by Fr. Tommy Lane
A baby grows for nine months before it is born, and we see the baby when it is born. The Church was born on Pentecost Sunday but was in existence already before then. Jesus chose the twelve apostles and taught them over three years and founded the Church on them. Beneath the cross as Jesus died there were devout women with Mary and John the apostle (John 19:25-27). After Jesus’ ascension awaiting Pentecost, Mary and the apostles gathered in the Upper Room (Acts 1:13-14). So the Church was already in existence before being born publicly at Pentecost.
The birth of the Church happened at the perfect time in Jerusalem according to God’s plan. The city was crowded because there were many people in Jerusalem for a Jewish feast called Shavuot celebrating God giving the commandments and the teaching of the first books of the Old Testament to Moses on Mount Sinai. When God gave the commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, there was lightning and what seemed like a storm (Exod 19:16), or we could say wind and fire (blowing of the trumpet/shofar and lightning). The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was the fulfillment—Part Two—of God giving the law at Mount Sinai and so like at Sinai there was wind and fire. There was a sudden strong wind and tongues of fire appeared and came to rest on each one in the Upper Room. All Jesus’ followers in the Upper Room were devout Jews and so we can imagine they too were celebrating Shavuot, God giving the Law and commandments at Sinai. We can imagine them reading some of the first books of the Old Testament on the day of that celebration and during the days leading up to it. That is why a beautiful mural in a Catholic pilgrim center in Jerusalem depicts Peter reading the Ten Commandments as the Holy Spirit began to come down upon them.
It is interesting how everything comes together in God’s plan: in the Old Covenant, God gave the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets to Moses at Mount Sinai during wind and fire, and in the New Covenant God gave the Holy Spirit at Pentecost during wind and fire on the very day they were celebrating God giving the commandments to Moses. The prophet Jeremiah had foretold that God would give a new covenant not written on stone but written on people’s hearts (Jer 31:31-33). God giving the Holy Spirit is how the New Covenant is written on people’s hearts.
Pentecost continues in the Church now when we receive the sacraments. During the Easter Vigil, part of the prayer blessing the water in the baptismal font is this:
May this water receive
by the Holy Spirit
the grace of your Only Begotten Son,
so
that human nature, created in your image
and washed clean through
the Sacrament of Baptism
from all the squalor of the life of old,
may be found worthy to rise to the life of newborn children
through water and the Holy Spirit.
During Confirmation, the bishop asks God to give the confirmandi the seven gifts of the Spirit:
Send your Holy Spirit
upon them
to be their helper and guide.
Give them the spirit
of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of right judgment and
courage,
the spirit of knowledge and reverence.
Fill them with
the spirit of wonder and awe in your presence.
One of the prayers the bishop prays during the ordination of a priest is this:
Hear us, we beseech
you, Lord our God,
and pour out on this servant of yours
the
blessing of the Holy Spirit and the power of priestly grace,
that
this man, whom in the sight of your mercy we offer to be
consecrated,
may be surrounded by your rich and unfailing gifts.
In the second reading today (Year B, Gal 5:16-25), Paul contrasts what he calls the works of the flesh with the fruits of the Spirit. Even though we receive the Holy Spirit, there is opposition within us and all around us in society to the action of the Holy Spirit. Pope John Paul II in his encyclical on the Holy Spirit wrote that the resistance the Holy Spirit encounters in a person is what Scripture calls “hardness of heart.” (Dominum et Vivificantem 47) We all know about Pharaoh’s hardness of heart in Egypt. Hardness of heart against the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is something with which we all struggle. So Pope John Paul II wrote, “In our own time this attitude of mind and heart is perhaps reflected in the loss of the sense of sin.” (Dominum et Vivificantem 47) So one of the actions of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to help us see ourselves as we are. That explains why St. Paul encouraged in his letters: “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thes 5:19) and “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.” (Eph 4:30) In the struggle between the world and the Spirit in the lives of each of us, may we never quench the Spirit or grieve the Holy Spirit.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2024
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for Pentecost Sunday
Pentecost: Proud to be Catholic 2021