The solemnity of Pentecost

Today is Pentecost Sunday and since the gospel reading today is a bit short, I will first talk about the First Reading today, which is on Act: 2:1-11. I usually don’t discuss the first reading because of lack of space. So today is the exception, rather than the rule.

“When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his native language? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”

I have used this passage many times before, especially when I talk about my experience when I took my Life of the Spirit Seminar (LSS) where what is written in today’s first reading, I really had a personal experience… that the Holy Spirit isn’t just a figment of our imagination. He is truly with us, the fulfillment of Scripture in Isaiah that God is indeed within us.

I have also used Pentecost Sunday in my advocacy in preserving our mother tongues… our indigenous languages against the so-called ultra nationalists who insists that Filipinos should be a Tagalog speaking nation. These people have forgotten that in Genesis, God wasn’t happy that when one leader barks an order as everyone follows that person, hence they have become like unto God. So in one of the earliest references to the Holy Trinity, God didn’t say I shall, but rather he said, “We shall let them speak in different tongues so they can no longer understand each other.” And since then, men went separate ways according to their respective language.

Thus your language identifies who you are. Those who speak the Visayan language are broken into Cebuanos, Ilonggos, Karay-a or Waray. But still people insist that we should be Tagalog speakers, which we are not. As we already know, the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament, hence today’s Gospel teaches us that the Holy Spirit came not to make us all speak in one tongue or language, but that through the Holy Spirit of God, we can understand each other even if we speak in different tongues.

We now go to the Gospel for this Sunday which is in John 14:15-16.

“Jesus said to his disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always. “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

Those who do not love me do not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

In this country of 90 million Filipinos, we are perhaps 80 million strong who are Catholics. But in truth, more than half of this figure considered themselves Catholics in name only. These are the people who call themselves Catholic, but show no respect of Catholic tradition or doctrine. You can also say that they are what we call “Cafeteria Catholics” people who look at the Ten Commandments, but violate half of them, believing that they are not really God’s commandments, rather they are mere suggestions by God. In short, they only believe in the Catholic doctrines that they find comfortable.

So let me repeat what our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us in today’s gospel… “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” I submit that despite how hard we try not to disobey God, most of us are still woeful sinners because of our human frailty. I will be the first to say that we often disobey God’s commandments because of our human weaknesses.

But while God cannot dwell in us because of our sinful ways, he offers us the sacrament of reconciliation whereby if we confess our sins to the priest and he gives us his absolution, we cleansed from our state of sin and is restored to the friendship of God so he can once again dwell in us.

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