There was one passage of Scripture that kept coming to my mind as the Feast of Pentecost approached. It was the story of Paul’s encounter at Ephesus with the group of 12 disciples. Paul asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers,” and they responded, “We have never even heard that there is a holy Spirit.” I think there are many Catholics who would say something similar. They have heard about the Holy Spirit, but they have either forgotten what they heard or they have not experienced the Spirit in their lives. This is understandable. I have experienced it. The Holy Spirit is self-effacing. He does not sound a trumpet nor speak about himself. At one time he makes himself known in a tiny whisper and at other times like an irresistible summons; sometimes intangibly like a breath and at other times with the absolute certainty of truth that calls for action; sometimes like a finger pointing at my lack of faith, and at other times like a finger touching my soul with forgiveness. Well, today’s feast is God’s answer to the mystery of the Holy Spirit: who he is, what he does, and where we can find him. The sending of the Holy Spirit is the essential linchpin of all that we have been celebrating for the last 90 days, a culminating revelation.
Let’s begin with the most important revelation: the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost completes the revelation of the Most Holy Trinity. The Spirit is a person, like the Father and the Son are persons. He is distinct from the Father and the Son yet one in power, majesty, and essence. He acts with the Father and the Son in all things, especially preparing our souls for the seed of faith, like a farmer breaking up the soil of a field. He removes the weight of sin that drags us down through his forgiveness. He anoints our eyes so that we can see Jesus, and the Father in Jesus. He reveals the Holy Trinity to us.
But the coming of the Spirit not only completes the revelation of the Trinity, he completes the mission of Jesus. Listen to Jesus’ words: “But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” In other words, all that Jesus said and did—his birth, his passion, his resurrection and ascension—would be like a car with only two wheels without the Spirit. We would have Jesus’ words and commands but no power to carry them out. The Holy Spirit gives us this power. It is the power of love that makes the mission of Jesus continue in us.
Finally, today we have the revelation of the Church, the Body of Christ. It is the Spirit that brings forth the Church, as he did when he overshadowed Our Lady. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us in heaven, but in the meantime, he has prepared a place for us on earth, a place where all the birds of the air can make their nests, that is, the Church. Here the Spirit leads us into all truth as Paul did the 12 Ephesians. Here the Spirit distributes gifts and charisms from the greatest to the least, from the head to the feet, even to the less presentable parts of the body. Here he teaches us how to pray by putting the right words in our mouth: “Abba, Father,” and again, “Jesus is Lord.” In the Church the Spirit immerses us in the signs that Jesus instituted for our salvation: the bath of rebirth in baptism; the anointing with strength in Confirmation, and above all, the bread of life in the Holy Eucharist, in which we are all given to drink of the one Spirit.
All this is God’s answer to the question of who the Spirit is, what he does, and where we can find him. The Spirit is the linchpin of our 90-day journey from Ash Wednesday to Pentecost, the culminating revelation. Let us humbly welcome this Father of the Poor, this delightful guest of our soul, our coolness in the heat of the day…The Spirit of the Father and the Son.
