We are all conscious of Christ sending the Holy Spirit on Pentecost day. What we have not noticed is that Christ sent the Holy Spirit to His apostles twice. The first time was around 50 days before Pentecost when He breathed on them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The second time is on Pentecost when Christ send the Holy Spirit in the form of tongues of fire. The second is more spectacular that is why we remember it. But the first is the foundation without which the second would not occur.
Christ sent the Holy Spirit twice to His Church. So the Holy Spirit is IN the Catholic Church and will lead the Church from the beginnings of her Faith, Hope and Charity…..to the maturity of the same virtues as on Easter…..and to the perfection of those same Virtues on Pentecost Day.
We celebrated Pentecost recently with petitions asking the Holy Spirit to come down again and with requests for New Pentecosts. The Holy Spirit has already been sent twice by Christ for two different good reasons; the Spirit is already down here and dwells within the Church. One can pray to the Spirit but He won’t come a third time. The celebrations asking for the Holy Spirit to come down to each individual or come down in a new Pentecost is futile. If we want to find the Holy Spirit who had been sent twice we just have to enter into the inner sanctum of the Catholic Church were the Spirit dwells as the Church’s uncreated soul. When the Popes call for a ‘New Pentecost’ they are not wishing that the Holy Spirit descend upon the Church once again. The Spirit is in the Church already and won’t keep on coming up and down. What the Popes are trying to say is: why are the Catholics not finding the Spirit within the Church where it dwells? Is it because they are outside the door of the Church? They will never find the Spirit there no matter how much they lay hands, dance, scream and shout for it to come down. To experience the abiding of the Spirit one must enter the Church through Faith and grow into the perfection of Charity within her. When we pray ‘Come Holy Spirit,’ we are asking the Spirit to come and guide us from the outskirts into the inner sanctum of the Church where we may receive the Holy Spirit from the laying of the hands of those within the Church. Not from outside.
To experience the Holy Spirit that is within the Church we just have to do what the apostles did to be worthy to receive the Holy Spirit. Remember Pentecost was their graduation. What did the apostles do to deserve to receive the Spirit on Pentecost?
Firstly, they repented as taught to us during Advent and Lent. Secondly, they had the beginnings of Faith, Hope and Charity when they left all things (their boats, nets and parents) which most of us haven’t done. Thirdly, their theological virtues matured during the Passion of Christ. Fourthly, their virtues were nearly perfect after Easter( it was just before this that Christ breathed on them the first time to receive the Holy Spirit). Fifthly, their virtues were perfected with the Descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost (the second giving of the Spirit).
But why did Christ send the Holy Spirit twice? The first time was for them to receive the power to ‘love their neighbor’ in preparation and leading to the ‘Love of God’.. The second time is to give them the power to ‘love God.’
We cannot love our neighbor, like our husband, wife, parent and children in a christian way without the first breathing from Christ. We love them only ‘carnally’ i.e. because they are our family and we love the poor because we pity them. But with the first breathing of the Holy Spirit, we love our family and the poor because it is the command of Christ. With this love we are conscious that our neighbor has a soul and all our relationship with them is to benefit their souls even at the sacrifice of their bodies.
The love of neighbor is in preparation for the second sending wherein we receive the power to love God for His own sake. Without these two sending we cannot love neighbor nor God. This occurred when the apostles had mature infused virtues a rare occurrence today even among religious.
The first giving of the Spirit is the foundation of the second. The second cannot be without the first. In the Liturgy of the Mass for Pentecost the Gospel reading was when Christ breathed on them sending the Holy Spirit to His apostles when He was still on earth. The First reading was about Pentecost when Christ sent the Spirit down when He was in Heaven. Note that there was a gap of 50 days between the two sending. Christ could have sent the Spirit one day after. But no, He was teaching the apostles to learn how to wait just as they would wait for the second coming because Pentecost was a preparation and would be the sign for the end times. And the way they would wait is by prayer and living in unity.
The first sending of the Spirit enabled the Apostles to preach repentance unto the forgiveness of sins. The second sending enabled the Apostles to preach the life of Faith, Hope and Charity…..the journey the Apostles had accomplish that made them worthy to experience Pentecost. St. Thomas of Aquinas described the first sending as a brief, temporary visit of God in the soul. The second sending is the permanent abiding of God within the soul.