It is often said that the feast of Pentecost is the birthday of the Church.  Yet, this statement, attractive in its simplicity, calls for nuance.  And the Second Vatican Council, in its teaching on the nature of the Church, offers such nuanced understanding.

        From the Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, we read these wise and precious words alluding to the beginning of the Church even before Pentecost: “He [the eternal Father] willed to call together in a holy Church those who should believe in Christ.  Already from the beginning of the world the foreshadowing of the Church took place. It was prepared in a remarkable way throughout the history of the people of Israel and by means of the Old Covenant. In the present era of time the Church was constituted and, by the outpouring of the Spirit, was made manifest. At the end of time it will gloriously achieve completion, when, as is read in the Fathers, all the just, from Adam and ‘from Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect,’ will be gathered together with the Father in the Universal Church” (Lumen Gentium, 2).

        These words of the Second Vatican Council are carefully chosen, and deserve to be carefully noted: the Church was in the beginning of the world “foreshadowed” (praefigurata); in the history of Israel “prepared” (praeparata); in the present time “constituted” (constituta); at Pentecost “made manifest” (manifestata est); and will, at the end of time “gloriously achieve completion” (gloriose consummabitur).

The Church is the community of Jesus Christ.  Already gathered by his preaching, this community received power from on high with the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.  Before his death and resurrection, Jesus had disciples who followed him having heard his preaching and having witnessed his actions.  One of them handed him over to his enemies, another one denied him, others ran away.  The shepherd was struck, and the sheep scattered.

        Before Jesus rose again, the absconded disciples reassembled in Jerusalem, initially locked up in fear.  When he rose from the dead, Jesus appeared to them in their fear.  His post-resurrection appearances to them, and the event of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, gave them courage to come out of hiding to be made manifest.  The Holy Spirit of courage empowered disciples who had gone into hiding out of fear. 

With that experience of the gift of the Holy Spirit, they boldly bore witness to the resurrection of the crucified Christ.  In other words, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was not the birth of this community.  The community of Jesus existed before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but became empowered, emboldened and manifest by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, as a Church of all nations, a Church whose existence shows that God’s plan of salvation is not limited to one nation, but extends to all the nations of the world. 

That the Church as community of Jesus existed before Pentecost is also discernible from the words at the beginning of the Pentecost narrative in the Acts of the Apostles.  “When Pentecost day came round, they had all met in one room, when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting…”  (Act 2:1).

The community Jesus gathered by his preaching was already gathered in one place, “in one room” in Jerusalem, before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the Second Vatican Council clearly puts this across in the Constitution Lumen Gentium, saying: “The mystery of the holy Church is manifest in its very foundation. The Lord Jesus set it on its course (initium) by preaching the Good News, that is, the coming of the Kingdom of God, which, for centuries, had been promised in the Scriptures: ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand’. In the word, in the works, and in the presence of Christ, this kingdom was clearly open to the view of men. The Word of the Lord is compared to a seed which is sown in a field; those who hear the Word with faith and become part of the little flock of Christ, have received the Kingdom itself. Then, by its own power the seed sprouts and grows until harvest time. The Miracles of Jesus also confirm that the Kingdom has already arrived on earth: ‘If I cast out devils by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you’. Before all things, however, the Kingdom is clearly visible in the very Person of Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man, who came ‘to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many’.

“When Jesus, who had suffered the death of the cross for mankind, had risen, He appeared as the one constituted as Lord, Christ and eternal Priest, and He poured out on His disciples the Spirit promised by the Father. From this source the Church, equipped with the gifts of its Founder and faithfully guarding His precepts of charity, humility and self-sacrifice, receives the mission to proclaim and to spread among all peoples the Kingdom of Christ and of God and to be, on earth, the initial budding forth of that kingdom. While it slowly grows, the Church strains toward the completed Kingdom and, with all its strength, hopes and desires to be united in glory with its King.”

The nuanced understanding here offered is necessary, not because one wants to split hairs, but because it enables us to catch a glimpse—only a glimpse—of the depth of the reality we call “Church”.  The Church is a mystery beyond our perfect comprehension.  Whatever we know of her calls us to search for deeper understanding.  It is by catching a glimpse of this depth and its riches that we can grow in appreciation of what the Church is. 

The birth of the Church, says the Second Vatican Council, is “in accordance with the utterly gratuitous and mysterious design” of the eternal Father who, “in his wisdom and goodness, created the whole universe, and chose to raise up human beings to share in his own divine life” (Lumen Gentium, 2).

The Church, the community of Jesus gathered by his preaching of the Gospel, made manifest at Pentecost as Church of all nations by the gift of the Holy Spirit, will be constantly guided by the same Spirit on her pilgrimage to her perfection. 

This is the Holy Spirit invoked in these words of the beautiful Sequence chanted at Mass on Pentecost Sunday: “Heal our wounds, our strength renew.  On our dryness pour thy dew.  Wash the stains of guilt away.  Bend the stubborn heart and will.  Melt the frozen, warm the chill. Guide the steps that go astray…  Give us comfort when we die.  Give us life with thee on high.  Give us joys that never end.” 

Father Anthony Akinwale, OP