In the early centuries of the Church Pentecost Sunday was seen as a moment in the celebration of Easter. Luke’s account in the Acts of the Apostles modelled the place it has in the Church. The coming of the Holy Spirit took place after Jesus’ death and Resurrection. The Apostles were gathered in their own quarters behind locked doors, still afraid of persecution. When the Holy Spirit came on them, they were freed to go out into the streets and to speak of Jesus in words understood by Jews from all around the world. If the weeks after Easter were a finishing school for Jesus’ disciples, Pentecost was graduation day and the beginning of their work to spread the Gospel by preaching and healing with energy and conviction.
The Christian feast of Pentecost dates to the early Church. Its distance of 50 days after Easter echoed the timing of the Jewish harvest feast after the Passover. After the Christian Church was legalised in the Roman Empire, the Feast of Pentecost was made part of the journey of new converts into the Church. For them the 40 days of Lent were a time of intense preparation which culminated in their baptism at Easter. The period between Easter and Pentecost was a time of deepening instruction and reflection that introduced them to the spiritual depth of faith in Christ. Pentecost marked their maturity as Christians ready to preach the Gospel through their lives.
GO OUT TO THE PEOPLE
Pope Francis’ vision of the Church was one of a new Pentecost. He urged Catholics to leave the safety within the Church walls and to go out into the city to people on the edge of the Church. There they would share their faith in Jesus through conversation and shared service. They were to spread the Gospel by reaching out, as Jesus and his followers did, to people on the edge of faith and society. This was as much about building relationships through an attractive way of living as it was through words. Pope Francis’ model in this was St Francis of Assisi.
Pope Francis also saw that this vision of the Pentecost Church could only come to life if it was reflected in lifegiving relationships within the Church. As was the case at the first Pentecost people need to gather in order to share their faith and life.
Catholics need to own their responsibility to one another through sharing in prayer and discerning where the Holy Spirit was leading them. They need to meet in local congregations, in dioceses, as national Churches and as a world-wide Church.
VISION OF SYNODALITY
This was Pope Francis vision of Synodality – a Church in which people have different gifts and responsibilities, but all directed at encouraging one another. It is a Church in which all share and take responsibility. It is a Church with the energy and boldness of Pentecost.
This vision is shared by Pope Leo XIV who will shape it in his own way. It will need to be refined through experience of the ways in which parishes in different cultures, dioceses and the universal Church work. It is a process by which the vision of Pentecost can be embodied in the life of the Catholic Church.