By: Debbie DeBruyne (Sleeping Giant TEC; TEC Leadership Council Secretary & Canadian Representative)
Pentecost is one of my favorite feast days on the Church calendar. The disciples and Mary were gathered in the Upper Room, 50 days after Passover, to celebrate the Jewish feast of Shavuot. This feast was a thanksgiving for the wheat harvest (“firstfruits”) and a remembrance of the Law given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. Those gathered had fresh and clear memories of all that had recently transpired. They were probably still making sense and reflecting on all that Jesus had taught them during his ministry in light of his brutal crucifixion, glorious resurrection, appearances, and ascension. They were probably still afraid of the ongoing persecution of his followers. God knew they would understand what was to transpire. God knew they would remember the words of the prophet Ezekiel: “A new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.” (Ez 36:26-27)
“A new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.” (Ez 36:26-27)
Imagine fire and wind! And suddenly, they can all understand each other, even though they couldn’t speak the same languages! What a beautiful God-incidence, a beautifully orchestrated fulfillment of the Old Testament in the New. The timing was perfect, as only our loving Father could plan and pull off! Some would understand (maybe Peter needed some help!) that this gift of the Holy Spirit outpoured was the “firstfruits” of Christ’s ministry and succeeded the old dispensation of the Law. This Holy Spirit that would live in them and empower them was LOVE (between the Father and Son), the heart of flesh replacing the Law written on stone. In Acts, we read of the disciples leaving the Upper Room with powers to heal and teach with courage, zeal, and all the other gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit articulated in scripture, especially by St. Paul. The Holy Spirit empowered them and empowers us to do ordinary things in extraordinary ways.
A TEC friend of mine, who is a deacon, was involved in the Charismatic Renewal movement and taught me much about Pentecost and the Holy Spirit. He shared that his friend, Fr. Peter, was on a tour of the Holy Land and visited the Upper Room where he was approached by someone from an Eastern bloc country who asked him about the significance of the place. Fr. Peter explained what had happened there and they conversed a bit. Outside of the Upper Room, Fr. Peter saw the man and approached him to converse more; however, they could not understand each other outside of the Upper Room, and Fr. Peter realized he had just experienced the same miracle of the first Pentecost.
This past Lent, our TEC Conference facilitated an experience of the Stations of the Cross through Mary, whose presence and witness caused her to suffer unimaginably with her son, Jesus. From the cross, Jesus gave her to John as his mother and our spiritual mother. It is very fitting that Mary was also present in the Upper Room at the birth of the Church, when her Spouse, the Holy Spirit, poured out gifts of love and power. Because Mary gave birth to Jesus, whose mystical body is the Church, she is the spiritual mother of the Church. Some scholars teach that Mary and the Holy Spirit together form the bridge through which all of God’s graces flow to us.
I pray that this Pentecost we are all "zapped" by the loving power of the Holy Spirit so we are renewed in mind and heart for our ministry in TEC and in all areas of our lives.
