This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost, the day where the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles as promised by Jesus. It happened ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven and fifty days after His resurrection.

As narrated in Acts 2:1-11, the Holy Spirit manifested (that is, revealed Himself or made Himself known) through “a strong, driving wind” and “tongues as of fire”.

Now why through the wind and tongues of fire? Because the “wind” recalls the Spirit of God moving over the waters at the creation of the world (Genesis 1:1-2). The manifestation of the Holy Spirit through the “strong, driving wind” indicates that a “new creation” is taking place: the renewal of humanity in God’s Holy Spirit. The “tongues of fire” denote the Presence of God, purification, and Judgment. Traditional catechesis (i.e. training people in the Faith) saw the tongues of fire as signifying the sacredness and divine (God-given) authority of the preaching and teaching of the Apostles, by whose words, fervor, witness and example, all people were to be converted to the knowledge, love, and service to God.

With this, the Apostles were strengthened and became zealous to preach the gospel fearlessly so much so that on that very day, they began to speak in different tongues and those who heard them were astounded as they could speak in their own language.

It became a sign that the Christian message is a universal message to be preached to all nations (Mark 16:15-17). The people of various language groups and dialects were able to understand the Apostles, because the disunity and fragmentation of humanity that occurred at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) was corrected by the sending of the Holy Spirit, who fashions from the many languages of humanity one voice to profess One Faith.

And now as a Church, we celebrate the memory of the Pentecost events as the beginning of the new ‘age of the Church’, when Christ lives and acts in and with His Church. And the Holy Spirit will remain with the Church forever, and will guide it in the ways of holiness and truth.

As a parish, we introduce the celebration of our ethnicity on this Solemnity of Pentecost in which we come to appreciate our beginning and our ethnicity with the culture and tradition that we hold dearly. Immediately following our mass on Saturday, we will enjoy fellowship and have a taste of our ethnic food that we bring. So come and join us. Let us celebrate our family ethnicity.