In Greek, “pentecost” means fiftieth. Jews observe Pentecost, known to them more familiarly as Shavuot, fifty days after Passover. Shavuot commemorates God giving the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai.
It was to celebrate Shavuot that so many Jews from all over the known world were gathered in Jerusalem, as recounted in the first Christian Pentecost found in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. All four canonical Gospels, especially the synoptics (i.e., Matthew, Mark, and Luke), are quite clear that Christ’s passion and crucifixion took place during Passover. This is why this first Pentecost precisely coincided with Shavuot.
This year, Shavuot and Pentecost very nearly coincided. Jews throughout the world observed Shavuot on Friday, 22 May. So, a mere two days’ difference. As Christians, we must never lose sight of the deeply Jewish origins of our religion. Without Judaism, Christianity makes no sense at all!
Christians also need to recognize that our first Pentecost was the undoing of the Tower of Babel, when all human languages were confounded, thus confining people to language groups. This led to the existence of ethnicities and nations. In short, it meant a divided humanity.
With their Spirit-given ability to speak unknown foreign languages and proclaim salvation through Jesus Christ to all present, the apostles were able to begin God's work uniting humanity. This unification is not under a national banner, not by means of heredity, not by virtue of language. But under Christ's kingship, thus making God's kingdom present in the world.
The Catholic Church is just that, catholic, global, transcending everything that tends to divide people. Uniting people in and through the Church is the work of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is the beginning of the Church. As we heard last Sunday, our mission is to proclaim the Gospel, make disciples, and baptize people. The Holy Spirit is the Lord, the Giver of life. Being the Church of Christ also means being the Church of the Holy Spirit.
In his Second Letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul first posits his antithesis between the letter and the spirit of the Law. In the context of writing about his own ministry, the apostle insisted, “the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life.”1 An antithesis is not a contradiction. And so, antithesis refers to an inherent tension, not a negation.
In what way are spirit and letter antithetical? By “letter,” Saint Paul refers to the Law, the 613 rules (prescriptions and proscriptions) he would’ve been very familiar with as a former Pharisee. For Paul, the purpose of the Law is to reveal sin by our inability to obey perfectly. Hence, the Law cannot grant eternal life.
By “spirit,” the apostle refers to the Holy Spirit, who brings life through faith in Christ, enabling believers to live in accordance with God’s will and to experience spiritual transformation. To live by the Spirit, then, isn’t simply to do whatever you want. It is to have your will increasingly conformed to God’s will. So, what you want is what God wants.
Spiritual transformation results not only in doing God’s will (i.e., “keeping God’s commandments”). Loving God with your entire being and loving your neighbor as yourself needs to become what you want, even what you long to do. In other words, love because you are first loved. To be holy, to be like Christ, is to love perfectly.
As Christians, we are called to rise above what our natural response might be when faced with life’s challenges. It isn’t easy to forgive, to do good to those who have done you wrong, to love and pray for your enemies. By God’s grace, imparted by the Holy Spirit, Christians are to live supernaturally.
There is a close liturgical connection between Ascension, which is normally observed forty days after Easter, and Pentecost because there is a close theological connection between the Lord’s ascension and the Holy Spirit’s descent.
During Saint John’s Last Supper Discourse, the Lord tells those who believe in Him that they will do greater works than the ones He performed “because I am going to the Father.”2 Later, in the same discourse, Jesus says that unless He goes, the Spirit “will not come to you.”3
It is the Holy Spirit who effects the sacraments, that is, confects the Eucharist, etc. As our Gospel indicates, the first gift the Risen Lord gives to His Church, as He breathes the Holy Spirit, is the forgiveness of sins. In the Creeds, we confess our belief in “the forgiveness of sins.”
It is the forgiveness of sins that allows us to live by the Spirit, not the letter of the Law. It is the Holy Spirit who guides us to an ever deeper understanding of what God has revealed in Christ. Hence, living by the spirit and not the letter is the work of God through the Holy Spirit.
In his Letter to the Galatians, Saint Paul insisted that “if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” Life in the Spirit, he goes on to write, is manifest by “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”4 Let us strive to live in the Spirit and thus enjoy the glorious freedom of the children of God.
1 2 Corinthians 3:6.↩
2 John 14:12.↩
3 John 16:7.↩
4 See Galatians 5:18-25.↩
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