Pentecost Sunday

Pentecost is a Greek (Hemera) and a latin word meaning fifty. It refers to the coming of the Holy Spirit. This Christian festival is based on the much older Jewish festival of Shabuoth celebrated on the 50th day after the Passover. In 1897 Pope Leo XIII stated in his Encyclical Divinum Illud: ”Let the one proposition suffice : Christ is the head of the Church, the holy Ghost her soul. St. Irenaeus wrote: “Where the Church is, there is also the spirit of God and where God is, there is the Church and all grace. St. Augustine compared the working of the Holy Ghost in the Church to the working of the soul in the body saying “What the soul is for the body of man, that the Holy Ghost is for the body of Christ that is the church, “The Holy Ghost operates in the whole church. While the Holy Ghost is the soul of the Church, the worldly organization of the one billion, four hundred million believers is the body of the Church. In a metaphor, St. Tomas says the Holy Ghost is the heart of the church (Ecclesiae).

The arrival of the Holy Ghost signaled the start of the evangelization by the apostles. St. Paul inspired by the Holy Ghost, began his missionary works with the gentiles after his conversion from Church persecutor to church evangelization. Strange indeed are the ways of the Lord.

The foundation of the Church’s missionary effort was made possible through hard work and sacrifices of St. Paul, St. Timothy, St. Barnabas and what is today. Just as the spirit descended as a dove upon Jesus when he began his ministry (Matthew 3: 16-17) so the spirit descends upon us to guide us.