“They didn’t have much to give except the name of Jesus.”

Pentecost

There’s so much to be celebrated about this day... the feast of the Holy Trinity, the birthday of the Church, the adoption of the Sinai covenant for the Jewish people under the Prophet Moses. This day, when the Holy Spirit descended from Heaven, it was made known that there was to be an all-encompassing and constant presence of God among His people. At a time when Jesus’ disciples and Apostles were still feeling the pain of Jesus' crucifixion, God had become present yet again in their midst. It was from this point that these men began their ministry, preaching the Gospel to everyone that would listen.

This same Spirit that ignited the Apostles ignites us as well. It is with the same blessing that we, today, are given gifts that will further God’s kingdom on Earth. It is easy to lose sight of that. We are so heavily laden with the guilt of our sins that we find it easy to create a chasm between us and Jesus and the first disciples. We think that God is working less in us than He did in the founders of our Church.

But Pentecost, 2000 years ago and today, is the day when the Holy Spirit descends upon God’s people and, with “tongues as of fire,” we are gifted with the burning passion to spread the Gospel according to the gifts we’ve been given. So today, the Christian Church is born; the founders of our faith tradition began evangelizing the love and grace of God. And we, as followers of Christ, are reminded to carry the torch of our founders and use the fire of the Holy Spirit to spread the Gospel today.

“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’” Rom. 8:15