Readings:
Acts 2:1-11; 1Cor. 12:3-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23
The
Sins of Whom You Forgive are Forgiven Them!
1.
Today is Pentecost, the birthday of the church.
Today the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles like flames of fire. Being filled
with the Holy Spirit they began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit
enabled them to speak.” (Acts 2:1-4). According to the Constitution of the
Second Vatican Council on the Church, “When the work which the Father had given
the Son to do on earth was accomplished, the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of
Pentecost that he might forever sanctify the Church. In this way all believers
would have access to the Father through Christ in the one Spirit. He is the
Spirit of life, a fountain of water springing up to eternal life. Through him
the Father gives life to men who are dead from sin, till at last he revives in
Christ even their mortal bodies.” The Holy Spirit filled the apostles
with zeal and courage so that they became Christ’s witnesses beyond the
frontiers of Jerusalem, “Throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth.” (Acts 1:8). That was how Luke, the author of the Acts of the Apostles,
reported the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. John, however, reported
the same incident, which apparently took place on the same day of the
resurrection thus: “On the evening of that first day of the week when the doors
were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and
stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” As the Father has
sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and
said to them, “Receive the holy spirit. Whose sins you forgive are
forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” (Gospel
reading). Christ wished his disciples peace before He gave them the Holy
Spirit; and then He sent them on the mission of forgiveness. The Holy Spirit is
directly associated with the forgiveness of sins.
2. There is story told of
a man who was suffering from acute back pain for years. He had undergone all
types of treatment – allopathic, ayurvedic, etc. During one of his visits, his
doctor prescribed a lot of medicine but told him that he would have the pain
all his life and that it was his purgatory. With resignation he purchased the
medicine. While on his way back he met a Sister, who had the gift of healing.
Sister asked him to forgive everyone and she prayed for about an hour. The
patient felt great relief and took all the medicine back to the pharmacy. Till
now he has not experienced back pain again. It is true that most of our
ailments are due to unfinished business relating to unforgiveness. Therefore,
if we are to be witnesses of Christ, we must forgive hurts done to us. The Holy
Spirit will assist us with the gift of forgiveness.
3. We first received the
Holy Spirit on the day of our Baptism. This Spirit was confirmed on the day of
confirmation. The Penny Catechism defines Confirmation as “A Sacrament by which
we receive the Holy Spirit, in order to make us strong and perfect Christians
and soldiers of Jesus Christ.” I recall that on the day of my confirmation, the
practice was that the bishop will give those confirmed a gentle slap on the
check. The explanation was that the slap was a demonstration that the person
was ready to suffer for Christ, even to the point of dying a martyr’s death.
If the apostles needed the fire of the Holy Spirit to shake them up and
transform them into warriors for the faith, so do we. Christ is present in his
apostles through his spirit.
4. We must demonstrate
that we have the Holy Spirit by allowing the Spirit to work in us and through
us. When Jesus received the Spirit he exclaimed, “The Spirit of the Lord is
upon me, because he as anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He sent
me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let
the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” (Lk.
4:18-19). We are called to do no less than Christ. We are faced today with so
many cases of injustice, abuse of human rights, violence, police brutality and
indiscriminate taking of human lives on our streets. There is total disregard
for the rule of law in our society, and yet many of us Christians, born again
in the water of rebirth and the Holy Spirit, stand quietly by and watch as our
brothers and sisters are being killed on our streets. How did we feel as we
watched three police officers pinning George Floyd down with the fourth resting
his knee and his weight on George Floyd’s neck as he shouted, “I can’t breathe”
until he finally stopped breathing? Oh yes, there were many people watching,
feeling helpless, and another police officer standing by to prevent anyone from
approaching to help George. What is the Spirit sending us out to do today in a
situation like this? Jesus calls the Holy Spirit another Advocate. What
type of advocate is the Spirit calling us to be? It is my opinion that the
Spirit is calling us to be advocates of justice, to speak for those who cannot
speak for themselves. It may be too late for the likes of Freddie Gray of
Baltimore, Eric Garner of New York, George Floyd of Minneapolis, and many
others whose lives were taken by man’s inhumanity to man or to put it plaining,
police brutality; but we can speak out for the Freddies, Erics and Georges of
tomorrow. It is very easy to judge and condemn the protests, the burning
and the looting going on in Minneapolis this week. Much as I do not condone
these practices under the disguise of protests, it should also be noted that this
may be a way of calling attention of those in authority to look at the root
cause of these protests - racism. Yes, The Holy Spirit calls us to forgive
hurts done to us, but it is difficult to forgive repeated acts of injustice
with no solution in sight. So as people of faith, we ask Christ to send into
our hearts the Spirit of tolerance to fight our indifference and build a
community of love and peace.
5. Finally let us ask the
Holy Spirit to come with his gifts of “Wisdom and understanding, counsel,
strength, knowledge and fear of the Lord.” (Is. 11: 2-3). We pray the Spirit to
plant in our hearts his fruit of “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Gal.5:22-23). Come
and conquer the indifference in our world, and help us fight the battles of our
hearts and the internal battles of the flesh such as: “immorality, impurity,
licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of
fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking
bouts, orgies and the like.” (Gal. 5:19-21). But most of all, we pray that the
Holy Spirit may help us to forgive those who hurt us so that we may be holy as
God our heavenly Father is holy. Let us pray that we may be filled with the
fire of the Spirit and be transformed into a people of faith; courageous
preachers, lovers of God and his people. Amen. God bless you!
Rev.
Augustine Etemma Inwang, MSP.
