Pentecost day and
afterwards
On May 19, 30 AD, the Virgin Mary, the surviving Apostles and 120 others
watched Jesus Christ ascend into Heaven from Mt. Olivet.¹ Afterwards,
these same people, constituting the infant Church, retired to the “upper
room”, or Cenacle, to await the coming of the “new Advocate” promised
by Jesus: “…for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall
be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Nine days later, Pentecost Sunday, May 29, He came. Pentecost was a
festival of great importance for the Jews. It celebrated the giving of the
Law and the end of the harvest season. Some weeks earlier, in the same
room Christ had spoken of “the new and everlasting covenant” and offered
His Body to eat and his Blood to drink. Now a new Law was being
instituted and a new harvest about to begin:
“And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty
wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there
appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each
one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began
to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2,
1-4).
There were many Jews in Jerusalem at this time from the countries of the
Diaspora (dispersion) who, hearing the noise of the strong driving wind,
gathered in a crowd around the Cenacle. They were from Pontus, Phrygia,
Pamphylia, Cappodocia, Cyrene, Parthia, Media, Arabia, Crete, Greece and
Rome – all Jews or Jewish converts. They all saw those inside the Cenacle
moving and swaying, and heard them speaking in their own languages
about the great things that God had done. Some thought that they had had
their fill of new wine. Filled instead with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, St.
Peter emerged to address the astonished crowd of onlookers:
1
See, Warren H. Carroll, The Founding of Christendom (A History of
Christendom), Vol. 1, Christendom Press, 1985, pp. 394. This date would have the
crucifixion of Christ occurring on Friday, April 7.
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