The Sánchez Archives PENTECOST YEAR A

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

THE X-FACTOR

ACTS 2:1-11
1 CORINTHIANS 12:3-7, 12-13
JOHN 20:19-23

One way of understanding and appreciating the power and significance of the feast of Pentecost is to engage in a before and after type of reflection. A glance at the first reading for the Vigil of Pentecost may serve as a starting point. Genesis 11:1-9 recounts the story of Babel. As part of the primeval history (which is not history per se but a theological and philosophical explanation of the origins of the world and humankind, its relationship to God, its institutions, blessings, burdens, flaws and divisions), the Babel narrative should not be pressed for literalness or facticity. Rather it represents one of several poetic explanations (in the primeval history) of the consequences of human arrogance and self-sufficiency. Refusing to accept their place in the universe in obedience to their creator, and rather than heed his loving overtures, sinful humanity chose to create its own world set apart from God: “Let us build ourselves a city and a tower. . . and so make a name for ourselves” (Genesis 11:4).

As a result, people who had formerly been united, speaking the same language in mutual acceptance and understanding, were scattered. Their language was confused; they no longer understood one another and as a result of this division, there was great discord. By means of the Babel narrative, the ancient author offered a dramatic explanation for the disorder he perceived in his world, tracing it to human sinfulness and rejection of God.

Seen alongside the first reading for Pentecost (Acts 2:1-11), believers can readily perceive the contrast with Babel. If Babel invites believers to consider the human condition as a result of sin, before the personal intervention of God, Pentecost represents the after part of the equation. After Jesus healed the divisions created by human weakness and through the power of his abiding Spirit with the church, people who had formerly been alienated from one another by reasons of their differing ethnicities, languages, genders, etc. were now drawn together. Where confusion and division had once prevailed, now there was understanding and cooperation. Distrust and mutual suspicion were uprooted to make room for the Spirit’s gifts of harmony and peace.

In the typological art of the late Middle Ages (e.g., the Speculum Humanae Salvationis) the Tower of Babel is depicted in conjunction with the Pentecost experience of the Spirit. “The parallel is based on an early literary and pictorial tradition alluded to in homilies and sacramentary texts of the Feast of Pentecost in both East and West.” (New Catholic Encyclopedia, Jack Heraty and Associates, Inc., Pallatine, Illinois: 1981).

Another before and after scenario, which leads itself to understanding the impact of the Spirit, can be found in a consideration of the followers of Jesus. Before the Christ-event (Jesus’ passion, death, resurrection, ascension and gift of the Spirit), the disciples were not clear as to Jesus’ identity or his purpose. Their expectations concerning the divine plan of salvation were generally confined to Israel and the chosen people. Their ideas of holiness were bound up with faithful observance of the Law, dietary regulations and the prescriptions regarding moral and ritual purity. When distrust of Jesus degenerated into open hostility and his demise was certain, the majority of his followers abandoned him, disappointed at what they had hope he would accomplish and fearful for their own lives because of their association with him.

But after they experienced Jesus’ risen and continued presence in the gift of the Spirit, the disciples were transformed. They believed in Jesus and understood that he had been sent for the salvation of all peoples. They began to comprehend that holiness meant conforming themselves in love to Jesus and living each day in fullest union with him. They began to recognize the gifts that had been given to each of them and to use these gifts for the service of the body of Christ which is the church (second reading), Despite the mistrust and hostility which could have crippled them before the Christ-event, they became courageous in the cause of the gospel and made their own the mission of forgiveness and reconciliation which Jesus had begun (gospel). Martin Dibelius (1883-1947) once explained that even the most cynical reader of the New Testament would have to postulate an “x-factor” to account for the radical change in the disciples. Today we celebrate that “x-factor” as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all who have been redeemed through Jesus’ saving death and resurrection.

ACTS 2:1-11

Careful readers will notice what may appear to be a conflict between Luke’s portrayal of the gift of the Spirit (first reading) and the Johannine version of the same event (gospel). Luke has separated the event of Pentecost from Jesus’ resurrection by fifty days whereas the Johannine author portrayed Jesus as risen and imparting the Spirit on the same day, viz. Sunday, the first day of the week. Liturgically and pedagogically, Luke’s version is simpler to celebrate and understand, but in truth, John’s presentation is the more theologically sound. Recall the fact that the outpouring of the Spirit, an event which fulfilled the prophets’ promises (Joel 3:1, Ezekiel 36:27) was inextricably bound to the reality of the resurrection. Moreover, the imparting of the Spirit was not a unique, irrepeatable event, which could be associated with only one particular date, place or time. Through the accomplishment of the Christ-event, the Spirit was unleashed as a continuous, powerful and effective presence.

By associating the gift of the Spirit with the Jewish feast of Shevuoth (Hebrew for Weeks), Luke was able to illustrate more clearly the significance of Pentecost for believers. Initially an agricultural feast celebrating the grain harvest, Shevuoth was later historicized or associated with a significant event in Israel’s history; in this case, with the gift of the Law at Sinai. Just as the norm which guided the lives of the ancient Israelites was received amid loud noises and fire (Exodus 19:16, 18) so did Luke indicate that the new Guide, sent by Jesus to his own, was experienced in a similarly dramatic atmosphere (Acts 2:2-3).

There is also something to be learned from the seven week time period between Easter and Pentecost. No doubt, Luke wished his readers to remember the ancient Jewish tradition that Moses and those he led from Egypt traveled seven weeks from Egypt to Sinai. According to the same tradition, the pilgrims to freedom spent those seven weeks being formed by God through the mediation of Moses; the gift of the law at Sinai was understood as divine approval of their efforts. In observance of this tradition, contemporary Reformed Jews observe the seven weeks between Pesach and Shevuoth as a period of intense religious formation for their youth; on Shevuoth, the young people affirm their willingness to accept and live the principles of the Torah or law. Perhaps Luke wished his readers to recognize their need for continual formation through the power of the Spirit and to regard the period after Jesus’ resurrection (a period which continues to this day) as a time of ongoing mystagogia.

With the portrayal of the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost, Luke indicated that what he perceived to be the third and final period of salvation history, viz. the Period of the Church, had begun. Lucan scholars believe that the evangelist distinguished three periods or phases of salvation history and underscored the presence of the Spirit as the source of continuity among these periods. The Spirit was present “as the creative and prophetic presence of God in the Period of Israel, prior to and at Jesus’ birth (Luke 1:15, 35, 41, 67; 2:25-26); in the Period of Jesus, guiding his ministry (3:22, 4:1, 18); and in the Period of the Church, poured out on the Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem (Acts 2:4) and later on Gentile converts (Acts 10:44-48)” (Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke, Vol. 28A, Anchor Bible Series, Doubleday and Co. Inc., New York: 1981).

Wise teacher that he was, Luke was careful to balance the sensational and charismatic aspects of the Spirit’s abiding presence, e.g. fire, wind, glossolalia (gift of tongues), healings and exorcisms, with the routine and even mundane aspects of the Spirit’s influence as evidenced in the hard work and committed service of the growing church. In his commentary on this text, Joseph G. Donders compared the dramatic effects of the Spirit to fireworks. “But fireworks never carry the day. Fireworks lit up the night very beautifully but only for a fleeting moment. . . Before the story of Pentecost in Jerusalem was over, the apostles were in the streets working. . . breaking through the structures that kept them and the world in which they lived captive in all kinds of undesirable bondages.” (The Peace of Jesus, Orbis Books, Maryknoll: 1983).

Today we celebrate and are renewed in every sign of the Spirit’s presence, from fireworks to hard work.

1 CORINTHIANS 12:3-7, 12-13

Authenticity and unity were two of the challenges which daily confronted the earliest generations of believers in Jesus, and which today, continue to loom large among the church’s most pressing concerns. At the time Paul wrote to the community on Corinth, other preachers and self-proclaimed spirit-filled individuals were actively seeking a following. To aid his readers in discerning authentic spirits from false or pseudo-spirits, Paul set forth the following criterion: “Nobody speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be accursed’.” (1 Corinthians 11:3a). The positive formulation of this criterion introduces today’s second reading.

Before they came to believe in Jesus, Many of the Corinthians were involved in idol worship and mystery religions wherein the experience of an ecstasy authenticated the cult. But, as Paul has indicated, for Christians, authenticity is affirmed by the presence of the Holy Spirit and the believer’s conscious and deliberate cooperation with the Spirit in professing of Jesus as Lord.

With regard to the challenge of maintaining a unity within the pluralistic community of believers with their diverse gifts and ministries, Paul also referred his readers to the Holy Spirit. Unlike the pagan cults which consulted a variety of gods, each of whom “specialized” in a different charism, Christians look to the Holy Spirit as the common source of all good gifts. Moreover, each gift is bestowed for the good of the community (vs. 7) and not for the aggrandizement of the individual.

Paul’s image of the one body with its many members working in harmony (vss. 12-13) was evocative of images familiar to his Greek readers. The Stoic philosopher Zeno (332-264 B.C.E.) used similar metaphors in his teaching. Gnostic thinkers ascribed to the myth of the cosmic redeemer, whose body was comprised of the saved. But when Paul referred to the Christian community as “the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27), he appears to have used the genitive in the sense of possession (e.g. body of, or belonging to Christ) and not in the sense of identification (e.g. body of Christ meaning the body which is Christ).

Another image which probably sprang to mind when Paul appealed for unity among the members of the body of Christ was the temple of Asclepius at Corinth. Recent excavations have unearthed terra cotta reproductions of body parts which were left on the temple grounds as testaments to healings attributed to the god. Jerome Murphy O’Connor has suggested that “the dismembered limbs displayed in the Ascleion were symbols of everything that Christians should not be: dead, divided, unloving and unloved” (St. Paul’s Corinth, Michael Glazier, Inc., Wilmington: 1983). Although their life before Christ may have been so described, those who belong to Christ and who have received his Spirit should there after be characterized as alive, united, loving and loved.

JOHN 20:19-23

Before his departure from them, the Johannine Jesus had promised that the work of the Father, which he had made his own (John 17:4) would not be abandoned (17:18, 14:12-44). In his gospel, the evangelist has illustrated how that work would continue; through their anointing with the Spirit, the disciples were graced and commissioned for the task of reconciling sinners to God. The peace and forgiveness which Jesus’ death and resurrection had made accessible would continue to be made available through the diverse gifts and ministries of the body of Christ, the church.

By so closely associating the first of his resurrection appearances with the gifts of pardon and peace, the Johannine author indicated that Jesus’ once and for all victory over sin and evil was being shared with his disciples. Later theologians would cite this text as a source for understanding the renewal of that victory through sacramental reconciliation; in other words, the pardon and peace wrought by the Christ event can also be experienced in the purifying and healing sacramental ministries of the church.

Today’s gospel could also be understood as a dramatic affirmation that Israel’s prayers had been answered and its prophetic promises had been fulfilled. Generations of those who had awaited God’s saving intervention had petitioned, “A clean heart create for me, O God. . . and your holy Spirit take not from me. . . Give me back the joy of your salvation. . . I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall return to you” (Psalm 51:12-15). Those who prayed in this manner also hung their hopes on the prophet’s words: “I will give you a new heart and place a new Spirit within you and you shall live by my words” (Ezekiel 36:26, 27). When the risen Jesus suddenly appeared among his disciples and breathed into them his Spirit, he was reproducing the creative act of Genesis 2:7. The breath of Jesus imparted new life to those he had redeemed; it also sent forth on mission those who were to proclaim the good news of salvation.

As the participants at the second Vatican Council observed, throughout the ages the Holy Spirit makes the entire Christian church “one in communion and ministry and provides it with different hierarchical and charismatic gifts, giving life to ecclesial structures, being as it were their soul, and inspiring in the hearts of the faithful that same spirit of mission which impelled Christ himself” (Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, # 4).

Today, this gathered assembly is renewed in the peace and pardon of that first Pentecost; renewed also must be our ministry of peace and pardon in Jesus’ name.

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