And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:4)
The Church celebrates the Feast of Pentecost 50 days after Easter Sunday, which is also 10 days after Ascension Thursday. It marks the completion of the liturgical season of Paschaltide, the Easter season. The Acts of the Apostles records the story: The Apostles and the Blessed Mother were gathered together when the Holy Spirit descended upon them with a sound “like the rush of a mighty wind,” “appeared to them as tongues of fire,” and enabled them to “speak in other tongues” (Acts 2:1-13).
“Pentecost” also refers to the Jewish feast Shavuot celebrated 50 days after Passover. When the Apostles gather to celebrate Pentecost (cf. Acts 2:1), they celebrated this feast. Michelle Arnold writes that this is “a holiday on which tradition had it that King David, ancestor to the Messiah, had been born and had died,” and “commemorates the giving of the Law to Moses.”
Catholic Pentecost commemorates Jesus Christ’s fulfillment of Jewish Pentecost as the fulfillment of the Mosaic Law through the line of David, and it completes the Passover’s fulfillment through the Holy Spirit (CCC 731). It also fulfills the Christ’s promises to send the Apostles the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn. 14:16-17, Acts 1:8, etc.).
Pentecost provides part of the Sacrament of Confirmation’s scriptural basis. During Confirmation, “the Holy Spirit endows [the faithful] with special strength so that they are more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith, both by word and by deed, as true witnesses of Christ” (Lumen Gentium 11). The Catechism identifies this connection to the Sacrament, teaching that “Christ promised this outpouring of the Spirit, a promise which he fulfilled first on Easter Sunday and then more strikingly at Pentecost” (CCC 1287). The verses following the story of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-42) exemplify our call as confirmed Catholics to preach Christ crucified through grace and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Pentecost marks the Church’s manifestation to the world (CCC 1076). Christ’s Church exists in history, with an unbroken apostolic succession from Jesus to the Apostles through the bishops who preserve the transmission of Tradition and Scripture. This transmission “includes everything which contributes toward the holiness of life and increase in faith of the peoples of God” (Dei Verbum 8). Most fundamentally, the Church is “sent to announce, bear witness, make present, and spread the mystery of the communion of the Holy Trinity” (CCC 738), which was itself fully revealed at Pentecost (CCC 732).
Pentecost provides fodder for our spiritual life. People devoted to the Rosary already meditate upon it in the third Glorious Mystery. It marks one of the high points of the Church’s liturgical calendar. It ought to permeate our spiritual lives through prayer to the Holy Spirit, petition for the perfection of the cardinal and theological virtues via the gifts of the Holy Spirit given at our Confirmation, and meditation upon the Church’s importance in our lives and the lives of all the faithful.
God, help us to proclaim this message with the zealous love and ardor of the Apostles on Pentecost.
Featured painting of Pentecost is by Duccio di Buoninsegna
- Pentecost: A Primer - April 30, 2021
- The Dogma and Devotion of Divine Filiation - March 25, 2021
- Scripture’s Relationship with the Church - February 25, 2021