Come, Holy Spirit, Come! And, indeed, the Spirit came, as we read in the first reading of today's liturgy, Acts 1: 1-11: "...[S]uddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim!" A large crowd gathered and were confused "because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, "Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them...speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God."
Nothing is impossible for God! Enabling persons from different languages and cultures and beliefs to hear foreigners proclaim "the mighty acts of God" is not beyond God's power any more than it was beyond God's power to bring the Son of God into our world in the incarnation, impregnating the womb of a teenage woman with the Son of God taking on human nature through her! And as Jesus walked among us, He gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, restored the health of the sick, cast out demons and raised the dead to life. And when Jesus returned to the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit, not only to the people in that house or who crowded around that house but to you and me as well!
As Paul says to us in today's second reading, 1 Cor 12: 3b-7, 12-13, each of us has been given spiritual gifts by the Holy Spirit. Paul explains: "There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit." Through the Church, that is, in our baptism, confirmation, and the reception of other sacraments, we are given a variety of spiritual gifts, not for our own sake, but for the sake of others. We are entrusted with certain forms of service. The workings we do, and that we see others do, are produced in everyone by the Holy Spirit at work within us. The Spirit manifests Him/Herself through us for the other person's benefit and, in other people,for our benefit!
And so we pray in today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 104: "Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord, my God, you are great indeed! How manifold are your works, O Lord!...May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lore be glad in his works! Pleasing to him be my theme; I will be glad in the Lord."
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