Happy Birthday to Christ's One, Holy, Catholic Church. That Church has three great Communions -- Roman, Orthodox, and we Anglicans. We are eighty-five million strong around the world and we carry on about 1989 years of tradition through apostolic succession of bishops coming down from the Apostles. So, Happy Birthday to us!
The roots of the festival are found in ancient Judaic practice. Harvest was conducted fifty days after the first budding of the plants, and so that fiftieth day was celebrated as the harvest of fruits, a festival called Shavout . Soon, the teachers added a new dimension onto that: they reckoned that the Law had been given fifty days after Moses and company arrived at Sinai, hence the festival also became a celebration of the giving of the Law. Now, at Luke's pen, it becomes the festival of the harvest of souls and giving of the Spirit, a project of fulfillment.
Pentecost is similarly marked at fifty days, from Easter. The apostles and Our Lady are in an upper room in Jerusalem when they experience theophany. These manifestations -- fire, wind, earthquake, ethereal voices and the like -- symbolize that God is doing something new. The new thing is the Church and by the gift of the Spirit the frightened little band will morph into bold evangelists to give Jesus' message to the world. Chairman Peter addresses the huge assembly of Jews from all over. The critics immediately start accusing the apostles of being drunk on wine (communion wine?) Peter rebuffs the taunts and forges ahead with a powerful messages which all assembled can understand!
The 'tongue' actions this day represent a reversal of Babel, an aetiological myth in which God creates all the languages of the world to get people to be, literally, more down-to-earth and to spread out and create the nations all around the globe. Now unity and mutual understanding will reign. The Faith will be open to all. There will be no nationality, race, gender, sexuality or anything else to divide the People of God. They will have unity in One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.
The wonderful gift of the Spirit to the Catholic Church means that we stand empowered to go out and be Christ in the world. The Spirit still lives, the Spirit still guides the Church into all truth, the Spirit still empowers us through Word and Sacrament. What a wonderful, incredible gift. Let us always try to be worthy of it in His service.
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