Pentecost: The Gift of the Spirit

Pentecost (1308) by Duccio

One of the biggest feasts of the liturgical year, Pentecost commemorates the fulfillment of Christ's promise to send the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, to the apostles to aid them in preaching the Gospel. Fifty days after Easter, with the full gift of the Spirit, the Twelve (including the newly chosen Matthias) were then fully equipped to proclaim the salvation that is Jesus Christ -- and indeed they immediately begin doing so, speaking in the native tongues of the "Parthians, Medes, Elamites" and many others.

The feast of Pentecost then has a missionary spirit about it. Having fully received the Advocate who enlightened them and reminded them of all that Christ had taught, the newborn Church now goes forth to fulfill its mission of evangelization to the world. It's indeed fitting then that Pentecost is often referred to as the birthday of the Church. I thought I'd pass along some words about the importance of Pentecost from one of my favorite Church Fathers, St. Irenaeus, taken from the second reading of today's Office of Readings (originally also from Book III of Irenaeus' Adversus Haereses). It's a bit long, but very good:

Luke says that the Spirit came down on the disciples at Pentecost, after the Lord’s ascension, with power to open the gates of life to all nations and to make known to them the new covenant. So it was that men of every language joined in singing one song of praise to God, and scattered tribes, restored to unity by the Spirit, were offered to the Father as the first-fruits of all the nations.


This was why the Lord had promised to send the Advocate: he was to prepare us as an offering to God. Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of broad, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from heaven. And like parched ground, which yields no harvest unless it receives moisture, we who were once like a waterless tree could never have lived and borne fruit without this abundant rainfall from above. Through the baptism that liberates us from change and decay we have become one in body; through the Spirit we have become one in soul.

"The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of God" came down upon the Lord, and the Lord in turn gave this Spirit to his Church, sending the Advocate from heaven into all the world into which, according to his own words, "the devil too had been cast down like lightning."

If we are not to be scorched and made unfruitful, we need the dew of God. Since we have our accuser, we need an advocate as well. And so the Lord in his pity for man, who had fallen into the hands of brigands, having himself bound up his wounds and left for his care two coins bearing the royal image, entrusted him to the Holy Spirit. Now, through the Spirit, the image and inscription of the Father and the Son have been given to us, and it is our duty to use the coin committed to our charge and make it yield a rich profit for the Lord.

Maybe you can see why I love Irenaeus. Veni, Creator Spiritus....