Dear Parish Family,

Pentecost originated as a final celebration of the ingathering of the grain harvest, which had begun at Passover. Later Judaism transformed it into a feast of salvation history celebrating the giving of the Law at Sinai and the establishment of Israel as God’s people. Long before it became a Christian feast, Pentecost had been a Jewish feast. Attending to that fact helps us understand Luke's narrative of what has rightly been called “the birth of the Church.” Pentecostes (Greek for “fiftieth”) is the Greek name for the Jewish feast of Weeks— so-called because it occurs seven weeks, or on the fiftieth day, after Unleavened Bread/Passover. While the Passover feast celebrated the liberation from Egypt, the feast of Pentecost celebrated the receiving of the Law through Moses who went up to the mountain to get it.

During these festivals people who could afford to travel came from all over the world to Jerusalem. So we could speak about a gathering of the Nations in Jerusalem. With those elements of the Jewish background of the feast in mind, watch how Luke tells of the Christian events on Pentecost in images that allude to those elements, showing how “the time for Pentecost” was indeed “fulfilled.” The reconstituted Twelve (with the 120) are gathered like the twelve tribes at Sinai. The sound from heaven, the filling of the entire house (like the shaking of the entire mountain in Exodus 19:18) and the fire recall the theophany at Sinai. The tongues of fire symbolize the powerful presence of God (like fire) that will find expression in human words, the prophetic ministry of the disciples (tongues). In the larger sweep of the narrative, the Moses connection is evident in that Jesus ascends with a cloud and then mediates the gift of the word of God for his people. Thus on the feast of the giving of the Law (the privileged communication of God's word) and the forging of the first covenant, the end-time gift of the Holy Spirit comes to bestow the blessings of the new covenant and to enable the new expression of the divine word in the ministry of the apostles.

At Sinai the Law was written on tablets of stone, but at the new Pentecost the Law is written in the hearts of the disciples. The people of the world separated by languages is united in understanding the message of the Apostles. The fear that the Christian community had of the violence against them vanished as their lives are now filled with the purpose of becoming witnesses to the ends of the earth. We are all invited to let go of fear, accept the pouring of the gifts of the Spirit into our lives. When we allow the Spirit of God to take hold of our lives, we become a new creation living a life with purpose.

Fr. Tom Kunnel C.O.