Pentecost and the Eucharist

Holy Spirit dove-motif under Bernini's baldachin in the Vatican Basilica

It is no accident that the Last Supper, the Resurrection-appearances, and Pentecost all took place in the Upper Room.  The Upper Room was, in fact, the very first 'house of the Church.'  This 'triangulation' of the Eucharist, the Risen Lord, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit are sine qua non constituting the Church:  As the "Body of Christ" (Eph 4:12; cf 1 Cor 10:16-17) we "proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes" (1 Cor 11:26) this One of whom St Paul said "No-one can say 'Jesus is Lord!' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 12:3).

In every Eucharistic celebration, we are really in the Upper Room with the Risen Christ, whose Presence is mediated by the Holy Spirit.

On Ember Wednesday of the Pentecost Octave in the usus antiquior, the liturgy seeks to highlight exactly this.  On that day, we read John 6:44-52, a portion of the Bread of Life discourse--

[In those days, Jesus said to the crowds]:  No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the Last Day.  It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.'  Every one who has heard and learned from the Father come to Me.  Not that any oen has seen the Father except Him who is from God; He has seen the Father.  Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.  I am the Bread of Life.  Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died.  This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die.  I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this Bread, he will live for ever; and the Bread that I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh."

The Pentecost Octave, therefore, looks toward the Solemnity of Corpus Christi which is the tail-end of the Easter-Pentecost cycle; more to the point, the older form of the Sacred Liturgy seeks to highlight the absolutely necessary connexion between Pentecost and the Eucharist, since they were instituted at the same location.

The reason for this connexion is not difficult to see.  In the Nicæno-Constantinopolitan Creed, we profess faith in Christ «Qui incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto» because the Lord Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit overshadowing the Virgin of Nazareth (Lk 1:35).  Likewise, the Holy Gifts of bread and wine are transformed by the same Holy Spirit to become the Sacred Body and Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Hence, in the Older Rite, the following was prayed at the Offertory, which is my absolute favourite prayer in the entire Mass--

Veni, sanctificátor omnípotens ætérne Deus: et bénedic hoc sacrifícium, tuo sancto nómini præparátum.

Come, O Sanctifier, almighty eternal God:  Bless this oblation prepared for Your holy Name.

If liturgists complain that the Roman Canon lacks an epiklesis, it is because they forget that this prayer, the Veni, Sanctificator, effectively turns the entire Anaphora to an invocation to the Holy Spirit, since it is only by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit that we can say "Abba!  Father" (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6; cf Eph 2:18).  For this reason alone are we able to begin to pray--

 Te ígitur, clementíssime Pater, per Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum, Dóminum nostrum, súpplices rogámus, ac pétimus...

Therefore we ask You, this most clement Father, through Jesus Christ Your Son our Lord, we ask You, we petition you... 

(More's the pity that this prayer did not survive the liturgical revisions of 1964-1970.  But, thanks to Pope Benedict XVI, it was restored to the Church's normal liturgical life.)

Only the Holy Spirit enables us to be adopted as children of our heavenly Father and empowers to call him "Abba, Father" in the liturgy, this same Holy Spirit who will transform the Holy Gifts.

By remembering the connexion between Pentecost and the Eucharist, we are able to situate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi within its proper theological and liturgical context.  If the Orthodox theologian Nikos Nissiotis criticizes Catholics of 'Christmonism,' it is because we Romans have, in our deformed piety, isolated the Eucharist from its 'Pentecostal nexus.'

During the XI Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in 2005 (what luminous times!), one of the prelates of the Eastern Church gave an intervention in which he reminded us of the specifically Pentecostal dimension of the Eucharist, citing St Ephraim the Syrian:

The Seraph did not touch the coal with his fingers. / It touched only the mouth of Isaiah. / [The Seraph] did not hold it, and [Isaiah] did not eat it. / But to us our Lord has given both. (Hymns on Faith, X.10)

The idea here is that the Eucharistic elements are glowing with the fire of the Holy Spirit such that it is not only Christ whom we receive in Holy Communion, but also the Paraclete, since Christ means Anointed One, "anointed with the invisible oil of the Holy Spirit," as St Thomas Aquinas often said.  In the Eucharist, then, the Holy Spirit who effected the Incarnation and perpetuates it, as it were, in the Eucharist, comes to us.  I would even go so far as to say that, in the Eucharist, we are gifted with an increase of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Hence, among the prayers of preparation before Communion in the Byzantine Liturgy composed by St Basil the Great--the same author of On the Holy Spirit--

Grant me, until my last breath, to receive the bread and the wine which are Your Body and Blood, and thereby to receive fellowship with the Holy Spirit as a provision for the journey to eternal life, and an acceptable answer at your dread Judgment-Seat.

This is why, during the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, hot, near-boiling water called the Zeon is poured crosswise by the priest into the Eucharistic chalice, saying--

The fervour of faith, full of the Holy Spirit.

What saves the Eucharist from being an 'amulet' is that it is up to us to be intentionally and deliberately open and receptive to the graces that accompany Holy Communion.  These graces are not 'automatic'; St Thomas Aquinas tells us that virtue has a twofold defect:  On the part of the virtue itself (and the Seven Gifts serves to perfect the virtues and bring them to fullness) and on the part of the believer herself (by our apathy or resistance); too often we resist the graces of the Eucharist or simply let them pass us by.  Hence the words apply even in receiving the Sacred Body and Precious Blood:  "Do not extinguish the Spirit!" (1 Thess 5:19).

In scholastic theology, the most important "part" of any Sacrament is the res tantum, the 'thing itself.'  For the Eucharist, the res tantum is twofold:  Growth in charity and the unity of the Church.  In other words, we are transformed to love even more (cf Rom 5:5), thereby strengthening the communion of believers.  Neither can be done apart from the Eucharist and the Holy Spirit.  Thus, in purposefully receiving the Lord's Body and Blood, we are transformed--

And we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His likeness from glory to glory; and this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Cor 3:18).

Returning to the connexion between the Pentecost Octave and the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, St Thomas Aquinas explicitly explains their connexion in the First Nocturn, Third Reading which he composed (but removed from the Office of Readings by the Consilium)--

Hence, so that the faithful may solemnly honor again the institution of such a great Sacrament by a complete office of celebration, the Roman Pope Urban IV, influenced by the devotion of this Sacrament, piously decreed commemoration of the aforementioned institution on feria five after the octave of Pentecost, to be celebrated by all the faithful, so that we, who use this Sacrament throughout the year for salvation, may honor again, at that time especially, its institution, by which the Holy Spirit taught the hearts of the disciples to understand fully the mysteries of this Sacrament.  For at the same time this sacrament began to be frequented by the faithful. It is indeed read in the Acts of the Apostles that "they were persevering in the apostolic doctrine by sharing in the breaking of bread, and by prayers" (Acts 2:42), immediately after the departure of the Holy Spirit (Opuscula IV:  Officium Corpus Christi).

In other words, St Thomas here explains that the experience of Pentecost enlightens us precisely about the Sacrament of the Altar.  This is why Ember Wednesday of the Pentecost Octave aims to prepare us for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi.  In fact, nine days are counted between Ember Wednesday of Pentecost and Corpus Christi Thursday, a kind of novena mirroring that of the one between the day after Ascension Thursday and Pentecost Sunday.

Let us, then, remember to meet not only Christ in the Eucharist, but the Holy Spirit who Eucharistizes.

Christ, the Anointed One, is never separate from the Anointing One, the Holy Spirit.

The Eucharist is never separated from Pentecost.

This entry is dedicated to my dear friend and confere,
Sr Ermyrita Palacasero OP