Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.
The Liturgical Year is divided so well into the important events of our redemption and the history from Old Testament times to New Testament. Pentecost might well be considered the most important date to be celebrated in the Church. It is, after all, the real birthday of the Church on earth. It is the start of the actual work of the Apostles and their successors.
My very old Missal, a 1945 St. Andrew's Daily Missal, has so many interesting pieces of information and explanations, quotes from the ancient Fathers, as well the the liturgies of the seasons. I draw from that today, as well as from our pastor's sermon.
The Resurrection, the Ascension and Pentecost are all part of what is called the Paschal Mystery. St. Augustine said that Easter was the beginning of grace and Pentecost is its crown. The Holy Ghost completes the work accomplished by Christ. The two feasts meet in the center at the Ascension. Before the Holy Ghost comes as the "Giver of Life," Our Lord must first take His place at the side of His Father. This is the Ascension. Dom Gueranger says, "The Ascension is the intermediate mystery between Easter and Pentecost. On the one hand it completes Easter by setting up the God-Man on the right hand of the Father as the conqueror of death and Head of the Church; and on the other, it brought about the mission to the earth of the Holy Ghost." It "forms the boundary line between the two reigns of God in the New Dispensation on earth: the visible reign of the Son of God and the visible reign of the Holy Ghost." Our Lord told the disciples that if He did not go "the Paraclete will not come to you..."
Almighty God has sent the Holy Ghost, appearing in the world as tongues of fire, a dove, a
mighty wind. The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of God as Christ is the Word of God made flesh.
In the Acts of the Apostles we are told that Our Lord told His disciples not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Paraclete. Their formation was not yet complete. They still did not fully understand everything. 150 people with the apostles went back to the Cenacle with the Virgin Mary, several relatives and the other women. They prayed for nine days; and on the anniversary of the giving of the Law from Mt. Sinai to the Israelites, the New Law became active. That Old Testament feast was important. Thousands were in Jerusalem to observe it. In that place of the Apostles "...they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak." The Epistle for the Mass of Pentecost is from Acts, 2: 1-11. We see that among the people gathered for the feast were people from many lands and languages. They marveled that they understood everything the Spirit-filled Apostles were saying. About 3000 people were converted that day. It was indeed the birthday of the Church.
From that place the Apostles spread out to speak the word of God and to "teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." They went to follow Christ and to suffer for and with Him, all being martyred except for John who survived being boiled in oil. He ended his days in exile, living to write the Book of Revelation, the Apocalypse. The timid, cowering men who hid when Our Lord was going through His Passion and Death, became fearless in their zeal, filled with the Holy Ghost.
A prayer that many of us say daily:
Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Thy Love. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
O God, Who didst instruct the hearts of the faithful by the Gift of Thy Holy Spirit, grant that by the gift of that same Spirit, we may always be truly wise and ever rejoice in His Consolation, through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen
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