Pentecost's Passion Preparation

Here at the conventual priory where I live with the Dominican friars, we shared in an ancient custom of the Order, namely, the public reading of John 14, 15, 16, and 17, known as the Sermo Domini--the "Lord's Sermon."  Johannine scholars call these chapters the "Farewell Discourse" of Jesus.  The idea of (usually chanting) the Sermo Domini is to bridge the gap between the gospel of the Last Supper read on Holy Thursday (John 13) and the gospel of the Passion on Good Friday (John 18-19).

At two points during the Sermo Domini--at 14:15-31 and 16:4c-15--Jesus gives his penultimate teaching on the arrival of the Holy Spirit.  Go ahead now and read it; I'll wait...

Have you read it?  Good.  Otherwise the rest of what I'm going to say won't make much sense to you.

Back in John 7:37-39, the Lord Jesus makes it very clear that His Passion is going to 'trigger' or set in motion the coming of the Holy Spirit--

On the last day of the feast [of Tabernacles], the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, "If any one thirst, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.'"  Now this He sais about the Spirit, which those who believed in Him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Two things are going on here:  The Festival of Tabernacles and a very precise doctrine about the relationship between the Passion and Pentecost.

At John 7:10, the Evangelist introduces a section about Jesus at Jerusalem for the Festival of Tabernacles, recalling the Israelites' forty years of pilgrimage between the Exodus from Egypt until their arrival in the Promised Land (cf Leviticus 23:34-44).  By calling the Holy Spirit "Living Water," He was referring to the custom of drawing water from the Pool of Siloam and pouring it upon the base of the altar of burnt sacrifice to clean it of the blood of the animals ceremonially killed and drained of blood.  Not only that, but Jesus was also making a contrast between the human labour of drawing water from a pool and travelling up and down the pilgrim road, and the rivers of the "Living Waters" of the Holy Spirit that would flow out of the hearts of Christians.

Now do you see why we sing Isaiah 12:2-6 after the Fifth Reading during the Paschal Vigil?  And do you see, too, the meaning of the "blood and water" the flowed from the side of Jesus on Good Friday?

In other words, if Jesus' Paschal Mystery "triggers" Pentecost, then Lent is not only a preparation for Easter, but also for Pentecost.  That's why, too, the liturgical book used by Byzantine Christians for the Easter Season is called the Pentecostarion, as it contains prayers spanning the whole time from the Vigil to Pentecost--fifty days.

Actually, it's not only Lent the prepares us for Pentecost; it's also Advent.  On the Second Sunday of Advent (Years A, B) or on the Third Sunday (C), the gospel is always about John the Baptist's prophecy of the coming Holy Spirit:  "I baptize you with water; but He who is migheter than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; He will baptize you with the Holy spirit and with fire..." (Lk 3:16; cf Mt 3:11; Mk 1:8).

So, way back at the beginning of the liturgical year, we're already given a heads-up about the tongues of fire that would alight on the heads of Chrisitians in Acts 2:1f.  The preparation for Pentecost happens, as it were, in three stages:  Adventide, Lententide, and Paschaltide.

Coming back to the Sermo Domini, Jesus again points out that His 'departure'--meaning both his death/resurrection and His Ascension--will bring out the Holy Spirit's descent:  "But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance al that I have said" (Jn 14:25)--"remembrance" because Jesus will no longer be present in an earthly way to speak to us.  A little later, Jesus is more explicit:  "...for if I do not go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; btu if I go, I will send him to you" (Jn 16:7).

As you can see, the Passion "triggers" Pentecost.  And if Pentecost needs not one, or two, but three periods of preparation, what does that say about the importance of the Holy Spirit?  As Saint Paul said with his characteristic bluntness, "Any one who does not have th Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him!" (Rom 8:9).

So:  How are you preparing for Pentecost?