GOSPEL POWER |MAY 23, 2021| SUNDAY | Solemnity of Pentecost

Gospel: Jn 20: 19 – 23

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

REFLECTION

Persecuted, wounded by scandals, maligned and  marginalized in many places, the Church — born at  Pentecost — does not cease to be the Body of Christ, whose  soul and animating principle is the Holy Spirit. Made up of sinners  who are saints-in-the-making, the Church continues to be a holy  presence in the world, witnessing to the transforming power of  God, to the ongoing divine project of renewing the face of the earth.  Today’s liturgical readings give us glimpses of the multi-faceted work  of the Holy Spirit. The first reading highlights the Spirit’s work of  creating unity out of diversity, allowing a message spoken in different  tongues to be understood by all hearers. The second reading focuses  on the Spirit’s work of empowering us, believers, to live out our new  identity as God’s children. And the Gospel speaks of the Spirit as our  internal teacher and the activator of the memory of Jesus

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, thank you for keeping your promise to send us the Advocate  as our dependable companion in our journey back to the Father. Amen