On the Word of the Lord and the Message of Our Lady
Dear brothers and sisters,
Ave Maria!
We celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost this Sunday, which concludes the Easter Season. This is the peak moment in salvation history. The awesome Spirit marks the definitive fulfillment of the Father’s redemptive plan, which Jesus wonderfully accomplished. It also ushers in a new order of creation and the birth of the Church to carry on the mission that Jesus began.
For Our Lady’s message, we will read No. 226: “Come, Holy Spirit.” Here, she invites us to the cenacle of her Immaculate Heart, which disposes us to receive the Spirit in fullness.
I. GOSPEL READING (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.”
Points for Reflection
In the Gospel, John narrates the giving of the Spirit right on that evening when Jesus first appeared to his disciples (Jn. 20:19, 22). For John, the Resurrection and Pentecost are tightly intertwined, as both point to the fulfillment of God’s plan. Interestingly, Luke begins his account on Pentecost with a special note in the First Reading that “the time was fulfilled” (Acts 2:1). Seeing a parallel in the two narratives, it would help in our reflection if we read them side by side with each other.
1. A Foreshadowing of the Church
The gathering of the disciples inside the room is a very significant detail in John’s narrative. The disciples were there not only to see the proof of the Resurrection, but also to foreshadow the soon-to-be-born church. Luke writes with a similar detail in his account on the Pentecost: “they were all in one place together” (Acts 2:1). It is very typical of the disciples to gather. This was also the case after the Ascension: “they are found gathered in the upper room (cenacle), devoting themselves in prayer with Mary.” (Acts 1:12-14)
This was how the disciples foreshadowed the Church. From the Resurrection to the Ascension, up to the Pentecost narratives, they were gathered in prayer with Mary in expectation of the Spirit. Remarkably, the Preface of the Mass evokes this image: “As the apostles awaited the Spirit you had promised, Mary joined her supplication to the prayers of the disciples and so became the pattern of the Church at prayer.” (Preface on the Memorial of Mary, Model and Mother of the Church). This serves as a reminder to us that we must live as a church in the manner by which it has been foreshadowed and born.
2. The Breath of the Mighty Spirit
Jesus “breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit.” This is reminiscent of Creation when God formed man out of dust and breathed into him His Spirit (Gen. 2:27), a clear sign of God’s plan to impart divine life to man, made in His image and likeness. In the Gospel, Jesus “breathed on them” the life-giving Spirit, bringing back the great inheritance of divine life that was lost because of sin. His Resurrection brings about the Divinization of man.
Luke described the Spirit at Pentecost as “a strong driving wind” and “tongues of fire,” alluding to an earlier account of Creation when “a mighty wind swept over the waters . . . and then there was light” (Gen. 1:2-3).
What for John is life-giving Spirit is the mighty empowering Spirit in Luke's Gospel.
3. The Commissioning
Having received the Spirit, the disciples were commissioned to carry on the work of the Lord in the world which is to bear witness to the reality of God’s presence as revealed by Jesus.
For John, the mission is forgiveness. This is very distinctive of John because, among the apostles, he was the only witness of forgiveness at Calvary. Sanctified by the Spirit, the disciples must be Jesus’ forgiving presence through the Sacrament of Confession, an action reserved only for the Divine. For Luke, the mission is about proclaiming in various languages “the mighty acts of God.” This indicates the Church’s universal mission and nature. Since birth, the Church is “catholic” (meaning: universal) as the Spirit manifested through the various languages.
II. OUR LADY’S MESSAGE: "COME, HOLY SPIRIT” (Message 226)
June 7, 1981, Solemnity of Pentecost
Tananarive, Madagascar
a. I am the Spouse of the Holy Spirit.
b. My powerful function as Mediatrix between you and my Son Jesus is exercised above all in obtaining for you in superabundance, from the Father and the Son, the Spirit of Love.
c. By this divine fire, the Church must be renewed and transformed. By this fire of love, the whole world will be made new. At his powerful life-giving breath, new heavens and a new earth will at last be opened!
d. In the cenacle of my Immaculate Heart, dispose yourselves to receive this divine Spirit.
e. The Father gives Him to you to associate you intimately in his very own life and that the image of the Son, in whom He has made to repose all his pleasure, may shine forth in you ever more perfectly.
f. Jesus gives Him to you as the most precious fruit of his redemption, as witness of his Person and of his divine mission.
g. Even in this distant land in which you find yourself today, brought here by me, to hold cenacles with so many of my children, you see the Gospel already spread, through the precious work of the missionaries.
h. Today the whole world must be brought to the fullness of the truth, to the Gospel of Jesus, to the one Church willed and founded by Christ, and this is achieved by the Holy Spirit.
i. The Church must be opened to his divine fire in such a way that, completely purified, it will be ready to receive the splendor of his new Pentecost, in preparation for the second, glorious coming of my Son Jesus.
j. Today I invite you all to enter into the cenacle of my Immaculate Heart in the expectation of receiving in fullness the Spirit of Love which is given to you as a gift by the Father and the Son.
k. My Immaculate Heart is the golden doorway through which this divine Spirit passes to reach you. And so I invite you to repeat often: 'Come, Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well- beloved Spouse.’
Points for Reflection
Our Lady’s presence at Pentecost was very prominent and there are two highly significant reasons for this. First, she was there as mother of the disciples, the role that Jesus gave her at Calvary where he said, “Woman, behold your son." (Jn. 19:26) In fact, she took on this role not on Pentecost, but earlier - right after the Ascension. Second, she was there as Spouse of the Holy Spirit to take part in the second prodigy of the Holy Spirit – the birth of the Church. The first prodigy was the Incarnation, when she conceived and gave birth to Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Pentecost event, which ushered in the birth of the Church through the power of the same Spirit, gave greater confirmation of her role as Spouse of the Holy Spirit. And because of this, she received the title "Mother of the Church".
1. Spouse of the Holy Spirit
- Our Lady begins her message with, “I am the Spouse of the Holy Spirit.”
- The word “spouse” is marital language which should not be taken in its literal but, rather, in its mystical sense. The word “spouse” helps express not only the divine union of Our Lady and the Holy Spirit, but also the mysterious birth that this union brings forth. It is a mystery made possible by a powerful divine action, and not by human intervention. We remember that when the angel told Our Lady that she will conceive and bring forth a son (Lk. 1:31), he said that this was to come about because of the Holy Spirit and that the divine power will overshadow her (Lk. 1:35).
- Here is what Our Lady says about this mystery:
“As, through a singular design of the Father, I have become true Mother of the Son, so also have I become true Spouse of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has given Himself to my soul by an interior and true spousal union, and of this has been born the divine fruit of the virginal conception of the Word in my most pure womb.” (Message No. 521 m)
- Saint Maximilian Kolbe has a very helpful insight on Mary in relation to her title “Spouse of the Holy Spirit.” These two persons – one uncreated (Holy Spirit) and one created (Mary) – conceive Jesus in human history; and they are perfectly united in purpose. In order to describe their intimate union, he made this simple logic: The Holy Spirit is uncreated Advocate, and Mary is created Advocate. Advocacy in the Will of God is their common cause. Since Mary is full of grace and full of the Holy Spirit, her will, prayers and advocacy mirror that of the Holy Spirit.
2. Obtaining the Spirit of Love in Superabundance
- Our Lady is our Mediatrix to Jesus. She can obtain for us the Spirit in superabundance.
- Superabundance pertains to the magnificent work of the Holy Spirit:
a. The renewal and transformation of the Church and of the world in order for the new heavens and the new earth to be opened (226 b-c)
b. For the Father’s gift of divine life and the image of Jesus to shine forth perfectly in us (226 e)
c. To help us give witness to Jesus and carry out his mission (226 f)
d. To lead us to the fullness of truth, to the Gospel, and to the one Church (226 h)
e. To bring us to the splendor of his new Pentecost, in preparation for the second, glorious coming of Our Lord (226 i)
3. The Cenacle of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
- Our Lady invites us to the cenacle of her Immaculate Heart in order to be disposed to receive in fullness the Holy Spirit. (226 d)
- The Immaculate Heart is the "golden doorway" through which this divine Spirit passes to reach us. (226 k)
Let us live the spirit of Pentecost in our cenacles, united in prayer with Our Lady in invoking the Holy Spirit: “Come, Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well-beloved Spouse.”
God bless you all!
WEEKLY REFLECTION
On the Word of the Lord and the Message of Our Lady
A Guide on Living Our Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Pentecost Sunday (Year A)
Gospel: John 20:19-23
Blue Book Message: Come, Holy Spirit (226)
Yours in the Immaculate Heart,
Fr. Omer Prieto
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