The Solemnity of Pentecost comes to an end the holy season of Easter; seven weeks that allowed us to dive into the mystery of Jesus’ resurrection.
The understanding of the Paschal mystery is not easy for human reason, which often falls short in such a task. Therefore, the help of the Holy Spirit comes to reach new levels of comprehension and, above all, new languages to express what we understand.
The feast of Pentecost goes back to ancient times in Israel. The name comes from the Greek (πεντηκοστή), meaning “fiftieth.” The name in Hebrew is Shavuot meaning “weeks” since the feast was celebrated 7 weeks after Passover (Pesah). This celebration holds at least two meanings; one comes from the agricultural world for the time of harvesting (Hag HaKatzir) when the first fruits of barley and wheat were offered as an offering of thanksgiving.
“On the day of the first fruits, when you offer a grain offering of new grain to the LORD at your festival of weeks, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations.” (Numbers 28:26)
The second meaning is the celebration of the reception of the Law on Mount Sinai (the Law – Torah – is the group of five first books of the Bible). Based on some calculations from the book of Ex (19:1), the day when the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai matched with the celebration of Shavuot. It is essential to notice that, according to some historians, this feast wasn’t celebrated until the time of the first temple (IX century b.C.)
The celebration had a pilgrimage character, when people would bring the offerings of the first fruits, filling the city with men and women from different towns and cities who would come to Jerusalem to celebrate also the reception of the Torah, a colorful festivity full of light and water as main symbols of the Law. Jerusalem was a happy place.
The Christian celebration of Pentecost follows the narrative of Luke in the book of Acts of the Apostles (2:1-12). We might say that there is a catechetical intention by placing the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise (Luke 24:49) just on the day when Israel celebrates the reception of the Torah and when the presence of many different people would fill the city. The author wants to tell and to teach us something.
The promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is not exclusive of Luke. Several times, John’s gospel references this event. Moreover, in this gospel, the Holy Spirit is given to the disciples during Jesus’ time with them – at the crucifixion and during the resurrection appearances-. The Church’s tradition follows the time proposed by Luke to celebrate the Christian Pentecost.
As Israel celebrates the reception of the Torah as a gift from the Eternal God, the Christian people celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit. God had promised this through the prophets for the messianic times (Isaiah 11:1-15; 61:1-3; Joel 2:28-32; Ezekiel 37:14; 39:29), and also Jesus had promised to his disciples who by proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah, the messianic times have already come, and the promise is ready to fulfill.
What is then the meaning to us, Christian people that the feast of Pentecost coincides with the Jewish reception of the Torah? First, we must understand that to Israel the Law, also recognized as “Teaching” is much more than the compendium of several books, rules, or written norms. The Law is a gift from God to conduct people’s life according to His will; the Law is the ultimate source of wisdom and knowledge; the study and comprehension of it is the origin of all communion with God.
This is a spiritual and mystical approach to the Law, which even gives a personal character. A pious Jewish establishes a relationship with the Law since she is Master and Guide.
Contrastingly, in the letter to the Corinthians (3:6) St Paul brings the dichotomy Law-Spirit: “(God) who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Also, in the letter to the Galatians: “for if justification[a] comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” (2:21)
This opposition shows a particular way to practice the Judaism that St. Paul knew and sharply criticized – Phariseeism – where the Law was assumed in a very literal and sometimes intransigent way to achieve justification. What St. Paul criticizes is not the Law (Torah) as a source of wisdom and communion with God, but a peculiar way to enter into a legalistic and inert relationship with God, who is Spirit, claiming the fulfillment of the Law as a passing board to get God’s reward.
Perhaps when St. Paul talks about the Spirit of God is closer to the experience of the Law as a source of life, as Psalm 119 says:
“If your Law had not been my delight,
I would have perished in my misery.
I will never forget your precepts,
for by them you have given me life.
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.”
The solemnity of Pentecost is the celebration of the end of a cycle of divine promises and the beginning of a new age in the life of believers. A new stage to live not according to any rightfulness but to the living grace of God, being able to read his promises as new realities.
Therefore, we might say that the solemnity of Pentecost is the celebration of the end of a cycle of divine promises and the beginning of a new age in the life of believers. A new stage to live not according to any rightfulness but to the living grace of God, being able to read his promises as new realities. If we check each one of those promises in the Old and New Testament, we can define them as a desire for communion. The different names of those promises (wellness, protection, companionship, guidance, help, among others) are but different ways to express the desire of God’s heart: to be in communion with us, and through it to bring back the deep meaning of our existence, acknowledging that Creation – general and individual – is, in essence, an act of love.
As the liturgy accommodates to human rhythms and cycles (time-space), the celebration of Pentecost falls at the end of the Easter season. But the effects of what we celebrate stretches out beyond that frame of time and space in which we humans live because the communion God wants to establish with us is spiritual and marvelously surpasses those frames. Although we are limited by time and space, our spiritual being can recognize that communion.
The same might be said about the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. Based on Isaiah 11 and Galatians 5:22, spiritual theology has defined some of them: patience, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness as an expression of a particular understanding of God’s action. But the reality of those spiritual manifestations goes further; the work of the Holy Spirit is not exhausted in specific jobs, ministries, activities, emotions, or institutional responsibilities although it embraces them.
The celebration of Pentecost wants to express the expectant fullness in which we Christians live, knowing that the offering of salvation is open and at hand of everyone who wants to receive it. However, while attached to time and space frames, we must keep working to make real the communion among us now and here, according to the image and likeness of God who lives in permanent communion amid diversity and difference.
When we ask for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we expect to receive concrete ways to live in communion. Each manifestation of the Spirit, as St. Paul calls it (1Cor 12:7) is a capacity to live intentionally and concretely in the communion the Holy Spirit fosters among God and us. On the other hand, we understand the charismatic gifts as talents, capacities, and abilities that help us to build the human society in communion, reversing the story of Babel (Gn 11) that ended up in confusion and dispersion. The supernatural actions of God are directed to achieve the fullness of life we have been called to, both as individuals and members of the human community and the whole of Creation, expressed as many ways as people are.
Pentecost is the celebration of God’s presence and communion who choose to be incarnated and keeps doing it through those manifestations of the Spirit in each one of those open to His actions.
