Today, the Holy Church celebrates with greatest joy the Feast of Pentecost.
Make no mistake about it: it had all been for this. To pour out the Spirit, He first by that same Spirit had taken flesh from the holy virgin. To pour out the Spirit, He had lived that life of love, suffered and died, descended to hell, and rose in victory on the third day. To pour out the Spirit, He had ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of the Father. It was this day, fifty days after He rose from the dead, that He kept His promise. Jesus poured out His Spirit, and the Spirit rushed into human history like never before. He came with a startling suddenness that was impossible to miss.
He came that morning in wind and flame and the miracle of the apostles proclaiming God’s mighty works in languages they’d never learned. But as Peter preached, he invited the people not to wait around for a similar miracle. Rather, he pointed them to where they (and every generation since) may receive the Holy Spirit no less powerfully than the apostles had: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.”
No less than three thousand people took the plunge that day. Adults and children got into the baptismal water. There they received the exact same Spirit that had fallen on the disciples earlier. “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And He came bringing joy abounding.
Your Baptism is not only your personal Easter, joining you to Christ’s death and resurrection; it is also your personal Pentecost. Baptism is where Peter tells you to go to receive in Jesus’ name forgiveness for all your sins and a share in the promised Spirit.
And how we need the Holy Spirit! We cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Christ or even come to Him. Faith is always the work and gift of the Holy Spirit. St. Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 2:12: “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God” (emphasis added). So we constantly p0ray with the Church, “Come, Holy Spirit!”
O God, on this day You once taught the hearts of Your faithful people by sending them the Light of Your Holy Spirit, Granted us in our day by the same Spirit to have a right understanding in all things and evermore to rejoice in His holy consolation; through Jesus Christ, Your son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Weedon, William Celebrating the Saints 276-277 (italics in original)