“No one can say that ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” These words of St. Paul, simple as they are, open up a whole perspective on God’s plan of loving kindness for us. The whole purpose of Pentecost is to fully reveal what God has planned for us from all eternity, namely, to become sharers in the divine nature; to realize the profound mystery hidden in the proclamation that Jesus is Lord; and to live in the same Spirit as the Father and the Son.
Jesus is Lord! These are the words that the Father wants on the lips of all his children. They are a confession of faith in the great love that the Father has for us by sparing not even his own Son for our sake. At times we can forget just how alienated our human race is from God. It began with the disobedience of our first parents in paradise and has spread to the ends of the earth. But our Father is well aware of this alienation and our rejection of his plan. But precisely to overcome this alienation – and only God could overcome it – the Father sent his Son, Our Lord Jesus, the perfect model of obedience, to take on our human condition and free us from our misery. The Father did not spare his own Son out of love for us, but above all to make known the greatness of his Son so that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
“If you (only) knew the gift of God…” Today this gift is revealed to us as it was to the Jews who were marveling at hearing in their own tongues of the mighty acts of God. And this is the mighty act revealed by the Spirit: Jesus has endured death, utter failure, in witness to the Father’s love for us. He was in total agreement with the Father’s plan, matching love for love. This is a truth we can rely on, and if there is any doubt, we have a solid proof: the resurrection. Jesus was vindicated. He could not be held by the throes of death because of his acceptance of the Father’s plan and the gift of his life to fulfill it. The Father raised him up and exalted him at his right hand. He gave him the promise of his Spirit, and then Jesus poured this Spirit out on us. This is what we now see and hear.
I started by quoting St Paul: “No one can say “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.” But what good would this mighty act have been if no one knew about it? It is the Spirit’s mission to ensure that this truth would be known by all; therefore, he gathered and brought forth the Church, the Body of Christ. It is through the Church that the Spirit communicates the mighty acts of God and thereby gives us a share in the divine nature. This has been God’s will for us from the beginning, “so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God.” In this thanksgiving we live and move and have our being.
My brothers and sisters, “See what love the Father has given us” that we have become sharers in the divine nature and can proclaim that Jesus is Lord. This is the meaning of Pentecost and reveals the plan of God’s loving kindness. In a few minutes we will experience a new Pentecost when the Spirit descends on bread and wine and makes them truly become the body and blood of the Father’s only Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord. This is the mighty act of God that we celebrate today.
