Voices May 14, 2018
‘Outpouring of the Holy Spirit’ marks Church’s birthday
By Father Vincent Hawkswell
The Altar of the Chair in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. Pentecost Sunday This Sunday is the birthday of the Catholic Church, which Christ called “My Church.” (CNS photo/Junno Arocho Esteves)
Pentecost
Sunday, Year B
First
Reading: Acts
2:1-11
Second
Reading: Gal
5:16-25
Gospel
Reading: Jn
15:26-27; 16:12-15
Pentecost Sunday is called the Church’s birthday, for on this day the Church was manifested to everyone “by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Described in this Sunday’s First Reading, it began a new era in the history of God’s rescue of the human race, says the Catechism.
Starting with Adam and Eve’s rebellion, which cut us off from him, God sent us prophets to teach us his plans for our salvation. Through them, he made covenant after covenant with us. However, we broke them all.
Then he sent his Son as a man like us. By his death, Jesus bought us back from Satan’s power. By his Resurrection, he restored our supernatural life. By his Ascension, he took our humanity into the Holy Trinity; humanity is now something we and God have in common.
Finally, initiating the third era, God sent the Holy Spirit as his first gift to believers, to complete his work on earth and bring us to the fullness of supernatural life.
The Catechism calls this last era “the age of the Church.” In this age, Christ saves us through the Church’s liturgy. This era will last until Christ comes again at the end of the world.
In this age, Christ lives and acts among us in a new way, the Catechism says: through the sacraments. Just as the fruits of our industry and labour are distributed to us all through our capitalistic economy, so the fruits of the work Christ accomplished on earth in order to save us are distributed through the Church’s sacramental economy.
Pope St. Leo the Great said that at Christ’s Ascension, “that which till then (had been) visible of our Redeemer was changed into a sacramental presence.” In other words, if we, now, want to get close enough to see, hear, feel, taste, or smell him, we must go to the sacraments in faith.
Sacraments are signs – words or actions – instituted by Christ by which the fruits of his saving work are dispensed to us. There are seven: baptism, confirmation, Holy Eucharist, reconciliation, the sacrament of the sick, holy orders, and matrimony.
We call them efficacious signs, for they accomplish what they signify. For example, the words and the pouring of water in baptism really do wash away original sin and bring about a re-birth into God’s family. The words and the imposition of hands in holy orders really do give a man the power to forgive sins in God’s name and to change bread and wine into Christ’s Body and Blood. In each sacrament, the power comes from God the Holy Spirit, but it is dispensed by the Church – and only by the Church.
“Technically I’m United,” a woman said to me recently; “but, let’s face it, they’re all the same, aren’t they?” “I’m Anglican,” a man told me, “but my son, who is studying for the Anglican ‘priesthood,’ tells me there really isn’t any difference.”
I felt like saying, “By God himself, there is!” I did not reply that forcefully, but I made it clear that I could not let such statements pass.
This Sunday is the birthday of the Catholic Church, which Christ called “My Church.” He built it on the foundation of the apostles. It was to them and their successors, today’s bishops, that he made the promise in the Gospel Reading: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.”
“Live by the Spirit,” St. Paul urges in the Second Reading. That means letting ourselves “be guided by the Spirit.” To be sure of finding him, we must turn to the Church and her sacraments, through which he dispenses his fruits.
Let us love and defend the Church, Christ’s Bride, for only through her does his Holy Spirit forgive our sins and communicate to us the fullness of supernatural life.