You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” These words of Jesus before his ascension into heaven were fulfilled nine days later at Pentecost. The word Pentecost itself, means “50 days” as the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles 50 days after Easter. Christ sends the fullness of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the disciples who were present, and they were filled with his presence, power, and gifts, and they began to proclaim the Gospel of Christ.
The event of Pentecost is significant in two ways. First, the Holy Spirit is fully revealed, and as a result, the mission of the Holy Spirit of empowering and transforming the followers of Christ is also inaugurated. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were transformed from being weak and afraid, to being bold and courageous in proclaiming and witnessing the revelation of God. For it is only through the Holy Spirit that the early Church was able to have true faith in God.
Secondly, the Pentecost event marks the birthday of the Church, and the origin of the Church’s mission and identity, both visibly and spiritually. The Church is manifested visibly as the Apostles began to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to all the nations that were present in Jerusalem, who all heard the apostles speaking in their own native tongues. Thus, the Catholic or universal Church became present in the unity of the human race in Christ and became the visible and active instrument of salvation through the power of the Holy Spirit. In fact, Pentecost is the reversal of the scattering of humanity through sin at the Tower of Babel as seen in the Old Testament. At Babel, humanity through sin, was fractured through the different languages and no longer able to communicate and live together as one, but through the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the human family was once again united in the Church, where in a single day, over 3,000 people were baptized.
The Church also began her spiritual mission through the power of the Spirit by beginning to teach and proclaim the Gospel of Christ. The Apostles burst out of the Upper Room filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit and began the missionary activity of the Church. It is the Holy Spirit who not only leads us to the truth, but also empowers us to go forth and proclaim the truth. Truly, the Holy Spirit is the source and soul of the Church, leading us always to Christ.
This gift of the Holy Spirit is poured forth upon the Church at Pentecost to dwell within us so that we may be sanctified, or become holy (from the Latin sanctus). Christ opens the gates of heaven for us through his death and resurrection, and then he sends the Holy Spirit to transform us through our cooperation with his power and grace, so that becoming holy, like Christ, we may have eternal life. The Holy Spirit accomplishes this work of sanctification in several ways:
The Holy Spirit frees us from both the law and the bondage of sin.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are set free from the law that was written on stone and receive a new law written on our hearts. We now live in the freedom of Christ, no longer subject to the law and the desires of our flesh. St. Paul states, “But now we are released from the law, dead to what held us captive, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not under the obsolete letter” (Romans 7:16). The Holy Spirit frees us from the bondage of sin and death so that we live in the freedom of the life of God.
Through the Holy Spirit, we are made righteous and become children of God.
We are literally transformed from being bent over in sin to now being able to stand upright or become righteous before God. The power of the Holy Spirit is a transforming power that conforms us to the image of Christ and restores that image of God within us which was disfigured through sin. The Holy Spirit sanctifies us as children of God, and by uniting us to Christ, we become the adopted sons and daughters of God.
The Holy Spirit fills us with his seven gifts.
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to us at our Baptism and then given to us in superabundance at Confirmation. The gifts of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, fortitude, piety, and the fear of the Lord are given to us as the foundation, or spiritual tools, of the Christian life, so that we too may continue the mission and work of Christ. In fact, the sacrament of Confirmation is like our own personal Pentecost in which we are filled with these gifts so that we may truly be the witnesses and instruments of Christ to all the world. Through these seven gifts we in turn are called to bear the fruits of the Spirit: love, peace, joy, patience, humility….so that the presence and mercy of Christ may be made richly present in and through us.
The Holy Spirit is also the source and inspiration of our prayer.
In fact, our prayer is actually our soul responding to the thirst of Christ for us that comes to us through the Holy Spirit. When we pray, it is the Holy Spirit praying in and through us, leading us to the heart of Christ. We cannot even call Jesus “Lord” without the grace and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul teaches, “the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with sighs too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). We should always call upon the intercession of the Holy Spirit in our prayer, especially when it is difficut to pray or in times of spiritual dryness. When we find it hard to pray, we are not alone. The Holy Spirit is the inspiration of prayer, and it is only through his grace and power that we can lift our hearts like incense up to God.
The Holy Spirit convinces us concerning sin.
Finally, the Holy Spirit also works to sanctify us by convincing us concerning sin. When we find ourselves in sin, or straying away from God, the Holy Spirit convinces us of our sin and calls us back to the Father. Even when we turn away from God in sin, the Holy Spirit our Advocate does not abandon us, but through the gift of our conscience, calls us to conversion and repentance. This call of love of the Holy Spirit comes to us through our conscience and involves the feeling of guilt or remorse.
In our present culture, we are many times taught to avoid the feeling of guilt or remorse, that feeling guilty or remorseful is a bad thing. It is true that feeling remorse is indeed a form of suffering, a feeling of loss and sadness. However, even more profoundly and importantly, remorse is a form of redemptive suffering, for it is the voice of the Holy Spirit calling us back to the Father. For example, if I touch a hot stove, the feeling of pain is not a pleasant experience. But the pain I feel is good, in that it triggers my brain to get my hand off the burning stove before more damage is done. In the same way, the pain of remorse is the Holy Spirit calling us away from sin and all its damaging effects, back to the merciful heart of Christ. We should never avoid this merciful call of the Spirit, because no sin is beyond the forgiveness of God. In fact, the only sin that is unforgivable is the sin against the Holy Spirit, when through the hardness of our heart, we reject the call of conversion and mercy of Christ, choosing not to open ourselves to the forgiveness of God. The sin against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable precisely because we refuse that very forgiveness continuously offered by Christ!
As we once again celebrate the great feast of Pentecost, may we come to realize more deeply and profoundly the gift and presence of the Holy Spirit in our own lives and seek to deepen our cooperation with his graces and gifts. I conclude with the simple but powerful prayer of Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier (a Belgian cardinal noted for his resistance to the German occupation of 1914) to the Holy Spirit:
Oh, Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul…I adore you. Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, console me. Tell me what to do …give me your orders. I promise to submit myself and all that You desire of me and to accept all that you permit to happen to me. Let me know only your will. Amen.
Copyright © 2012 by North Texas Catholic