Our Pentecost: Is Living in the Spirit

06-08-2025Weekly ReflectionBishop John Dolan, Diocese of Phoenix

Pentecost is the coming of the Holy Spirit that sets our spirits free. It is the Holy Spirit that removes the costumes and the masks we wear, and brings out the real goodness and freedom in each one.

In His Farewell Address, right after the last supper, Jesus promised to send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in His name. At this time, the Apostles did not understand everything that Jesus revealed to them. However, the events of the Last Supper, His Resurrection, and the various Easter moments or appearances of Jesus slowly reveal the many facets of His divine nature as the awaited Messiah. After appearing to them the last time at His Ascension, they now await the Paraklétos, the Holy Spirit.

When the risen Lord appeared to them, He gifted them with His Peace, the assurance of forgiveness, healing, and reconciliation. Jesus showed them the marks of His passion, the sign of His life’s triumph over suffering and death. As the Father has sent Him, so He sent them. He gifted them with the Holy Spirit, who transformed the frightened disciples into courageous Apostles. And as another ten (10) days passed, while they were inside the Cenacle, the upper room, they heard the sound of the strong wind, and tongues of fire appeared which rested on each of them. In the new Pentecost, 50 days after His resurrection, the Holy Spirit descended upon them.

Scripture was not clear - whether the disciples in the upper room spoke different languages or the people who listened to them received the gift of understanding that allowed them to hear words in their languages. What was clear was that at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit opened to all the people the knowledge of God, which brought many languages to profess the one faith. Now, God reversed the division of the people in the Story of Babel. In contrast, God confused the people in Babel with many languages. - At Pentecost, God removed the confusion of the people with the gift of understanding, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

More than ever, we need a new Pentecost in our time. We need the Holy Spirit in our lives to guide, heal, comfort, and counsel us. We need the Paraklétos to transform and renew us as we pray: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you will renew the face of the earth.

We know that the Holy Spirit is in us; when we have love, joy, peace, patience, endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness, and live chaste lives. And we know that we love God; if we live by the words of the Gospel today: If you love me, you will keep My Word. Lastly, the Holy Spirit is with us; if we are obedient to His Word and commandments, through FAITH and works of LOVE.

A text message said: We have a choice: to go on living in the flesh and suffer the consequences, or start living in the Spirit, and experience freedom and joy that this world cannot give, nor take away. Come, Holy Spirit! Free us from our sins and worldly attachments. Amen!