June 03
Reading:
After the Saviour's Ascension into the Heavens, the eleven
Apostles and the rest of His disciples, the God-loving women who
followed after Him from the beginning, His Mother, the most holy Virgin
Mary, and His brethren-all together about 120 souls returned from the
Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. Entering into the house where they
gathered, they went into the upper room, and there they persevered in
prayer and supplication, awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit, as
their Divine Teacher had promised them. In the meanwhile, they chose
Matthias, who was elected to take the place of Judas among the Apostles.
Thus,
on this day, the seventh Sunday of Pascha, the tenth day after the
Ascension and the fiftieth day after Pascha, at the third hour of the
day from the rising of the sun, there suddenly came a sound from Heaven,
as when a mighty wind blows, and it filled the whole house where the
Apostles and the rest with them were gathered. Immediately after the
sound, there appeared tongues of fire that divided and rested upon the
head of each one. Filled with the Spirit, all those present began
speaking not in their native tongue, but in other tongues and dialects,
as the Holy Spirit instructed them.
The multitudes that had come
together from various places for the feast, most of whom were Jews by
race and religion, were called Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and so forth,
according to the places where they dwelt. Though they spoke many
different tongues, they were present in Jerusalem by divine
dispensation. When they heard that sound that came down from Heaven to
the place where the disciples of Christ were gathered, all ran together
to learn what had taken place. But they were confounded when they came
and heard the Apostles speaking in their own tongues. Marvelling at
this, they said one to another, "Behold, are not all these which speak
Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were
born?" But others, because of their foolishness and excess of evil,
mocked the wonder and said that the Apostles were drunken.
Then
Peter stood up with the eleven, and raising his voice, spoke to all the
people, proving that that which had taken place was not drunkenness, but
the fulfilment of God's promise that had been spoken by the Prophet
Joel: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that I shall pour out
of My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall
prophesy" (Joel 2:28), and he preached Jesus of Nazareth unto them,
proving in many ways that He is Christ the Lord, Whom the Jews crucified
but God raised from the dead. On hearing Peter's teaching, many were
smitten with compunction and received the word. Thus, they were
baptized, and on that day about three thousand souls were added to the
Faith of Christ.
Such, therefore, are the reasons for today's
feast: the coming of the All-holy Spirit into the world, the completion
of the Lord Jesus Christ's promise, and the fulfilment of the hope of
the sacred disciples, which we celebrate today. This is the final feast
of the great mystery and dispensation of God's incarnation. On this
last, and great, and saving day of Pentecost, the Apostles of the
Saviour, who were unlearned fishermen, made wise now of a sudden by the
Holy Spirit, clearly and with divine authority spoke the heavenly
doctrines. They became heralds of the truth and teachers of the whole
world. On this day they were ordained and began their apostleship, of
which the salvation of those three thousand souls in one day was the
comely and marvellous first fruit.
Some erroneously hold that
Pentecost is the "birthday of the Church." But this is not true, for the
teaching of the holy Fathers is that the Church existed before all
other things. In the second vision of The Shepherd of Hermas we read:
"Now brethren, a revelation was made unto me in my sleep by a youth of
exceeding fair form, who said to me, 'Whom thinkest thou the aged woman,
from whom thou receivedst the book, to be?' I say, 'The Sibyl.' 'Thou
art wrong,' saith he, 'she is not.' 'Who then is she?' I say. 'The
Church,' saith he. I said unto him, 'Wherefore then is she aged?'
'Because,' saith he, 'she was created before all things; therefore is
she aged, and for her sake the world was framed."' Saint Gregory the
Theologian also speaks of "the Church of Christ ... both before Christ
and after Christ" (PG 35:1108-9). Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus writes,
"The Catholic Church, which exists from the ages, is revealed most
clearly in the incarnate advent of Christ" (PG 42:640). Saint John
Damascene observes, "The Holy Catholic Church of God, therefore, is the
assembly of the holy Fathers, Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles,
Evangelists, and Martyrs who have been from the very beginning, to whom
were added all the nations who believed with one accord" (PG 96, 1357c).
According to Saint Gregory the Theologian, "The Prophets established
the Church, the Apostles conjoined it, and the Evangelists set it in
order" (PG 35, 589 A). The Church existed from the creation of the
Angels, for the Angels came into existence before the creation of the
world, and they have always been members of the Church. Saint Clement,
Bishop of Rome, says in his second epistle to the Corinthians, the
Church "was created before the sun and moon"; and a little further on,
"The Church existeth not now for the first time, but hath been from the
beginning" (II Cor. 14).
That which came to pass at Pentecost,
then, was the ordination of the Apostles, the commencement of the
apostolic preaching to the nations, and the inauguration of the
priesthood of the new Israel. Saint Cyril of Alexandria says that "Our
Lord Jesus Christ herein ordained the instructors and teachers of the
world and the stewards of His divine Mysteries ... showing together with
the dignity of Apostleship, the incomparable glory of the authority
given them ... Revealing them to be splendid with the great dignity of
the Apostleship and showing them forth as both stewards and priests of
the divine altars . . . they became fit to initiate others through the
enlightening guidance of the Holy Spirit" (PG 74, 708-712). Saint
Gregory Palamas says, "Now, therefore ... the Holy Spirit descended ...
showing the Disciples to be supernal luminaries ... and the distributed
grace of the Divine Spirit came through the ordination of the Apostles
upon their successors" (Homily 24, 10). And Saint Sophronius, Bishop of
Jerusalem, writes, "After the visitation of the Comforter, the Apostles
became high priests" (PG 87, 3981B). Therefore, together with the
baptism of the Holy Spirit which came upon them who were present in the
upper chamber, which the Lord had foretold as recorded in the Acts, "ye
shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence" (Acts 1:5),
the Apostles were also appointed and raised to the high priestly rank,
according to Saint John Chrysostom (PG 60, 21). On this day commenced
the celebration of the Holy Eucharist by which we become "partakers of
the Divine Nature" (II Peter 1:4). For before Pentecost, it is said of
the Apostles and disciples only that they abode in "prayer and
supplication" (Acts 1:14); it is only after the coming of the Holy
Spirit that they persevered in the "breaking of bread,"that is, the
communion of the Holy Mysteries-"and in prayer" (Acts 2:42).
The
feast of holy Pentecost, therefore, determined the beginning of the
priesthood of grace, not the beginning of the Church. Henceforth, the
Apostles proclaimed the good tidings "in country and town," preaching
and baptizing and appointing shepherds, imparting the priesthood to them
whom they judged were worthy to minister, as Saint Clement writes in
his first Epistle to the Corinthians (I Cor. 42).
All foods are allowed during the week following Pentecost.
Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
Blessed are You, O Christ our God, who made fishermen all-wise,
sending upon them the Holy Spirit and, through them, netting the world. O
Loving One, glory to You.
Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
When the Most High came down and confounded tongues of men
(Babel), He divided the Nations. When He dispensed the Tongues of Fire,
He called all to unity, and with one voice we glorify the Most Holy
Spirit.
SOURCE:
SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2010(with 2009's link here also and further, 2008's, even 2007!
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