Today is the feast of Pentecost or the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and Blessed Virgin. Pentecost was originally a Jewish feast, the Feast of Weeks or Shavuot. As Jesus said, “Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill (Matt. 5:17),” so major Christian feasts and events in the New Testament are frequently tied to Jewish feasts from the Old Testament. Jewish Pentecost commemorates the giving of the Mosaic Law on Mt. Sinai and the first fruits of the wheat harvest. And so, in the Christian Pentecost, we too celebrate the giving of God’s word to people, but this time the Holy Spirit inspires the apostles to preach to everyone instead of God giving the law to Moses specifically for the Jews. And just as the Jews used to bring loaves made of new wheat to the Temple on Pentecost, so Jesus, the Bread of Life, now feeds us with His Body. But the Jewish Pentecost is always the foundation and foreshadowing for the Christian Pentecost.