From: Acts 2:1-11
The Coming of the Holy Spirit
[5] Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation
under heaven. [6] And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were
bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. [7]
And they were amazed and wondered, saying, “Are not all these who are spea-
king Galileans? [8] And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native lan-
guage? [9] Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia,
Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, [10] Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt
and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews
and proselytes, [11] Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own
tongues the mighty works of God.”
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Commentary:
1-13. This account of the Holy Spirit visibly coming down on the disciples who, in
keeping with Jesus’ instructions, had stayed together in Jerusalem, gives limited
information as to the time and place of the event, yet it is full of content. Pente-
cost was one of the three great Jewish feasts for which many Israelites went on
pilgrimage to the Holy City to worship God in the temple. It originated as a har-
vest thanksgiving, with an offering of first-fruits. Later it was given the additional
dimension of commemorating the promulgation of the Law given by God to Mo-
ses on Sinai. The Pentecost celebration was held fifty days after the Passover,
that is, after seven weeks had passed. The material harvest which the Jews ce
lebrated so joyously became, through God’s providence, the symbol of the spi-
ritual harvest which the Apostles began to reap on this day.
2-3. Wind and fire were elements which typically accompanied manifestations of
God in the Old Testament (cf. Ex 3:2; l 3:21-22; 2 Kings 5:24; Ps 104:3). In this
instance, as Chrysostom explains, it would seem that separate tongues of fire
came down on each of them: they were “separated, which means they came from
one and the same source, to show that the Power all comes from the Paraclete”
(”Hom. on Acts”, 4). The wind and the noise must have been so intense that they
caused people to flock to the place. The fire symbolizes the action of the Holy
Spirit who, by enlightening the minds of the disciples, enables them to under-
stand Jesus’s teachings—as Jesus promised at the Last Supper (cf. Jn 16:4-14);
by inflaming their hearts with love he dispels their fear and moves them to preach
boldly. Fire also has a purifying effect, God’s action cleansing the soul of all trace
of sin.
4. Pentecost was not an isolated event in the life of the Church, something over
and done with. “We have the right, the duty and the joy to tell you that Pentecost
is still happening. We can legitimately speak of the ‘lasting value’ of Pentecost.
We know that fifty days after Easter, the Apostles, gathered together in the same
Cenacle as had been used for the first Eucharist and from which they had gone
out to meet the Risen One for the first time, “discover” in themselves the power
of the Holy Spirit who descended upon them, the strength of Him whom the Lord
had promised so often as the outcome of his suffering on the Cross; and streng-
thened in this way, they began to act, that is, to perform their role. [. . .] Thus is
born the “apostolic Church”. But even today—and herein the continuity lies — the
Basilica of St Peter in Rome and every Temple, every Oratory, every place where
the disciples of the Lord gather, is an extension of that original Cenacle” (Bl. John
Paul II, “Homily”, 25 May 1980).
Vatican II (cf. “Ad gentes”, 4) quotes St Augustine’s description of the Holy Spi-
rit as the soul, the source of life, of the Church, which was born on the Cross on
Good Friday and whose birth was announced publicly on the day of Pentecost:
“Today, as you know, the Church was fully born, through the breath of Christ,
the Holy Spirit; and in the Church was born the Word, the witness to and promu-
lgation of salvation in the risen Jesus; and in him who listens to this promulgation
is born faith, and with faith a new life, an awareness of the Christian vocation and
the ability to hear that calling and to follow it by living a genuinely human life, in-
deed a life which is not only human but holy. And to make this divine intervention
effective, today was born the apostolate, the priesthood, the ministry of the Spirit,
the calling to unity, fraternity and peace” (Paul VI, “Address”, 25 May 1969).
“Mary, who conceived Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit, the Love of the living
God, presides over the birth of the Church, on the day of Pentecost, when the
same Holy Spirit comes down on the disciples and gives life to the mystical bo-
dy of Christians in unity and charity” (Paul VI, “Address”, 25 October 1969).
5-11. In his account of the events of Pentecost St Luke distinguishes “devout
men” (v. 5), Jews and proselytes (v. 11). The first-mentioned were people who
were residing in Jerusalem for reasons of study or piety, to be near the only tem-
ple the Jews had. They were Jews—not to be confused with “God-fearing men”,
that is, pagans sympathetic to Judaism, who worshipped the God of the Bible
and who, if they became converts and members of the Jewish religion by being
circumcised and by observing the Mosaic Law, were what were called “prose-
lytes”, whom Luke distinguishes from the “Jews”, that is, those of Jewish race.
People of different races and tongues understand Peter, each in his or her own
language. They can do so thanks to a special grace from the Holy Spirit given
them for the occasion; this is not the same as the gift of “speaking with tongues”
which some of the early Christians had (cf. 1 Cor 14), which allowed them to
praise God and speak to him in a language which they themselves did not
understand.
11. When the Fathers of the Church comment on this passage they frequently
point to the contrast between the confusion of languages that came about at Ba-
bel (cf. Gen 11:1-9)—God’s punishment for man’s pride and infidelity — and the re-
versal of this confusion on the day of Pentecost, thanks to the grace of the Holy
Spirit. The Second Vatican Council stresses the same idea: “Without doubt, the
Holy Spirit was at work in the world before Christ was glorified. On the day of
Pentecost, however, he came down on the disciples that he might remain with
them forever (cf. Jn 14;16); on that day the Church was openly displayed to the
crowds and the spread of the Gospel among the nations, through preaching, was
begun. Finally, on that day was foreshadowed the union of all peoples in the ca-
tholicity of the faith by means of the Church of the New Alliance, a Church which
speaks every language, understands and embraces all tongues in charity, and
thus overcomes the dispersion of Babel” (”Ad Gentes”, 4).
Christians need this gift for their apostolic activity and should ask the Holy Spirit
to give it to them to help them express themselves in such a way that others can
understand their message; to be able so to adapt what they say to suit the out-
look and capacity of their hearers, that they pass Christ’s truth on: “Every gene-
ration of Christians needs to redeem, to sanctify, its own time. To do this, it must
understand and share the desires of other men — their equals — in order to make
known to them, with a ‘gift of tongues’, how they are to respond to the action of
the Holy Spirit, to that permanent outflow of rich treasures that comes from our
Lord’s heart. We Christians are called upon to announce, in our own time, to this
world to which we belong and in which we live, the message — old and at the
same time new — of the Gospel” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 132).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.