The Catholic Calendar for Sunday, May 15, 2005
Pentecost Sunday

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Acts 2:1-11
Psalm 104:1,24,29-31,34
1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13
John 20:19-23

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." John 20:22

Entombed by their fears, the disciples remain locked in their room. On the evening of that first day of the week, Jesus stands in their midst and raises them to new life, "Peace be with you." This proclamation reveals the restored covenant in Jesus, between God and man as He shows them the wounds of his hands and side from which the blood of the new and everlasting covenant was shed for the remission of sins.

The sorrowing eyes of their souls open in this enlightenment as Jesus proclaims again, "Peace be with you." He continues most earnestly and with urgency for His beloveds now released and free, "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."

In this act, Jesus, breathing His own Holy Spirit of Life into them, recreates them into His very image and likeness. Enlightened, inspired, and empowered to extend His covenantal forgiveness, Jesus dispatches them. They carry the very breath of He who is Life within, to the waiting world.

O Lord,
may I see this as my own experience today and open to you my locked-away self, my sinful perils and entombing fears. Announce Your covenant of Peace, breathe into me Your most Holy Spirit, and dispatch me to extend the good news of Your covenantal forgiveness to souls.
Amen.

- Mary Williams
(www.impactbydesign.biz)

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