Scripture Readings
Pentecost, 50 days after Passover, was one of the three Jewish pilgrimage feasts. Nomadic Hebrews sacrificed lambs in the spring to ensure adequate water for their flocks through the dry season. Settled into agriculture, they celebrated the barley harvest a few days later. These two linked feasts became associated with the Passover in Egypt when the plague “passed over” houses with doorposts marked with the blood of a lamb. Tabernacles, when everyone slept in tents on the hillsides for the grape harvest, was associated with the temporary shelters during the 40 years of wilderness wandering.
The Dead Sea Scrolls showed new community members were enrolled at Pentecost, which was associated with God giving the Covenant on Sinai. Pentecost fits neatly with this Covenant feast: the formal birth of the Christian Church and the commitment and strengthening of the Christian community for its task.
Being filled with the Holy Spirit not only enabled the disciples to speak in foreign languages: it gave them the courage to travel throughout the countries listed in the first reading, fearlessly proclaiming “the marvels of God”. The Holy Spirit gives each person the skills they need and the strength to avoid self-indulgence. And the Church, Christ’s presence on earth, is promised the constant support and guidance of the Advocate.
Psalm Response: Send forth your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.
(Acts 2: 1-11; Psalm 103(104); Gal 5: 16-25; John 15: 26-27, 16: 12-15)
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