanding of the Johannine community, the
sending of the disciples is patterned and grounded on the sending of the Son by
the Father: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (20:21). As Jesus was accomplishing his mission in the
world, the Father was present in him, in his words and deeds: “Whoever looks on
me is seeing him who sent me” (12:45).
In the same way, those who see the disciples, the Lord’s
representatives, will also see the Son:
“He who accepts anyone I send accepts me” (13:20). Thus, Jesus is also present in the words and
deeds of the Church, which the disciples represent. The three (Father, Son, and Church) are
stitched together. In much the same way
that Jesus came to do the will of the Father, so the Church cannot detach
itself from Jesus in fulfilling its mission.
It must remain faithful to him.
The Church will accomplish its mission through the
reception of the Holy Spirit: “He
breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ (20:22b). The disciples are endowed with the Holy
Spirit who consecrates them for the mission:
“As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world;
I consecrate myself for their sakes now that they may be consecrated in the
truth” (17:18-19). Because of the
Spirit, they will even do greater things (14:12), have a more penetrating
understanding of Jesus’ teaching (14:26), and they will be able to carry out
the task even in a hostile world (15:25-26).
It is interesting to note that standing in awe at current development,
many think that the success of the Church’s mission depends on the use of
technology, money, alliance with governments, and wisdom of missionaries. Of course, these may be important. But what is decisive is the Holy Spirit. Without his power, all efforts will not
succeed. John Paul II made a similar
observation in his Novo millennio ineunte: “There is the temptation
which perennially besets every spiritual journey and pastoral work: that of
thinking that the results depend on our ability to act and to plan. God of course asks us to really cooperate with
his grace, and therefore invites us to invest all our resources of intelligence
and energy in serving the cause of the Kingdom.
But it is fatal to forget that ‘without Christ we can do nothing’ (Cf
John 15:5).” The Holy Spirit’s power
alone is life-giving. When God breathed
into the nostril of the man he formed out of the clay, Adam became a living being
(Gen 2:7).
What is the mission?
Simply to celebrate liturgy or confine itself to the sacristy, as some
critics often argue about the Church’s mission?
According to John, the Church’s mission is to continue the mission of
the Son (John 20:21). The Church does
not engage in a new work. The mission of
Jesus is simply carried out and interpreted in various times, places and
situations. As Jesus did, so the Church
must bring life: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that
whoever believes in him may not die but may have eternal life” (3:16);
“I came that they may have life and have it to the full” (10:10). The Church must bring this message of life to
individuals, communities, and the world.
By life, John of course means neither natural life nor everlasting life
but eternal life—the vital and intimate relationship with the Father and the
Son, which comes from faith in Jesus and being obedient to his word. As such, it is eschatological, and one who
receives this life dwells in the sphere where God dwells. This is life in its highest degree. What
destroys that life is not death, because it survives bodily death but sin. (This is the Johannine equivalent to the
Synoptic focus on the Kingdom of God which appears only thrice in John.) And the Church will be able to give that life
because the Spirit himself, who gives power to the Church and its mission,
gives life, and is the source of eternal life.*
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