Homily for Solemnity of Pentecost

Homily for the Solemnity of Pentecost

May 28, 2023
John 20: 19-23
Villa Maria, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

Out of fear of the Jewish leaders who had executed Jesus, his disciples had locked themselves up in the upper room (cf. John 20: 19).

by Erwin Kuesthardt

Fear had moved them to flee and hide when Jesus was arrested and had moved Peter to deny knowing him.  Fear easily overrides our judgment, and our desires too.

What are we afraid of?  We fear danger.  We fear what people might think of us.  We fear the unknown.  We fear pain, suffering, and loss.  We fear death.

How many times does Jesus counsel the disciples or a divine messenger (an angel) counsel someone in the Scriptures, “Don’t be afraid”!  Those were almost the 1st words the Archangel Gabriel spoke to Mary (Luke 1:30).  In today’s gospel, Jesus doesn’t say, “Don’t be afraid.”  Rather, he wishes “shalom,” peace, to his friends, and he bestows it, emphatically, by repetition (20:19,21) and then by the gift of the Holy Spirit.

In St. Luke’s version of the bestowal of the Spirit, which was our 1st reading (Acts 2:1-11), the disciples cast away all their fear and rush out to proclaim the resurrection.

When we possess the peace of Jesus, our fears abate.  Out of our human weakness, some remnant of fear may remain.  We’re not all like Don Bosco, who wasn’t afraid for his life and went out at nite on sick calls on the pitch-black streets and lanes of Turin’s outskirts long before there was street lighting—even when enemies of the Church were lying in wait to bushwhack him.  Sometimes he was rescued by the presence of his sturdy older youths; more than once he was saved by the mysterious dog Grigio.

The saints are braver than we are, more certain that they’re in God’s hands, even when in danger from the wicked, from storms, or from illness.

But Jesus has given us another reason to have courage and be at peace.  In the gospel we heard him give the Holy Spirit to the disciples.  The disciples, in turn, share the Holy Spirit with us—in the sacraments especially; also in the sacred Scriptures, which the Church composed (thru sacred writers) and which the Church recognizes as inspired by the Holy Spirit (not every writing from 1st-century Christianity has made the cut and been recognized as divinely inspired).  Thru the sacred Scriptures the Spirit continues to speak to us, inspire us, and encourage us.

In particular, the Holy Spirit empowers the Church to forgive sins, which she does thru Baptism and Reconciliation.  Don’t we fear our sins?  Don’t they weigh on us?  Indeed, many people are afraid that God won’t forgive them, or that their sins make them unlovable even to God.  Many are afraid of death because they fear God’s judgment.

Yes, our sins themselves merit divine judgment.  But Jesus has given the Holy Spirit to the Church precisely so that the Church may continue what Jesus began:  dispelling our fears and bestowing the peace of God’s mercy.

Therefore, brothers and sisters of Jesus, welcome his mercy in the sacraments.  Don’t be afraid of what people will think if they know you’re a Christian, or what they think of the Church when it teaches the truth about human dignity, human life, and human love.  And don’t be afraid of God’s wrath.  Jesus has come from God for the forgiveness of sins:  yours and mine.