“When the Days of Pentecost Were Fulfilled”

Reflections on the Solemnity of Pentecost

as the Culmination of the Easter Season of Fifty Days

Year A

Fr. Kurt Belsole, O.S.B.

June 5, 2014

“When the days of Pentecost were fulfilled,

 they were all together in one place. Alleluia.”

“Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes,

erant omnes pariter in eodem loco, alleluia.”

This great antiphon for the first psalm of Evening Prayer I of Pentecost provides us with the occasion to reflect on what it means for the days of Pentecost to be fulfilled.  A simple glance back at the mysteries we have celebrated and the gospel passages that the Church has proclaimed to us in the sacred liturgy during this Easter Season can give us a taste of what it means for the “days of Pentecost to be fulfilled.”

Easter Sunday

  • For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

Second Sunday of Easter

  • On the evening of that first day of the week, . . . Jesus came and stood in their midst and said: “Peace be with you.” (It is noteworthy that not only the Resurrection, but also the appearances of the resurrected Lord tend to take place on Sunday—except in the Appendix to the Gospel of John.  The Resurrection happened with no one seeing it—and, to be honest, the simple fact of the Resurrection had no effect on the lives of the disciples.  They may well have slept through it!  It was only when the resurrected Christ appeared to them—with all that that means—that they discovered the meaning and power of the resurrection. Again, he tends to appear on Sunday.)
  • He showed them his hands and his side (The resurrected Christ is raised with his wounds—the wounds themselves are part of his glory—they themselves show his love.)
  • The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
  • He breathed on them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit . . . whose sins you forgive, are forgiven them.”
  • A week later (again on Sunday), Jesus came and stood in their midst
  • Thomas said to him: “My Lord and my God.”
  • These are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.


Third Sunday of Easter

  • Two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus.
  • Jesus himself drew near and walked with them.
  • “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.”
  • “Some women of our group have astounded us . . . they did not find the body . . . they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive.”
  • “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”
  • He interpreted what referred to him in all the scriptures.
  • He took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.
  • With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him.
  • “Were our hearts not burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
  • “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”
  • He was made known to them in the breaking of bread.

Fourth Sunday of Easter

  • “The sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
  • “He walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him.”
  • “They recognize his voice.”
  • “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”
  • “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

Fifth Sunday of Easter

  • “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
  • “Have faith in God; have faith also in me.”
  • “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.”
  • “I will come back again and take you to myself.”
  • “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
  • “No one comes to the Father except through me.”
  • “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

Sixth Sunday of Easter

  • “If you love me, keep my commandments.”
  • “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always.”
  • “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
  • “Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”


Ascension

  • Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
  • “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
  • Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Seventh Sunday of Easter

  • “Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you.”
  • “That your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.”
  • “This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”
  • “They belonged to you, and you gave them to me.”
  • “I pray for them.”
  • “I have been glorified in them.”

And this all crescendos to the great gospel of the Mass for the Vigil of Pentecost:

  • Jesus stood up and exclaimed: “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. As Scripture says: ‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.’” He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive.

So these are just some of the marvelous works of God that we have heard proclaimed and that we have celebrated during the fifty days of the Easter season while the days of Pentecost were being fulfilled: resurrection, Jesus in our midst, peace, Jesus drawing near, he explained the scriptures, their eyes were opened, glory, the Advocate, having life more abundantly, Christ being with us all days, and rivers of living water flowing from within.

May you always be overcome with paschal joy!

Blessed Pentecost.

[P.S.: I realize that the translation in the breviary translates the antiphon as “On the day of Pentecost they had all gathered together in one place, alleluia.”  But the translation of the same text in the first reading of Mass for Pentecost Sunday is much more faithful: “When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together” (Acts 2:1).]