Pentecost and the Church- Acts 2

Pentecost Sunday is one of the oldest Christian celebrations. It is rooted in the first-century Jewish calendar where the Greek word Pentecost (meaning "fifty") was applied to the Feast of Weeks. This Jewish feast had associations with the spring grain harvest and with the giving of the Law. This celebration provided the background for the reading from the Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11. The first disciples were gathered in Jerusalem for the feast as they awaited Christ's promised Comforter. In this Christian context, Pentecost received a new meaning when the Holy Spirit came down upon the disciples in a new way and empowered them to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Jews gathered from across the world. This key event has been called "the birthday of the Church."

Acts 2 provides a guide for our understanding of the coming of the Holy Ghost. While the divine Spirit does work in many and diverse ways, the emphasis in Acts is upon His work through the community of disciples; that is, the emphasis is on the Spirit's work in the Church. The central gift of the Holy Spirit is to transform a group of ordinary individuals into a bold community of faith with a mission to the whole world. Although the disciples already believed in Christ's Resurrection and Ascension, they needed to receive the heavenly power of the Spirit in order to speak about the Faith.

As Pentecost is a recurring feast, so is the work of the Holy Spirit on and through the Church. Our individual spiritual experiences have their value, but the central issue is the work of the Spirit in the whole Christian community. Christ does not promise the Comforter just to make individual believers feel good; the Spirit comes primarily to strengthen the disciples as the Christian Church who continue the proclamation of the Gospel in the world.  So, as we reflect on the spiritual blessing of Pentecost, let us focus on its significance for the central mission of the whole Christian Church.