On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."
Homily
Today our Easter season comes to a beautiful conclusion with Pentecost Sunday, commemorating that day when the Father and the Son poured out the Holy Spirit in a special way on the Apostles. In a very real sense, today is also the birthday of the Church. After receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, these same Apostles took up the mission of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the whole world. From the very beginning of the Church’s history even until today, the Holy Spirit has showered down His gifts upon her to keep her faithful to the teachings she received from Jesus Christ, her Lord, and to keep the fire of God's love burning to inspire the hearts of all people to turn to God and be reconciled with him.
“Without the Holy Spirit,” said Ignatius of Laodicea (Orthodox Metropolitan, at the third assembly of the World Council of Churches at Uppsala, in 1968) “God is distant, Christ is merely an historical figure, the Gospel is a dead letter, the Church is just an organization, authority is domination, mission is propaganda, liturgy is only nostalgia, and the work of Christians is slave labor. But with the Holy Spirit, Christ is risen and present, the Gospel is a living force, the Church is a communion in the life of the Trinity, authority is a service that sets people free, mission is Pentecost, the liturgy is memory and anticipation, and the labor of Christians is divinized.”
The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church. The feast of Pentecost is an annual invitation to the Church to look into itself and discover its soul.