When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
(Acts 2:1-4)
With this dramatic description, we hear today the evangelist Luke portray the descent of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church as the apostles are empowered to speak to the crowds who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish Feast of Weeks. As we celebrate Pentecost Sunday, allow me to reflect on its significance in the Church and in the lives of every follower of Christ.
First, as promised last week, I would like to reflect on the historical background for Pentecost because, just as Easter has its roots in the Jewish Passover celebration, Pentecost has its roots in the Jewish Feast of Weeks. The Old Testament speaks of a festival of the first fruits of the grain called “Ingathering,” “Harvest,” or “Weeks. The last name is given to the feast because it is celebrated seven weeks after Passover (cf. Ex. 34:22; Deut. 16:16, et al.). In Deuteronomy 16:16, we read: “Three times a year, then, every male among you shall appear before the Lord, your God, in the place which he chooses: at the feast of Unleavened Bread, at the feast of Weeks, and at the feast of Booths.” Since the temple in Jerusalem was the holiest of the Jewish places, Jerusalem would be filled with faithful Jews not only at Passover (the feast of Unleavened Bread) but also at the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Booths. These were celebrations of thanksgiving to God who had blessed the people with another bountiful harvest. The Feast of Weeks was celebrated in the spring at the beginning of the harvest season while the Feast of Booths (so called because the harvesters lived in makeshift tents or booths in the fields to protect their crops from marauders) was the final harvest festival, celebrated in the fall. Since seven weeks are fifty days, both the Old Testament and the New Testament referred to the Feast of Weeks as “Pentecost” (from the Greek Πεντη – Pente – which means “fifty”).
In early Christianity, the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist was always a sort of Easter, a commemoration of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. It was not until the second century that various Christian communities began to observe an annual special time for Easter. As this developed, the Easter observance expanded quickly into a fifty-day period. At this time, the Easter season was called Pentecost. Since the early fourth century, there has been a special festival called Pentecost that is assigned to the fiftieth day of this season and commemorates specifically the events that we hear about in the Acts of the Apostles 2: the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles. In this same century, communities also began to distinguish the feast of the Ascension from that of Pentecost, celebrating the ascension on the fortieth day from Easter, as suggested by Acts 1:3, which speaks of the risen Lord appearing to the apostles for forty days before ascending into heaven. As you can see, the Christian Pentecost took little from the Jewish festival of Weeks except its position on the calendar. For Christians, the meaning of Pentecost derived from the accounts in Acts (1:4, 5; 2:1-47) that portray the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which inaugurated the mission of the Church.
The Pentecost episode in Acts – part of which we hear in today’s Eucharistic celebration – presents the Holy Spirit coming upon all of those gathered in prayer as Jesus had instructed. The Spirit’s presence was experienced as a strong, driving wind and “tongues of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them” (v. 3). This enabled the apostles to preach ecstatically and convincingly to people of all nations in their own language. This, some scholars suggest, reverses the unintelligible babble of languages that had separated nations from the time that people tried to build a tower to heaven (cf. Gen 11:1-9; the account of the Tower of Babel). It is also seen as a beginning of the Church’s ministry which spread the Gospel far and wide in just a few centuries. Some scholars also see a reversal of the Old Testament situation when inspired prophets often spoke ecstatically but with little effect on the people.
Next, allow me to offer some theological reflections on this great feast. We celebrate Pentecost annually as the beginning of the Church, as is explained so well in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
On the day of Pentecost when the seven weeks of Easter had come to an end, Christ’s Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, manifested, given, and communicated as a divine person: of his fullness, Christ, the Lord, pours out the Spirit in abundance. (§ 731)
Our Lord, Jesus Christ, has completed his work here on earth but, as he assured his disciples, God would continue to be present in the world through the Holy Spirit, sent to “remind you of all that I told you” (Jn 14:26). The Catechism goes on to explain:
The Church was made manifest to the world on the day of Pentecost by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit ushers in a new era in the “dispensation of the mystery” – the age of the Church, during which Christ manifests, makes present, and communicates his work of salvation through the liturgy of his Church, “until he comes again.” In this age of the Church Christ now lives and acts in and with his Church, in a new way appropriate to this new age. He acts through the sacraments in what the common Tradition of the East and the West calls “the sacramental economy”; this is the communication (or “dispensation”) of the fruits of Christ’s Paschal mystery in the celebration of the Church’s “sacramental” liturgy. (§ 1076)
Just as Jesus showed the love of God while he was among us in the flesh by expelling demons, feeding thousands, forgiving sins and healing the sick, so the Church now demonstrates God’s love by overcoming the power of the devil in the sacrament of Baptism, providing spiritual nourishment in the sacrament of the Eucharist, manifesting God’s forgiveness through the sacrament of Reconciliation and offering God’s healing strength through the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. And, the Church continues to provide us with the living Word of God proclaimed in all of these sacraments. And, all of this is accomplished through the Holy Spirit, God’s presence acting in the Church today.
Yes, Pentecost is still very important to us today. Let us, daily, open ourselves to the power of the Spirit and watch, amazed, as the apostles did, while the Spirit moves us in new and wondrous ways!
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created and you will renew the face of the earth!