Today we celebrate the place where Heaven touches earth: the Church. What the Incarnation accomplished in relation to the Divine Son of God is in a certain sense extended this day. Pentecost is the second most holy day in the liturgical calendar; it follows only the Resurrection in sacredness and importance.

The outward signs on Pentecost morning, like the dove at Christ's earlier baptism, indicated the Personal Presence of the Spirit of God but were in no way divinized or joined to Him. The outward signs of Pentecost manifested to the world the visible mission of the Holy Ghost. Our Lord spoke clearly at the Last Supper of sending the Paraclete once He had left His Disciples. Pentecost, the Fiftieth Day of Passover, became the fulfillment of this promise. The Church is the extension of the Incarnation and the Mission of both the Divine Son of God and the Holy Ghost.

The Church is the point in time and space where Heaven touches the earth. This point of contact reveals the full knowledge of the One True and Living God and transmits to mankind redemption and salvation. Full knowledge of God is found only in the Church of Christ. Only Catholicism contains the plenitude of revelation and teaching. God had partially revealed Himself to Israel through Moses on Mt. Sinai but fully revealed Himself to the world in His Divine Word, Jesus Christ. For this reason we can say that the Church is a concretization of the First Commandment. Grace, doctrine, justification, holiness, and stabilizing peace radiate out from the Church.

The outward signs of wind, fire, and the languages indicated on Pentecost morning the Presence of God manifesting Himself personally in Jerusalem. To this day there is a church which marks this spot. It is called "The Church in Holy Sion." From this place the universal Church of Christ spread out to the four corners of the earth almost two thousand years ago and of which you are beneficiaries. God reveals Himself to the world through the Church and therefore we can say that The Church is Christophoric: it carries Christ among the nations of the world.

Pentecost could only happen once. It initiated an age that is to endure until the end of time. Christ accomplished redemption once, and the entire human race has been redeemed; Christ has risen from the dead, dying now no more, and sits at the Right Hand of God the Father in glory. These events are never to be accomplished again. The salvation of the world has been radically accomplished and the Church does nothing other than extend this through time and space.