The Feast of Pentecost

The Feast of Pentecost

The word Pentecost means “fiftieth” in Greek. This Feast takes place fifty days after our Lord's Resurrection. The Christian Feast of Pentecost commemorates the promised coming of the Holy Spirit with power upon all the disciples of Christ. This “coming” of the Spirit differs from early comings of the Holy Spirit upon certain individuals, such as the Patriarchs and Prophets of the Old Testament and the breathing of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles by Christ during His own three-year ministry. These previous indwellings of the Spirit were selective and personal, whereas Pentecost marks the sending of the Holy Spirit upon every member of the entire Church of Christ at that time. The Holy Prophet Joel predicted this event when he said: “I shall pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit” (Joel 2:28-29). The actual historic event was both dramatic and public. The Jews already had an ancient feast of Pentecost that took place fifty days after the Jewish Passover. This Jewish feast celebrated the harvest of wheat and the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai. The thousands of Jewish pilgrims who came to Jerusalem for the Passover would stay in and around Jerusalem, packing the city and swelling the countryside. On the morning of Pentecost as the Holy Spirit was descending upon the disciples of Christ in and around the Upper Room—their meeting place since the Lord's Supper—a loud sound like the rushing of a mighty wind filled the city of Jerusalem, leading people to the Upper Room. When the people came to the place, they saw the Apostles speaking in foreign languages through the power of the Spirit, sharing the Gospel in the languages of the people of many different lands and cultures. The experience was so beyond what people had seen or heard or experienced before that they did not know how to explain it. This gave the Apostle Peter the opportunity to preach the Gospel in a way everyone could understand. So many people believed that three thousand people were baptized and added to the Church on that very day. In some ways, this event on the day of Pentecost marks the beginning of the Christian Church. Since that day, some two thousand years ago, every time a person is chrismated, receiving the Seal of the Gift of the Holy Spirit, this holy Mystery of Confirmation becomes for that Christian a personal Pentecost.

Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council

For over 300 years, the Christian Church was persecuted by the Roman State. With the conversion of the Emperor Constantine the Great, the persecution ended and Christianity became a tolerated religion of the Empire. About this same time, a priest named Arius, serving in Alexandria, began to teach and preach that Jesus Christ was not equal to God the Father because He was begotten from Him. Arius considered Jesus Christ a work and creation of God that had a beginning and was neither of the same essence as the Father or co-eternal with Him. Arius insisted that there was a time when the second Person of the Trinity did not exist. This was a new teaching and not in line with the teaching of the Apostles. Despite efforts to correct Arius, he did not cease his heretical teachings. In fact, even in the face of Church discipline, Arius began to spread his heresy to others through letters and other writings. The Emperor Constantine therefore summoned a Council of the whole Church. Three hundred and eighteen holy bishops, priests, deacons, and monks came to Nicaea in 325 to an Ecumenical (worldwide) Council to examine Arius's teaching in light of the Church's Holy Tradition. Among those attending this First Ecumenical Council were St. Alexander of Alexandria, St. Athanasios the Great, St. Eustathios of Antioch, St. Macarios of Jerusalem, St. Hosios of Cordova, St. Paphnutios the Confessor, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and St. Spyridon of Trimithus. Many of those attending bore the scars and signs of persecution on their bodies and had to travel great distances, under both harsh and dangerous conditions. The Holy Fathers met for two and one-half months. They deposed Arius and those in agreement with him and condemned his teaching. They also confessed that Jesus, the Word and Son of God, is of the same essence and honor as God the Father and co-eternal with Him. They authored the Creed, the Symbol of Faith, as far as the words “And I believe in the Holy Spirit…” The remainder of the Creed was finished at the Second Ecumenical Council in 380. Also, at this First Council, the Fathers decided on the formula to determine the annual date of Pascha and issued twenty holy Canons to further guide the Church. One such canon, Canon 20, prohibited kneeling on Sundays, because Sunday is the day of the Resurrection. We celebrate this Council and these Holy Fathers on this Sunday after our Lord's Ascension in order to remember that the Lord Jesus Christ Who ascended from earth to heaven and is enthroned at the right hand of the Father is indeed fully human and fully God. This theological fact serves to remind us that our promised homeland, citizenship and ultimate destination is also in the Kingdom of heaven with Jesus through our own bodily resurrection.

The Blind Man

Today we read about our Lord's encounter with a man who was born without eyes. Due to his blindness, he was forced to beg near the Temple in Jerusalem. Many people knew him and his physical condition, for they would pass by him on a regular basis. When Jesus and His disciples came near to the blind man, the disciples asked Jesus if this man's blindness and birth defect was due to sin. Jesus said that in this man's case, it was not due to his sin or his parent's sin but allowed to manifest the glory of God. As we shall see, the glory of God was indeed manifest both in this man's life and in many others through the miracle of this healing. Jesus chose to heal this man in a remarkable and dramatic way to reveal that He was God and to show that He chooses to use His creation as an agent of His divine grace to create that which did not exist before. In this case, Jesus, the Son of God, spits on the ground, making a moist clay from the dust. He applies this clay to the empty eye sockets and commands the blind man to wash in the pool of Siloam, engaging the man's free will and faith. As soon as the man obeys, the clay upon his empty eye sockets is transformed into fully functioning eyes that before did not exist, granting the man perfect vision. Finally, our good and loving God orchestrates this miracle in such a way that it includes as many witnesses as possible: the parents, the disciples, neighbors, onlookers, the Pharisees and others in the Temple. Even this healed blind man is given the opportunity to publicly offer his own testimony to verify the truth of the miracle and become the teacher to a segment of Jewish religious leaders and supposed “teachers.” The end result is manifold: The blind man, now healed, becomes a disciple; many witnesses, including the parents, now have ample evidence to become believers; and Jesus's reputation as a healer and the possible Messiah in contrast to the ineptitude of the Pharisees becomes more widely known.

The Samaritan Woman

Today is the fourth Sunday after Pascha. This Sunday of the Samaritan Woman marks a transition in focus from the Resurrection toward Pentecost. The living water Jesus promises to the woman at the well invites us to turn our attention to the action of the Holy Spirit inside a disciple of Christ. Even the dialogue between Jesus and this woman indicates the action of the Holy Spirit upon the heart and mind of this interesting woman. It is vital to remember that Jesus goes out of His way, breaking normal procedure for Jews, to go intentionally into Samaria rather than around to meet this specific woman. When He asks her for a drink, she shows her surprise through her response: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” Jesus immediately raises the level of engagement from the mundane to one of spiritual truths. This Samaritan Woman tries to stay focused on the practical, but Jesus raises the stakes of their conversation to the level of ultimate salvation and the very real obstacles she has in her personal life that He could not know about unless He were God. She does not quite reach this conclusion but settles for thinking He might be a prophet. Jesus again responds in such a way as to raise her thoughts above the prophets to the Messiah they promised. By the end of their brief encounter at the well, this woman forgot all about collecting water for her family and left the well believing she had just met the very Messiah Himself. Her conviction is so strong and her repentance so great that her own family and many of her fellow villagers also become disciples of the Lord Jesus. This encounter from Scripture is amazing, but what happens in her life after this event is also inspiring. After convincing her entire family, they were all baptized. This woman received the name Photini, which means “illumined one,” for she went from living in the dark to entering the light through her meeting the Light of the World. St. Photini and her entire family traveled all over the Roman Empire sharing their testimony and preaching the reality of the cross and resurrection to all who would listen. Their success at converting thousands reached the ears of the emperor. He had them arrested, tortured and eventually martyred for their faith. When the emperor heard how St. Photini became a Christian at a well, he cruelly threw her into a deep and dry well wherein she gloriously passed from this life into eternal life in her Lord's Kingdom.

The Healing of the Paralytic

The Healing of the Paralytic On this Third Sunday after Pascha, we witness the dramatic healing of a man paralyzed for thirty-eight years. Apparently, this particular paralytic was all alone, for year after year, he lay by these pools of Bethesda hoping someone would help him into the water after the stirring. Jesus intentionally comes to this paralytic, knowing his exact circumstances. The Holy Fathers of the Church placed this gospel reading on this Sunday of Pascha to show the connection between our Lord's power over life and death with His power over every sickness and infirmity of the human body. Imagine the atrophied and withered state of this paralytic's body after thirty-eight years of paralysis! With just a word, Jesus straightened and strengthened the man's body and made him whole. The disciples of Christ and everyone else present witnessed this man's miraculous physical transformation with their own eyes. It is necessary to point out two other interesting aspects of this healing. First, Jesus asks the paralytic before the healing an interesting question: “Do you want to be healed?” We might think this question unnecessary and obvious, but by asking this question, Jesus seeks to engage this man's free will and his faith. Jesus is not simply interested in this paralytic's physical health. He is supremely interested in his spiritual health and his eternal well-being. It is out of Jesus ultimate concern and love for this man that we point out the second interesting aspect of this amazing encounter. Jesus says to the man after he has been healed and then questioned by the Jewish religious leaders, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you.” Here Jesus makes the connection in some cases between sin and physical consequences to that sin. We do not know what the paralytic may have done to suffer his paralysis, but it does make sense that sinful or bad decisions on our part can lead to physical or temporal consequences and suffering. Both the miraculous healing and our Lord's warning afterwards show His great love, unfathomable mercy, and His desire for a continued relationship with this healed paralytic, that he may become a devoted disciple and utilize his second chance of health to continue a life of faithfulness and repentance.