Come Holy Spirit! Come!

Spirit of God,
We long to be open to your presence in our church and in our lives.
Fill us with your wind and fire, that we might be enlivened again.
Help us hear the words as if for the first time, that they might touch us anew.
Give us visions and dreams of what you long for in your creation,
that we might begin to live them into reality. 
Come, Holy Spirit Come!
         come into our worship,
                into our church,
                       into our very selves. Amen.
                                  Come Holy Spirit! Come!

We rightly think of Easter as the centerpoint of Christian focus and the most important feast in the liturgical cycle. After all, we spent the 40 days of lent preparing for it, then 50 days of Eastertide, in which we have plumbed the depths of God’s gifts. Easter is a celebration of Christ’s sacrifice through which we are saved and receive eternal life. Easter is the celebration of God's gifts to us, but it is in Pentecost that we live those gifts out.

Pentecost, or Shavuot in Hebrew, meaning “weeks,” was the celebration which took place fifty days after the Passover Celebration. Shavuot was originally a harvest festival, the second of two ‘first-fruits’ occasions. In Leviticus 23, following the description of Passover, we read this:

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, when you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.” (vv. 9–11)

This was the first firstfruits offering, the harvest of barley, which included sacrifices. Next, we read about the second firstfruits occasion, the holiday of Shavuot:

You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the LORD. (Leviticus 23:15–16)

This time, it is the wheat harvest. Because it occurs seven weeks after the first offering (50 days, the day after the completion of the seven weeks), the holiday was known as Shavuot, or Weeks, or Pentecost.
Once Israel had settled in the land that God had promised, the Feast of Weeks was the fulfillment of God’s instruction in the Book of Deuteronomy, 

…and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, Lord, have given me.” Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him. (26:9-10) The gift of the First Fruits (the Tithe) is God’s plan of recognition and relationship. This holiday was more than just the bringing of the first of the crops to present before God—it was a time to remember how Israel arrived in the land. This meant never forgetting where they had come from in the past in order to continue to be thankful in the present. It meant remembering that the land was a gift from the Lord. And it was also an opportunity to rejoice, to enjoy the fruit of the land, and to gather with family and visitors. 

While Shavuot is focused on the First Fruits, the second celebration of equal importance happens at the same time. The day God gave the Torah (Law of Moses) on Mount Sinai was calculated as falling exactly on the day of Shavuot. By the time of Jesus, in addition to being the First Fruit holiday, people knew it also as a celebration of the giving of the Law of Moses. 

It was on this very holiday, when tens of thousands of pilgrims were bringing their firstfruits to the Temple, that the events of Acts 2 took place. This is why the disciples were in Jerusalem, to celebrate God’s provision and gifts.

Acts 2 tells the story of the giving of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, after Jesus’ ascension:

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?” (vv. 1–8)

There was both an unusual aural phenomenon (a great sound) as well as a visual one (tongues of flame) in the upper room on this day. This was definitely not a typical Shavuot occurrence! The disciples began to speak in languages they did not know and were understood by the other Jewish people in attendance no matter what their mother tongue was.

The Holy Spirit is the one by whom alone we are able to live Easter; to live the whole mystery of Christ. Only by the Holy Spirit can we die with Jesus, and rise with him, and dwell in him. It’s by the work of the Holy Spirit, also, that Jesus dwells in us. So Easter essentially looks ahead to Pentecost. Jesus, we say, came in order to give us the Holy Spirit. He died and rose again in order that we might share his own Spirit. This is the Spirit of divine Sonship; the Spirit of holiness; the Spirit of union; the Spirit of the knowledge and love of God; the Spirit sent into the world in order that we might have life. So the 40 days from Easter Day up to the Ascension can be thought of, like lent, as days of preparation. They are followed by a final 10 days of intense preparation, during which with the whole Church we cry continuously: Come Holy Spirit! Then at last, Pentecost! - the feast of the Holy Spirit, the day on which the Church was born, the day when the Holy Spirit came in power to fill the whole earth, in a new way, with his presence. 

We who have been baptised and confirmed, we have all received this power of the Holy Spirit. In principle, our sins have been forgiven, and if we still sin, then he is always still there to forgive, whenever we humbly ask for it. And yet, still more. By the indwelling Holy Spirit we possess the power we need in order to live the Christian life in its fullness. We are able to be faithful, in small things and in great. We are able to live a moral life without compromise. We are able to forgive wrongs committed against us; to bear pain and loss; to die in hope of life. We are able to love God, and to love our neighbor. We are able to pray. No–more yet. By the Holy Spirit we can live as children of God, as Sons in the Son; we can participate in that unbroken union with the Father which Jesus enjoyed on earth and now enjoys in heaven.

Because of the Holy Spirit, also, we can celebrate the Holy Mysteries, as we do now. The grace we draw from them is no less than that grace given to the first apostles. The Holy Mysteries give us Jesus; they give us the Holy Spirit; they unite us to God, and to one another, within the communion of the whole Catholic Church.

For all these reasons, and many others, too, we celebrate the day of Pentecost with very great joy. And if this day is truly the culmination of a preparation period lasting 90 days, then it’s also the springboard for our whole life. Our trust is in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is all powerful; he blows where he wills; she brings life out of death; he renews the youth of his Church. May she cast abroad, once again, in us, and all around us, the fire of his divine love! May he ever renew in us and in the Church of our day all the grace of Pentecost, that many may be converted and believe, and that the saving Gospel may shine forth anew, for our good and God’s glory.

Come Holy Spirit! Come!
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Fr. Bill+