Commentary on the Gospel of
Today we are celebrating the feast of the Holy Spirit, the promise and the fulfilment. It concerns the promise of the Holy Spirit, the Counselor who will come to continue the on-going formation of the disciples. A certain level of readiness is required and it is not there yet. It will fall to the Spirit to take care of all that still needs to be taught about present and future times. And that teaching will be tailored to the capacity of each individual.
This is made clear in the second reading today, taken from Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians. The gifts enjoyed by each individual are to be put to use for the beauty and integrity of the whole. Unity in Christ is the name of the game and the common good is the goal of all. This unity in variety is featured too in our first reading from Acts. It is the description of the coming of the Spirit upon the Apostles.
And each person in the assembled multitude heard Good News in his/her own tongue. Typically, there were some who mocked and put it all down to intoxication. At one level they were correct because the touch of the Spirit of God is nothing if not intoxicating. Let us drink deeply of this wine! We need to permit the Holy Spirit to take control of us and direct our lives. “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Gal 5: 25).
