PENTECOST, THE COMING AND MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH
Meaning of Pentecost:
Pentecost means the 50th. Pentecost marks the 50th day of the Resurrection of Jesus. Though Passover and Pentecost have been celebrated by the Israelites, in the Christian understanding Passover, Pentecost even many other feasts which we celebrate as Christians were or rather are feasts of the Jews, the Israelites. But, Jesus the Passover Lamb, through His life, death, and resurrection, and through the sending of the Holy Spirit has changed those Feasts and given a new meaning and asked us to commemorate those days with a different meaning. That’s why, when we see the Old Testament Feasts through the New Testament, they have a different meaning. All these Old Testament Feasts are not an end in themselves, rather they were a foretaste of what was to come.
The Event of the Pentecost:
Thus, when Pentecost marks the 50th day of the resurrection of Jesus and also on that day Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit on the disciples as we see in Acts 2. In the Gospel, we find that Jesus had asked the disciples not to leave Jerusalem but to remain there; because he was to send the Holy Spirit. “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The Risen Lord was in the world for 40 days. He appeared to the disciples in those days. On the 40th-day, He ascended to heaven. “After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). Jesus, along with the Father, sent the Holy Spirit on the disciples on the 50th day of His resurrection.
The Acts of the Apostles book was written by St. Luke, the author of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. Therefore, the Acts is the second book by St. Luke. He continues from where he had left in the Gospel. Both the books can be read as a series. The first chapter of Acts briefs the Gospel. The second chapter begins with the Coming of the Holy Spirit in the form of tongues of fire. “And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim” (Acts 1, 2–4).
The Ministry of Proclamation:
The ministry of preaching can be separated into two parts, namely proclamation by the Head and proclamation by the Body, i.e., the Church. Jesus preached for almost three years. He stopped His solemn preaching to the world after His solemn entry into Jerusalem. He didn’t use words to preach to the people. From that time to the day of Pentecost, there was no preaching but then we find on the 50th day with the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Church became alive. St. Peter stood up in front of the people and preached. He represented the disciples who received the Holy Spirit. As we saw in verse 4, it was the Spirit who “enabled them to proclaim”.
The Birth of the Church:
Now, there arises a question about the birth of the Church. When was the Church born? There has been confusion with the birth as some call the Good Friday as the Birthday of the Church while some say it is the Pentecost.
“Christ has flooded the universe with divine and sanctifying waves. For the thirsty he sends a spring of living water from the wound which the spear opened in His Side. From the wound in Christ’s side has come forth the Church, and He has made her His Bride.”
– Origen ofAlexandria (185–254 A.C.)
In both events, we can find reasons to believe. Let’s go a step ahead. We can find realities in both but taking them both together I think we can see from a different perspective about the birth of the Church. Church has been given different imageries in the New Testament. Some of them are — Body of Christ, Bride of Christ, Sheepfold, Vineyard, Temple, Leaven, etc. Bride of Jesus is one of the prominently used imageries for the Church. Jesus is seen as the new Adam or the Second Adam (cf. 1 Corinthians15:45).
1) Church as the Bride of Christ
i) Adam-Eve & Jesus-Church
Eve was created from the ribs of Adam. That is the old creation. And in the new creation, the new Eve was born from the side of the New/Second Adam, Jesus. In the New Testament, Bride is an image of the Church. And this Church also is called Eve and this new Eve is taken from the side of the Second Adam, that is, Jesus. As the old Adam was made to sleep, the New Adam also slept on the cross and from His side a new Eve, that is the Church was born.
a) Eve created from Adam
“So, the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man”
(Genesis 2:21–22).
b) The Church created from Jesus
“But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water” (John 19:33–34).
2) Church as the Body of Christ
There is another imagery of the Church as the Body of Christ. Adam was created from the mud. He was merely a statue; he remained inanimate, i.e., lifeless, till God breathed into his nostrils and then he became a living being. “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).
3) Connection between Bride and Body
What is the connection? There is a strong connection between the Body and the Bride. The first-ever love poem gives the reason for it as Adam exclaimed:
“The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man” (Genesis 2:23).
The bride and the bridegroom are to be considered one: one flesh, having a single identity. The next verse says, “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Genesis 2:23–24).
St. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, uses the imagery of marriage for the Church. Though it is pretty long, I feel it’s very important to read this passage to get the real meaning of this imagery.
“Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church — for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church”
(Ephesians 5:22–32).
Reflecting on these passages, we can compare Bride and Bridegroom to the Head and the Body. This is the basis for both — the Theology of the Body and the Theology of the Church. This new Adam now incorporates so many members into his body; because His Body is the Church. This Body, this new Adam remains in a way inanimate or dormant for almost 50 days till the coming of the Holy Spirit, as Adam, who was created from the mud, remained inanimate, lifeless till God breathed into him. Likewise, the Church which was born from the side of Christ at His death, remained inanimate, in a way lifeless till the coming of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit entered into the disciples, the Church became animate that is living and then we find they start proclaiming.
Nature of the Church
The Spirit enabled them to preach, so there is a connection between the birth of the Church or the beginning of the Church we can say from the side of Christ to the Pentecost, the Church which remained inanimate, lifeless in a way from the day of the Death of Jesus now becomes a living organism; that’s the Church is not an institution or an NGO, rather it is a living Being,
Similarities between Christmas and Pentecost
The coming of the Holy Spirit has similarities with the Birth of Jesus, the Mission of Jesus. Jesus was born, assumed the human nature; whereas the Holy Spirit dwells in persons. He doesn’t take a new form as Jesus took, but He dwells in persons.
Jesus was sent by the Father whereas the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father and the Son, that is, Jesus Himself.
Jesus has only one form. He doesn’t take any other form than coming in the form of a man, whereas the Holy Spirit came in different forms not merely in the New Testament. We can find the coming or rather the presence of the Holy Spirit in different forms, which we have previously discussed. There are eight major forms or symbols of the Holy Spirit that we can find in the scripture. They are — water, anointing, fire, cloud and light, seal, laying on of the hands, finger, and dove; because Spirit, the Holy Spirit takes different forms as He desires.
The fourth comparison is Jesus was limited to time and space like human beings. Definitely, though He was not a human being. We need to understand the difference. Jesus was (is) a divine Person with two different natures, both divine and human. Being in the human nature, He was like us — limited to a particular space and time, but the Holy Spirit is not limited to a place and time as He is in His divine nature here in the world. Therefore, He is omniscient and omnipresent; so, there is no limitation. For Him, there is no restriction of time and space.
The fifth comparison is Jesus won the redemption for all, rather He redeemed all of us, paying the price with His blood. The Christ Event, that is the entire life, passion, death, and the resurrection of Jesus, can be said as the objective salvation. That is, we are all saved from God’s side. But, we need to experience, we need to own what God has already done for us and given to us. That is called subjective salvation. And here the Holy Spirit is present with us working through the Sacraments and giving us His Fruits and Gifts known as the charisms to make Christ present in the world or to continue the work of Christ. And through these Sacraments, the salvation won for us is made present to us. Thus, we personalize all that God is giving us and thus we get saved or rather we take part in that salvation.
The sixth comparison is — Jesus is the Vine, as Jesus Himself said, and you are the branches. Actually, it was only in words but only with the coming of the Holy Spirit these branches are made part of that Vine, again about which we have already seen. I would provide the link in the description. Please do watch. It is the Holy Spirit who grafts us into that vine that is Christ Himself and makes us members of His Body.
The seventh point is — Jesus is the temple not built with the human hands. Jesus is the Temple. Temple is an imagery of the Church. Everyone baptised into Christ is part of that temple. Everyone is a temple of the Holy Spirit. “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Being joined with Christ, we are not merely individually temples of the Holy Spirit, rather as part of the Temple, that is, Jesus Himself. St. Paul writing to the Ephesians says, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19–22). So, this is the Temple about which Jesus was speaking not about His earthly Body alone, the Body with which He lived on this earth. Now, He is speaking about the Mystical Body, which we already saw and we are members of His Body.
St. Peter in his First Letter writes, “As you come to him, the living stone that is Jesus rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4–5). So, we are all a temple and definitely as Saint Paul says we, each one of us, are a different, separate temple, because the Spirit of God dwells in us. But, all of us as living stones put together are being built into that spiritual house, the Temple, that is Jesus Himself.
The eighth point is Jesus in His human form was here till His Ascension but the Holy Spirit is in the world till the end. And now with the coming of the Holy Spirit, as we have seen the Church comes into action. The Spirit doesn’t have a body and so the Spirit works through the members of Christ. The Spirit works through each person who has been grafted into Christ. Then to whom is this Spirit is given? In the Old Testament already it was promised that God would send His Spirit or rather pour His Spirit on the Israelites in Isaiah, “For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground I will pour out my spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants” (44, 3). But this was rather a misunderstanding we can see; because Israelites saw that they were the only ones who are saved but through prophet Joel God would open the mind of the Israelites telling that God is going to pour out His Spirit on everyone.
“And afterward,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
(Joel 2:28–29)
So, the Holy Spirit is given to everyone irrespective of a Jew or a non-Jew and Saint Peter in his first proclamation just after the coming of the Holy Spirit would use this quote from prophet Joel in Acts chapter 2 verses from 14 to 17.
Implications
We have already seen how the Spirit is active in the world and this Spirit is active in the world but especially in the Church in you and me as the members of this Body. God wants us to be a Jesus in this world. That is the mission of the Holy Spirit. To put in one sentence the Mission of the Spirit is to make us all another Christ, make us all image of God. Do we want to let ourselves be formed in the image and likeness of God? The Holy Spirit is sent for this Mission and every Christian has the responsibility to be another Christ. To be a Christian is being members of the Body of Christ, that is to say, to be another Christ, to be a presence of Jesus in this world. Very often we say that we don’t feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, we don’t experience the spirit. Now the Spirit is within us. It depends on us whether we have attuned to the promptings of the Spirit; whether we have come into that realm, into that wavelength of the Holy Spirit. That is the challenge for which we need to surrender ourselves as the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Apostles surrendered themselves. And throughout the history of the Church, we find everyone has been trying to surrender oneself.
Now it’s our time to surrender ourselves to the working of the Spirit. May the Holy Spirit who is in the world who has been sent into our hearts, into our being, may inspire us, animates us, help us to be living beings, to be part of the Body of Christ. Catechism of the Catholic Church number 747 says, “The Holy Spirit whom, Christ, the Head pours out on His mumbles, builds, animates, and sanctifies the Church. She is the sacrament of the Holy Trinity’s communion with men.” I think, this statement gives us the gist of all that we have been reflecting on. May God help us to be really members of His Body, not merely members but living and active, real members of His Body. May God help us all!
To understand the Incarnation (the Word made flesh), try this book by Fr. C. George Mary Claret, “God’s Journey to Bethlehem: God’s Way of Alluring You to Enter Into Your Heart”
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