Reflection on Pentecost: The ‘Birthday’ of the Catholic Church

This Sunday, the Catholic Church celebrates the wonderful feast day of Pentecost. So, in our Friday Youth Group, we explored the special meaning of Pentecost: what it means for us as members of Christ’s Body, the Church. This short article will outline my reflections that I shared with the students. 

Firstly, the Catechism of the Catholic Church confirms that on the day of Pentecost, the Christian community—namely, the Church—was made manifest to the world by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. [1] In other words, the Holy Spirit inaugurated, or established, the universal Church: the apolostic Church that has, throughout history, preserved and transmitted the message of Jesus Christ. I explained to the students, then, that Pentecost is essentially the Church’s birthday. 

We also read in the Acts of the Apostles that when the day of Pentecost came—when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Twelve—the holy Apostles were “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4). St Peter—our first Pope—was so filled with the Holy Spirit that he began to preach with love and apostolic zeal. Almost three-thousand people in the crowd, who “were cut to the heart” by his preaching, were immediately converted and baptised into the community of our divinely-instituted Church. 

According to tradition, the Virgin Mary—the holy Mother of God—was also “present with the Twelve” and interceded for them on the day of Pentecost. Against this backdrop, I explained to the students that the blessed Virgin Mary is also Mother of the Church: she is Our Heavenly Mother who is always interceding for the Church, and so we should always honour her.

So, to conclude, our Youth Group gathered together to reflect on how through the power of the Holy Spirit—the same Holy Spirit who descended upon the holy Apostles on the day of Pentecost—Christians today are strengthened and sent on mission to go out into their communities to witness to the apostolic faith and Good News of Jesus Christ, and to build up His Mystical body, the Church.

[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Vatican City: Vatican Press, 1997), 726.