PENTECOST SUNDAY YEAR C

READINGS: Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 103:1,24,29-31,34; Rom 8:8-17; John 14:15-16,23-26

THEME: WITHOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT, THERE IS NO MISSION!

A. WHAT IS PENTECOST? 

In the church’s liturgical calendar, the feast of Pentecost brings the Easter season to an end. But it is good to know that originally, Pentecost had nothing to do with the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles. The word Pentecost is from Greek Pente-coste which means Fiftieth. This feast of Pentecost refers to the fiftieth day after the feast of Unleavened Bread.

This feast is originally called Shavuoth in Hebrew which means “Weeks” (seven weeks). It was only translated to Greek Pentecoste by the Greek speaking Jews in diaspora. 

During springtime, agricultural crops, barley and wheat were harvested. These two crops were very important spring crops for the Israelites. Barley used to mature faster and hence was harvested earlier than the wheat crop. This barley harvest was celebrated for seven days in the month of Nisan. This barley harvest is what was called the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The Feast of Passover was celebrated at the same time with the Feast of Unleavened Bread such that in the course of years, these two feasts merged into a single celebration (cf Luke 22:7-8). The wheat crop was harvested seven weeks after barley harvest. 

Hence, the wheat festival came to be known in Hebrew as Shavuoth which means “Weeks”. This means that the feast of Shavuoth (the feast of Weeks) was celebrated seven weeks after the feast of Unleavened Bread/Passover. 

This feast of Shavuoth (seven weeks) was called Pentecoste by the Jews who were living in diaspora and were speaking Greek instead of Hebrew. The question then is “what is the connection between seven weeks (Shavuoth) and fifty days (Pentecoste)? 

In putting the Hebrew Shavuoth feast into Greek, the Greek-speaking-Jews simply multiplied seven weeks by seven days of the week (7×7=49), and rounded it up to fifty, and thus, fiftieth days after the feast of Passover. 

Thus, Pentecost is the Greek word for Shavuoth which was the Jewish festival of the wheat harvest, celebrated 7 weeks (Shavuoth) or fifty days (Pentecoste) after the celebration of the Feast of Barley harvest (Passover/Unleavened Bread). 

Furthermore, the Jews had three Pilgrimage Feasts: Passover (Pesach); Pentecost (Shavuoth) and Tabernacles/Booths (Sukkot). During the celebration of these feasts, all Jews had to make a pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem. 

This is why, in the event of the descent of the Holy Spirit, we are told that “there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem” (Acts 2:5), people from Parthians, Medes, the Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea etc (cf Acts 2:8-11). These Jews have come from different places of residence to Jerusalem for the pilgrimage of the feast of Pentecost (Shavuoth) 

HOW THEN DID PENTECOST COME TO BE CHRISTIAN CELEBRATION OF
THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ON THE APOSTLES? 

We have to know that what we celebrate is THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ON THE APOSTLES. That it came to be known as Pentecost is because the event occurred on the time of Jewish feast of Pentecost. 

Now, for Christians, just as the Feast of the Last Supper of the Lord with his disciples became the new Passover, replacing the original Jewish Passover feast, so also is Pentecost, for the Christians, no longer the celebration of the feast
of wheat harvest but the Coming of the Holy Spirit. 

B. WAIT FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT! 

At the beginning of his earthly ministry, Jesus chose twelve men who were to stay with him, learn from him, and be sent by him to continue to bring people into the kingdom of God. 

Immediately after his resurrection, before he went back to his Father, Jesus formally inaugurated his disciples as his successors saying: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. (Matt. 28:19-20). 

Hence, the disciples were to go beyond Judea and make disciples for Christ. It is true that Jesus inaugurated this mission, but he did not allow the disciples to go about it immediately, rather he commanded them to first wait in Jerusalem for the advent of the Promised of the Father – the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4). But the question is, “why would Jesus ask the disciples to wait until they must have received the Holy Spirit before they can go into the world to continue his mission? 

The simple response to this question is that the Holy Spirit inaugurates each stage of divine mission. 

Although the Holy Trinity operates together at each point in time and history, being One God though in three persons, for a more vivid experience of each of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, three ages (moments) have been distinguished: the time of Beginnings (the Arche, the Creation); the time of new beginning (the Salvation); and the time of testimony (the Time of the Church/Sanctification). 

In the time of Creation, the person of the Father is seen most; in the time of salvation, that of the Son, and in the time of sanctification, that of the Holy Spirit. It is very interesting to see that the Holy Spirit stamps/inaugurates each of these three moments: 

In the creation, before ever light came to be, there was the spirit of God (Ruach Elohim -םי ִ֔ הלֱֹא-  חוּ ֣ ר) (cf Gen 1:2); in the moment of salvation, by the power of the Holy Spirit (πνεῦμα ἅγιον) the eternal Logos took human flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary (cf Lk 1:35).

Again, when it was time for Jesus to begin his earthly evangelization, immediately after his baptism at river Jordan, the Holy Spirit in form of dove came upon him, and the same spirit drove him into wilderness where he had to choose God’s side over the devil’s (cf Lk 4:1); now at the beginning of the time of witnesses, the time of the Church, Jesus informs the disciples that they cannot begin the mission without the stamp of and the inauguration by the Holy Spirit (cf Acts 1:4).

So today we celebrate that inauguration of the disciples of Christ by the Holy Spirit as witnesses of Paschal ministry – the Pentecost. 

Therefore, when Jesus asked his disciples not to depart from Jerusalem until they had received the Holy Spirit, he was teaching his disciples that they were not to begin anything without first receiving the companionship of the Holy Spirit. 

C. THE HOLY SPIRIT EQUIPS FOR THE MISSION! 

When Jesus was telling his disciples how they were to be his “witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 NAS), there were two clear difficulties to their keeping to Jesus’s request: fear and language. Jesus got himself killed for the things he was saying and doing. 

He had his mission which was different from what his entire disciples had in mind about him, and when it was clear to them
that what Jesus wanted did not balance with what they wished, they all abandoned him and ran away. 

If Jesus was killed for his words and actions, you could imagine the disciples’ fear of what could happen to them. Then again, if we say that they accept to undertake Jesus’s mission, the fear notwithstanding, what about language of communication? The twelve apostles of Jesus were all Judean and had possibility of speaking Aramaic, Hebrew, and may be Greek. These languages are known only to Judean world and Samaria and may be Greco-Roman world. 

Many of the apostles were not like Matthew who was enlightened. So how were they to communicate the word of God to a people whose language they did not know? Jesus himself was aware of these difficulties and that was why he said to them that they would be able to take his message to every people, ONLY after they had received the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). 

And this was exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost. From the time after Jesus was captured and killed, the disciples of Jesus, out of fear, went into hiding. 

But immediately they received the Holy Spirit, the fear was taken away, and they all rushed out into the town, proclaiming the Goodnews boldly, and being ready to die for the sake of the message of Christ. 

As regards how to speak, and how to get the people of different languages to understand the words of the disciples, the Holy Spirit gave the disciples tongues in such away
that everybody was understanding them (cf Acts 2:4,6). 

D. THE TONGUES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 

We may rightly say that the greatest miracle of the Pentecost was that the apostles spoke in different tongues/languages that all the people around heard their own languages and understood the message being spread by the disciples. 

It would have been a distracting noise if the disciples were speaking in many other different languages with no one understanding what they were saying. Hence, the most important thing is that the Holy Spirit assisted the disciples to speak in such a way that they were understood by everybody.

The Holy Spirit assisted them to enter other cultures, other worldviews, other backgrounds, and speak to them in such a way that they understood the message of the gospel. We must ask the Holy Spirit for the gift of tongues. 

That is to say, the ability to understand the differences in people, the
differences in the way people understand, in the way people reason, in the way people live, and be able to speak to them in the language they can understand and appreciate without condemning them that they are not like us, without forcing them to learn our own lifestyles. 

People are unique and are individuals. The ability to understand differences in people and know how to relate with them in their own world is itself the gift of the Holy Spirit.

 As we celebrate that first coming of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, we pray that the same Spirit fills us and dwells in us so that we may be true witnesses of the Gospel of Christ.

Fr. Henry Chukwuezugo Nnamah
Catholic Diocese of Aguleri