Solemnity of Pentecost Year C
Genesis 11:1-9
or Exodus 19:3-8a, 16-20b
or Ezekiel 37:1-14 or Joel 3:1-5
Ps. 104:1-2, 24, 25, 27-28, 29, 30
Romans 8:22-27
John 7:37-39
“When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together.” The Apostles had seemingly not made it very far from trembling in their hiding spot after the Resurrection seven Sundays days prior on “the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear.”
In fairness to them, they had understandable reasons to be sticking close, with the threat of persecution still very active if not more feverish with “devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.” Three of the major Jewish holy days required all the able-bodied faithful to make a pilgrimage to the Temple. The most famous was Passover, the 50th day after which fell the second most important to conclude it: the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost. The lunisolar calendar of Judaism meant holidays would only fall on certain days of the week. The fixing of Easter to the transferred Resurrection sabbath day in our modern liturgical calendar is appropriate, therefore, and sets Pentecost on Sunday as well.
The festival’s agricultural overtones commemorated the first harvest but also featured the memorialization of Moses’s receiving the Decalogue on Mt. Sinai. All-night Torah study remains a common practice to observe the feast. That unclear correlation made sense after the descent of God the Spirit, promising holy fruitfulness in following the New Covenant Law: “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.”
Exactly 1,700 years ago, the Council of Nicaea formulated our familiar Creed with the verbiage “the Lord, the giver of life” to describe the Holy Spirit, as we recite each Sunday. He breathes vitality into the Church. Paul carefully clarifies that it is “the same Spirit,” “the same Lord” at work for us all together as “one body” composed of “many parts.”
Certain modern translations of the Scriptures have caviling footnotes in these early chapters of Acts of the Apostles, postulating that Luke’s account artificially collapses several separate events of reportedly far less dramatic quality. Such contrived textual historicization amounts to “Biblesplaining.” Our Christian faith is predicated on the work of God the Holy Spirit: “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” Forgiveness of sins comes through the working of the Spirit through the Apostles: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” The Psalmist affirms, clearly alluding to Creation: “If you take away their breath, they perish and return to their dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.” What could be more sensational than that?
From disparate origins, “each one heard them speaking in his own language.” This reverses the confusion of tongues after the fall of the Tower of Babel as the Lord unifies His scattered people. The grammar of grace is universal. Pentecost developed into a colorful international celebration. An old English rendering names it Whitsun, after the white robes of the newly baptized from its extended vigil the day before. Italy traditionally showers fresh rose petals from the dome of the church above to signify the descent of the tongues of fire, giving it the title “Red Easter” or in Germany “the Flower Feast.” It marks the coming of full spring in the northern climes and the abundant foliage was appropriated from pre-Christian customs of May dances, giving it the moniker “Green Holyday” among the Poles and “Summer Feast” for the Czechs. The great medieval liturgical commentator Durandus notes that flaming filaments were sprinkled from the roof and a dove was released to fly about the church!
The Sequence captures the seasonal themes beautifully and relates them to our spiritual renewal: “Wash the stains of guilt away: Bend the stubborn heart and will; melt the frozen, warm the chill; guide the steps that go astray.” With the image that again invokes God’s creative power from the beginning of time and thereby parallels the era of the Church with it as a time of re-creation, Our Lord “breathed on them.” The generally negative prescriptions of the Ten Commandments have found their positive, open-ended fulfillment in the Messiah’s New Law of love. The Apostles can now burst forth from the locked doors of their fear aflame with grace and boldly rush like the wind out unto the ends of the world to bring to all nations the pure, clean air of new life through the sanctifying Holy Spirit.