Pentecost Sunday

"And there appeared to them cloven tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them: and they began to speak with other tongues, according as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance."

(Acts 2:3-4)

Following His Ascension, when the Savior fulfilled His promise and sent the Holy Spirit, the Comforter appeared to Christ's followers as tongues of fire. As a result of the Spirit's operation the disciples spoke in languages foreign to them and were guided as to what to say. It is extremely significant that on the day of Pentecost the manifestation of the Holy Spirit should take the form of tongues and that the first results of the disciples' baptism of the Holy Spirit should be the ability to speak in languages other than their own. This affirms the universal character of Christ's mission, one which was formed for all nations, resulting in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Of great significance as well is the fact that the fruit of the disciples' labors on Pentecost was the addition to the Church of about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:41) Here we begin to understand what our Lord meant when He told His chosen ones that they would henceforth be fishers of men. Hearing about such a large number of individuals brought into the Church by Peter and the eleven, we recall that during Christ's earthly ministry it was only when the disciples obeyed His will that they caught such an enormous catch of fish that their "net brake."

What happened on that fiftieth day after our Lord's resurrection was the filling of the disciples with the Holy Spirit, their transformation into the Church. Pentecost is the day of the Church's founding. From this point in time the disciples were empowered to do what our Lord told them: "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." (John 20:21). Throughout its history the Church never lost its conviction that Jesus had given it the strict mandate to "catch" the entire world, to bring all people into His net. The disciples – and those who came after them – were convinced that their message, committed to them by Christ, was vital, a matter of life or death. This is why they were able to convince so many, because they themselves were convinced. On this Pentecost Sunday let us reaffirm our "conviction" to evangelize ALL nations and to bring many into His net the Holy Church.