By: By Sister Agnes Cunningham, SSCM

Solemnity of Pentecost, June 12

Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11; Psalm 104:1,24,29-30,31,34; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7,12-13; Pentecost Sequence (Veni, Sancte, Spiritus); John 20:19-23

As we ponder today’s scriptural texts, we realize that the Pentecost-Event is proclaimed not in the Gospel, but in the first reading. The selection from John is, rather, a prelude to the feast we celebrate. “On the evening of the first day” the Risen Lord appears to the disciples, imparting the Holy Spirit, with gifts of peace and the power to forgive sin and reconcile.

There are other gifts given by the Holy Spirit, St. Paul tells us in the second reading, different kinds of spiritual gifts, forms of service and workings: “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.” The Spirit, we sing in the Sequence, is the source of abundant treasures. These are manifested in wind and fire, water and light. The Good News is proclaimed in a way each one can hear and understand.

Insight into the graces of Pentecost comes to us from many sources. One is a painting in the chapel of the Sulpician Headquarters in Paris, France.
This masterpiece, titled “Pentecost,” by the great 17th century artist Charles LeBrun was commissioned by Jean-Jacques Olier, founder of the Sulpicians and of the seminary system in France. It was to express Olier’s understanding that the seminary was a time like that between the Ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit, when seminarians were educated and formed to become through the Spirit “apostolic men,” priests of Jesus Christ.

CALLED AND SENT
Mary is the central figure in this painting. Elevated on a high place, she seems to receive the fullness of the graces of the Holy Spirit that descend on all those gathered with her in the Upper Room. She is “Queen of the Clergy” and, through a new overshadowing by the Spirit, “Queen of the Mystical Body of Christ,” brought forth in a “second Incarnation.”

She is also “Queen of the Apostolic Church,” with a flame of fire resting above the head of every person with her in this community: Mary, model of contemplative love, and Martha, model of love in action; John representing the charisms in the Church and Peter, the Rock, seated on a rock, assuring the integrity of the structures of ecclesiastical institution.

The other Apostles are present and “some women . . . and his brothers.” In this Apostolic Church, everyone is called and sent.

Enflamed and empowered by the Apostolic Spirit, we reach out eyes, hearts and hands to embrace our poor, wounded world. We take to ourselves the women and men whose lives have been marked, distressed, devastated by unruly winds, water, fire, and destructive lights — the natural disasters of our times. We seek to comfort all those misled in seeking peace and freedom through the unholy winds of water, fire and darkened lights of war, rebellion and terrorism.

As the Paschal Candle is extinguished today we do not lose hope, because a new Advocate has come. An abiding Presence is with us. We prepare to find ourselves at home in the company of the Blessed Trinity as we move into Ordinary Time, graced in ways that are ever surprisingly extraordinary.

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SISTER AGNES Cunningham, SSCM, is a member of the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary, an international, pontifical religious institute for women. She resides as an “active-retired” member of the congregation’s Mercy Community in Champaign.