26/05/2026
The feast of Pentecost and this Gospel reading remind us that, whilst Jesus’ work of Salvation is done and we cannot add anything to it, in a sense it still needs our cooperation.
Jesus was already risen, and some people had even witnessed it, but the disciples are still full of fear, and hide from others. The place in which they are hiding, captive of their own fear, is precisely the place where Jesus comes to encounter them and give them the most unthinkable gift: peace.
Imagine the very things that scare you in your own life. The unspoken fears that make you protect yourself from being seen and prevent you from living in true communion with others: that’s precisely the place where Jesus wants to breathe the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, God’s own love and restoration of your identity as a beloved child, the only thing capable of truly cast away all our deepest and unconfessed fears and forgive all our shortcomings.
This gift of peace and reconciliation becomes also a mission. When we are reconciled to God by means of Jesus’s Passion and gift of the Holy Spirit, when we encounter this peace we are called to bring it to those around us. We love because we have been loved, we forgive because we have been forgiven. God alone has the power to forgive us to the very depth of our hearts, and our restored self can become a vessel to bring that same gift of peace and restoration to those entrusted to us.
The gift of the Holy Spirit is one that defies mathematical rules, because it multiplies when it is divided among an ever-growing number of people. I hope that you can let yourself be reached by the abundant, merciful gift of God and then let yourself be a place of peace, rest and reconciliation for those encountering you, because there is no joy greater than this in life.
Carmen Costanza - Student Outreach Worker
