Today is the Vigil of Pentecost, the last of the nine days that the Apostles and Our Lady waited in the Cenacle for the coming of the Holy Ghost. Tomorrow, we will commemorate the descent of the Holy Ghost as tongues of fire upon Our Lady and the Apostles, filling these first bishops of the Church with the Spirit Who would guide the Church in the truth (cf. Jn 6:13). As Catholics, we understand this as the infallibility of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church is infallible when she solemnly defines, either through the pope alone or through the pope and the bishops of the Church, “a doctrine of faith or morals to be held by all the faithful” (Baltimore Catechism #3, Q. 164). Since the earliest days of the Church, as seen in the writings of the Church Fathers, the faithful have believed that the Church is both infallible and indefectible, meaning that it will last until the end of time. While the clergy and even the pope can teach without exercising the Church’s infallibility—as the pope does in encyclicals and apostolic letters, for example—the perennial teachings and solemn declarations of the Church on matters of faith and morals are infallible.
The Church’s infallibility means that Sacred Tradition, to which the end of today’s Gospel reading alludes, has been preserved and passed down unchanged from the Apostles. As St. John writes, the entire world could not contain the books needed to describe everything that Christ did during His time on earth. How can finite written words adequately describe our infinite God? Through the Spirit of truth, we are able to know more about Christ and His teachings than what is contained solely in Scripture. For this reason, the Church teaches that Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition “are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence,” as they “form one sacred deposit of the [W]ord of God” (Dei Verbum, §§ 9-10).
The Holy Ghost, Whose gifts of wisdom and knowledge were bestowed upon the Apostles at Pentecost, continues to preserve the Church in the truth, ensuring that she never formally teaches anything contrary to the unchanging truth found in Christ. Through the Spirit of truth received at Pentecost, the Church infallibly established the canon of Sacred Scripture, and by this same Spirit, she infallibly interprets them, exercising her teaching office that Christ Himself established (cf. Dei Verbum, §10).
On this Vigil of Pentecost, let us give thanks to God for the infinite blessing of belonging to the Catholic Church, whom He has safeguarded in the truth by the Holy Ghost. May we also implore the Holy Ghost to pour His gifts upon us, so that we might be able to better understand the truth that He continues to teach us through the Church, truths without which we cannot attain eternal salvation.
Thank you for your teaching here. It clarified more deeply my understanding of Pentecost.
The Christian story has room for tears, failure, repentance, and joy. That is why it feels less like an idea and more like home.