Pentecost in the Jubilee Year

By Fr. Christopher Foeckler, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

The Holy Spirit’s role is central to the Jubilee Year with its theme of “Hope that does not disappoint”, because as St. Paul explains, it is “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Cf Rm 5:1-2,5) Moreover, we are told in the Holy Father’s Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee Year that “the Holy Spirit illumines all believers with the light of hope. He keeps that light burning, like an ever-burning lamp, to sustain and invigorate our lives.” 

The Holy Spirit illuminating and invigorating all believers is reminiscent of the spectacular coming of the Holy Spirt on Pentecost like a hurricane wind shaking the house where all the believers were gathered and then coming to rest upon each of them in the form of tongues of fire. The power with which the Spirit filled all in that upper room transformed them in an instant from the timid souls “locked behind closed doors for fear of the Jews” on Easter Sunday to be filled with wisdom and courage and power from on high 50 days later! The disciples burst forth with the energy of the Holy Spirit to preach to the multitude gathered around the house and won over 3,000 souls for the Lord that very day! 

It is this power of the Holy Spirit that has been poured out into our hearts especially in Baptism and Confirmation that illumines and invigorates our hearts with the hope that does not disappoint now during this Jubilee year—and especially on the Feast of Pentecost! 

Hope is a virtue, hence a power or strength to persevere and withstand all the assaults of the enemy, all the fatigues of the journey, all the discouragements of failures—our own and those of others around us. 

Hope is the strength to persist in faith through doubts and confusion, to maintain our charity towards those who show us no consideration or concern, and to be found loving the Lord until our last day, because His love will never give up on us and nothing can separate us from His Love for us! Hope is the virtue that – even in the midst of difficulty or challenge – enables us to see Jesus sitting at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven beckoning us to come to Him! 

This flame of love and light and power from the Holy Spirit is ignited anew with occasions like the Jubilee Year which re-enkindle in us the “Hope that does not disappoint”!

Happy Feast of Pentecost to all our loved ones, benefactors, and readers!