The breath in Pentecost

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THE gospel of the Mass on the Solemnity of Pentecost reminds us of that part where Christ breathed on the apostles and gave them the breath of God in a way that was new and was greater than the breath God gave Adam during the Creation.

“Peace be to you,” Christ told the apostles. ‘As the Father has sent me, I also send you.’ When he said this, he breathed on them, and he said to them: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.’” (Jn 20,21-23)

This breath in Pentecost signifies the Holy Spirit, making us have the very life of God. It surpasses the breath in Creation that simply makes us a living being that came from dust. In other words, the breath in Creation gives us a biological and rational life, while the breath in Pentecost gives us sanctifying grace, making us adopted children of God.

We have to feel very much at home with this very wonderful reality and start to correspond to it as we ought. We have to go beyond our earthly dimensions and enter into the more fascinating world of the spiritual and the supernatural life of God and with God.

This does not mean that we escape from our earthly reality to be in the spiritual and supernatural reality. No. It means that while deeply immersed in our mundane conditions, we also have to learn to go beyond them to be with God. This is what the word ‘transcendence’ means.

To be sure, we are enabled to do that, because of our intelligence and will. These are powerful faculties that would enable us to know and to love, and eventually to enter in the lives of others and ultimately to be with God.

But more importantly, we are always given the grace so that our capacity to be with God is actualized. It’s not enough that we are enabled to know and love God. That potency has to be put into act with the grace of God who gives it to us in abundance.

We have to do our part, of course. And the first thing to do is to be aware that there is such a reality as developing a life in the Spirit, and from there start cultivating the proper attitudes, skills and virtues.

This may look like a daunting, overwhelming task, but it can always be done. Sure, there will be difficult, awkward moments, but those usually happen in the beginning of the learning curve. As long as we persist, time will come when living in intimate relationship with the Spirit becomes second nature to us.

We need to spread this Good News more widely, because many of us are still completely ignorant of it. And of those who may already know about it, a lot of confusion, doubts and misunderstanding abound. 

So more than spreading the Good News, we need a lot of teachers and models who can clearly show how this life in the Spirit can be achieved. Let’s hope that we can count on many people, especially those who are already active in the Church, to serve as teachers and models for this purpose.

Of special interest in this regard is the crucial role of parents. They should be the first teachers and models of their children in living the life in the Spirit. That’s why parents should do their best to be very consistent with their faith, because the most important duty they have toward their children is to make their offspring children of God, living the life in the Spirit!