Tag: Pentecost

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The Church

When Was The Church Born?

Msgr. Charles E. Pope

May 25, 2023 6:04 am May 25, 2023

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2 min read

The Catechism No. 766 says: “ ‘The origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus.’…

The Catechism No. 766 says: “ ‘The origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus.’ ‘For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth the “wondrous sacrament of the whole Church.”’ As Eve was formed from the sleeping Adam’s side, so the Church was born from the pierced heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross.”

Some have called Pentecost the “birthday of the Church,” but that is more of a pious custom and is not an official teaching or declaration. The image is used since, in a way, the Church comes forth from her initial formation in the “womb” of Galilee during Christ’s public ministry. She comes forth now to begin her mission to the ends of the earth.

The problem with this image is that the Church that comes forth is no infant. She has been formed and is now clothed with power from on high to begin a mission, having been schooled, prepared and enabled. The image of birth falls short here, since birth bespeaks a helpless infant in need of complete formation. But the Church at Pentecost was far more mature.

One might argue that in the image of Eve coming forth from Adam’s side she came forth as an adult, not an infant, and thus “birthday” here can be understood in that manner. And this may be fair enough, but it is not the usual manner in which we speak of birthdays. At some point an image with too many qualifiers suggests a possible flaw in the image itself.

What Pentecost surely is, is the commissioning of the Church to go forth unto all the nations. She has been formed, purified, taught, equipped and enabled to go forth with joy and confidence. On the day of Pentecost, a fire fell on the Church. Those who had been frightened, confused disciples went forth with confidence and holy boldness, their minds made clear.

Rev. Msgr. Charles E. Pope is a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.

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6 min read

Scripture

What We Believe, Part 18: The Church in the Spirit

Father Joshua J. Whitfield

April 3, 2023 1:47 pm April 3, 2023

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6 min read

The Church is a sacrament because it is in Christ. But also because it is in the Spirit. As we saw earlier, Lumen Gentium wastes no time describing the theological…

The Church is a sacrament because it is in Christ. But also because it is in the Spirit. As we saw earlier, Lumen Gentium wastes no time describing the theological nature of the Church, that it is in Christ like a sacrament, a sign and instrument. However, there’s more to be said.

To be in Christ, as we’ve seen, is to belong to God’s saving work, to belong to the history of salvation, so to speak. And it’s by that history — as told in Scripture and rehearsed in Lumen Gentium — that we are able to describe further the theological reality of our own experience as believers, the reality of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.

Lumen Gentium puts it this way: “When the work which the Father gave the Son to do on earth was accomplished, the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost in order that He might continually sanctify the Church, and thus, all those who believe would have access through Christ in one Spirit to the Father. He is the Spirit of Life, a fountain of water springing up to life eternal. To men, dead in sin, the Father gives life through Him, until, in Christ, He brings to life their mortal bodies” (LG 4). This, of course, is simply a rehearsal of Scripture, echoing the story of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-3), Jesus’s teaching in the John’s Gospel (Jn 4:14; 7:37-38), and Pauline teaching (Eph 2:18; Rom 8:10-11).

What’s remarkable, however, is Lumen Gentium’s claim that this rehearsed biblical story remains ongoing in us, in the Church. The Spirit given at Pentecost still dwells within in us, “continually” sanctifying the Church. That is, the Holy Spirit knows no ascension. And thus, as Lumen Gentium continues, “The Spirit dwells in the Church and in the hearts of the faithful, as in a temple.” And what the Spirit does is guide the Church (as Jesus said in Jn 16:13) in “the way of all truth,” continually restoring the Church in the “freshness of youth,” drawing the Church ever nearer its Spouse, the risen Bridegroom Jesus Christ (LG 4). The Spirit keeps the Church oriented toward its final heavenly goal, the heavenly Jerusalem; the Spirit keeps the Church aflame with desire for its final union, expressed in the final prayer of the New Testament — “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20).

But notice how the Spirit accomplishes this renewing, orienting work in the Church — “in communion and in works of ministry.” Lumen Gentium teaches that the Spirit “equips and directs” the Church with “hierarchical and charismatic gifts,” which he adorns with his “fruits” (LG 4). That is, we believe that the Spirit enlivens the Church both in its visible structures and ministries as well as in the hearts of all believers being sanctified. We believe the Holy Spirit is given assuredly and always to the Church’s hierarchical structure, to its clergy — bishops, priests and deacons. We believe, therefore, that our polity, our clerical structure, is divinely given. This will be explored further when considering the sacrament of Holy Orders and the papacy; suffice it to say at this point, though, that this is a fundamental claim — that the Church’s hierarchical structure of bishops, priests and deacons, a structure that belongs essentially to the mission of God and to the organic nature of the Church, cannot replaced. This claim is distinctly Catholic, shared though by the Orthodox Churches and even some Protestant traditions. This is why in Catholicism you’ll never see things like “executive pastors” or any other different forms of ecclesiastical organization, no matter how more efficient those different structures may be. It’s also why arguments surrounding leadership and hierarchy in Catholicism get so theological so quickly. Because we believe that even the visible structures of the Church belong to its nature as sacrament, enlivened by the Holy Spirit “continually.”

But, of course, one mustn’t think the Holy Spirit dwells among and enlivens only the hierarchy of the Church. Even though that may sometimes seem to be the case, it never is; about that, the Church’s teaching has always been clear. Charismatic gifts belong to whomever the Spirit wills, to all the holy. The presence of the Spirit in the Church — present not just in the hierarchy but in all the saints — guarantees God’s sovereignty over the Church. The Holy Spirit dwells in all God’s people, not just clergy. In the faithful nun or monk. In the faithful parent. In the old lady, warrior at prayer, praying her rosary before Mass, who scares you a little. And it’s that spiritual fact — the fact of Pentecost — that makes for the joy and suffering, the tension, conflict and creativity of the Church. It’s what makes the Church so beautiful and sometimes so strange, giving the Church “the freshness of youth.” It’s also why one shouldn’t put too much store in polls or surveys suggesting the demise of the Church; such headlines make the rounds from time to time as if on schedule. Important though they may be, of course, they are no cause for despair. And that’s because the Holy Spirit remains — always has and always will — sustaining the Church “uninterruptedly” (LG 4).

And finally, it helps to recall for what purpose we believers live in the Church in Christ in the Spirit — so that we may be formed individually and together into Christ, “redeemed” and “re-molded into a new creation,” Lumen Gentium teaches, echoing St. Paul (LG 7; 2 Cor 5:17). That’s what the Holy Spirit, continually dwelling in the Church, does: he builds up the body of Christ, in the unity of faith and in knowledge of the Son, into the full stature of Christ (Eph 4:12-13). This is nothing other than the mission for glory for which Jesus prayed in John 17; it’s just now we see more clearly how this mission for glory is also the Church and its mission — calling in Christ by the Spirit all believers, sisters and brothers “together from all nations, mystically the components of His own Body” (LG 7). This thing we call the Catholic Church of Jesus Christ.

Father Joshua J. Whitfield is pastor of St. Rita Catholic Community in Dallas and author of “The Crisis of Bad Preaching” (Ave Maria Press, $17.95) and other books. Read more from the series here.

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5 min read

Scripture

Why the Holy Spirit matters

Sister Anna Marie McGuan

March 28, 2023 11:27 am March 28, 2023

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5 min read

Jesus told his Apostles at the Last Supper many things about the Holy Spirit, and some of these are included in the readings at this time, such as: “And I…

Jesus told his Apostles at the Last Supper many things about the Holy Spirit, and some of these are included in the readings at this time, such as: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth…” (Jn 14:16-17). In another moment during the Last Supper discourse, Jesus even said to the Apostles, “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” (Jn 16:7). The Holy Spirit’s presence with the Apostles, disciples and with the entire Church throughout the centuries is always meant to be a comfort, a consolation, a leader and a guide to Jesus’ friends.

If we think back to the Last Supper, it is totally appropriate that Jesus would make such a promise at that time. The impending departure of Jesus was troubling his friends. They did not know what was about to happen, and they did not understand many of the things Jesus was saying. All they really seemed to grasp at that moment was that Jesus was going away — and this reality left them in the dark, even desolate.

Jesus knew this, so at the Last Supper he not only instituted the holy Eucharist, whereby he would always be present to his friends, but he also promised them the Counselor, the Holy Spirit. He told them that the Holy Spirit would dwell with them and be with them. The Holy Spirit’s presence in and among the disciples would make it possible for them to live for Jesus, just as he was asking them to do. Living for Jesus means more than a simple calling to mind; it is to actually live Christ’s life within the sphere of my own existence. As St. Paul put it, “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain” (Phil 1:21). It is the Holy Spirit that enables that sentence to be true for Paul and for all of us.

The Holy Spirit makes God’s plan for each of us real, and we know the Holy Spirit by what he does in each life. Here is one way the Catechism expresses this: “…[T]he mission of the Spirit of adoption is to unite [God’s children] to Christ and make them live in him…” (CCC, No. 690).

In other words, that mission is to reveal Jesus, the Word of God, and to make the image of Jesus fully alive in each person. The Holy Spirit teaches us who Jesus is and how we are to become more and more like him. He also makes us ready to receive Jesus in faith. The life of a baptized person can be an ever increasing union with God through faith, hope and love. The Holy Spirit is the author of that union; he teaches us how to know God better and love Him more fully.

There are many ways that the Holy Spirit can do this, but two very important ones are through Sacred Scripture and through the sacraments. In Sacred Scripture, the same Holy Spirit who inspired the sacred authors to write is the one who dwells within the heart of each person reading it. As the Spirit inspired the writing, so the Spirit inspires the reading — so that the mind and heart of Christ can be formed in us.

In the Sacraments, we receive grace. Grace makes us like God, but we have to be disposed to it and cooperate with it. What does it mean to be like God? What does God do? Above all else, God knows and loves himself and knows and loves all things in himself. That is why the Lord Jesus taught us that the greatest commandment is to love God: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:37-39). The Holy Spirit teaches us and forms us to do what Jesus taught us to do. It is the Holy Spirit that enables us to do this, because “The Holy Spirit, whom Christ the head pours out on his members, builds, animates, and sanctifies the Church” (CCC, No. 747).

If you do not have an active and growing relationship with the Holy Spirit, you can ask for that friendship with Him at any time. You can invite the Holy Spirit to play a real, dynamic role in your life starting now. As we turn our minds and hearts toward Pentecost, we can invite the Holy Spirit to renew Pentecost in our own lives.

Sister Anna Marie McGuan, RSM, is director of Christian formation in the Diocese of Knoxville.

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5 min read

Church Seasons and Feasts

Pentecost Amid COVID-19

Father Andrew Clyne

May 31, 2020 2:26 pm May 31, 2020

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5 min read

In our theological language we speak of the Son as begotten of the Father and the Holy Spirit as “spirated,” which means to be breathed out. The Holy Spirit is…

In our theological language we speak of the Son as begotten of the Father and the Holy Spirit as “spirated,” which means to be breathed out. The Holy Spirit is breathed out by the Father and the Son, the union of their love so intimate and substantial, that he is a third fully equal and one with them.

Pentecost is our annual celebration of this same Holy Spirit breathed out on the world through the Church. The breath of God is given to the Church headed by Christ to guide her members into the fullness of life. That is why we receive this life giving breath: we receive the Spirit in order to be drawn in, and to draw others into, the union of Christ’s Body on pilgrimage to the Father.

The celebration of Pentecost this year will be unlike any other in recent memory, and it will be so because of the tragic irony that we find ourselves contending with a virulent disease whose most notable symptom is its denial of breath. This Pentecost we find ourselves longing to be filled with God’s breath in a world struggling for air.

Of course, compounding the suffering still for many is our inability to physically gather in fellowship as the Church to mark this great solemnity. However necessary this is, it should nevertheless be a source of great lament, for this separation is not the norm. We are inherently social creatures: creatures, who, though spirit, are also flesh. We are tactile, and the manifestation of our communion in spirit is most readily apparent in our intimate gestures of fleshly embrace. Our highest form of union is precisely when we huddle together in joy and thanksgiving to feast on the body of Christ and thereby to become ourselves one body in and through him.

That is the norm, and any derivation from it must necessarily constitute a diminishment, an undeniable deprivation in our lives. But the intimacy of bodies, the intimacy of the Eucharistic fellowship of Christ’s body the Church, is conducive toward one shared and singular end — namely, the perfection of intimacy in God’s life, which is simply love. Where love is absent, no matter how many persons are crammed together, regardless of how many hosts are distributed, there is no unity; there is no life.

The world before the outbreak of the coronavirus was already significantly marked by fracture. Unfortunately, in many ways the virus has only intensified that reality, deepening the fissures. Perhaps most disappointingly, the Church herself has not been immune to this developing fragmentation.

Those of us left wondering how to mark Pentecost this year amid social distancing might simply recall that in spite of our absence from public worship, the Spirit’s invitation to the Church to offer fitting worship (the capacity for this being itself pure gift) persists. This is so because “Church” is not simply showing up for an hour in a building on Sunday (or maybe a few more times a week).

Rather, the Church is realized in the graced response of her members to God’s summons for loving unity. Not the all too prevalent pseudo-unity of an imposed uniformity that ignores, denies or suppresses conflict. Rather, genuine unity, the reconciliation that takes place in truth and charity, necessarily making it a work of God. The Church is most fully herself when she cooperates with the Holy Spirit to foster that unity. In this alone does she convey genuine gratitude for the gift of God’s life, and in turn offers fitting worship expressive of that gratitude.

These weeks of quarantine have eliminated much from our lives (both temporarily and permanently), but it has not eliminated the possibilities for such worship. In fact, in a world, in a nation, even in a Church wracked by disunity, the need for the fitting worship of unity sought is needed now more than ever. Of course, that type of unity — real unity — is not something we achieve on our own. That unity so described is a reflection of, and a participation in, the unsurpassable union of God: Father, Son, and Spirit. It, therefore, requires us always to turn to God in supplication, imploring his favor. And that is why once more at Pentecost we must cry out, “Come, Holy Spirit.”

As is the case in all worship, this worship of lives seeking the communion of our brothers and sisters — which is but the most telling sign of our desired communion with God — is the meeting of the human and the divine. God initiates, but with the expectation of response. There is simply no such thing as passive worship. We are most fully active through the complete offering of ourselves, which is only our replication of the self-offering of God that has made our very lives possible. In this willingness to cooperate, in our openness to be filled with God’s breath, we, as the Church’s members, are able to in turn breathe out God’s breath to a suffocating world. Despite what we must now endure this Pentecost, the possibility for this — and the challenge to do this — still remains.

Father Andrew Clyne writes from Maryland.

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