Pascha VIII Pentecost

Pascha VIII: Pentecost 2017 – Cycle A Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 104; 1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23

In our Christmas crèche scenes we often place the ox and donkey just over the baby Jesus.  The warm, moist breath of the animals keeping away the chill of a winter’s night.

When was the last time you were close enough to feel the warmth of another person’s breath?  Infants do as they rest on the chest of a parent.  Cuddling lovers do caught up in love’s embrace.

Have you been present when a person breathes out for the last time?  If you are not really centered on the dying person, you can miss the moment, so gently can it occur.The final breath invisibly caught up into eternity.

On a cold January day, do you like to purposefully breathe in and out so as to see your breath rise like smoke from your mouth?  Breath crystalized for a moment; its reality unmasked.

Do you ever intently listen to your breath moving in and out of your body…in rhythm with the waves washing out and in over earth’s seashores?

“Jesus breathed on the disciples…” Warm.  Moist.  Invisible life.  Vulnerable.  Essential.

Breath has been present throughout our salvation.

In the beginning, the breath of God swept over the waters of creation. [Genesis 1:2]

God formed the human out of clay and blew into the nostrils the breath of life and the human became a living being. [Genesis 2: 7]

In a vision, the prophet Ezekiel is commanded by God to prophesy to the four winds who breathe life into the slain, dry bones of the House of Israel. [See Ezekiel 37:1-143]

We sang in the psalm response: “If you take away their breath, they die and they return to their dust. When you send forth your breath of life, they are created…!”  [Psalm 104: 29-30]

The breath of God comes upon Mary as it did over the chaotic waters of creation and she is filled with the new life of Jesus. [Luke 1:35]

In John’s Gospel, “Jesus bowing his head, handed over his breathe.” Creation, Redemption and Pentecost are one act – the warm, moist breathing of God blanketing us as a lover or a parent, dispelling our fears.

Breath is a force.  And Jesus directs the primacy of this force of life.

“Jesus breathed on the disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit – Receive the breath of life!  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you hold on to are kept.””

If breath is a force, is not the most powerful force we have been given hen the power to breathe new life into a person through forgiveness?

Our spiritual journey began ninety days ago when we were reminded that we were dust. We were forcefully told Ash Wednesday, Remember! that there is no life within our sinful ways.  The Feast of the Annunciation of Mary always occurs during these ninety days when the path for our forgiveness was charted in the pregnancy and birth of a child who is kept warm by the breath of animals.  We were present on Good Friday when Jesus freely handed over his last breath for our sake.  But instead of ending in death, this breathing out was a new beginning.

And now on this 50^th Day of Easter we a given a share in that life–giving breath of God.  We have within each of us the authority and power to forgive and breathe new life into each other.

The new life of releasing a person from the burden of their guilt and sin.  The new life of renewing relationships within our families, our marriages, among our friends, and between enemies and strangers.  The new life of beginning again in union with God and the Church.  The new life of being able again to take a deep, fresh breath and walk upright in the Lord Jesus.

Within whom do you need to breathe the new, warm, moist life of Pentecost?