There are two questions to consider in today’s first reading. 1- Is anyone more important in God’s eyes than another? 2- Who does God want to be with Him? Peter made the point that no one is more important than another when Cornelius fell at Peter’s feet and Peter said, “Get up. I am also a human being.” God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, made it clear that He wants everyone to be with Him by giving the Gift of Tongues to the Gentiles who were present. Peter then ordered that they be baptized. The important thing here was not the fact that the Gentiles were given the Gift of Tongues but, that they accepted and received the Holy Spirit. What about us? Do we willingly accept the Holy Spirit with all of His gifts? How do we get to accept anything from God? The answer is: love. St. John tells us that God is love. So, if we are capable of loving, it is because God is within us. But then the question becomes, do we love God? If we do not love God, we do not love at all and what we might think of and call love is an illusion. It is not true and therefore comes from the evil one. We must love God above all things before we can truly love anyone else. That is just one reason why love is so important. Another reason is because God commands us to love Him and to love each other. In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that if we keep His commandments, we will remain in His love and our joy will be complete. Jesus did not speak about anything physical making our joy complete. He did not say anything about money, possessions, or power. He only spoke about the love that comes from Him and His Father.
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The Descent of the Holy Spirit Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraph 767 "When the work which the Father gave the Son to do on earth was accomplished, the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost in order that he might continually sanctify the Church."174 Then "the Church was openly displayed to the crowds and the spread of the Gospel among the nations, through preaching, was begun."175 As the "convocation" of all men for salvation, the Church in her very nature is missionary, sent by Christ to all the nations to make disciples of them.176
The Holy Spirit came to Mary and the Apostles as tongues of fire.
