Spirit of Peace and Love

 The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to embrace the mystical energy of the Holy Spirit that makes the Love between the Father and the Son our inspiration to be disciples of the fullness of life through peace and love for all.

The Spirit of Love

The Reading from the Acts of the Apostles is Luke’s pentecostal narrative of The Coming of the Spirit.

* [2:1–41] Luke’s pentecostal narrative consists of an introduction (Acts 2:1–13), a speech ascribed to Peter declaring the resurrection of Jesus and its messianic significance (Acts 2:14–36), and a favorable response from the audience (Acts 2:37–41). It is likely that the narrative telescopes events that took place over a period of time and on a less dramatic scale. The Twelve were not originally in a position to proclaim publicly the messianic office of Jesus without incurring immediate reprisal from those religious authorities in Jerusalem who had brought about Jesus’ death precisely to stem the rising tide in his favor.

* [2:2] There came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind: wind and spirit are associated in Jn 3:8. The sound of a great rush of wind would herald a new action of God in the history of salvation.

* [2:3] Tongues as of fire: see Ex 19:18 where fire symbolizes the presence of God to initiate the covenant on Sinai. Here the holy Spirit acts upon the apostles, preparing them to proclaim the new covenant with its unique gift of the Spirit (Acts 2:38).

* [2:4] To speak in different tongues: ecstatic prayer in praise of God, interpreted in Acts 2:6, 11 as speaking in foreign languages, symbolizing the worldwide mission of the church. (Acts of the Apostles, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 104 declares the beauty of creation with awe.

* [Psalm 104] A hymn praising God who easily and skillfully made rampaging waters and primordial night into a world vibrant with life… The psalmist reacts to the beauty of creation with awe (Ps 104:24–34).

* [104:26] Leviathan: a sea monster symbolizing primeval chaos, cf. Ps 74:14; Is 27:1; Jb 40:25. God does not destroy chaos but makes it part of the created order.

* [104:29–30] On one level, the spirit (or wind) of God is the fall and winter rains that provide food for all creatures. On another, it is the breath (or spirit) of God that makes beings live. (Psalms, PSALM 104 | USCCB, n.d.)

The Reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians declares Unity and Variety in One Body with Many Parts

* [12:4–6] There are some features common to all charisms, despite their diversity: all are gifts (charismata), grace from outside ourselves; all are forms of service (diakoniai), an expression of their purpose and effect; and all are workings (energēmata), in which God is at work. Paul associates each of these aspects with what later theology will call one of the persons of the Trinity, an early example of “appropriation.”

* [12:12–26] The image of a body is introduced to explain Christ’s relationship with believers (1 Cor 12:12). 1 Cor 12:13 applies this model to the church: by baptism all, despite diversity of ethnic or social origins, are integrated into one organism. 1 Cor 12:14–26 then develop the need for diversity of function among the parts of a body without threat to its unity. (1 Corinthians, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of John, Jesus appears to present the Spirit and Peace.

* [20:19–29] The appearances to the disciples, without or with Thomas (cf. Jn 11:16; 14:5), have rough parallels in the other gospels only for Jn 20:19–23; cf. Lk 24:36–39; Mk 16:14–18.

* [20:19] The disciples: by implication from Jn 20:24 this means ten of the Twelve, presumably in Jerusalem. Peace be with you: although this could be an ordinary greeting, John intends here to echo Jn 14:27. The theme of rejoicing in Jn 20:20 echoes Jn 16:22.

* [20:20] Hands and…side: Lk 24:39–40 mentions “hands and feet,” based on Ps 22:17.

* [20:21] By means of this sending, the Eleven were made apostles, that is, “those sent” (cf. Jn 17:18), though John does not use the noun in reference to them (see note on Jn 13:16). A solemn mission or “sending” is also the subject of the post-resurrection appearances to the Eleven in Mt 28:19; Lk 24:47; Mk 16:15.

* [20:22] This action recalls Gn 2:7, where God breathed on the first man and gave him life; just as Adam’s life came from God, so now the disciples’ new spiritual life comes from Jesus. Cf. also the revivification of the dry bones in Ez 37. This is the author’s version of Pentecost. Cf. also the note on Jn 19:30.

* [20:23] The Council of Trent defined that this power to forgive sins is exercised in the sacrament of penance. See Mt 16:19; Mt 18:18. (John, CHAPTER 20 | USCCB, n.d.)

Vivian Amu (2022) implores “Come, Holy Spirit, fill us with peace”.

“Peace be with you,” Jesus says.  It is rare to feel peace for more than a few minutes these days.  All we need to do is turn on the television, get on social media, or encounter someone who tends to push our buttons, and there goes our peace of mind.  However, our experience of the day is much different when we are accompanied by the Holy Spirit.  When we invite the Holy Spirit into every experience, we can do God’s works with confidence and courage.  We can begin our day creating the space we need to allow the Holy Spirit to liberate us and empower us. 

My friends, let us invite the Holy Spirit who breaks down the walls of a stubborn heart, heals the broken, melts the frozen, and guides our steps.  We are in much need of the reconciling presence of the Spirit, which draws us into communion with each other, yes, other members of the body of Christ.

Come, Holy Spirit, rest on us, dwell in us, stay with us. (Amu, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “The Holy Spirit at Pentecost,” by Leo the Great, 400-461 A.D.

"To the Hebrew people, now freed from Egypt, the law was given on Mount Sinai fifty days after the immolation of the paschal lamb. Similarly, after the passion of Christ in which the true Lamb of God was killed, just fifty days after his resurrection, the Holy Spirit fell upon the apostles and the whole group of believers. Thus the earnest Christian may easily perceive that the beginnings of the Old Covenant were at the service of the beginnings of the gospel and that the same Spirit who instituted the first established the Second Covenant." (excerpt from Sermon 75.1) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on John 20:19-23 comments that at Mass today, we will also recite the Veni, Sancte Spiritus: “Come, Holy Spirit!” So let’s ask the Spirit to come and “heal our wounds, our strength renew” and to “wash the stains of guilt away.” Let’s ask him to help us leave behind all guilt and shame.

If you feel burdened by sorrow, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Cry out to him: “Shed a ray of light divine! / You, of comforters the best; / . . . Sweet refreshment here below; / in our labor, most sweet rest.” Ask him to fill you with joy.

Jesus has breathed his Holy Spirit on you, and he is inviting you to open your heart and receive him.

“Come, Holy Spirit, and fill my heart anew!” (Meditation on John 20:19-23, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments in Acts Luke recounts the descent of the Spirit on Pentecost, already a Jewish festival, The word for “wind” “breath” and Spirit” in the Hebrew is used. The disciples hear the wind and experience the Holy Spirit. Everyone hears them in their native language whether the apostles are speaking or the crowd is hearing in different languages. This event is also to heal the tower of Babel and the confusion of languages. The idea is to say Jesus is Lord in the Holy Spirit. Gnostics claimed a special knowledge of the Holy Spirit. Their claim is that revelation is totally spiritual therefore Jesus is superseded by the Spirit. Gifts from the Spirit are given for the sake of the community. Charisms include authority, preaching, teaching, listening, all to raise the spirits of people. We are baptized in One Body. Divisions of the past are not important. On Easter Evening, Jesus greets the disciples with peace after they have deserted Him. Jesus anoints them and us to receive the Holy Spirit and become a new creation and the Spirit will reside in our hearts and whisper in our ear. Friar Jude comments that for the mystic, John, time is not important, but the historian, Luke, places the anointing of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as the time is important.

Father Richard Rohr, OFM, encourages Christians to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit as a gift that God has already given.  

Even though we pray, “Come, Holy Spirit,” I hope you know that the gift of the Spirit is already given. The Holy Spirit has already come. We all are temples of the Holy Spirit—equally, objectively, and forever! The only difference is the degree to which we know it, draw upon it, and consciously believe it. All the scriptural images of the Spirit are dynamic—flowing water, descending dove or fire, and rushing wind. If there’s rarely any movement, energy, excitement, deep love, service, forgiveness, or surrender, we can be pretty sure we aren’t living out of the Spirit. If we’re just going through the motions, we aren’t experiencing our connection to the Spirit. We would do well to fan into flame the gift we already have.    

God doesn’t give the Spirit to those of us who are worthy, because none of us are worthy. God gives the Spirit in this awakened way to those who want it. On this Feast of Pentecost, quite simply, want it! Rely upon it. Know that it has already been given and live out of that trust. (Rohr, n.d.)

We invoke the Spirit to come and fill our hearts and kindle the fire of love through which we live as new creations and become the workers to renew the face of Creation.

References

Acts of the Apostles, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved May 24, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/acts/2?1 

Amu, V. (n.d.). Daily Reflection. Creighton Online Ministries: Home. Retrieved May 24, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-may-24-2026 

John, CHAPTER 20 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved May 24, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/20? 

Meditation on John 20:19-23. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved May 24, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/05/24/1575649/ 

1 Corinthians, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved May 24, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/12? 

Psalms, PSALM 104 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Bible Readings, Audio and Video Every Morning | USCCB. Retrieved May 24, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/104?1 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Available to All. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved May 24, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/available-to-all/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). They Were All Filled with the Holy Spirit! Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved May 24, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

Preparing Presence

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to review the needs of the people in our environment and prepare to be present to them as followers of Jesus.

Being Present

The Reading from the First Letter of John proclaims our Life from God’s Anointing as Children of God.

* [2:22–23] Certain gnostics denied that the earthly Jesus was the Christ; to deny knowledge of the Son is to deny the Father, since only through the Son has God been fully revealed (Jn 1:18; 14:8–9).

* [2:24] Continuity with the apostolic witness as proclaimed in the prologue is the safeguard of right belief.

* [2:28–29] Our confidence at his judgment is based on the daily assurance of salvation. Our actions reflect our true relation to him. (1 John, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 98 is extolling God for Israel’s victory.

* [Psalm 98] A hymn, similar to Ps 96, extolling God for Israel’s victory (Ps 98:1–3). All nations (Ps 98:4–6) and even inanimate nature (Ps 98:7–8) are summoned to welcome God’s coming to rule over the world (Ps 98:9). (Psalms, PSALM 98 | USCCB, n.d.)

The Gospel of John declares John the Baptist’s Testimony to Himself.

* [1:19–51] The testimony of John the Baptist about the Messiah and Jesus’ self-revelation to the first disciples. This section constitutes the introduction to the gospel proper and is connected with the prose inserts in the prologue. It develops the major theme of testimony in four scenes: John’s negative testimony about himself; his positive testimony about Jesus; the revelation of Jesus to Andrew and Peter; the revelation of Jesus to Philip and Nathanael.

* [1:19] The Jews: throughout most of the gospel, the “Jews” does not refer to the Jewish people as such but to the hostile authorities, both Pharisees and Sadducees, particularly in Jerusalem, who refuse to believe in Jesus. The usage reflects the atmosphere, at the end of the first century, of polemics between church and synagogue, or possibly it refers to Jews as representative of a hostile world (Jn 1:10–11).

* [1:20] Messiah: the anointed agent of Yahweh, usually considered to be of Davidic descent. See further the note on Jn 1:41.

* [1:21] Elijah: the Baptist did not claim to be Elijah returned to earth (cf. Mal 3:19; Mt 11:14). The Prophet: probably the prophet like Moses (Dt 18:15; cf. Acts 3:22).

* [1:23] This is a repunctuation and reinterpretation (as in the synoptic gospels and Septuagint) of the Hebrew text of Is 40:3 which reads, “A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord.”

* [1:24] Some Pharisees: other translations, such as “Now they had been sent from the Pharisees,” misunderstand the grammatical construction. This is a different group from that in Jn 1:19; the priests and Levites would have been Sadducees, not Pharisees.

* [1:26] I baptize with water: the synoptics add “but he will baptize you with the holy Spirit” (Mk 1:8) or “…holy Spirit and fire” (Mt 3:11; Lk 3:16). John’s emphasis is on purification and preparation for a better baptism. (John, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB, n.d.)

Cindy Murphy McMahon comments that it always comes back to putting our sights on God, on Jesus, doesn’t it? As John says twice in 1 John, “remain in him.” We really have no hope if we take our sights off of God, his word, his Son, and put them exclusively on the present world and all of its divisions and rancor.

In the Gospel, John writes that when priests and Levites came to John the Baptist asking who he was, “He admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, ‘I am not the Christ.’” How refreshing. Someone admitting and not denying something. Present-day politicians do not know the meaning of those words. Their mantra is admit nothing, deny everything.

John points his questioners to Jesus, gladly. Even though his own situation is bleak, he is happy to direct them to Jesus. He, and the whole of Scripture as well, points us to Jesus, too. The Alpha and the Omega. Our beginning and our end.

Lord, help us to follow John’s lead, and always look to your Son for the answer to every problem, for the Way, the Truth and the Life. (Murphy McMahon, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “John points to the Redeemer,” by Gregory the Great (540-604 AD).

"John did not baptize with the Spirit but with water, since he was unable to take away the sins of those being baptized. He washed their bodies with water but not their hearts with pardon. Why did one whose baptism did not forgive sins baptize, except that he was observing his vocation as forerunner? He whose birth foreshadowed greater birth, by his baptizing foreshadowed the Lord who would truly baptize. He whose preaching made him the forerunner of Christ, by baptizing also became his forerunner, using a symbol of the future sacrament. With these other mysteries he makes known the mystery of our Redeemer, declaring that he has stood among people and not been known. The Lord appeared in a human body: he came as God in flesh, visible in his body, invisible in his majesty." (excerpt from FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 4) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on 1 John 2:22-28 comments that God does love to give us new gifts, but he often does it by breathing new life into what he has already given us. The truths that we have known for years and years still have power and life in them.

At the beginning of a new year, in a rapidly changing world, Jesus’ promise is the same as it always was: you can remain in me, held, rooted, secure. There’s no need to chase the latest thing. Hold on to the truth that is already alive in your heart!

“Jesus, help me to remain in you, the Word spoken from the beginning.” (Meditation on 1 John 2:22-28, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments in the first reading from the First Letter of John, the question of the anti Christ, the ones who deny Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Father, is expressed. Greek philosophy considered the material world unable to be associated with the Divine. When the Jewish religious leaders visit John and ask who the Baptist is, he identifies as the voice of one crying in the desert. John points to Jesus in this Gospel and is the akin to the best man at the wedding. The best man wishes many children for the Bridegroom who must increase and John the Baptist must decrease when the Bridegroom is here.

Father Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Carlos Rodríguez, founder of The Happy Givers nonprofit based in Puerto Rico, who shares how he was challenged to be salt and light for an elderly man.

I went to see Don Héctor at the hospital. He was so happy to see us, and he immediately began to share the reality of being an elderly person in a hospital in Puerto Rico where we’re lacking doctors and nurses. The main thing he was frustrated with was the fact that he hadn’t had access to a shower for that whole week, and he took great pride in his appearance.

There’s nothing like being salt and light. As Father Richard has said many times, “The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the good.” And giving Don Héctor a shower and spending time with him was the good….

We keep finding God in those showers. We keep finding God in these [things] that remind us of our childhood and our brokenness, but that also invite us into generational healing and transformation. There are so many good ethics and teachings and books, and there are so many good people speaking into microphones, but there’s nothing like just being present with the ones who need presence. (Rohr, n.d.)

We implore the Wisdom of the Spirit to reveal the needs and care we are called to address as followers of Christ below the surface of our prejudices and distractions.

References

John, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved January 2, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/1?19 

Meditation on 1 John 2:22-28. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved January 2, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/01/02/1463835/ 

Murphy McMahon, C. (n.d.). Daily Reflections. Creighton Online Ministries: Home. Retrieved January 2, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-january-2-2026 

1 John, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved January 2, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1john/2?22 

Psalms, PSALM 98 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved January 2, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/98?1 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Dignity Is Non-Negotiable. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved January 2, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/dignity-is-non-negotiable/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Christ Stands among You. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved January 2, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/