22/05/2026
THE PROMISED GIFT OF DIVINE EMPOWERMENT
By: Bro. Makilito B. Mahinay
OVERVIEW OF THE GOSPEL. Before Jesus ascended to Heaven (an event which we celebrated last Ascension Sunday), He instructed His disciples “not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for “the PROMISE of the Father ###; for John baptized with water, but in a few days YOU WILL BE BAPTIZED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT”. (Acts 1:4-5). Forty days earlier, on the very day of His resurrection (Easter Sunday) “when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “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, “Receive the HOLY SPIRIT. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” (Jn. 20:19-23).
THE FULFILLMENT. And so “When the time for PENTECOST as promised by the Heavenly Father (Acts 1:4-5) was fulfilled, they (Apostles) were all in one place together. And suddenly 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 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. ###”. (Acts 2:1-11). Then PETER stood up with the other ELEVEN APOSTLES and in a loud voice began to speak to the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, LISTEN TO ME …”. During this extraordinary event, there were people from different regions and nations present. And many of them believed Peter’s message “and were BAPTIZED, and about three thousand people were added to the group that day.” (2:41).
In the Gospel of Mark 16:15-20, we have reflected that Jesus emphasized the twin pre-requisites of salvation: First, FAITH (belief) in the gospel and second, being COMPONENT of His CHURCH (through baptism). During the Pentecost Sunday the visible Church of God, for the first time, was given a face alive in the beings of Jesus’ APOSTLES, led by Peter and the BELIEVERS from different races and places. This is the composition of the true and the original Church of God empowered by the Holy Spirit during the Pentecost Sunday.
THE FOUNDING. The timeline of the Catholic Church reveals that the founder of Catholicism is the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself during His earthly ministry around 30 A.D. No other church traces its founder or origin to our Lord Jesus Christ, but the Catholic Church. But in doing so, Jesus plainly and literally founded it on a human being in the person of Peter, when He said, “AND SO I TELL YOU, PETER: YOU ARE THE ROCK, AND ON THIS ROCK FOUNDATION I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH. (Mt. 16:18).
This founding of Jesus of His Church on Peter had a reason, that is, Peter from the perspective of the entire creation, was the one chosen by the Heavenly Father, to reveal for the first time as to who Jesus is, Jesus “YOU ARE THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD.” (Mt. 16:16). And Jesus told Peter of what he had just said: “ Good for you, Simon, son of John. ### FOR THIS TRUTH DID NOT COME TO YOU FROM ANY HUMAN BEING, BUT IT WAS GIVEN TO YOU DIRECTLY BY MY FATHER IN HEAVEN.” (Mt. 16:17).
In the sequence of the conversations between Jesus and Peter, in the presence of all the apostles, three things are clear about the Church of God: 1. Jesus is the CORNERSTONE (Isaiah 28:16), which inherently is the invisible component of the structure, the Church. 2. Then Peter, as the visible ROCK of the Church, designated by Jesus Himself in anticipation of His ascension to heaven (chosen as such by God Father Himself, prompted by the Holy Spirit, then confirmed by Jesus), and 3. The apostles present, led by Peter, as the PILLARS of the Church.
The Church that Jesus has founded is meant by Him to be UNIVERSAL, PERPETUAL and ENCOMPASSING, as personified in the different nationalities who were present and then baptized on that day of the Pentecost. And more so, the Church is decreed to be INDESTRUCTIBLE, when Jesus continued to describe His Church, saying, “ AND THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT.”
THE PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. Viewed from the Church’s perpetuity and the vast area for its evangelization as commanded by Jesus, its mandated hierarchical structure speaks of the unbreakable intertwining starting from Jesus as the Cornerstone, the Apostles headed by Peter (the first Vicar of Christ on earth in anticipation of His [Jesus’] ascension to heaven, then to all baptized (including us), collectively constituting the entire body of Christ, the Church.
From here, we can see and fully understand the following: First, BAPTISM as the only mandated portal to the Church; Second, the decreed active connectivity and the guarded inclusivity of its components. This should mean that that those who profess to be disciples of Christ (starting from the Pope, Bishops and priests, and other religious personalities) must have an apostolic origin or root to the twelve Apostles of Christ and Christ Himself the very founder of the Church.
Anything outside of this mandated order of inseparability and connectedness is a disruption of the flow of the Holy Spirit that sustains the Church since the first Pentecost up to the present. Jesus vividly described this when He said, "I am the true vine; YOU ARE THE BRANCHES. Whoever abides in me and I in him, WILL bears much fruit, for APART FROM ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING." (Jn. 15:5).
This graphic picture of our Church is a source of eternal hope, joy and security. For indeed, our Church is the very Kingdom of God on earth where we are all called to live a life in incessant communion with Him (GOD) preparatory to our ultimate destiny, Heaven.
THE “OUR”. Our Church is the very “OUR”, whom Jesus collectively urges in the Lord’s Prayer to call God “OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN.” If we have one FATHER who is in Heaven, this reveals not only of OUR INSEPARABILITY as SIBLINGS to each other, but more so of our DIVINE and ROYAL ascendancy with GOD, who is KING. We wonder how could this be?
Think of the alliance and intertwining of the Woman and her Offspring in Genesis 3:15 whose joint mission is to crush the head of the serpent, the bringer of death. That Woman is Mary, who by God’s own permissive will became the Mother (Theotokos) of His only begotten Son, the Word who took flesh in Mary to become her OFFSPRING.
HOW DID WE BECOME ROYAL CHILDREN OF GOD? Mary’s Motherhood of God (the Creator of all Things), created our COMMON MOTHERHOOD in her, together with Jesus, the very own SON OF GOD, Christ the King. This must be the premise of Jesus in giving us the privilege to call God, His Father, “OUR FATHER”, resulting in our common FATHERHOOD in God with Jesus as our common BROTHER. As a result, BY GOD’s permissive will, in the Church where we belong, we are being elevated to the same level of relationship between Jesus and the Heavenly Father. For why would the Heavenly Father sent His only begotten Son as our Redeemer, if we are not that equally precious to Him?
Again, this is what Jesus said of the Heavenly Father’s role in the nourishment of the Church: “I am the real vine, and my Father is the GARDENER. He breaks off every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and he PRUNES every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will be clean and bear more fruit (Jn. 15:1-8). In every branch, flows the SAP (the HOLY SPIRIT). This makes the entire Church with us as components thereon, under the nourishment of the Blessed Trinity.
THE NEED FOR PURIFICATION AND PURGING: While Jesus referred to His Church as God’s Kingdom on earth, this does not exempt it (and us the components) from the constant purification and purging described as the BREAKING OFF and PRUNING of the branches in the gospel. Concededly, the Church is constantly rocked with scandals one after the other, from within and outside as not too few chose to be burdens of it instead of being contributors to its bountiful harvest.
THE CONTINUING MARTYRDOM OF THE CHURCH. When viewed from a distance, we can imagine of this Church as a fledgling and staggering wanderer and pilgrim, who, because of the many wounds inflicted in His whole body smells of foul odor. And as the weight of its ever growing burden increases, the Church many times stumbles to the ground, but never ceases to get up to continue with the journey fueled only by love, and because on its own, it has the capacity to heal itself sourced out by the Holy Spirit that empowers it.
This too is the path of every human relationship starting from married couples, among the members of the family, then to all neighbors. Without the Holy Spirit, all the pains and sufferings we are bound to encounter life, will be like unbearable crosses.
THE MYSTERY IN THE PARADOX. The paradox of it, is that, as the Church is constantly pruned and battered with the storms of human frailties, it produces saints and martyrs who in imitation of Jesus, their ultimate Master, forgave their persecutors. In this way, they reached the highest level of witnessing God’s love, etched in the words of Jesus while hanging at the cross, “FATHER FORGIVE THEM FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO.” And this is the promise given to them: “Jesus stood up and exclaimed, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. As Scripture says: Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.” (John 7:37).
The Church continues to teach and will never cease teaching everyone the value of humility, suffering, sharing and praying for each other (including the dead [for ours is a Church of hope trusting in the avalanche of grace and mercy of God]), being his brother’s or sister’s keeper. It can not change the beatitudes (Mt. 5:3-12) as the collective template and as the very foundation of God’s Kingdom on earth sealed by the cross of Christ.
To those who chose to abandon this Church because they are ashamed of it, in the course, unknowingly stab a new wound in the body of Christ. In the seesaw of authentic Christian living, perfect balance is only attained when the soul learns to draw graces and strength from tears, from the sweat of his/her worn out body, in the crisis that saps the strength of one’s spirit, from derision and oppression even coming from the persons we love.
How is this made possible to attain but only through the Holy Spirit that empowers the Church and us who are components of it. To belong to God is to belong to His Church and to suffer with Christ is to be glorified with Him.
A HAPPY AND BLESSED CELEBRATION OF THE PENTECOST SUNDAY TO ALL!
