+ 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
Day, Easter Sunday!
If this is the case, then why
will all 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.
Therefore, 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 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!
The “other news” – the “real
news” of the secular world – tells us that we are now living in very dangerous,
unstable, and potentially life-threatening times – more than ever before – but
we must be convinced that the “good news” of gospel victory and triumph can
transform even these ominous storm clouds into clouds of encouraging clouds,
silver-lined of springtime, sunshine and flowers – the symbol of a new time of
global serenity and peace!
Amen!
Alleluia!
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