The Pentecostal Liturgy

Fifty days after Pascha we come to the feast of Pentecost, the feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit, the feast of the Holy Trinity. When our Lord was preparing His apostles for His Pascha and His going to the Father He told them: “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14.2b-3).

The apostles, troubled by this announcement and fearful of losing their Lord and Master, one after another begin to question Him about His departure. Then He told them:

The apostles, fearful of abandonment, receive from Christ the promise of the Holy Spirit, the other Paraclete/Comforter/Helper, a promise that through the gift of the Holy Spirit Christ Himself will come to them: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

This promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the apostles and the other disciples with them, gathered in the Upper Room, received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. St Peter interpreted the event to the onlookers this way: “Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, [Jesus] poured out this which you now see and hear” (Acts 2.33).

This theology of the ascended and exalted Christ is further elaborated in the letter to the Hebrews. There (see spec. Hebrews 8.1-6) Christ is identified as the Heavenly liturgist (NKJV in v. 2 reads “Minister”), the High Priest of the True Temple in Heaven who, having made the offering of Himself as the only true sacrifice, has obtained a more excellent liturgy (NKJV in v. 6 reads “ministry”).

With all of this in mind let us turn to the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom. In the anaphora prayer the priest prays:

The “saving commandment” remembered here is the Lord’s imperative to offer the eucharist and to partake of it. Furthermore, we offer the eucharist by specifically remembering the events of the Paschal Mystery from the Cross and resurrection through to the second Coming. This self-offering of Christ is what we call “Thine own of Thine own” and is what we, in turn, offer to God, for what other offering do we have that is acceptable?

All of this fits precisely with the theology that we see above from the letter to the Hebrews: Christ, having offered Himself as the true sacrifice, has become the Heavenly Liturgist of the Heavenly Liturgy. And, as St Peter said on the day of Pentecost, having been exalted thus Christ receives the promised Holy Spirit which He in turn pours out on the Church. It should be no surprise, then, that in the Divine Liturgy, immediately following the prayer quoted above, the priest prays:

What this means, quite simply, is that the Divine Liturgy is Pentecost. For in the Divine Liturgy we offer to God the only acceptable sacrifice, that which is offered eternally by the Heavenly Liturgist in the Heavenly Liturgy. And in response He pours out on the Church the Holy Spirit.

Finally, returning to the Gospel of John, we remember our Lord’s words: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”The Holy Spirit, who is poured out on the Church in the Pentecostal experience of the Divine Liturgy, is the Spirit of adotion (Rom. 8.15), whom St Basil’s Liturgy calls “the Spirit of sonship”. By pouring out the Holy Spirit on the Church and into our hearts, Christ, the Son of God, makes us sons of God.

Do you see what a miracle the Divine Liturgy is, friends, and what it accomplishes in us? Let us, then, with the Apostles, draw near to the Upper Room and await, in the fear of God and with faith and love, the gift of the Spirit.

With love in Christ, Fr John