Pentecost

The Feast of Pentecost

This Christian feast commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles on the fiftieth day after Easter. The word “Pentecost” derives from the ancient Greek ""pentekoste"" meaning fiftieth (day after Easter).
Originally, Pentecost was a Jewish holiday, like Passover. It recalls the historical event of the gift of the Torah at Sinai. Thus Shavu'ot (the Jewish Pentecost) is the conclusion and the closing of Pesah (the Jewish Passover). Indeed, it was for the purpose of giving it the Torah that God brought Israel out of Egypt: true freedom consists in accepting to follow the Law of God!
The Book of the Acts of the Apostles (2:1-13) record the event that took place in the Cenacle in Jerusalem, in the year 30 or 33 of our era, on the Jewish feast of Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection of Christ. “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues.”
The Christian Pentecost is therefore the feast of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The account in the Acts of the Apostles tells of ""a great noise"" coming from heaven, a ""violent gust of wind"" and ""tongues of fire"" that laid themselves on each of the apostles. The noise, the wind and the fire symbolise the presence of God; they are a manifestation of the divine power. It is the renewal of the theophany of Sinai which is commemorated by the Jewish Pentecost.
While fire symbolises divine presence, the tongues of fire that divide themselves over the heads of the apostles signify the descent of the Spirit of God upon them. They symbolise the gift given to each of them so they would have the capacity to proclaim, with a tongue of fire, the Gospel to all men.
Lastly, the account refers to the gift of tongues received by the apostles and disciples to enable them to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel to all men and all nations. We can see in this a response to the episode of the Tower of Babel. Indeed, at the time of the Tower of Babel, men were divided for their desire to be greater than God. At Pentecost, the divided peoples are united again upon the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
The Pentecost celebrated by Christians celebrates the birth of the Church, this new people of God, of global dimension, which was formed when the risen Jesus ""received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and poured it out"" (Acts of the Apostles 2: 33) on the group of his apostles and disciples who believed in Him and were assigned the mission of being his witnesses all over the world.