+ This is the day the Lord
has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it. We celebrate today the first day within the
octave of Easter! An octave celebration, we recall, is a continuation of the
original celebration as if it were still going on: and so for the Catholic
world every day this week will be a re-presentation of Easter Sunday!
If
this is the case, then why will all of our first readings this week be of
Pentecost Day and the events thereof?
For two reasons: 1) the
proclamation of Easter is very short, poignant and earth-shattering: JESUS –
who was put to death – HAS BEEN RAISED FROM THE DEAD! HE LIVES! - NEVERMORE TO
DIE AGAIN! and this changes everything!
2) But in his wisdom Jesus
took another 50 days to prepare his Apostles – the Eleven (now) - to go out and
proclaim this very astounding, powerful, yet simple truth. And PENTECOST was
the day when finally they understood it all (when the Spirit came upon them) –
and they began to preach and teach this gospel
message regarding Jesus – the Risen Lord – who indeed was the long awaited
Messiah – to the ends of the earth as they had been instructed by him to do.
This is why, the Easter fact and the Pentecost message are intimately linked; this is also where we come
in – we who have responded to the apostolic
mission and have chosen to believe in
the message, to enter into an interpersonal
friendship with Jesus and to be plugged into the life and sacramental system of the Church he established on
Pentecost.
And so, we rejoice today that God can truly be our hope, our joy and our peace! – and that he empowers us to bring
these to others, all others, for he has
poured out upon us the promised gift of the Holy Spirit!
Amen!
Alleluia!
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