Traditional Catholic Teaching

PENTECOST

When the days of Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together in one place.

Acts 2:1

Our chief task in life is to love Jesus, and for love of Him to keep His commandments, and our reward is that He comes to us and dwells in us by His grace. We can see how this was the case with the first Christian community in Jerusalem, the members of which aimed at nothing but at loving Jesus and at proving their love by works performed under very great difficulties. It was the case, too, with the holy Apostles, and St. Luke has recorded how lovingly they laboured in spite of much suffering.

The earliest Christian community after our Lord's ascension assembled in one large room. There were about 120 people present, including our Lady and several other women. Tradition tells us that they had gathered together to pray in the same room where Jesus had presided at the last supper, and where the Apostles had subsequently chosen Matthias to take the place of Judas, the traitor.

How beautiful and edifying a sight must this assembly of Christians have presented! All were inspired by the same love, the same faith and the same zeal in prayer. There was no pride, no self-esteem, no vanity; all were full of humility, desiring only to receive the Holy Ghost, and by the aid of His grace to lead a life fruitful in good works. There was no rivalry, no jealousy, no envy and no hatred amongst them, but all were united in mutual love, striving to please God and to love Jesus and be loved by Him. There was no indifference, no lukewarmness and no indolence; the example of each encouraged his neighbour and stimulated him to fresh fervour. All were praying earnestly to Jesus, beseeching Him to send them the Holy Ghost, that they might have wisdom and power to hold fast to their holy faith themselves, and to make it known to others, either by word of mouth, or by the quiet, modest force of example. Such an assembly of men and women eager for salvation certainly deserved that the Holy Ghost should come down upon them, pouring out the abundance of His grace.

Now, as then in Jerusalem, united effort on the part of many to attain to what is good brings down the grace of the Holy Spirit upon whole congregations, and, as a consequence of the Communion of saints, the noblest work that Christians can accomplish, provided that they are men of good will, is to promote not only their own salvation, but also that of others, by prayer and a good example. Therefore you may take that gathering of Christians as a model; Jesus has gathered you together here, and certainly, if you continue to be men and women of good will, His holy Mother will be with you as your Mother, just as she then occupied the place of honor in the midst of the early Christians. Jesus has gathered you together here that you may prepare yourselves by prayer and love, revealing itself practically in the discharge of your daily duties, for the work of being useful also to others and of leading them to salvation. May you all therefore strive with one accord, with the same zeal and the same love of God, to attain this end. Each one should pray for the others, as the first Christians did, encouraging and setting them a good example, and you should be of one accord in despising all that is wrong, dishonourable, mean and sinful. The Holy Ghost will not withhold His grace if you exert yourselves; He will enlighten your hearts more and more with the light of faith and of true knowledge; He will make you enthusiastic for what is really good, and will, equip you with Christian prudence, with a gentle but steadfast disposition, and with that inward peace that alone can preserve you from a sinful and despairing quest of false peace. If men had continued in that unity of faith, confidence and love, which our Lord desired His disciples to have, they would have escaped much misery, many horrible episodes in history would never have occurred, and the still more dreadful sense of discord and, degradation that weighs down the hearts of many at the present day would be unknown. It was to do good to the entire world that the Holy Ghost came down at Pentecost upon the Apostles and all assembled with them in that room at Jerusalem; for it was through that descent of the Holy Ghost that the Catholic Church was founded, and it is her mission to give to all men peace, such as the world cannot bestow. The Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles on the Jewish festival of Pentecost, because that particular festival was a type of what He was to effect under the new Dispensation.

......The Jewish Pentecost, instituted by the Mosaic law, was also called the Feast of Weeks, because it was celebrated seven weeks after the Pasch, on the fiftieth day after that great festival. It was primarily a harvest festival, because the harvest that began at the Pasch was ended at Pentecost. Every man used to bring two loaves, and the head of every family the first fruits of his crops as thank offerings. Later on this festival was observed in thanksgiving for the Law miraculously communicated to Moses on Mount Sinai. Whether we consider it as a harvest festival, a feast of first fruits or a thanksgiving for the old Law, we shall see that it has a prophetic bearing upon the New Dispensation.

The Christian Pentecost is in the spiritual sense also a harvest festival, and the Holy Ghost is the fruit ripened by the death of Christ, for it was by His death that He bestowed the Holy Ghost upon His Church. Pentecost is a feast of first fruits, for, by the coming of the holy Ghost, not only was the first assembly of Christians in Jerusalem wholly dedicated to God, but three thousand more were converted by St. Peter's sermon, and these were the first fruits of many thousands brought into the Church by them and by the holy Apostles.

The first Pentecost was also a festival of legislation, inasmuch as the Holy Ghost enlightened our Lord's disciples, so that they then understood fully the doctrines and commandments of Jesus, and the same Spirit gave them courage to proclaim the new law of grace throughout the world.

"This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel,
after those days, with the Lord: I will give my law in their bowels, and I
will write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

Jeremiah 31: 33.

If you are really to benefit by the feast of Pentecost, you must beg the holy Ghost to let it be to you a harvest festival, a festival of the Law and a feast of first fruits. May Pentecost be to you a harvest festival in the sense that on this day you renew your good resolution so to live, that in this world you may gather in an abundant harvest of good works, and in the world to come an everlasting reward. Resolve to spare no pains in acquiring all those qualities of mind and heart that are necessary, if your life is to be good and profitable both to yourselves and to others. This will be possible only if Pentecost is to you also a festival of the Law, a festival when you renew your resolution to obey the law of Christ and to turn a deaf ear to the flattering, misleading and deceitful commandments of the world. Let it be to you a day when, with redoubled fervour, you beg the Holy Ghost to keep you in the way of His commandments in spite of all dangers and temptations. He will not withhold His help if you are determined to observe this day also as a feast of first fruits, when you dedicate to God once and for all the early years of life. If, whilst you are young you learn to cling to God with pure, true, loving hearts, your after life will still be devoted to serving Him faithfully. If in your youth you regard life from a higher point of view than that suggested by love of amusement, vanity or folly, if now you recognize the right though steep path that leads up to heaven, and begin to climb it in a spirit of Christian piety, you will not hereafter desist from the steady, unwearied striving after God, that will finally bring you to your eternal home. If, however, the years of youth are not dedicated as first fruits to God, if they are only first fruits of folly, vanity and love of amusement, or are wasted in unprofitable dreams, it is only too likely that each subsequent year will plunge you more deeply into sin, and will lead you further away from God; whilst the world, that applauded your folly when you were young, will be unable to prevent your falling into everlasting destruction.

Therefore pray to-day and always, with one accord, like the first Christians in Jerusalem, that the Holy Ghost may make you all delight in His law, and give you now true piety and love of God, and throughout life abundant fruits of good works, so that hereafter, by the aid of Him who to-day came down upon the Church, you may be admitted to the glorious presence of God. Amen.

Return to: Readings