By Clement Harrold
May 21, 2026
Pentecost has its roots in the Old Testament. Fifty days after Passover, the Jewish people celebrated the Feast of Weeks, known in Hebrew as Shavuot. This was one of the major pilgrimage festivals, which became known in the Greek-speaking world as Pentecoste, meaning “fiftieth.” In the New Testament, the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles coincides with the old Jewish feast:
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1–4).
For the Jews, Shavuot was the culmination of the grain harvest, a season of joy and gladness that lasted seven weeks (fifty days). On a more theological level, Jewish tradition holds that Shavuot was the day on which the law was revealed by God to the Israelites gathered at Mount Sinai.
These themes are taken up in the Church’s liturgical calendar. We too observe a joyful season lasting fifty days (Eastertide), and this season ends with the celebration of Pentecost. (The one difference is that Shavuot is dated to fifty days after Passover, whereas the Church’s Pentecost takes place fifty days after Easter Sunday, counting inclusively.)
Another important connection is that whereas Shavuot commemorated the giving of the Mosaic law, Pentecost marks the giving of a new law which the Holy Spirit inscribes not on tablets of stone but on the hearts of men. This helps explain the reaction of many in the crowd on that first Pentecost day: “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’” (Acts 2:37).
While Pentecost fulfills the Jewish feast of Shavuot, it also harks back to two pivotal events in salvation history: creation and the Tower of Babel. Regarding the first, it’s important to see how Pentecost is already anticipated on the evening of Easter Sunday, when Jesus appears to the disciples and gives them the Holy Spirit:
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:21–23)
Why does the Risen Jesus breathe on His disciples? The Greek expression John uses in this passage is the same one used in the Septuagint’s rendering of Genesis 2:7, which describes how God breathed life into Adam. Hence what we have in this scene is a moment of re-creation, where the disciples are given new life in the Spirit. This re-creation begins on Easter Sunday, but it is fulfilled on Pentecost Sunday (see Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8).
Pentecost also recalls the Old Testament story of the Tower of Babel. On that occasion, the pride of men led to their being divided by different languages, and the disunity caused by sin became one of the hallmarks of the human race. With Pentecost, these fractures begin to be healed through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The disciples are given the miraculous power of speaking in tongues, such that they can be understood in every language. And the universal Church is born, heralding the ingathering of God’s people from every corner of the earth.
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In these ways, Pentecost is the fulfilment of the dramatic arc of the Old Covenant. At the same time, it ushers in the beginning of the end times foretold by the prophets: the time of the Church, the Kingdom of God, which has been established through Christ’s first coming and which will be consummated in His second coming. In between those two times, Jesus promises to remain with us through His Spirit:
And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever. (John 14:16)
Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. (John 16:7)
Although the role of the Holy Spirit is mysterious, we know that His mission is “conjoined and inseparable” with that of the Son (CCC 689). The core of that mission is the Trinitarian initiative to bring us into the communion that Christ eternally enjoys with the Father in the Holy Spirit.
Sacred Scripture also alludes to various aspects of the Spirit’s role in the life of the Church:
- The Spirit teaches us and helps us to remember Christ’s promises (John 14:26)
- The Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8)
- The Spirit pours God’s love into our hearts (Rom 5:5)
- The Spirit is the sign that we are children of God and that we belong to Christ (Rom 8:9,16)
- The Spirit helps us in our weakness, teaches us how to pray, and intercedes for us (Rom 8:26)
- The Spirit dwells within us and makes our bodies His temple (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19)
When we celebrate Pentecost, we remember that in our baptism we “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 13:14) by becoming a member of His Body. A direct consequence of this is that we are anointed by the Holy Spirit (see 1 John 2:20; 2:27) just as Christ was (see Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38). The Catechism explains:
Because the Holy Spirit is the anointing of Christ, it is Christ who, as the head of the Body, pours out the Spirit among his members to nourish, heal, and organize them in their mutual functions, to give them life, send them to bear witness, and associate them to his self-offering to the Father and to his intercession for the whole world. Through the Church’s sacraments, Christ communicates his Holy and sanctifying Spirit to the members of his Body. (CCC 739)
On Pentecost the priest wears red vestments to call to mind the Holy Spirit who descends on the apostles in tongues of fire. While fire in Scripture is sometimes a symbol of punishment, it is also a purifying force that burns away the dross of sin. As St. John the Baptist prophesied at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry, “[H]e will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Matt 3:11).
This prophecy is fulfilled on Pentecost Sunday. On that day, the Church which was conceived from the pierced side of Christ on Calvary is born through the outpouring of the Spirit. Through her sacraments, the Church now shares in the mission of the Son and the Spirit to bring us into the life of the Triune God who is “a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29).
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Further Reading
St. John Paul II, Dominum et Vivificantem
About Clement Harrold
Clement Harrold earned his master’s degree in theology from the University of Notre Dame in 2024, and his bachelor’s degree in theology, philosophy, and classics from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2021. He is a columnist for The Catholic Herald, and his writings have appeared in First Things, Word on Fire, Catholic Answers Magazine, Church Life Journal, Our Sunday Visitor Magazine, Crisis Magazine, and the Washington Examiner.
