Pentecost is the day when Christ, now glorified and crowned Lord and Messiah, infuses and pours out upon the world the gift of his Spirit in its fullness. We know that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, so we can imagine the two of them simultaneously infusing the Spirit for the life of the world.

This means that it is the moment when the Holy Trinity is fully revealed. In the Old Testament, the Father was especially revealed; since the Incarnation, the Son has been revealed; now that the Son has been glorified, it is the turn of the Holy Spirit. This is the moment when the revelation of the Trinitarian mystery is completed.

“The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the ‘hierarchy of the truths of faith’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 234).

Glorification is death and resurrection united in the Paschal mystery. St. John Chrysostom uses a beautiful image: that of a glass jar containing a delightful perfume. When the jar falls to the ground and breaks, the aroma inside spreads throughout the space. Therefore Christ, dead and risen and glorified, is like that broken jar of perfume: the aroma that spreads throughout the world is the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost is the moment when every Christian is invited to participate in the communion of the Holy Trinity. It is not a revelation for us to be mere spectators, but rather an invitation to participate in divine intimacy and to be part of the mission. This happens because we are immediately introduced into the heart of Trinitarian life; we are simultaneously sent forth.

Pentecost is the day of the mission when we all become apostles. It is the day when the sails of the ship that is the Church are billowed by the gift of the Spirit, and its voyage begins. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when the Church arises, as there are many, but we can say that the day of Pentecost is the birth of the Church’s mission in its fullness.

How can we respond to the invitation to be sent, and more importantly, to participate in the intimate life of the Trinity? By becoming worshippers. There are two very special prayers that teach us how to respond to such an invitation and mission. The first is part of a prayer of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity:

“O my God, Trinity whom I adore, let me entirely forget myself that I may abide in you, still and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity; let nothing disturb my peace nor separate me from you, O my unchanging God.” 

Adoration of the Most Holy Trinity is key to achieving this holy forgetfulness of ourselves. Likewise, this holy forgetting is the key ingredient for us to experience the mission as the apostles did on the day of Pentecost: they give us a powerful testimony of what it means to leave everything to share the message of the Gospel with the whole world.

The second is the beautiful scene with the three shepherd children at Fatima, in which, before Mary appeared to them, an angel was sent to teach them to pray and prepare them for her visit and presence. The famous prayer the angel taught them is this:

“O most Holy Trinity — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — I adore you profoundly. I offer you the most precious body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which he is offended. Through the infinite merits of his most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of you the conversion of poor sinners.” 

The angel’s prayer, besides being a lesson in adoration, is also the way we can prepare our hearts to welcome the presence of the Holy Trinity and our mother in heaven, to listen to their message and to respond to their invitation with generosity and docility.

Ultimately, Pentecost is the day on which the glorified Jesus Christ pours out his Spirit in abundance and manifests himself as a divine person, so that the Holy Trinity is fully revealed. The mission of Christ and the Spirit becomes the mission of the Church, sent to announce and spread the mystery of salvation and Trinitarian communion.

Let us open our hearts to the divine gift of the Spirit and become worshippers of the Trinity: only in this way can we fulfill our mission and our calling in the best possible way.

Come, Holy Spirit, come and pour yourself into our hearts!