I wrote the following "Opening the Word" column for Pentecost Sunday, May 27, 2007, for Our Sunday Visitor:
In the Old Testament the feast of Pentecost (from the Greek word for “fiftieth”) was one of the three great pilgrimage festivals of Israel, a celebration of the spring harvest that took place fifty days after the offering of first fruits at Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For Christians, Pentecost marks the fruits and harvest of another sort. It is a celebration of a formative event in the history of the early Church—the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the newly birthed Church and the first bold proclamation of the Gospel by Peter, the head apostle, among the Jews.
“The Church was made manifest to the world on the day of Pentecost,” states the Catechism, “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.’” (CCC 1076). This outpouring of the Holy Spirit and manifestation of the Church are described in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles. A group of men and women who had been afraid and confused in the dark days following the Crucifixion of Jesus were transformed supernaturally into fearless and passionate evangelists, emboldened by the Helper without whom, Paul writes, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord.’” (1 Cor 12:3).
United together in anticipation of the gift promised by the Lord, the apostles and disciples experienced a theophany, or visitation by God. The loud noise and fire is similar to what the Israelites experienced at Mount Sinai (Ex 19:16-18), while the sensation of strong, rushing wind is like preceding God’s visit to Elijah on the same mountain (1 Kings 19:11-12). Fire was a common element in Old Testament theophanies, such as the pillar of fire that led the Israelites through the desert (Ex 13:21-22). Particularly striking is the description found in Psalm 29: “The voice of the Lord strikes with fiery flame” (v 7). The outward signs seen and heard in the upper room fulfilled the prophecy of John of the Baptist, who declared that Jesus “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Lk 3:16). In this way the people of God are purified, empowered, and prepared to go forth and carry out the work begun by the Son of God.
The Christians first witnessed to Jews “from every nation” who either were visiting Jerusalem for the feast or who had moved there from other countries. This miraculous gift of tongues—being able to speak in a multitude of languages—is an undoing of the ancient curse of the Tower of Babel, when “the Lord confused the speech of all the world” (Gen 11:1-9) because of man’s disobedient attempt to create a perfect society without the aid of God. On Pentecost the one body of the society of the Church was created by the Holy Spirit, uniting Jews, Greeks, slaves, and free persons from every tongue and nation.
It has become common, as I’ve noted in previous columns, for some Christians to pit the Holy Spirit against “the Church,” as though the Third Person of the Trinity will only be hindered by structure and organization. But that is contrary to what Luke and Paul wrote about the early Church, which was not only animated by the Holy Spirit, but organized by Him as well. There is one body, Paul explained to the Christians at Corinth—a rather rowdy and disorganized group of believers—and that body, the Church, has been formed by baptism into Christ through the Holy Spirit. “What the soul is to the human body,” wrote St. Augustine, “the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church” (CCC 797). The Church is both charismatic and Catholic, a single body of many parts, united in and through the Holy Spirit. Drink deeply, then, of the one Spirit!
Related IgnatiusInsight.com Articles, Excerpts, and Interviews:
• Motherhood of the Entire Church | Henri de Lubac, S.J.
• The Church Is the Goal of All Things | Christoph Cardinal Schönborn
• Excerpts from Theology of the Church | Charles Cardinal Journet
• Understanding The Hierarchy of Truths | Douglas
Bushman, S.T.L.
• The Trinity and the Nature of Love | Fr. Christopher Rengers
• Approaching the Sacred Scriptures | Scott Hahn
and Curtis Mitch
• God, The Author of Scripture | Preface to
God and His Image: An Outline of Biblical Theology | Fr. Dominique Barthélemy, O.P.
• Going Deeper Into the Old Testament | An Interview with Aidan Nichols, O.P.
• The Pattern of Revelation: A Contentious Issue |
From Lovely Like Jerusalem | Aidan Nichols, O.P.
• Origen and Allegory | Introduction to History and Spirit:
The Understanding of Scripture According to Origen | Henri de Lubac
• How To Read The Bible | From
You Can Understand the Bible | Peter Kreeft
Comments