way that the workings of the Holy Ghost abide in the Church, and will abide till the end of time.
The meaning of Pentecost. The Jewish Pentecost, as explained in Old Test. XXXVI, was a type of the Christian Pentecost. The object of the Jewish feast was to remind the people of the giving and writing on stone of the Ten Commandments upon Mount Sinai. The Christian Whit-Sunday, or Pentecost, is to remind us that God the Holy Ghost came down on the Church, and inscribed the law of love on the hearts of the faithful. The Jewish Pentecost was also the harvest festival, on which the first-fruits of the harvest were offered to God. The Christian Pentecost is also a harvest festival, though in a much higher sense, for on that day the apostles, as their Lord had commanded them (chapter LXXXI), came forward openly to teach and to baptize, and by the assistance of the Holy Ghost reaped a rich harvest, converting and baptizing three thousand on that one day. Whit-Sunday may well be called the birthday of God’s holy Church, because 1. it was upon that day that the Holy Ghost came down on the Church to remain with her and assist her in her threefold office till the end of time, and 2. because on that day the Church was first openly made manifest, and won several thousands of souls for Christ. The seed of corn, watered by the Holy Ghost, sprang up, and began to spread itself.
What aspect did the Church bear in those days? She appeared as a visible body of believers, gifted and governed by the Holy Ghost, with Peter as her visible head. And for what end was she made manifest among men? To bring them salvation by the preaching of the faith and the administration of the Sacraments.
The Primacy. On Whit-Sunday Peter came forward as the supreme head of the Church. As chief pastor, he was the first to preach and to bring the sheep into the fold.
Proofs of the Divinity of Jesus Christ were drawn by Peter 1. from His Resurrection, when he said: “That God hath raised Jesus from the dead, we all (apostles and disciples) are witnesses”, and not one of the unbelieving Jews ventured to contradict this assertion, or to deny our Lord’s Resurrection; 2. from His Ascension into heaven, where He sitteth at the right hand of God; and 3. by His sending down the Holy Ghost; for were Jesus not God, He could not have sent forth the Holy Spirit.
All sins are remitted by Baptism. St. Peter declares this in his exhortation to his hearers: “Be baptized for the remission of your sins.”
The following prophecies were fulfilled by the outpouring of the Holy Ghost: 1. That of Joel 2, 28; 2. that of Jeremias: “I will give My law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart. I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer. 31, 33. 34; Old Test. LXXV); 3. that of Ezechiel: “I will put My Spirit in you,
