“But When He Comes, The Spirit Of Truth, He Will Guide You To All Truth.”

05-19-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Manasseh Iorchir, VC

Happy Pentecost Sunday! Happy Birthday to the Catholic Church! The Feast of Pentecost comes ten days after the Ascension of our Lord, and fifty days after we celebrated His Resurrection at Easter. God the Father and the Son chose to send the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles on Pentecost Sunday in fulfillment of the promise made by the Son to His Disciples, in order to embolden, animate and empower them to witness to the Truth without fear. It was on the day that the Church, the Assembly of the new people of God, was birthed even though Jesus had long conceived and nourished it with His teaching while he ministered here on earth.

The Holy Spirit, who descended on the Disciples at Pentecost, is the Third Person in the Most Holy Trinity. He proceeds from the Father and the Son. He is distinct from the Father and the Son, yet He is what the Father is and what the Son is. Scriptural references abound that demonstrate the existence and activity of the Holy Spirit. In the second verse of the Book of Genesis, the Bible recounts that after God made the world which was a formless void, His Spirit (wind) hovered over the waters. When God was about to make man, He consulted with other distinct entities (Gen 1:26). The second account of creation recounts that it was with His Holy Spirit (the Breath of Life) that God animated man who, until then, was lifeless (Gen2:7). The Holy Spirit accompanied the redeemed people of Israel on their way from the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of the promised land in the form of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Ex 13:21-22).

When Israel possessed the promised land, God always sent the Holy Spirit to guide their judges and leaders. When their request to have a King so as to be like other na ons was granted by God, Saul, the first monarch ordained for them by God, was so empowered by the Holy Spirit that he began to prophesy (1 Sam 10:10). When Saul committed the sin of disobedience, God took away His Spirit and allowed an evil spirit to torment the rejected monarch. This may have been the reason why David, who succeeded him, pleaded earnestly for God not to deprive him of the Holy Spirit when he sinned against God (Psalm 51:11). It was with the same Holy Spirit that all the true prophets were anointed and empowered to function.

In the New Testament, the incarnation itself happened by the power of the Holy Spirit (Lk 1:35). When Mary, who had conceived Jesus in her womb, met Elizabeth in the hill country of Judea, Elizabeth was full of the Holy Spirit as soon as Mary greeted her (Lk 1:41). It was the same Holy Spirit that descended on Jesus in the form of a dove after He was baptized by John in the River Jordan (Lk 3:22).

In His farewell speeches addressed to His disciples, Jesus promised them the Holy Spirit if they would love Him and keep His commandments (Jn 14:15-31). He added that the Spirit of truth would empower and teach them all truth (Jn 16:13). When He rose from the dead, He empowered His Apostles with the “breath” of the Holy Spirit to forgive sins in His name (Jn 20::23) and as He prepared to ascend into the heavenly realm, the Divine Redeemer instructed the Disciples to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the coming of the advocate. The feast we celebrate this day is the consequence of their obedience to this Divine instruction, an indication that if we too are obedient to Christ and keep His law of love, He will send us the Holy Spirit again, not just to animate and empower us but to also renew us and the face of the earth.

May God’s Holy Spirit find habitable space in us so that He can use the facility of heart as catalysts of love, forgiveness and peace in a world that yearns for renewal like the deer longs for running streams.

Please be kind and may God bless you.

Fr. Manasseh