REFLECTION FOR PENTECOST SUNDAY (YEAR C), Week beginning 5TH JUNE 2022
June 5th, Pentecost Sunday, is the end of the Holy Season of Eastertide for 2022. (‘Pentecost’ means 50. The Holy Spirit descended 50 days after the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead). The Holy Spirit’s title of Paraclete has the basic meaning ‘Helper’. He helps us always, bringing His spiritual comfort and consolations. The title has, for long, come to mean Comforter and Consoler. He is the third Person of the Holy Trinity. He is the great mutual love between God the Father and God the Son.
He was received at Baptism and later at Confirmation (the sacrament which takes its name from Baptism i.e. Confirmation, at a later stage, confirms our Baptism). The anointing oil i.e. the sacred chrism is the 2nd of the 2 oils applied at Baptism, and later it is the one oil applied at Confirmation.
Pentecost is known as the birthday of the Church. On that 1st Pentecost day, the Holy Spirit descended upon Our Blessed Lady and the Apostles in Jerusalem, taking the form of tongues of fire. (She and they, therefore, constituted the earliest Church grouping). They were empowered from on high, to preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
This event is so closely connected with Jesus’ wondrous sacrifice on the 1st Good Friday when, after His being pierced in the side, blood and water flowed from His Heart – the Saving Blood that brings about our salvation. Jesus’ triumph upon the Cross was evidenced by His glorious Resurrection within 3 days of His death. This is the very heart of the Good News which the disciples were all commissioned to preach to the nations. We too have all been given the task of proclaiming the Good News. We will do this by our example, as well as by our words.
Good Shepherd Catholic Church 