Last Sunday we celebrated the Solemnity of the Pentecost. It is the moment when Christ breathed the Holy Spirit on his disciples and gave them power to forgive sins and to retain them as well. It was the moment when the Church was established and the moment when the spirit of truth was revealed to them. It is the spirit of truth that God is the creator of the universe, the truth that God is the God of love, the truth that God always wanted us to share in his divine life. There is no problem accepting all these divine truths. As believers, we adhere to all these truths because we hold them to be absolute truths revealed to us by God, taught to us by Christ, and the Holy Spirit continues to guide us to embrace these truths. It is our duty to share these truths and the gifts of the Holy Spirit to our brothers and sisters.
However, as time passes us by, there had been manipulations to these truths and people are misguided by some mentalities that are contrary to the divine truths that had been taught to us. We know of a lot of fake news going around especially in the social media. Some TV shows would even instruct our children regarding some false truths. Of course, those who do it will never admit that sad reality, but it is being inculcated in the young minds of our children and, eventually, they will accept that things like that are acceptable. There is the “Asawa ng Asawa Ko” which, by its title alone, is conclusive as a story of unfaithfulness in marriage. There are a lot more of this kind, but I must admit that I am not a follower of such stories. I do not even take time to watch the daily news because there are a lot of lies and half-truths in it. I would rather watch an action movie and wish that someday I will be given an extraordinary power so I can protect the innocent and the sorry victim.
Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on his disciples, giving them a power to make hatred become love and forgiveness, to make the ambitious humble enough to accept a simple life, to make people hold on to the Christian principles rather than be slaves and victims of too much materialism and love for mundane things. As Christians, we are being asked to make use of that power within us because it is also given to us by Christ.
The world today needs people with a firm conviction to be different a different person from the all the rest. We need to be transformed and live our lives in witness to the life of Christ. He is our savior, and he is the king of the universe. But he was not of this world and his kingdom does not belong to the kingdoms of the world. The Spirit of Truth will always teach us to remain faithful be committed to the teachings of Christ, but we know that we are but weak human beings, always prone to commit mistakes and sad decisions in life.
Now, since we are still in this world filled with so much lies and deceit, I believe that what we must do is to renew our commitment as Christians. We make mistakes and we commit sins, but Christ left us a sacrament where we can tell God that we are sorry for our sins, and he will always be ready to forgive us. This was clearly mentioned in the gospel reading last Sunday and we believe that, indeed, our ordained ministers have the power to ask God to forgive us of our sinfulness. If we can only avail of this sacrament, I am sure that our lives will be easier to live and real joy is achievable.