HOLY PENTECOST: the Descent of the Holy Spirit

HOLY PENTECOST: the Descent of the Holy Spirit

'If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love', says Christ. Indeed, it was while the Apostles were celebrating the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, on the Jewish feast of Pentecost, that they were 'filled with the Holy Spirit' as tongues of fire descended on each. 

Love remains the vehicle for union with God when, opposing the self-sufficiency chosen by Adam and Eve over communion with God, the soul receives the Holy Spirit via the Mystery of Holy Chrism, upon its humble ascent from the waters of Orthodox baptism.

From then on, the divine energies will empower this soul's struggle to keep the commandments - not only exteriorly as God sustains all His Creation, but in a mystical way 'from within'.

After all, as Moses understood when gazing upon the Creation whose history was revealed to him atop Mount Sinai, we are called not to become good, but holy - the triumph of the victorious Apostles and God-bearing Saints of the Orthodox tradition, due to the descent of the Holy Spirit on Mount Sinai - and freely offered to all, on Holy Pentecost.

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Moses' face radiated so brightly after his encounter with the Uncreated Light on Sinai that he had to cover his face with a veil, for the children of Israel feared to approach him. 

Yet, patristic theologians point out that this was only an exterior radiance, for the Holy Spirit, rejected by Adam and Eve, had not yet re-entered the souls of human beings. Of course this happened on Pentecost - foreshadowed when the Spirit descended upon the human nature of Christ in the form of a dove at His baptism by John in the Jordan.

Thus Christ says, 'Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.' Pentecost thus introduces not merely the institution of the Church as a center of worship, but the theosis, or deification, of all those who strive to follow Christ's teachings, preserved without change into modern times by the living tradition of the Orthodox Church. 

And thus it is following the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost that the Apostles are traditionally depicted with halos. 

"When the Most High came down and confused the tongues,  He divided the nations;  but when He distributed the tongues of fire,  He called all to unity. Therefore, with one voice, we glorify the All-holy Spirit!"

(Kontakion of Pentecost)