RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT

PENTECOST (B) 27 May 2012

John 20, 19-23

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Rev.Fr.Valentine de Souza S.J

RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT

José Antonio Pagola

Little by little we learn to live superficially. We no longer need to be in touch with the best in us. It’s enough to be pleasantly occupied. We’re happy living purposeless lives and being fed on bread alone. We do not want to risk seeking the truth. Come Holy Spirit and free us from this inner emptiness.

We’ve already learned to live without roots and goals. We are content being programmed from the outside. We’re constantly active and on the move but we do not know what we want or where we are headed. We are increasingly better informed, but find ourselves more lost than ever. Come Holy spirit and free us from the confusion in our lives.

The fundamental problems of existence hardly interest us. It doesn’t bother us that we grope in the dark as we face life. We’ve become more skeptical but also more fragile and insecure. We would like to be smart and intelligent. So why do we not have peace and quiet? Why do we frequently find ourselves sad? Come Holy spirit and free us from inner darkness.

We would like to live more, live better, live longer, but what do we want from life? We want to feel good, feel better, but how and what for? We seek to enjoy life intensely, get the most out of it, but we are not happy to only have a good time. We do what we like. Hardly anything is prohibited; there is no forbidden territory. Why do we look for something different? Come Holy Spirit and teach us to live.

 We want to be free and independent and we find ourselves increasingly lonesome. We need to live and we shut ourselves in our little world, so boring at times. We need to feel loved and we don’t know how to establish interesting and friendly contacts. We call sex “love” and pleasure “happiness”, but who will quench our thirst? Come Holy Spirit and teach us to love.

 There is no place for God in our lives any more. His presence remains repressed or fades away unnoticed in us. Full of noise within, we can no longer hear his voice. Overwhelmed by a thousand desires and feelings, we do not succeed in sensing his nearness. We know how to talk to everyone except him. We have learnt to live indifferent to Mystery. Come Holy Spirit and teach us to believe.

 Believers and unbelievers, believers of little or bad faith, we often all together make our pilgrim way through life. In the Christian feast of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says to all of us what he said to his disciples as he breathed on them: “Receive the Holy Spirit. ” The Spirit who sustains our poor lives, and strengthens our weak faith can reach us in ways he alone knows.

 Disseminate the Spirit of Jesus

URL of José Antonio Pagola's Buenas Noticias Web site: 

http://sanvicentemartirdeabando.org

Jose Antonio Pagola, vgentza@euskalnet.net , San Sebastian, Guipuzcoa, Spain.

English Translation by Valentine de Souza S.J. Mandal, Gujarat , India.394650