When the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles, they were strengthened and rejuvenated with hope and great courage, overcoming all their doubts, fears and all the things that had kept them in hiding from those who sought to persecute and oppress them.

After receiving the Holy Spirit, the Apostles went forth joyfully to carry out everything the Lord had commanded them — to proclaim Him and His Good News to all the people of all the nations.

Remember, the Lord had assured them He would send the Holy Spirit to them to remind them of everything that He had taught them and to strengthen them in their labors, and that was exactly what He did.

Through the Holy Spirit, God strengthened the hearts of the Apostles and gave them the wisdom and knowledge of languages and tongues,with which they courageously proclaimed the Good News and the truth of God to all those who were assembled in Jerusalem at the time for the Festival of the Pentecost.

It was a symbolic reversal of what happened in the past with the Tower of Babel when God caused the people to be confused by giving them different languages after they came in pride and arrogance and tried to become like God themselves. Through the Holy Spirit, God brought back the unity that was lost to mankind, gathering us from all the nations, regardless of our languages, races and origins, all called to become the same children and holy people of God.

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, with the word Pentecost meaning “fifty” from the ancient Jewish and Israelite tradition of celebrating the Festival of the Pentecost fifty days after the Passover. And since Easter is truly the New, Christian and Eternal Passover which Jesus, Our Lord, God and Savior, had sealed and made with all of us, therefore, this Pentecost is the celebration of the renewed Pentecost of the ancient past.

We celebrate this fiftieth day of Easter marking the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Church as a very significant event.

On this Sunday’s celebration, we remember the moment when the Lord’s promised Advocate or Helper, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, came down upon the Apostles, marking the moment the Church was revealed to the whole world.

The day of Pentecost was often mistaken for the “birthday of the Church” as it was understandable that many would have seen it that way. After all, it was the moment the Church was manifested and became real to the world, as the Apostles and the other disciples, numbering 120 according to Apostolic tradition, went forth from their hiding place to courageously proclaim the Good News of God, gaining 3,000 converts that day, and hence laying the foundation for the visible Body of Christ, the Church.

However, the true birthday of the Church was actually Good Friday according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, this does not mean that what happened at Pentecost was less important in any way.