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Yesterday
the Paschal cycle of forty days from the day of the Resurrection came to
an end and today we celebrated the feast of the Ascension of our Lord.
During the forty days the Lord made various appearances to his disciples
so that they would be convinced that he was actually resurrected and
also to inform them how he would remain with them in the future. He
promised them that he would send another “Comforter” the Holy Spirit who
would remain with them for all eternity, then leading them to the Mount
of Olives and blessing them with his holy hands that had the wounds of
the nails, he ascended upwards and disappeared from their sight.
The Church's
celebration of the Ascension is not merely the remembrance of an event
in Christ's life. It is not just a remembrance of a supernatural event
of a man floating up and disappearing into the clouds. The feast of the
Ascension is the feast of salvation accomplished. It is the event
whereby Christ’s mission on earth has been completed. What was this
mission? God became man to unite man to God. The whole process of this
mission of salvation began with the Conception and Birth, the teachings
of salvation, the Passion, the Death and Resurrection and ended with the
Ascension and the sitting on the right hand of God.
Before we
see what this actually means let’s see how the New Testament testifies
to this event. The first account of the Ascension is found in the Gospel
of Mark (16:14-19). The description is very brief. Mark tells how after
the Resurrection Christ appeared to the Myrrhbearers and especially to
Mary Magdalene and how the disciples didn’t believe her when she told
them that she had seen him and spoken with him. Jesus then appeared to
the Disciples as they sat eating and upbraided them for their lack of
faith and then commands them to spread the Gospel saying also that “He
that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not
shall be damned.” He then tells them of signs that will follow those who
believe: “In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with
new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly
thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and
they shall recover.” Then as if everything happened on the one day Mark
says that “after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into
heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.” Mark simply concentrates all
the events from the Resurrection up to the Ascension into one paragraph
with the minimum of details and without a description of the actual
event of the Ascension.
The next
account of the Ascension if from the Gospel of St. Luke. Luke’s
description is again very brief. After he gives us his account of the
Resurrection and Christ’s appearance to the disciples he then tells us
of how Christ told the apostles to wait in Jerusalem until they receive
power from on high as promised. Luke then says “And he led them out as
far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it
came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and
carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to
Jerusalem with great joy: And were continually in the temple, praising
and blessing God. Amen.”
The third
and more detailed account is again from Luke, not from the Gospel, but
from the Acts of the Apostles. Luke tells us that after the Resurrection
Christ showed himself alive after the passion by many infallible proofs
and was seen of the apostles for forty days during which he spoke to
them of things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Then when Jesus and the
Apostles were gathered at the Mount of Olivet or Mount of Olives which
was in Bethany just outside of Jerusalem he commanded the apostles to
not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, of
which he had already told them off. This promise was that in just a few
days they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit and after they receive
power from the Holy Spirit they would become witnesses of Christ in
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Luke then tells
us that when he had finished saying these things
“while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of
their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went
up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye
men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus,
which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as
ye have seen him go into heaven. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from
the mount called Olivet”.
From what we
have just heard we see that the Feast of the Ascension is not only the
event where Christ ascended in body to heaven but also a prophetic
event. We are told that in a few days the Holy Spirit will be given to
the Church and that Christ will come again a second time in the same
manner as the Apostles saw him rise to heaven.
Let’s now
see the theological aspect of the feast and what it actually means for
mankind. The ascension of Christ is his final physical departure from
this world after the Resurrection. It is the formal completion of his
mission in this world as the Messianic Saviour. It is his glorious
return to the Father after having accomplished the work the Father had
sent him to do (John 17:4-5). What was this work? It was to sanctify
mankind and to unite him with God. The ascension of Jesus Christ is the
final act of this work. The Son of God came “down from heaven” and now
having accomplished all things, he returns to the Father bearing for all
eternity the wounded and glorified humanity which he had assumed. (John
17). The doctrinal meaning of the ascension is the glorification of
human nature, the reunion of man with God. It is indeed, the very
penetration of man into the inexhaustible depths of divinity. This is
what it means when it says that he sat on the right hand of God. Man has
been restored to communion with God, to a union which is, according to
Orthodox doctrine, far greater and more perfect than that given to man
in his original creation.
Man was created with the potential to be a “partaker of the divine
nature”. This participation in divinity is what we Orthodox call theosis
or deification and this is what is understood by the “sitting on the
right hand”. It is a symbolic expression of man’s theosis and is not to
be understood in the literal sense that Christ sat on his Father’s hand
or that somewhere in heaven the body of Jesus is sitting on a material
throne next to the Father’s.
The meaning
of the Ascension and the sitting on the right hand is the realization of
man’s foreordained destination, in other words his deification. For the
first time man is received into the heavens, not just as a man, but as
God-man, participating in the divinity of the Father, or we can even
dare to say – man becomes a God by grace. This is what we confess in one
of the prayers of the Liturgy “Thou didst bring us from non-being into
being; and didst raise us up that were fallen away; and left naught
undone till Thou hadst lifted us to heaven, and hadst bestowed upon us
Thy kingdom to come”. The Church celebrates the Lord’s Ascension as an
event where not only Christ is glorified but humanity itself. Let us not
forget that as God, the Son came to earth and became a man without ever
leaving the bosom of the Father. The ascension into heaven is humanity
which God glorified with himself. Christ leaves this world in order to
“prepare a place for us” and to take us into the blessedness of God s
presence. He goes to open the way for all flesh into the
“heavenly sanctuary … the Holy Place not made by
hands” (Hebrews 9-11).
This is how
St. Paul speaks of the Ascension in his Epistle to the Hebrews. He
likens it to the Jerusalem temple where the high priests of Israel
entered the “holy of holies” to offer sacrifice to God on behalf of
themselves and the people. In comparison Christ is the one, eternal and
perfect High Priest who offered himself on the cross to God as the one
eternal, and perfect, Sacrifice, not for himself, but for all sinful
men. His Ascension into heaven is his entry into the true Sanctuary not
made by men’s hand, the one eternal and perfect Holy of Holies: in the
very “Presence of God in the heavens.”
(Hebrews 9-24).
The feast of
the ascension is linked to both the Resurrection and Pentecost, but also
to the Second coming of Christ and the Last Judgement. Its link with the
Resurrection is clear. It is the Resurrected body that ascended to
heaven, the body that defeated death by death on the Cross. Through the
Resurrection humanity was released from the bonds of Hades and now, not
only in soul, but also in body, man is capable of passing through the
gates of heaven. For now humanity is represented by Christ, but we have
the promise that he will prepare a place for us, thus our hope is that
on that last day we will all follow Christ into the heavenly Holy of
Holies.
The link
with the feast of Pentecost is revealed in the words of Christ
“It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I
go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I
will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world
of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” (John 16:7-8)
The link
with the Second Coming is revealed by the two men who appeared in white
garments who were angels and told the Apostles that Jesus will come
again in the same manner as they saw him ascend into heaven. This is a
direct referral and a prophecy concerning the Second Coming of Christ.
Christ was seen ascending into heaven on a cloud and Christ when
questioned by the high priest if he was the Christ the Son of God,
replied “I AM” and foretold that “Hereafter shall
ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in
the clouds of heaven with great power and glory.” Notice that he
doesn’t say “the Son of God”, which would refer to his divinity, but the
“Son of man”, in other words his humanity sitting on the right hand of
power and coming in the clouds (with great power and glory.)
Thus the
Feast of the Ascension is the event where Christ physically departed
from this world, but he left us with two promises – the first that he
will send another Comforter to be with us and the second that he will
come again at the end of time as we confess in the Creed “to judge both
the quick and the dead whose kingdom shall have no end”.
The second
promise would happen at a time not specified, but the first promise will
be fulfilled in just a few days. Christ said He would send another
“Comforter” who would abide with us for all times and who would teach us
all things. The “Comforter” is none other than the Holy Spirit, the
Third Person of the Holy Trinity. The Feast for this event is called
Pentecost and is celebrated 50 days after Easter which the name implies
- Pentecosti means the 50th day.
The festival
of Pentecost has its origin in the Old Testament and it was celebrated
50 days after the Jewish Passover. Pentecost was one of the three great
yearly feasts of the Jews, it was a feast of thanksgiving for the first
fruits of the earth and it was a feast of remembrance of the covenant
between God and Israel on Mount Sinai with the giving of the Old
Testament Law. The Jews believed that the Law was given on the fiftieth
day after their exodus from Egypt.
With the New
Testament the feast took on a different meaning. Christ promised that
after his Resurrection and Ascension into heaven he would send another
Comforter, the Spirit of Truth who would abide with us for ever. This
new covenant was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit
descended upon the Holy Apostles and other disciples in the form of
tongues of fire. Since that day The Holy Spirit abides in the Church and
leads her into all truth, he performs and sanctifies the divine
mysteries and through these he sanctifies the faithful. Christ
established the Church when he chose His Twelve Disciples, but this was
only the nucleus of the Church. The Church as a divine institution was
founded by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost so in fact we can say
that Pentecost is the celebration of the Church’s Birthday. There is
also a wonderful comparison between the Old and New Testament Pentecosts.
If as the Jews believed, the Law was given fifty days after the Jewish
Passover and their exodus from the land of Egypt, the new law and new
covenant was given with the descent of the Holy Spirit fifty days after
the Christian Passover, in other words the Christian Pascha.
The event of
the Descent of the Holy Spirit is narrated to us by St. Luke in the
second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. He says:
“When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they
were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound
from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house
where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues
like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled
with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the
Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews,
devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised
abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that
every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed
and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which
speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein
we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in
Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene,
and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do
hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.” (Acts
2:1-11)
Let’s now
examine the reading verse by verse.
1) “When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they
were all with one accord in one place.”
On the day
of the Jewish Pentecost the disciples were all gathered together in one
place. Christ had told them before his ascension not to leave Jerusalem
until they had received the promise of the Father. (Acts 1: 4) The room
where they were all gathered together was probably the same upper room
of Mark’s house that was used for the Mystical Supper and where the
disciples took up their abode. It was here that they and the women
disciples and the Mother of God came together for prayer. The phrase
“with one accord” means that they were gathered together for common
prayer but reveals also the same spirit and unity of the disciples.
2) “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as
of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were
sitting.”
Here there
is a slight mistranslation in the KJV. The Greek says: “And suddenly
there came a sound from heaven as though being carried upon a violent
breath or wind”. Suddenly and completely unexpectedly there was heard
from heaven a fearful sound. It sounded like a violent wind. It is clear
in spite of his deficient account that Luke wants to underline the
supernatural character of the phenomenon: the unexpected of what
happened which cannot be explained physically. With the words “a sound
from heaven” he wants to reveal that the sound is of divine origin. The
use of the conjunction “as” eliminates a physical explanation of what
happened.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit had to be confirmed in a tangible way
- the descent had to be heard and seen by men. Thus for the ears we have
the sound and for the sight the tongues of fire. The Spirit doesn’t
descend imperceptibly but perceptibly so as to make the miracle
unimpeachable and above reproach.
The
similarity of the sound as a violent wind isn’t by chance. The words
breath – wind and spirit have the same root and similar meaning. In the
Jewish and early Christian tradition the wind which blows was considered
as the most suitable symbol to express the mystical energy of the Holy
Spirit. Christ himself used the wind to describe the action of the Holy
Spirit: “The wind blows where it wills, and you
hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell whence it comes, and whither
it goes: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:6)
The mighty
sound filled the whole house where the apostles were staying. The house
full of the breath of the Holy Spirit becomes a baptismal font so that
the Apostles could be baptized in the Spirit as they were promised by
the Lord when he said: “For John truly baptized
with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days
hence.” (Acts 1:5)
3) “And there appeared unto them cloven tongues
like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.”
After the
hearing of the sound follows the sight of the tongues of fire: the
apostles saw fire descending and immediately dividing itself into
something similar to tongues of fire. The dividing of the tongues
suggests the richness and diversity of the gifts of grace of the Spirit.
But the form of the gift of the Spirit, in other words the appearance
similar to tongues of fire reveals that the Apostles preaching which is
done by the tongue would be the fruit and power of the Holy Spirit. The
Apostles received the gift of the Holy Spirit by way of tongues of fire
because with their tongue they were to announce to the world the
greatness of God.
As with the
sound that Luke described as sounding similar to a violent wind, he
describes the descent of the Holy Spirit as resembling tongues of fire.
This means that the phenomenon was not fire but had an outward
appearance similar to fire. Fire as a symbol of God and his presence is
something that is held from Biblical tradition: remember the burning
bush that appeared to Moses. We often speak of God as light and fire. In
spite of this the tongues of fire are not the Holy Spirit itself, but
his energies. The Holy Spirit is God and God’s nature is above the
material world and is unapproachable to men, and to their senses and
mind. What we participate in is the energies and gifts of God which
according to the Fathers of the Church are uncreated and above nature.
In the verse
we are examining it says that the tongues of fire sat on each of the
apostles. The verb to sit is not used here arbitrarily by Luke. It is
used to underline that the gift of the spirit rested and remained with
the apostles permanently. It reveals a difference with the prophets of
the Old Testament who received the gifts of the Spirit periodically but
not on a permanent base.
4) “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance.”
For the
first time, the disciples received the Holy Spirit when they met the
Lord after his Resurrection. At that time the Lord breathed on them and
said “Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins
ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain,
they are retained.” This was a special grace given only to the
Apostles with the power to forgive of to retain sins, but they had not
as yet received the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now they
do not just receive a special grace of the Spirit but the Spirit fills
their very existence. They are filled with the richness of graces so
that they would be capable of the work they had before them to preach
and evangelize the world. The results of the Descent of the Holy Spirit
appear immediately after the event – they began to speak with other
tongues: tongues other than their mother tongue which were strange and
unknown to them. The promise the Lord made to them before his Ascension
that one of the signs of those that believe will be that “they shall
speak with new tongues” (Mark 16:17) has now been fulfilled.
A couple of
weeks ago, I spoke to you about how modern day Pentecostal and other
charismatic churches give great emphasis on the gift of speaking in
tongues and say that what they have is the same gift that was given to
the Apostles at Pentecost. The truth is that the gift of tongues was
given for a special purpose and once that purpose was accomplished we
see that it was never heard of again in the two thousands years of the
Church’s history. The purpose of the Gift of Tongues was for the
Apostles to be able to spread, by their preaching in foreign languages,
the Christian Faith to all people and to make the Gospel known
throughout the world. The gift of speaking in foreign tongues, or
Glossolalia as it is referred to, was not given by God for all time,
until the end of the world. It was a sign given to the Church only for a
short period of time, with the aim of making it easier for those of
other religions to convert to Christianity. St Paul himself prophesied
that the gift of speaking in foreign tongues would cease.
“Love” he said “will never fail: but whether there
be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall
cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.” (1 Cor.
13:8)
The gift of tongues therefore served its
purpose in the beginning of Christianity in order to awaken the
idol-worshippers and Jews to belief in Christ. The first Christians
would not have believed if they had not received signs. By comparing the
Apostolic speaking in tongues with the modern day speaking in tongues of
the charismatic churches we saw indisputably that they have nothing in
common. The Apostles spoke and were understood by all that heard them:
they spoke a recognizable and intelligible language. In contrast to the
Apostles, the charismatic churches who speak in tongues often talk
gibberish, sounds that make no sense. They of course justify their
speech as being heavenly language so of course we cannot understand.
The giving
of the gift of tongues was temporary with the purpose of spreading the
Gospel to all nations and uniting them in one faith. It brought into
unity what had been divided during the building of the Tower of Babel.
At that time the Bible tells us that the earth was of one language, but
because of their arrogance in trying to build a tower to heaven, the
Lord confounded the language so that they could not understand each
other. (Gen. 11: 1-9) With the gift of the tongues of fire the Holy
Spirit calls all nations and languages to unity again. This is the
message we receive from the Kontakion hymn for the day: “When the Most
High descended He confounded the tongues and divided the nations, but
when he parted the tongues of fire He called all to unity: Wherefore
with one voice we glorify the All-Holy Spirit.”
5) “And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews,
devout men, out of every nation under heaven.”
Since the
Jewish Feast of Pentecost was a great pilgrimage feast, many people from
throughout the Roman Empire were gathered in Jerusalem on this day. But
there were also a great many, who came from the Jewish dispersion who
wishing to live the remainder of their lives under the shadow of the
Temple and sharing in the rich religious life in the official centre of
Judaism, that had made themselves permanent citizens of Jerusalem. It is
these that Luke is referring to when he says “devout men dwelling in
Jerusalem”. St. John Chrysostom says that living in Jerusalem was a sign
of piety. People from the dispersion would leave the place of their
birth, their homes and families to live in Jerusalem because it was
believed that the time had come for the appearance of the expected
Messiah. Of course among them were also many proselytes who had through
circumcision embraced the Jewish faith.
6) “Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude
came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them
speak in his own language.”
It would
seem that the sound that came from heaven and sounded like a violent
wind was not only heard within the house where the Apostles were but was
also heard outside the house. This draws the attention of the people of
Jerusalem who quickly gather outside the house. There they were confused
because they heard the apostles speaking to them each in his own
language.
7-8) “And they were all amazed and marvelled,
saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?”
The initial
confusion of the crowd is soon transformed to amazement and wonder. The
miraculous event left strong impressions in the people’s hearts and
quite naturally they began to wonder and enquire among themselves what
had happened and to give some kind of explanation to this strange event
to which they had become witnesses. They knew that Jesus’ Disciples came
from Galilee; it was therefore a great surprise that these few men who
were born and raised in the Palestinian countryside as was Galilee, and
who had no special education, to suddenly be able to speak foreign and
strange languages from far away countries.
9-11) “Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the
dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and
Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about
Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians,
we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.”
Here we are
given the various races of those that were at Jerusalem. The list begins
with the peoples to the east and working round to the peoples of the
west. It doesn’t mention all the people of the Jewish dispersion for
example it doesn’t mention Syria, Macedonia, and Achaia. Again they
didn’t all have different languages – some spoke the same language but
had a different dialect which only a native could fully understand. But
whether language or dialect everyone heard in his own tongue the
wonderful works of God. What were these works? This can only refer to
the wonderful works of God which brought about the salvation of man.
This is seen in the contents of Peter’s speech which immediately follows
– the mission of the Son of God in the world, the Cross, the Glorious
Resurrection, the Ascension, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. These
consisted the wonderful events that Christ’s disciples told the Jews
inspired with the power of the Holy Spirit which had filled their very
existence.
The Gifts of
the Holy Spirit that the Apostles received was not given exclusively
only to them but to every person baptized into the Church. Each and
every one of us receives the same gifts during the anointing with the
Holy Chrism immediately after baptism. In the time of the Apostles and
the early centuries of the Church this was done by the laying on of
hands. Of course not just anyone had the power to transmit to others
these gifts: it had to be done through the hands of the Apostles or the
Bishops who were empowered to do so. In the Acts of the Apostles we read
how the Apostles laid their hands on the faithful and in that way passed
on the gifts of the Holy Spirit: “Then laid they
their hands on them, [those who were baptized] and they received the
Holy Ghost” (Acts 8: 17). “And when Paul
had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them” (Acts
19: 6).
As the
Apostles ordained bishops they too were also empowered with the laying
on of hands, but as the Church began to grow in numbers it was
impossible for the bishops to be present at all the Baptisms and so the
Church introduced the use of the Holy Myron which through prayers by the
bishops was sanctified and then given to the priests to anoint the newly
baptized. In this way it was not necessary for a bishop to be present.
Whether the recipient received the gifts of the Holy Spirit by the
laying on of the bishop’s hand or through the Chrism, the Sacrament was
truly administered, for both these are the sensible and visible elements
of the Sacrament. The invisible and supernatural element is always
Divine Grace. Thus at baptism every Orthodox Christian receives his own
Pentecost, his own descent of the Holy Spirit upon him and the gifts of
grace that accompany this giving of the Holy Spirit, but these remain
invisible and become manifest only in Orthodox Christians who have
attained Christian perfection, purified and prepared beforehand by
repentance. The Feast of Pentecost is therefore not just a celebration
of an event in history: for Orthodox Christians it is also a celebration
of their membership in the Church. They have lived Pentecost and
received "the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit" in the sacrament of
chrismation.
Pentecost is
also known as Trinity Sunday. Besides celebrating the Descent of the
Holy Spirit, the feast also celebrates the full revelation of the divine
Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Officially there is no feast day
for the Holy Trinity, but with the Descent of the Holy Spirit the
fullness of the Godhead became manifest and the Church hymns celebrate
this manifestation as the final act of God's self-disclosure and
self-donation to the world of His creation. Thus in many Churches two
Icons are placed in the centre of the Church for veneration – the Icon
of the Feast of Pentecost showing the Descent of the Holy Spirit as
tongues of fire above the seated Apostles and the Icon of the
Hospitality of Abraham showing the three angelic figures that appeared
to him under the oak of Mambre.
In the 15th
century, a Russian monk named Andrew Rublev gave this Icon a new form
and meaning. He reduced the historical elements of the event, by
omitting Abraham and Sarah, so that the main significance of the Icon
was not in the historical biblical event, but in the dogmatic teaching
of the Three consubstantial Persons of the Holy Trinity. The table was
no longer the instrument to hold the food of hospitality, but became the
altar for the chalice with the sacrificial lamb: symbolizing the
voluntary sacrifice of the Son of God and indicating by the gestures of
the three angels, the unity of their predetermined will and the divine
economy. Although the Icon was the same event of the hospitality of
Abraham, it now placed the historical event as a secondary factor to the
symbolic representation of the Triune God and subsequently was renamed
The Holy Trinity.
As said
earlier Pentecost is the day the Church was established and so it is
also the Church’s birthday celebration. The Church celebrates her
birthday with a two day feast, the Sunday which as we said is also
dedicated to the Holy Trinity and the Monday which is dedicated to the
Holy Spirit. On the Sunday immediately after the Divine Liturgy, we give
the dismissal in the usual way, but we immediately begin again with the
Vespers service for Monday which we call the Kneeling service. It is
called the Kneeling service because we kneel during the reading of some
very long prayers. As a Vespers service it should be sung in the
evening, but because only a handful of people would actually attend the
service in the evening the Church brought the service forward and placed
it straight after the Liturgy so that many more people could participate
in the Kneeling prayers. So keep in mind that on Pentecost Sunday there
is at least an extra hour of service.
In Cyprus
the Monday of the Holy Spirit is also known as the Kataklysmos. This is
not a religious festival but rather a folklore festival so before I
explain what this is I must stress that the Church celebrates the Feast
of Pentecost and not the festival of the Kataklysmos even though the two
have become as one feast.
Even though
the festival of the Kataklysmos has become associated with the feast of
Pentecost is it something completely different. Kataklysmos means a
disastrous flood and it refers to the Old Testament Flood during Noah’s
days when God punished the world by sending a flood over all the earth.
In Cyprus, there must have been a pagan festival to ward off another
flood which was celebrated around the same time as the Christian feast
of Pentecost. When Cyprus became Christian the pagan feast was replaced
with the Christian feast, but it left behind traces of its origin.
Basically
Katyklysmos is a festival of water so for many families it is the signal
to begin visits to the beach or swimming pools. In Limassol along the
sea front hundreds of stalls are set up selling various Traditional
Cypriot sweets, lace, baskets and other products. Monday is also a
national holiday so many families take the opportunity of the long
weekend to get together for barbeques and lots of ice cold beer.
The main
custom of the day is to throw or sprinkle each other with water and kids
have a great time squirting us with water pistols. Sprinkling or
throwing water at each other is part of the fun of the festival and it’s
great for a few laughs. Now even though the festival is not Christian in
origin we can give it a spiritual and Christian meaning: Christ said
that “whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never
thirst; the water that I shall give him will become a spring of water
welling up to eternal life” and “He that believes in me, as the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
(But this he spoke of the Holy Spirit, which they that believe on him
should receive.” Christ symbolically speaks of water as representing the
Holy Spirit, so pouring water on each other can be symbolic of the
pouring out and receiving of the Holy Spirit which is the theme of
Pentecost.
So with
that, our talk today was the last talk of the season. We break for the
long summer period and begin again with the new season that starts the
first week of October.
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