PENTECOST SUNDAY
Who’s in a Word?
Today, we celebrate Pentecost Sunday, the fiftieth day and the conclusion of Easter. We participate in the Paschal Mystery of the Death and Resurrection of the Lord during this 50 day, 7 week celebration in a special way. However, for a Catholic, it is always Easter. Indeed, as Pope John Paul taught, “Every Sunday is Easter.”
We conclude the Lenten-Easter-Pentecost cycle today. The slogan for Ash Wednesday is “Remember that you are dust and unto dust, you shall return.” The slogan for Lent is “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” The slogan for Easter Sunday is “Jesus is Lord”. The slogan for Pentecost is “Receive the Holy Spirit. As the Father sent Me, so I send you.”
Can we focus on the Spirit today? The word for spirit in Hebrew is ruach (and it is a feminine noun). The word for spirit in Greek is pneuma (and it is a neuter noun). This is important because Hebrew and Greek are the two biblical languages. The word for spirit in Latin (not a biblical language) is spiritus (and this can be a masculine or feminine noun).
In the two biblical languages, the word for “spirit” is used in several ways. 1) It can refer to one’s life’s breathe. We know that from the Genesis creation story in which “YHWH formed man from the clay of the earth and breathed in his nostrils and man became living.” In today’s Gospel, Jesus breathed upon the disciples (all the group) not some of the group. 2) Spirit can refer to the wind or the air. In the Genesis creation story, “In the beginning, the earth was a formless abyss and the Spirit of God whirled above the waters.” In John’s Gospel, “the wind blows where it wills. We don’t know whence and whither it blows.” 3) Spirit can refer to the “energy” that God gives ordinary people to do extraordinary things. In the Hebrew Bible, frequently, the Spirit of God comes upon a prophet or a king. In the Christian Bible, the Spirit comes upon us all on Pentecost.
It is appropriate that the person and the word for “Spirit” is multivalent. After all, we always need to remember that all human language (even inspired, biblical language) is inadequate to express totally the Mystery of God. It is refreshing to remember that we can use words only to a degree and that they point us in the direction of the Mystery of God and the human person’s relationship to the Mystery.
As we celebrate the conclusion of Easter today, this is the exactly why it takes us 50 days (not one day) (7 = perfection; 7x 7 = infinity), to celebrate what God has done for us through the call to snap out of it and to repent, our sharing in the Paschal Mystery of Jesus through baptism and the outpouring of the Spirit upon all (not some). Not one day would be sufficient to celebrate our share in Jesus Christ.
That is also why it is important for us to be born again and again and again because it was not just Easter once, but it is Easter once and for all as we continue to live our life in Christ.
Sadly, the words of Pope John Paul about each Sunday as an Easter Sunday as well as 2000 years of Catholic tradition go by the boards for so many during the glorious summer. As Sister Mary Rose puts it so aptly to our First Communion children and their parents (emphasis added, per jq), “God comes first,” even on summer Sundays. Whom do we thank for glorious summer days? 052707 AD jfq
