The Comforter has come! A Reflection on Pentecost Sunday

Beloved parishioners,

Christos Anesti… Alithos Anesti!

We celebrate Pentecost Sunday this weekend and we commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples who were united in prayer in anticipation. Pentecost concludes Eastertide. It is also the birthing of the Church and the commissioning of the disciples as Apostles – those sent. Although Our Lord Jesus, before his ascension into heaven, commissioned his disciples to go out and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19), he however urged them to remain in Jerusalem until they had received power from on high (Luke 24:49). Ten days after his Ascension (Thursday), the Lord sends the Father’s promised gift of the Holy Spirit upon his disciples. This Holy Spirit would strengthen them to be bold and effective witnesses to the resurrection.

We have been given this same Holy Spirit at our Baptism and Confirmation. The Holy Spirit emboldens us for the mission of evangelization and making disciples of every nation. He is the life-giving Spirit who gives life to all mortals, and animates everything within us that is either dying or dead. He is the wind that propels the ship of the church as she sails on the troubled sea of the world. He is the rudder that gives us direction and our anchor that keeps us firm against the fiercest storms. It is the reason the Church always prays, “Come Holy Spirit.”

Today let us ask the Spirit to come upon us afresh with his transforming power and activate the sevenfold gift (Isaiah 11:2; 1 Corinthians 12) we have received so that we may bear fruits (Galatians 5:22-23) that testify to our identity as Christians. I will like to share with you a hymn I learned as a child. This hymn is sung in many parishes in my home country, Nigeria, mostly on Pentecost day. I am not sure of its origin, but some sources say it comes from the 1800s.

THE COMFORTER HAS COME
1. O spread the tidings 'round, wherever man is found, Wherever human hearts and human woes abound; Let ev'ry Christian tongue proclaim the joyful sound: The Comforter has come!

Refrain: The Comforter has come, the Comforter has come! The Holy Ghost from Heav'n, the Father's promise giv'n; O spread the tidings 'round, wherever man is found The Comforter has come!

2. The long, long night is past, the morning breaks at last, And hushed the dreadful wail and fury of the blast, As o'er the golden hills the day advances fast! The Comforter has come!

3. Lo, the great King of kings, with healing in His wings, To ev'ry captive soul a full deliverance brings; And through the vacant cells the song of triumph rings; The Comforter has come!

4. O boundless love divine! How shall this tongue of mine To wond'ring mortals tell the matchless grace divine That I, a child of hell, should in His image shine! The Comforter has come!

5. Sing till the echoes fly above the vaulted sky, And all the saints above to all below reply, In strains of endless love, the song that ne’er will die: The Comforter has come! May Jesus bless you, and may Our Lady protect you!