Surely it no coincidence that the first words out of the mouth of the resurrected Christ in St. John’s Gospel are a challenge to the Eleven Apostles to continue the ministry of reconciliation that Jesus had just inaugurated by his death on the cross: “The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.’”
Nor is it a coincidence that St. Luke at the end of his Gospel summarizes the entire good news that the disciples are to preach to the world in words that indicate reconciliation: “And he said to them, "Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.””
And on this solemnity of Pentecost a small, contrasting detail found in the first reading from Acts and the Gospel reading from St. John should not be overlooked. In the Gospel account, the Eleven Apostles are found in the familiar upper room where “the doors were locked ... for fear of the Jews.” In contrast, the reading from the Book of Acts indicates a wide open atmosphere toward the gathered crowd in the street below who were “Jews from every nation under heaven” as well as converts and Cretans and Arabs. In the first scene the disciples are alienated from the Jewish populace; in the latter depiction, the disciples are reaching out toward the Jewish world and, in fact, the whole world. Pentecost’s open doors, open windows, and open dialogue indicates the ministry of reconciliation getting started in earnest.
Mankind had been on the outs with God since Eden. Adam and Eve hid themselves rather than confront God face to face after their fall from grace. And Adam and Eve were no longer completely at ease with one another. Adam passed the buck to Eve when questioned about his sin: “The woman gave me and I did eat.” Their alienation was further symbolized by their donning clothes; no longer where they open to one other as they had been in their state of original grace. Clearly mankind was in desperate need of reconciliation both with God and with one another. The loss of grace that Adam and Eve experienced individually grew apace until the whole world was affected. The confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel graphically illustrated how alienated mankind had become. Communication was literally impossible. Man’s inability to converse is vividly and audibly reversed by the wondrous gifts of tongues conferred by the Spirit at Pentecost. Once again, alienated mankind could understand and converse with one another and, most significantly, pray to God.
The ministry of reconciliation is nothing other than the good news of Salvation, the Gospel message, entrusted by Christ to this church. The preaching of the good news, the celebration of the sacraments, and moral living in daily life are the ordinary means by which mankind is reconciled to God and to one another. The supreme celebration of reconciliation is, of course, the Eucharist in which believers share in the reconciling death and resurrection of Christ. The full and complete embrace of his Father’s will on the cross which reversed our first parents’ disobedience is shared with the worshipping community. The healing process begun at baptism and enhanced in the sacrament of penance is augmented most completely as the Christian community gathers around the table of the Lord week after week. Hearing the Word of God in common, offering the holy sacrifice in unison, sharing the same precious body and blood, charged with the same commission to spread the good news, the church itself becomes reconciled and the church extends the work of reconciliation toward the unbelieving world. The risen Christ’s first words to his miserable disciples were, “Peace be with you!” Now it is the turn of Christ’s eager disciples to dispense that same gift of peace to every nation of the world.
