Last updated: May 13, 2024

Today is Pentecost Sunday, which is the day that we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit.  It coincides with the Jewish celebration of Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks) that was originally a harvest festival, but also commemorates the gift of the ten commandments to Moses at Mount Sinai. The word Pentecost is derived from the Greek word πεντηκοστή, romanized as pentēkostē, that translates into English as “fiftieth day.”  The Feast of Weeks lines up as 50 days after the Passover for Jews, and Pentecost is 50 days after Easter Sunday for Christians.  Some Catholics pray a novena to the Holy Spirit for the nine days between the feast days of the Ascension and Pentecost, such as the one you can find here.

Immediately after Jesus had ascended, the apostles, Mary, and a number of women were again holed up in the upper room in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks.  They were probably sad, confused and hesitant, not knowing what to do next and here is what happened:

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they all met in one room.  Suddenly, they heard what sounded like a violent, rushing wind from heaven; the noise filled the entire house in which they were sitting.  Something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each one.  They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as She enabled them. (Acts 2:1-4)

This masterpiece by El Greco depicts the descent of the Holy Spirit, and it now resides in the Prado Museum in Madrid. It was painted in 1600 and incorporated into the main altarpiece for the church of the Augustine College of María de Aragón, opposite another El Greco painting of the resurrection that you can see at my 2023 blog post about Resurrection Iconography.  Like many of El Greco’s paintings, the figures are elongated, but here the faces of those gathered are almost ghostly in appearance, as they gaze upward. The image clearly manifests the intensity of the rushing wind and descent of the flames, and there is certainly a lot of spiritual movement going on.

It may sound a little childish, but I have always liked that, in images of the Pentecost story, each person gets their own little flame above their head.  Yes, the Holy Spirit was sent as the Consoler, but in addition to giving peace to those gathered, the Spirit produced an enormous amount of energy and changed the journeys of those who were gathered and then sent out to preach the good news to all.

The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, judgment, courage, knowledge, reverence and wonder/awe.  I believe that one of the greatest of these is courage and that it was likely immediately essential for the followers of Jesus as they traveled widely to preach the good news.  It could not be an easy life, and Paul especially kept up a busy correspondence with the churches he established.  As some competitive grumblings were going on about which gifts are best, Paul writes to the church in Corinth that there are many gifts of the Spirit and that we are all one body in Christ:

There is a variety of gifts, but always the same Spirit.  There is a variety of ministries, but we serve the same One.  There is a variety of outcomes, but the same God is working in all of them. 

To each person is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.  To one, the Spirit gives wisdom in discourse, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit.  Through the Spirit, one person receives faith; through the same Spirit, another is given the gift of healing; and still another miraculous powers.  Prophesy is given to one; to another, power to distinguish one spirit from another.  One receives the gift of tongues; another, that of interpreting tongues.  But it is one and the same Spirit who produces all these gifts and distributes them as She wills. 

The body is one, even though it has many parts; all the parts – many though they are – comprise a single body.  And so it is with Christ.  It was by one Spirit that all of us, whether we are Jews or Greeks, slaves or citizens, were baptized into one body.  All of us have been given to drink of the one Spirit.  And that Body is not one part; it is many.  (1 Corinthians 12:4-14)

I really love the diversity and inclusiveness of this reading and it makes a lot of sense to me too – everyone has talents that can be used to pursue justice and holiness, and every person has different experiences and approaches to life.  The important thing is just to do what we have the gifts and power to do.  We are enough.

UPDATE: This blog post was updated on May 13, 2024 to include two more images of the Pentecost event and to make minor editorial changes.

Readings: The Inclusive New Testament, Priests for Equality, Brentwood, MD, 1994.

Reference 1: Asbury, Chad, Easter’s Resurrection Power and Global Mission, blog post at International Mission Board website, March 26, 2018.

Reference 2: Pentecost Novena, blog post at Infinite Windows website, May 7, 2016.

Reference 3: Duffy, Margaret, Tongues of Fire, blog post at Ad Imaginem Dei website, May 26, 2023.

Image 1: Pentecost 2019, Julie Henkener, 2019.

Image 2: Pentecost, El Greco, 1600, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain, inventory number P000828.

Image 3: Pentecost, Illuminated Image, KB 76 F 25 fol. r18, Nationale Bibliotheek, the Netherlands. 

Image 4: Pentecost, Juan Bautista Maino, circa 1600-1625, Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain, courtesy wikimedia commons.