It is said that this Great Feast of the Pentecost is a commemoration of “the birthday of the universal Christian church.” As we begin our celebration of the Mass on this day, we pray together the following words: “O God . . . sanctify your whole Church in every people and nation, pour out, we pray, the gifts of the Holy Spirit across the face of the earth . . .” (from the Collect or “Opening Prayer,” at the Mass during the day).
With this in mind, let’s recall the account given in the Acts of the Apostles today in which we are told that people from all over the world had gathered in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. These scriptures tell us that “there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem” (see Acts 2:5). Such men and women of faith, from near and far, had customarily gathered at the temple every year for the ancient Jewish Feast of the Pentecost, one of seven annual religious festivals, this one for which they would commemorate the giving of God’s law to Moses on Mount Sinai and also mark the annual beginning of the wheat harvest.
The word “Pentecost” literally means the “fiftieth day,” and so this feast was observed fifty days after the second day of Passover. Christians count in a similar manner, and so they observe the Feast of the Pentecost fifty days after the celebration of Easter Sunday.
The Acts of the Apostles tell us that ten days after the Ascension of Jesus and on the Feast of Pentecost, “Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs” had gathered at the temple in Jerusalem (see Acts 2:9-11). It would not have been unusual to see a gathering of such an international and multi-lingual crowd for the Jewish Feast of the Pentecost! The people mentioned in this account would have come from places that in the modern day include North Africa, Iran and Iraq, Turkey, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Mediterranean coastal areas including Greece and Italy (as we all know, in our own time and about some of these areas, we often hear dreadful news!). While it is most unfortunate that the Christian faith has nearly disappeared from those places since the time of the early church, the naming of peoples from those “distant lands” in the Acts of the Apostles is in fact a very significant detail. It demonstrates clearly to us the universality of the Christian church, and that the love of the Father, the saving presence of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit are given to all men and woman and at every time and place.
The universal Christian church, whose “birthday” we celebrate today, is for everyone – and it’s even for people who are “different” than us! The Christian faith, empowered by the great gift of the Holy Spirit among us, embraces all men and women! Always and with fervor, may we continue to pray that our God will “pour out the gifts of the Holy Spirit across the face of the earth.”
As we bring the fifty days of this Easter Season to a close on this Great Feast of the Pentecost, let us invoke the power of the Holy Spirit as we recall that Christ is Risen, Truly, He is Risen, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Praise God! Friar Timothy
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