This weekend, we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost. As you know, this feast celebrates the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles. That is the reason we wear red vestments - because red is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, the tongues of fire which descended upon those apostles at that first Pentecost. But there is much more to Pentecost than what happened 2000 years ago.

For starters, Pentecost is more than a one-time event. Pentecost is an event that continues to this day, every time someone receives the sacrament of confirmation and every time someone opens their heart to the love of God, which is another name for the Holy Spirit.

Another element of this feast day is that, according to theologians, it marks the birthday of the church. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit that, as Saint Paul said in his letter to the Romans, enables us to call God 'Daddy' and makes us sons and daughters of Christ. The church is simply another name for this new family of God, the community of believers.

My own experience is that Pentecost is somewhat of the Rodney Dangerfield of church feast days in that it doesn’t get the respect it deserves. (Apologies to those who are unfamiliar with Rodney! Check him out on YouTube!) While Pentecost certainly does not hold the same rank as the great feasts of Easter and Christmas, in the life of a Christian, it is among the most critical.

Easter and Christmas focus on the person of Jesus and what God did in and through him. But it is through Pentecost that you and I enter into the saving events, the Paschal Mystery, of Jesus. Easter marks the power of the love of God (Holy Spirit) to defeat death and sin. Through Pentecost, we are now offered that same love of God (Holy Spirit) which can defeat sin and death in our own lives.

And lastly, as Fr. Tom Iwanowski notes, Pentecost is the completion of the disclosure of God to His people. God first revealed himself as the Creator, the Holy One who, simply by his words, brought the universe into existence.

God then revealed Himself as the God of Israel, who cared for His chosen people. As Moses asked the people (Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40), “Did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation … which the LORD, your God, did for you in Egypt?”

God’s self-revelation continued as the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, took on flesh and came among us. In him, we came to know the mercy and compassion of God. He taught us to call God’ Our Father” and to recognize ourselves as His children. He showed us the amazing depth of God’s love as he hung upon the Cross.

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, came down upon the Church so that we might continue the work of Jesus. Over time, the One God has revealed Himself to be a Trinity of Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

For a “lesser” feast, there is a lot going on at Pentecost, and a lot to celebrate!