News & Events
Pentecost Sunday
Posted in News
24th.May 2026
Gospel John 20:19-23
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. 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.”
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Homily
There are times in life when our spirits are extremely troubled, sometimes because of our own stupidity, sometimes because of the circumstances of life and at those moments we need with us someone capable of bringing peace to our troubled spirits. I think of those days after the collapse of financial institutions, when persons lose money, sometimes all their savings. I look on each year as children leave school full of hope for the future and see them become cynical as their hopes are dashed. I remember each year listening to the budget debates wondering whether the ministers of finance would be the harbingers of peace and hope. I think of the wars between countries, and people becoming refugees because there is no peace, and I think of indigenous peoples being chased from their land and hunting grounds because the rich and powerful want their lands. The question is more and more urgent as the world needs people who will bring peace amid shattered hopes and unfulfilled promises
I thought of all the above as I began reflecting on the Gospel passage given to us for our meditation on this feast of Pentecost. The story we know very well. The followers of Jesus have lost all hope and their spirits are troubled. The one they thought would bring liberation to Israel had been captured, judged, condemned and executed. Worst of all he had been betrayed by one of the group. Their dreams of a liberated Israel were all dashed and they were fearful of being tracked down and executed as their leader was. We are told that “on the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews” Jesus, their leader now resurrected came and stood in their midst and said to them; “Peace be with you.” Jesus came and expressed that which was his wish for his disciples. He did not want them to be troubled. He wanted them to live with joy, the joy of knowing that he was alive, that it was He, their master who had been executed who was there with them again and that their wish for liberation and for a liberated community was about to be fulfilled. This liberation was not going to be arrived at as they had believed, by throwing out the hated Romans, but by having removed from their lives all that caused hatred and division among people, the greed, the desire to dominate, the treating of others, not like brothers and sisters of the same father, but as things to be exploited for financial profit and to satisfy passions etc. So, Jesus says to them; “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And then he added; “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” The peace which Jesus wished for his disciples, he wished for the whole world and so the disciples are charged to go out and make disciples in every nation to do all that he had commanded them to do. What he had commanded was that they would love as He had loved. In the same way that he was sent by the Father to remove the causes of hatred and division from the world Jesus gave to his disciples the power to forgive sin and to remove sin and the sinful structures generated by sin from our midst. Sin and sinful structures are the causes of all hatred and division in the world. Until sin and sinful structures are removed, we will not return to the harmony which characterized creation before the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve.
It is interesting to remember that when the Holy Spirit was given to the apostles, Language which as you know is still a sign of division between different peoples, somehow lost the power of division. We are told in the Acts of the apostles that with the coming of the Holy Spirit, crowds from different parts of the world began to understand each other. This my dear brothers and sisters is a reversal of the scene at the tower of Babel when all the peoples of the world were split up because of their inability to understand each other. With the Holy Spirit however, that inability is reversed.
My dear sisters and brothers, true Harmony is God’s desire. True harmony existed in the beginning, when Adam and Eve did not focus on themselves but on God. They lived true harmony in the garden. They walked with God in the cool of the evening. When, however, they focused on themselves, they realized that they were naked and from then on everything was overturned. With the reception of the Holy Spirit however true disciples of Jesus accept the task of recreating the harmony which God wants for the world. The scriptures tell us that Jesus came to gather all who were scattered.
This desire of Jesus is still alive because Jesus still lives. In this liturgical season of Pentecost and this season of confirmation, the church reminds us of Jesus’ wish for a community liberated from all that brings hatred and division, for a community which lives with joy because it lives in peace. Because of the Holy Spirit given to the Church at Pentecost and to each one of us individually at Baptism and Confirmation, we are now recreated as architects of Peace. Over our beloved country so divided, politically, socially, ethnically, religiously, we hear Jesus’ words ring out again, today and every day if we have ears to hear; “Blessed are the Peacemakers for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
The building of true harmony my dear brothers and sisters is the task of the church and of every church institution. That is why Popes very often make their voices heard when there are disputes between nations. That is why encyclicals have been written on social justice. That is why the restoration of human dignity is so important. That is why the church insists that workers must be paid living wages and not minimum wages. It is important, my dear brothers, that we recognize and try to imitate the true heroes of the struggle for harmony. People who have given their lives in the creating and building of structures which facilitate harmonious relationships. Martin Luther King in the United States, Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Mons. Romero in El Salvador, Ghandi in India, Popes John Paul 11 and Leo 14th. We must not forget parents and Godparents who by the example of their lives have taught us the value of harmonious living. The question remains however, do we as religious value, and therefore build harmonious relationships because the Kingdom which we have sworn to build is essentially harmonious. It is for this that we have been given the Holy Spirit. The question therefore for each one of us is the same: Is my life characterized by the search for Harmony? The answer that I give will tell me whether or not I am a true disciple.
