For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. — John 16:7

Pentecost is this Sunday, 23 May, 2021 and is the last day of Eastertide. There’s actually a pretty profound relationship between the feasts of Easter, and The Ascension and Pentecost, so it’s worth celebrating them all. I’ll provide some suggestions to acknowledge the sacredness of the day based on our family’s Pentecost celebrations later, but first let me explain what Pentecost is and how it relates to the Easter story.

As I’ve posted here, here and here, belief in Christ is faith in the unity of the nature of God and the nature of humankind. This divine person, both fully human and fully God, showed us a truth common to many major world religions: That death isn’t “real”. We celebrate God/man’s (Christ’s) departure in human form at the feast of the Ascension. We celebrate his continued discourse with us, including at this very moment, at the feast of Pentecost. Jesus foresaw his departure from his apostles, both at Good Friday with his death, and at the feast of the Ascension, with his transition from the corporeal to the eternal. He prophesied that the third person in the Holy Trinity, which is the Holy Spirit, or the Comforter would manifest itself to strengthen their faith. More than just a supernatural spectacle, the descent of the Holy Ghost was yet another revelation of the bond between God and man.

One theological nuance of the belief that a person could be fully God, is that that person is eternal. In Christian sacred texts, Christ is referred to as “The Word”, and has always been. “The Word” is translated from the Greek word “Logos”, but in many other ancient philosophical contexts, Logos more aptly means “Discourse” or “Reason”. “The Word” refers to something spoken, but in these contexts, Logos means something that is understood. As I’ve written before, if a tree falls in the forest it most certainly does not make a sound. Likewise, a word that is spoken doesn’t have any meaning unless it is heard, and understood.

So the perception of The Logos or in other words, the hearing of The Word, is necessary for it to have meaning. The manifestation of The Logos as us, as human was the beginning of the unity between us and the divine (Christmas). The manifestation of The Logos to us, to humankind is the beginning of the discourse between the divine and us (Easter, Ascension and Pentecost). Here’s the key part of the Pentecost story:

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them 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 2:1-4

Again, note the emphasis on speech. It’s not evident in this excerpt but the words were understood by the people that heard them, being that they were spoken in the various first languages of the hearers in the multicultural city of Jerusalem. The descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, or said another way, the unity and connection of God and Man, is that divine discourse.

The divine speaks and we hear through the word.

Humankind is the divine perceiving itself.