Acts 2: 1-11; Psalm 103(104); Gal 5: 16-25; John 15: 26-27, 16: 12-15
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: 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 associated Pentecost with God giving the Covenant on Sinai, and they enrolled new community members at this feast. Pentecost therefore fits neatly with the formal birth of the Christian Church and the commitment and strengthening of the Christian community for its task.
This magnificent psalm praises God for his creative wisdom and power. God takes joy in his creation.
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 Spirit clarifies Christ’s teaching through the Church.
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)