Mass of the Holy Spirit 2023

The readings for this Mass are often those for Pentecost Sunday.  Fifty days after Easter Sunday—in the rhythm of the life of our Church—is the celebration of Pentecost. 

For some, our seniors, you just might hear these readings again in May—at our Baccalaureate Mass—if it falls, as it sometimes does, on Pentecost Sunday. It is always so poignant when Commencement corresponds with Pentecost—that moment when Jesus is sending forth his disciples—in an act that resonates so profoundly with “commencement.”

I imagine if you hear these readings again, as seniors, in May, you might find yourself feeling the meaning of these readings a little differently than perhaps you do today.

But that moment is not here yet. Today, in this ancient rite of passage that opens every academic year at Jesuit schools across the world and across the centuries, we are witnesses to each other of the deepest conviction that animates this community: we have been filled with the Holy Spirit—a Spirit that is animating us, guiding us, protecting us, teaching us.

• A Spirit that “lives in [us]…”
  
  
• …a Spirit that “will be in us.” (John 14: 16-17)
  
  
• “…an advocate” (John 14: 16-17)
  
  
• “…the Spirit that gives life…” [Romans 8: 9-11)
  
  
• “The Spirit [that] helps us in our weakness; the Spirit [that] intercedes for us” [Romans 8: 26-27)

This is what we celebrate today. This is what brings us together at the beginning of every academic year. And we have so much to celebrate.

We heard in the first reading, we are “all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:1-11); and in the second reading, that we have all been blessed with “different kinds of spiritual gifts”—all “manifestation(s) of the Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13)

We come together, now, to remind ourselves of these gifts—“different kinds of spiritual gifts…different forms of service…different workings…”—all of us capable of contributing to the common project that is Georgetown University. Together we can acknowledge and honor our responsibilities for strengthening and sustaining the community in which this work happens.

On Sunday, the Old Testament reading at Mass was from Isaiah:

Thus says the Lord:

Maintain justice, and do what is right,

for soon my salvation will come…and hold fast my covenant—

these I will bring to my holy mountain,

and make them joyful in my house of prayer…

for my house shall be called a house of prayer

for all peoples.

(Isaiah 56: 1, 6 – 7)

“Maintain justice…hold fast my covenant” and the promise: that we will be “joyful in [the] house of prayer.”

Whenever we are together like this, we are a “house of prayer.”

In another reading from this past week, from 1 Peter, we hear these words:

…Come to him, a living stone…and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house….” (1 Peter 2:1-5)

In this moment, as we begin this new year, let us recognize, that together, we share a responsibility, and each of us can contribute, each in our own way, to building this “house of prayer”.

We are “living stones”—and together, we are called to build a “spiritual house.”

Together, “joyful in [the] house of prayer.”

All of this is possible because of the incomparable gift we heard in today’s Gospel—a gift that has changed our world: “…he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit….” (John 20: 19-23)