Pentecost: The Birthday of Catholic Christianity

Article by Fr. Sam Morello, OCD

The Easter Solemnity of Pentecost is the Birthday of Catholic-Christianity. The awesome and bitter-sweet Paschal Mystery Celebration is the childbearing of the whole Body of Christ - the Mystical Body of the Lord - the Church.

The Church is born in the Upper Room of the pre-Pentecost Retreat. The ancient biblical expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and then the 'Enduring Epoch of Sin' found in the first chapters of Genesis, all the way through chapter 11 with the Tower of Babel's dispersal of sinful humanity, have now all been reversed. Humanity has been called together in Christ as One Body whose very soul is none other than the Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son.

At Pentecost the Blessed Trinity releases the fullness of revelation, for now the manifestation of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity has been made, true to the Promises of the Lord of the Paschal Mystery at the Last Supper. For the Lord there said, "Now I am going back to the Father, but I will not leave you orphans." For "another Paraclete I will give you; he is the Spirit of Truth" and of Love and Peace and Fortitude of soul, “who will testify to me, as you will testify to me"1.

St. Luke recounts the great theophany of the Spirit's charismatic apparition in the Cenacle of the upper Eucharistic room. The mighty noise of a "strong-driving wind", with "tongues of fire resting on the head of each of the apostles, with Mary the Mother of the Lord, and upon about 120 persons in all".2 The mysterious tornadic wind attracted many to the place where the apostles were. The curious crowds were pious pilgrims to Jerusalem because of the old Jewish Feast of Pentecost.

Adolf Adam explains that seven weeks after the feast of unleavened bread (beginning with the barley harvest) the feast of (seven) weeks was celebrated in thanksgiving for the wheat harvest. Because the old feast was celebrated on the fiftieth day, the feast was given the name Pentecost, i.e., exactly 'the fiftieth day' (cf. Tob 2:1). After the heavy labor of the harvest, the feast of weeks was a joyous one and was celebrated with various sacrifices in the temple (Lev. 23:15-21). Later on, it was associated with the Jewish liturgical recall of the Mosaic Covenant at Sinai and the giving of the ten commandments of the Law - The Torah.3

Now, in the New Testament a new Law is revealed, one that is written on the hearts of the faithful, who from within themselves know the Presence of God and his Law. The apostles expressed themselves with such exuberant­ ecstatic speech of divine praise that, together with the harmless world-wind, they became a spectacle that made them look "drunk with wine" even though it was early in the morning.

Anything but drunk! Rather, they were professing Jesus Christ as both Jewish Messiah and Son of God, betrayed by the religious authorities, given over to crucifixion under Pontius Pilate, but now risen from the dead, and pouring out the Spirit of the End Time on all to drink in alike. And "lo and behold", as my deceased mother Louise of 102 used to say, "lo and behold", the apostolic preaching from the rooftop reached the ears of the pilgrims, was heard and understood in the particular language of each foreign pilgrim in Jerusalem, no matter where he or she came from. An impressive litany of places of origin is given in Acts:

"Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the district of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet they all heard the apostles speaking in their own tongues of the mighty works of God!"4

You see why scripture scholars say that the Tower of Babel (or 'Babble' as a play on words) was reversed! The Christian faith became the universal language that can unite the tribes of the earth by the power of the Holy Spirit. (I like to think that beyond music as the universal language, the Holy Spirit has his own music - unifying faith!)

Then we have what scholars call the 'Joannine Pentecost,' every bit as significant as the dramatic-charismatic Pentecost of Acts, but much more low-key. Theologically there is no problem that we have a Pentecost event on the first Easter Sunday evening.

According to biblical theology, with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit was immediately released for what theologians calls the 'economy of salvation' - the distribution of sanctifying grace to those disposed to faith. The Holy Spirit of the End Time was available to humankind immediately upon the Lord's rising from the tomb. On this more sedate occasion, the Risen Lord surprises the apostles locked in the upper room in seclusion from the trauma of the crucifixion and the confusion caused by rumors started by women who claimed angels had spoken to them of the Lord's resurrection.

So, the Risen One "came and stood in the midst of the disciples. He greeted them with the Jewish "Shalom" - Peace be with you. Then he showed them his wounded hands and side." Altogether beside themselves, the disciples rejoiced at the sight. Again, the Lord greets them with the salutation of Peace. And again, the Lord conducts a formal commission: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And then he breathed on them and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and who sins you retain are retained."5

Fr. Roland Faley, TOR, remarks that John, unlike Luke, does not adhere to an extended time-sequence after Easter Day: appearances for some 40 days, the Ascension, and finally Pentecost. For John these are but different aspects of a single transcendent event of the resurrection and exaltation of the Lord.

With this theological understanding of John's Gospel, we see that the conferral of the Spirit is central to the narrative on Easter Sunday night. Clearly as the GIFT of the resurrection, the Spirit conveys peace and reconciliation - i.e., the apostolic power to forgive sins. Here again Fr. Faley writes:

"The power to bind and loose within the church conferred in Mt. 16:19 & 18:18 is here further elaborated in the power to forgive sins. It connotes an authorized act of judqment, here given to the apostles. As the first gift of the Spirit (v.22) it looks to baptism or the first forgiveness, but also includes subsequent pardon for sin in the Christian life. The Catholic Council of Trent (in the 16th C) saw in this text the basis for the church's authority to forgive post ­baptismal sins. The act of breathing the Spirit [in this text] evokes the image of God's breathing the spirit into the first man, Adam (Gen. 2:7). Here it is the new life from God that is bestowed in the 'second creation'.6

In First Corinthians7 Paul speaks as the original biblical theologian of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ. He learned this mystery first from the confrontational Lord who met him head-on at the Gate of Damascus. Paul tells us about the diversity of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the members of the Christ's Body. Emphasis is given to the gifts of the Spirit, not as directed to individuals, but given for the common good of the church as a body. This body of the Lord is a living organism in which all members adhere. The gifts are for service! They are the workings of God! It is the spirit that unites all the personal gifts for the good of the whole Body. And the very same Spirit is shared by all believers of diverse ethnic and social backgrounds (v13; Gal 3:28). In the one baptism, all have been given to drink of the one Spirit of God, again the soul of the mystical Body.

The final reflections of Fr. Faley on the Solemnity of Pentecost return to the notion of the spiritual and supernatural Birthday for us all. Pentecost is about New Life. Thus Baptism is Pentecostal! Confirmation in the Spirit is Pentecostal! The Mystical Body of the Lord is Pentecostal.

The Holy Spirit consecrates our Eucharistic Sacrifice at Easter and always. Pentecost set the Church out on the course of its mission. Pentecost gave you and me a direction for our lives in Jesus Christ. Without Pentecost Christ's work would have been incomplete. Because of the gift of the Spirit you and I can call Jesus our Brother; and can call God Abba, our dearest Father! Pentecost makes divine intimacy possible; it places us squarely within the one Kingdom of Heaven, open to all nations!

Yet Pentecost is as 'communal' as it is a personal Feast. We are Church. And the Church is our Mother, says Faley, who accompanies us from the cradle to the grave.8

With Pope Francis we need to make the Church as welcoming as we possibly can to all people. We need to first address enemies in reconciliation, and then others outside our comfort zone! No longer should we really see even serious differences as a threat. It is ideal and very wise in the Spirit to grow easy with discomfort. In Christ we are open to all, yet without discounting Evangelical values or the Natural Law so dear to Mother Church. It is precisely our Spirit-filled-values that make us "all things to all people". With the gentleness of Jesus, we show the compassion of the Father to the least of humanity, for all without exception are called to the one Body of Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit that makes us One.

Amen and Alleluia!

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Citations

1. Gospel of John, Chps. 14-16

2. Acts of the Apostles, 2:1-11

3. Adolf Adam, The Liturgical Year (The Liturgical Press Collegeville, 1990) p. 11

4. Acts of the Apostles, 2: 9-12

5. Gospel of John, 20: 19-23

6. Roland J. Faley, Footprints on the Mountain: Preaching and Teaching the Sunday Readings (Paulist Press, 1994) p. 297

7. 1 Corinthians, 12

8. Roland J. Faley, Footprints on the Mountain: Preaching and Teaching the Sunday Readings (Paulist Press, 1994) p. 370-377