Theological commentary on the feast of Pentecost
The holy feast of Pentecost is a special station in the festive cycle of the year for our Church. This, together with Easter, are the most ancient holidays, which go back to the apostolic times. This great holiday serves as a recapitulation of the redemptive work of our Savior Christ on earth and as a new dynamic starting point for the realization and completion of the divine plan for the salvation of the human race and the entire creation.
The feast of Pentecost was recommended by our Church, along with many other feasts, under the influence of a corresponding feast of Judaism, of course with a completely different meaning and content, as St. Augustine emphasizes (Epist.55). The Jews actually celebrated their own Pentecost, which was fifty days away from the legal Passover. They were called "Feast of Weeks" (Ex. 34,22 and Deut. 16,10) and what was mentioned about the giving of the Law to Moses, fifty days after the celebration of the first Passover in the Sinai desert (Ex. 19,1). It lasted one day and offered the beginnings of the new harvest of the fruits of the earth, the "firstborns" in the temple of Jerusalem, as thanksgiving to God, the sponsor of goods.
With the celebration of this legal holiday coincided the great event of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the roof of Jerusalem, fifty days after the glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. As the inspired author of “Acts of the Apostles», evangelist Luke, "At the end of the day of Pentecost, all (the apostles) agreed on this. And I let out from the sky a sound like a breath of violence, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting and they were affected by these dividing tongues like fire, sit down one by one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Word, and they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave I will pronounce them" (Acts 2,1-4).
The great and wonderful event of the descent of the Holy Spirit is one of the rare theophany in history. God the Paraclete, in visible form "tongues like fire", came down to earth, to complete the work of our salvation, as a continuation of the redemptive work of Christ. After all, His joyful descent could not be wonderful. The holy apostles had to feel this unprecedented experience, in order for their entire psychosomatic being to be flooded with divine energy, so that they would not have the slightest doubt that their mission was God-sent. To expel from within themselves all those misgivings they had until then, regarding the divine person and the work of Christ the Savior and to completely unhook from the short-sighted micro-nationalistic Jewish conceptions of the Messiah. Only with this ontological baptism of them with the energy and gifts of the Holy Spirit could they undertake the evangelization of humanity.
The Lord before His voluntary passion had announced to His disciples about the descent of the Holy Spirit and its wonderful effects on humanity.. "Stay in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high" (Luk.24,48) ordered them. During the dramatic speech
His, in the court of Jerusalem, after the last supper, gave them the great and hopeful promise that when He departs from the world He will send the Advocate to be with them strengthener, illuminator, comforter and guide until the end of the world, "and the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sends in my name, may he teach you everything and remind you of everything I have told you" (John 14,26). Another phrase of His is characteristic: "I have told you many things, but you cannot bear enough. When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, may he guide you into all truth" (John 16,12-13). Understanding the divine word of Christ will be the work of the Paraclete. The truth criterion of the Church will be His immediate presence in Her. This is a resounding answer to all those who "find" errors in the holy Church, as a direct blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, Who is in the Church to guide her "in all truth»!
It is also noteworthy that the Lord promised transformative empowerment to His disciples “receive the power of the coming of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1,8). Indeed, the great miracle took place immediately after "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2,4). The former feared "for fear of the Jews" (John 20,19) apostles, transformed into strong personalities, into steely characters, into rigid types, into fearless and transparent preachers of the new divine message. They immediately opened the hermetically sealed patio doors and windows and from their sheltered hiding place appeared on the balconies preaching with unprecedented courage to the crowds the Risen Lord!
The chief of the apostles, Peter, preached to the ecstatic Jews, who had flocked to the holy city from various parts of the world, explaining to them the exquisite miracle of the day, and especially the marvelous phenomenon of speaking in tongues, which was not the product of drunkenness, as some maintained, but fulfillment of God's gifts. He especially emphasized that this is a fulfillment of His promises, through His prophets and especially Joel, who seven centuries ago had conveyed the words of God as follows: "And it will be after this that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your elders will dream in their sleep and your youths will see visions" and on my servants and my maidservants in the days those I pour out of my Spirit... and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Joel 3,1:3-XNUMX). The divinely inspired prophet, after having prophesied in an allegorical, but admirable way, the evil demons of the transitory pre-Christian era, announces the coming of the Paraclete, Who inaugurates a new era, flooded with the saving graces and gifts of God. From that blessed day begins the new eschatological period of history, the one defined in our theology as "Eighth Day", which with an insignificant station, the physical death of the faithful, extends to the endless ages.
The day of Pentecost is considered as the birthday of our Church. Indeed, the fiery and inspiring preaching of the apostle Peter bore fruit in the souls of his thousands of listeners. Like the thirsty deer, according to the expression of the Psalmist (Psalm 41,1:XNUMX), they accepted the saving speech, as a heavenly balm. "Listeners complained about the heart(Acts 2,37:XNUMX). They believed and were baptized on the same day. "Therefore, accepting his word, they were baptized, and three thousand souls were added that day" (Acts 2,41), since "they received the free gift of the Holy Spirit» (Acts 2,39). Is
also significant that the apostle Peter pointed out to them that "for the promise is to you and to your children, and send them far away" (Acts 2,39), wanting to emphasize the universal character of salvation in Christ.
The event of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost is for our Church a primary starting point for Her subsequent course through the ages. God the Paraclete is now the master of the Church since that blessed day and guides the saving boat safely in its rescue voyage. He gives life to believers and strength to walk towards salvation. "Those who are moved by the Spirit of God, the apostle Paul emphasizes, you are sons of God. And receive the spirit of servitude again in fear, but receive the spirit of adoption, while we cry out to the Father. This Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are children of God. And children and heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs of Christ, so let us sympathize and be glorified together" (Rom. 8,114-17). This famous comprehensive apostolic discourse best expresses the ineffable blessing we received on the holy day of Pentecost. Thanks to the coming of God the Intercessor, from being slaves to sin, we became not just free, but children and heirs of God and co-heirs of the Lord Jesus Christ. We now enjoy divine adoption (Gal. 4,5). A greater blessing than this could not exist!
The presence of the Holy Spirit is evident in the Church and history. An objective study of the course of the world in time and space clearly proves that it is not the same as that of the pre-Pentecost period. God is now with us and His infinite graces flood the world and all His creation. The morally downward course of the pre-Christian period not only stopped, but, thanks to the sanctifying energy of the Paraclete, the world's evil demons are gradually and firmly set aside and it finds its rightful place in the divine creation. The human race regained its original nature, as it came from the hands of its Creator. The holy Church is now the divine laboratory where the salvation and deification of human persons is completed. The endemic in Her Holy Spirit sanctifies and graces all who freely decide to be saved. Their own decision and effort within the Church is transformed into a life-saving course, thanks to His unfailing gifts and gifts. In theological language our salvation derives from Christ's redemptive sacrifice, activated by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Our Church Fathers understood early on the great importance of the event of Pentecost. A strange example, as we have already mentioned, is the antiquity of the great feast and the baptism of the catechists according to it. Saint Chrysostomos, in an over-excited outburst about the importance of the feast, emphasized that "I can do it by the power of Pentecost" (PG50,454)! Our life must be a perpetual Pentecost. Let us live the mystery of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit without interruption. And the holy Father continues, pointing out the life-giving role of the Paraclete in the Church of God, he emphasizes: "if there is no Spirit before, even if the Church is constituted" and if the Church is constituted, it is evident that the Spirit is present" (PG50,459). In other words, the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church. Saint Gregory of Nazianzus also emphasized the salvific role of the Paraclete in the Church and praised with his intangible poetic pen the thespian feast of Pentecost. In one of his many poetic speeches he wrote:
"At Pentecost we also celebrate an epidemic of the Spirit... This Spirit co-creates the Son and the creation and the resurrection..." (PG36,436)!
The holy feast of Pentecost is therefore for Christians and especially for us Orthodox believers, who constitute the true Church of Christ, an important station of festive happiness and rich spiritual supply. During the glorious procession of kneeling, which is held reverently in the temples on this great day, we humbly bow our knees, in order to worship the heavenly King, God the Paraclete, to sanctify us. To come to dwell in our psycho-somatic existences and cleanse us of all the stinking stains that stain our authentic God-created nature. We reverently beseech Him to enlighten our minds darkened by sin and our sinful passions and to fill us with divine illumination of knowledge and awareness of the one true God. We beseech Him to shower us with His pure divine gifts and to fill us with His heavenly God-sent gifts, so that our being may be transformed into a godlike reflector of His own purity and holiness. We absolutely need His constant presence in our lives so that we can, thanks to Him, walk through our earthly and ephemeral life with security, face the world, which "everyone lies in evil" (5,19 John XNUMX) victorious and to be saved from "of this scoundrel's generation" (Acts 2,41:XNUMX), of course, as the apostle Peter boldly proclaimed on the holy day of Pentecost.
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