Pentecost Sunday

Happy Pentecost Sunday!

Today’s Gospel recounts the moment that the disciples first encountered the Risen Lord.  What a mix of emotions that must’ve been! Can you imagine what they could have been feeling?  They  dropped everything to follow Jesus – they left their families, their jobs; in a word, their lives.  For years, they lived close to this man, witnessed the things he’d done, and heard the things he preached.  And they were all in.  So to see that same loving, steady, incredible man come to such a pathetic, humiliating end must have felt unreal.  Like everything leading up to that point was a waste or a misunderstanding. Imagine Jesus’s perspective.  The people he spent his days with, the people he leaned on for support, the people he loved, abandoned him at his lowest.  Betrayal is hard to take, and likewise, the guilt from hurting someone else deeply is a heavy burden to bear.  This is where the apostles stood.  So when Jesus came into their midst, I can only imagine there was an air of dumbfounded confusion paired with a painful pang of guilt. “How could he ever forgive me?”

“How could he ever forgive me?”  This question can weed its way into our hearts like a snake.  The devil loves to use this question to keep us in the dark and away from Christ out of shame.  But Jesus does not react in anger; “Peace be with you,” he says.  “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  This infinite fount of mercy is expectedly unfathomable and hard for our finite minds to grasp.  Not only does he forgive me, but he still wants me?  Our world isn’t big on second

chances; mistakes lead to job loss, relationship strain, and distrust. But Jesus is not of this world.  He constantly pursues us with the quiet hope that we may one day stop running.  We can often disqualify ourselves from greater potential, but Christ wants to work in our flaws and our cracks to bring about a good this world has not yet seen, and a love that this world needs.  As we see Jesus’s loving invitation to his disciples, let this be a reminder to us too – no matter how broken we may feel, Jesus is inviting us into his love, his mission, and his kingdom.

Dave Saunders, Drexel Student