Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR B PENTECOST - 8.6.03 Acts 2,1-11; 1 Cor 12, 3-7.12-13; Jn 20,19-23 Christ - Christian - Christening Selected,
empowered and commissioned So accustomed are we to calling Jesus: ‘Christ’ and ourselves his followers: ‘Christians’, that we probably reflect little on the profound meaning of these words. The title ‘Christ’ tells how important is the ‘Holy Spirit’ in Jesus’ life and in all who bear the name ‘Christian’. The term ‘Christ’derives from the Greek word ‘Christos’; it’s past participle of the verb ‘Chrio’=to anoint and its noun is Chrisma (Chrysm) = ointment. Christ translates the Hebrew noun Messiah which means ‘Anointed One’. Calling Jesus ‘the Christ’ we mean to designate Him as the one who is anointed with God’s Holy Spirit in the sense of selected, empowered and sent. Calling ourselves ‘Christians’ we affirm us to be people who -like Jesus- have been anointed -& participate in His anointing- with God’s Spirit. As ‘Christ’ and therefore as One anointed with the Holy Spirit, Jesus expresses his desire to bestow the Holy Spirit upon us ‘Christians’. At the Last Supper, He repeatedly promises the Spirit to his disciples, assuring them they will not be left orphaned, as he departs from them. The Holy Spirit will come on them and make Jesus present to them always - recall to their minds all that he had said & done - give them joy in the midst of persecutions, always bound to come (Jn 15,25+). On Pentecost Day: the Holy Spirit came as a powerful event; then continues to come on the Church & each of us. It enables us to face life’s challenges - to live a deeper and more intimate union with Christ - to address God as ‘Abba-Father’ as Jesus did - to love God with God’s own love - to be trans- formed in Christ. The same Spirit who constituted Jesus as ‘Christ’, now anoints, appoints and empowers us to be ‘Other-Christs’: God’s Spirit comes in abundance to inspire & transform us into an ever more perfect image of Jesus, continuing to renew the face of the earth through us. The power of our ‘Christening’ The Apostles were told that they will be baptized with Holy Spirit & fire (Mt 3,11), yet nowhere in the Bible it says that they were officially baptized The Pentecost experience truly christened them: the Spirit came -with tongues of fire & power of a mighty wind- & they were filled with the Spirit of the Risen Lord - and invested with God’s fire - made into a spirit-filled & inspiring team - felt selected, invested, empowered & commissioned. The event of Pentecost helps us discover new in- sights in our Baptism: water & spirit unlocking for us the deepest energy of Christian experience. Really, it’s not accurate to say that we get baptized as children and later in life we are rebaptized with the ‘Baptism of the Spirit’; or that we get baptized as children and later -in Confirmation- we acquire Christian maturity. Being a Christian is more than being s follower of Christ. The very words: Jesus is the Christ is a profession of faith not simply a statement where Jesus is his Christian name and Christ his surname. On the contrary, it means that Jesus is the Lord’s Anointed One, sent by God as messenger (Messiah) . At Baptism, we get anointed, empowered and commissioned. Christ and Christian have in common the insight of being people who are invested with and sent forth in God’s name, full of the Lord’s Spirit. In our very essence, we Christians are called to be people who are christened, anointed with Chrysm - which symbolizes God’s Holy Spirit. At Baptism we become a Christian - we are made Christ-like. When at Baptism we are Christened, we are ano- inted with the Spirit of the Risen Lord; we become in-spired and experience a mission to evangelize in Christ’s name. We cannot be Christian and not experience the Spirit of the Lord upon us, as it sends us to proclaim the Good News to the poor.
A Prayer of empowerment: Holy Spirit of God: You came on Jesus at his Baptism, making Him God’s Anointed One - the One who pours his life so we may have life in abundance. You christened the Apostles into joyful witnesses of God’s mercy, revive in us the conviction that we -like Jesus & the Apostles- are people christened - & anointed with the Lord’s Spirit & appointed to go out ‘gospelling the Lord’ & carrying Christ & Christianity into the coming generation and beyond. Amen. ______________________________________ |
