Today we celebrate the great Feast of Pentecost, which is one of the most important days in the Church: not because it’s something that happened 2,000 years ago, but because it’s something that should change the way we live now.

When Our Lord rose from the dead, He didn’t send out the Apostles to preach immediately, because they didn’t yet have the strength they needed. Even though they had seen JESUS risen and alive, they were still afraid and in hiding. Then in the Upper Room, fifty days after the Resurrection on the Jewish feast of Pentecost, “suddenly there came from Heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind … and divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.” (Acts 2:1). This was the promised coming of the Holy Spirit, and it changed everything. Their minds were infused with supernatural light, their hearts were overflowing with love, and they received courage and strength to withstand all human opposition. Then they went out and began openly preaching the Gospel of JESUS Christ and were ready to give their lives for Him.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen (1895-1979) used to say that before Pentecost, the Church was like a body without a soul. It had shape and structure, the raw material, but not the life. So when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, He breathed life into the body. It’s the Holy Spirit that is the very soul and animating principle of life in the Church.

Pentecost also reversed what happened at the Tower of Babel in the Old Testament (Genesis 11:1-9). At Babel, people were divided by language, but at Pentecost, people from many different nations all heard the Apostles preaching in their own language, bringing everyone together in unity – that is unity in truth and love. This is the gift of tongues.

Archbishop Sheen made another powerful point: Pentecost is like a second Annunciation. At the first Annunciation, the Holy Spirit came down upon Our Lady, and JESUS was born in her. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles, and the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ was born. And now we, the baptised, have to carry JESUS into the world, just as Our Lady did.

But there is a problem. We Catholics tend to neglect the Holy Spirit. We tend to focus on the Father and on JESUS His Son. Yet it’s the Holy Spirit Who helps us to pray, Who gives us strength and inspires us to want to be saints. So we need to invite Him back into our lives. We’ve already received Him in Baptism and Confirmation, but we need to activate His gifts in our lives.

So this Pentecost, don’t pray for something new. Pray to wake up what you’ve already received. “Come Holy Spirit. I know You live in me. Stir up Your gifts in my soul. Set me on fire again, and send me out for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.”

Fr Paul Gillham, IC