5 June 2022: Solemnity of Pentecost: day C

Lectionary note: Pentecost celebrations

The Lectionary presents two sets of readings for Pentecost Sunday: the Vigil/Extended Vigil of Pentecost or Pentecost Sunday. This commentary uses the optional Year C readings for Pentecost Sunday.

Reading 1	Response	Reading 2	Gospel
Acts 2:1-11	Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34	1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13 or Rom 8:8-17	Jn 20:19-23 or Jn 14:15-16; 23b-26
RCL: Acts 2:1-11		RCL: 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13	RCL: Jn 20:19-23 or Jn 14:8-17 (25-27)

Eastertime: the Spirit’s gifts of revelation and relationship

Pentecost, the final day of the Easter season, celebrates the gift of the Spirit to the ekklesia. Throughout Eastertime, Jesus has appeared to his disciples, revealed his continuing presence and care, given a command to love, and taught about the Paraclete. The Pentecost readings ask us think about how we see and experience the Spirit though the believing community.

First reading (Acts 2:1-11)

Throughout the Easter season, the first reading is a semi-continuous reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Luke’s continuing story of how the ekklesia spread from Jerusalem to Rome. In today’s pericope, Luke describes the outpouring of the Spirit on the believing community during the Jewish feast of Pentecost, which commemorates God’s gift of Torah at Sinai. Luke uses images of sound (“rushing wind”) and fire (“as tongues of fire”) to connect the giving of Torah with the giving of the Spirit. Pentecost fulfills Jesus’ repeated promise and prophecy that the disciples would receive “power from on high” (Acts 1:8). Although it’s easy to get lost in the theophany’s external pyrotechnics, the Spirit’s outpouring focuses on the disciples’ personal spiritual transformation, which empowers them to proclaim “the mighty acts of God.” The “Jews from every nation” refers to Jews from the diaspora who had returned to live in Jerusalem. These returned exiles hear the disciples’ speaking in their “own languages,” announcing the good news of salvation. The Lectionary editors chose this final Acts reading to show the risen Lord’s continuing work in and through the ekklesia.

Second reading (Year C alternate: Rom 8:8-17)

The second reading is from Paul’s letter to the Rome ekklesia. Paul wrote this letter, his last and longest, in 58 AD to introduce himself and his ideas to Rome’s believing community ahead of his planned visit. Paul reflects systematically on God’s freely offered salvation through Christ as an unearned gift, not achieved by human effort or accomplishment. In today’s pericope, Paul compares the “two ways” of living: either in the flesh (in slavery to sin, hostility to God, spiritual death) or in the spirit (in the freedom of God’s spirit, right relationship with God, eternal life). Those who have been baptized live “in the spirit” and experience the indwelling of “God’s Spirit.” As a consequence of the Spirit’s indwelling, disciples live in confident hope that they, like Christ, will be raised (“[God] will give life to your mortal bodies.”) Jesus’ transformative death and resurrection has broken death’s hold on humans (“we are not debtors to the flesh”). Humans now can choose a life, either of “the flesh” (“you will die”) or of “the Spirit” (“you will live”). Paul explains that all who are “led by the Spirit” are God’s children and also heirs to God’s promises. In baptism, God invites a believer into a personal relationship (using the metaphor of adoption as God’s son or daughter) and pours out God’s Spirit on the believer. Through the Spirit, a believer confidently addresses God as “Father,” and even more intimately as “abba” (in English, “daddy”), Jesus’ Aramaic word for the Father. (The early Christians treated the abba tradition with great reverence and resisted translating it.) God’s adoption makes a believer also a future inheritor (“heir”) of God’s eschatological blessings and Christ’s resurrection and glory (eternal life), the basis for Christian hope. The Lectionary editors chose this reading to highlight the Spirit’s work in salvation and role in the divine-human relationship.

Gospel (Year C alternate: Jn 14:15-16; 23b-26)

John’s gospel reading is from Jesus’ Last Supper farewell discourse. In today’s pericope, Jesus connects the Paraclete with God’s continuing love and care.

• Remaining-in-relationship. For a disciple who “loves” Jesus and “keeps his commandments” (love one another as I have loved you), Jesus promises that he “and the Father will come and make a dwelling” with that person in an endless presence. The Greek verb μένω/menó means “to remain” or “to abide” or “to remain-in-relationship.” The disciple who loves will know and share oneness with the Father and the Son and experience God’s continuous life-giving love.
• Continuing revelation of God. Jesus also promises that, after his physical departure, the Father will give “another” Paraclete or Advocate. Jesus is God’s first Paraclete; Jesus’ incarnation, life, and transformative death and resurrection has revealed God, and he is the human revelation of God. The second Paraclete is a teacher (“teach you everything”) and a witness to Jesus (“remind you of all that I told you”), who represents Jesus’ continued presence on earth forever (“to be with you always”). The Paraclete continues God’s revelation to the world through the believing community’s witness (loving one another).

Summary and reflection

Jesus’ resurrection has many meanings and many implications. Throughout the Easter season, the readings have invited us to reflect on this cosmos-changing event. Acts dramatically shows the Spirit poured out on and empowering the disciples. Paul describes a disciple choosing life in the Spirit, empowered to call God “abba” without fear. Jesus promises disciples who love a mutual indwelling relationship and an advocate who will continue his presence and mission through the community.

The Spirit is more than flashy fireworks; the Spirit is continuous presence, revelation, and transformation. Do we use the Spirit’s empowerment to witness to the world in words and actions that the world understands? Do we choose to live in the Spirit and reject words and actions that promote death? Do we love one another and invite the Spirit’s indwelling in our lives and our communities?

—Terence Sherlock

26 April 2020: Third Sunday of Easter

Reading 1	Response	Reading 2	Gospel
Acts 2:14, 22-33 RCL: Acts 2:14a, 36-41	Ps 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11	1 Pt 1:17-21 RCL: 1 Pt 1:17-23	Lk 24:13-35

Recognizing Jesus’ continuing presence in the community

During the Easter season the readings ask the believing community to examine the meaning of Jesus through his teachings and post-resurrection appearances. This week’s readings focus on how Jesus continues to reveal himself to disciples.

The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles is part of Peter’s Pentecost speech. Peter explains that Jesus’ resurrection has caused the Pentecost event. He traces Jesus’ life, concluding with Jesus’ execution at the people’s command (“you killed”) and God’s mighty act (“God raised him up.”) As proof of Jesus’ messianic identity, Peter cites Ps 15:8-11. Peter’s interpretation relies on his Jewish hearers knowing that David wrote the psalms; as king, David was “God’s anointed;” God promised David an “eternal dynasty” though David’s descendants; and that what David wrote in the psalms refer either to David himself or his descendant (the messiah). Peter shows this psalm doesn’t refer to David because David died (“his tomb can still be seen”); the psalm must refer to David’s descendant, the messiah. The messiah is the one experiencing resurrection. The Lectionary editors chose this reading because Peter interprets Hebrew scripture to foretell Jesus’ resurrection, as described in the gospel.

The second reading from the first letter of Peter, written in the late first century. The author reminds his hearers that while baptism enables a disciple to call God “Father,” God remains awesome and mysterious. As the sole source of all life and being, God alone can judge humans “according to each one’s works.” Throughout her or his life (“sojourning”), a disciple must live in holiness (“with reverence”), because God redeemed (“ransomed”) everyone from sin (“futile conduct”). By calling Jesus a “spotless, unblemished lamb,” the author connects the Passover images of God liberating Israel from Egypt; God ransoming Israel from slavery; and Jesus, as Passover lamb and God’s servant, redeeming humans from sin and death. God planned Jesus and his work “before the world’s foundation,” but Jesus was revealed to disciples “in the final time,” that is, the time between Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and his return in glory at the parousia. Because God raised Jesus, disciples have a sure basis for hope and faith in God. The Lectionary editors chose this reading because of its baptismal, paschal, and resurrection themes.

Luke’s gospel finds two sad and confused disciples leaving the believing community. Luke uses the “journey,” the “road,” or “the way” as a metaphor for discipleship. In this story, Jesus teaches the lost disciples how to recognize him.

• “Breaking open” the scripture. The risen Jesus teaches the disciples the proper way to interpret the Torah texts. Luke makes it clear that to believe in Jesus requires a proper understanding of the scripture. Luke’s phrase “all that the prophets said” implies that the proper understanding for Jesus’ disciples is that all Hebrew scripture bears a prophetic, messianic significance. Jesus’ interpretation of Hebrew scripture is the model for all apostolic teachers who use proof-texts in their preaching.

• Breaking the bread. The ritual pronouncement “take, bless, break, and give” echo Jesus’ words at the feeding of the five thousand (Lk 9:16) and at the Last Supper (Lk 22:19). When they see and hear this ritual formula, the disciples suddenly recognize Jesus’ presence with them. Luke wants his hearers to recognize how something of the same kind happens in their Eucharistic gatherings, in which the meaning of scripture is also made clear.

Luke’s appearance story shows how telling and reinterpreting builds both a community narrative and the community itself. In his gospel, Luke unites scattered appearance fragments of the women on Sunday morning, Peter, other visitors to the tomb, and the Emmaus disciples into a single, shared narrative: the Lord is risen.

Jesus’ resurrection has many meanings and many implications. The Easter season lasts six weeks, allowing us time to reflect on this cosmos-changing event. Peter’s Pentecost proclamation reveals the risen Jesus foretold in scripture. The author of Peter’s letter uses the Exodus story to explain Jesus’ redemptive act. At Emmaus, Jesus reveals how he remains present to and in the believing community. How does Jesus reveal himself to us? Are we startled and awe-filled by our sudden encounters with Jesus in our travels? Have we learned to find Jesus in words and sacraments? Do we reveal Jesus through our own community’s stories?

—Terence Sherlock