After willingly suffering for our salvation, being buried and rising
on the third day, He ascended into heaven and sat down on the right hand
of the Father, whence He co-operated in the descent of the divine
Spirit upon His disciples by sending down together with the Father the
power from on high, as Both had promised (see Luke 24.49). Having sat
down in the heavens, He seems to call to us from there, “If anyone wants
to approach this glory, become a partaker of the kingdom of heaven, be
called a son of God and find eternal life, inexpressible honour, pure
joy and never-ending riches, let him heed My commandments and imitate as
far as he can My own way of life. Let him follow My actions and
teachings when I came into the world in the flesh to establish saving
laws and offer Myself as a patter.” Truly the Saviour confirmed the
gospel teaching by His deeds and miracles, and fulfilled it through His
sufferings. He proved how beneficial it was for salvation by His
resurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven, and now by the
descent of the Divine Spirit upon His disciples, the event we celebrate
today. After rising from the dead and appearing to His disciples, He
said as He was taken up into heaven, “Behold, I send the promise of my
Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be
endowed with power from on high” (Luke 24.49). “For ye shall receive
power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be
witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and unto the
uttermost parts of the earth” (see Acts 1.8).
When the fiftieth day after the resurrection had come, the day we now
commemorate, all the disciples were gathered together with one accord
in the upper room, each also having gathered together his thoughts (for
they were devoting themselves intently to prayer and hymns to God). “And
suddenly”, says Luke the evangelist, “there came a sound from heaven as
of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the house where they were
sitting” (Acts 2.1-11). This is the sound which the prophetess Hannah
foretold when she received the promise concerning Samuel: “The Lord went
up to heaven and thundered; and he shall give strength and exalt the
horn of his anointed” (see 1 Samuel 2.10 LXX). Elijah’s vision also
forewarned of this sound: “Behold the voice of a light breeze, and in it
was the Lord” (see 1 Kings 19.12 LXX). This “voice of a light breeze”
is the sound of breath. You might also find a reference to it in
Christ’s gospel. According to John the theologian and evangelist, “In
the last day, that great day of the feast”, that is to say Pentecost,
“Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me
and drink…. This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him
should receive” (John 7.37-39). Again, after His resurrection He
breathed on His disciples and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John
20.22).
That cry of Christ prefigured this sound, and His breathing upon the
disciples foretold the breath, which is now poured down abundantly from
above and resounds with a great voice heard far and wide, summoning
everything under heaven, pouring grace over all who approach with faith
and filling them with it. It is forceful in that it is all-conquering,
storms the ramparts of evil, and destroys all the enemy’s cities and
strongholds. It brings low the proud and lifts up the humble in heart,
binds what should not have been loosed, breaks the bonds of sins and
undoes what is held fast. It filled the house where they were sitting,
making it a spiritual font, and accomplishing the promise which the
Saviour made them when He ascended, saying, “For John truly baptised
with water; but ye shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost not many days
hence” (Acts 1.5). Even the name which He gave them proved to be true,
for through this noise from heaven the apostles actually became sons of
Thunder (see Mark 3.17). “And there appeared unto them”, it says,
“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” (Acts 2.3-4).
Those miracles accomplished by the Lord in the flesh, which bore
witness that He was God’s only-begotten Son in His own person, united
with us in the last days, came to an end. On the other hand, those
wondered began which proclaimed the Holy Spirit as a divine person in His
own right, that we might come to know and contemplate the great and
venerable mystery of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Spirit had been active
before: it was He who spoke through the prophets and proclaimed things
to come. Later He worked through the disciples to drive out demons and
heal diseases. But now He was manifested to all in His own person
through the tongues of fire, and by sitting enthroned as Lord upon each
of Christ’s disciples, He made them instruments of His power.
Why did He appear in the form of tongues? It was to demonstrate that
He shared the same nature as the Word of God, for there is no
relationship closer than that between word and tongue. It was also
because of teaching, since teaching Christ’s gospel needs a tongue full
of grace. But why fiery tongues? Not just because the Spirit is
consubstantial with the Father and the Son—and our God is fire (see
Hebrews 12.29), a fire consuming wickedness—but also because of the
twofold energy of the apostles’ preaching, which can bring both benefit
and punishment. As it is the property of fire to illuminate and burn, so
Christ’s teaching enlightens those who obey but finally hands over the
disobedient to eternal fire and punishment. The text says, “tongues like
fire” not “tongues of fire”, that no one might imagine it was ordinary
physical fire, but that we might understand the manifestation of the
Spirit using fire as an example. Why did the tongues appear to be
divided among them? Because the Spirit is given by measure by the Father
to all except Christ (John 3.34), who Himself came from above. He, even
in the flesh, possessed the fullness of divine power and energy,
whereas the grace of the Holy Spirit was only partially, not fully,
contained within anyone else. Each one obtained different gifts, lest
anyone should suppose the grace given to the saints by the Holy Spirit
was theirs by nature.
The fact that the divine Spirit sat upon them is proof not just of
His lordly dignity, but of His unity. He sat, it says, “upon each of
them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2.3-4). For
although divided in His various powers and energies, in each of His
works the Holy Spirit is wholly present and active, undividedly divided,
partaken of while remaining complete, like the sun’s ray. They spoke
with other tongues, other languages, to people from every nation, as the
Spirit gave them utterance. They became instruments of the divine
Spirit, inspired and motivated according to His will and power.
Saint Gregory Palamas, from a sermon given in Thessaloniki on Pentecost, one of the years from 1347 to 1359
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