112 Vol. LVI, No 5 Magnificat HE Church wants her great solemnities to be preceded by a long preparation. In this, there is a great knowledge of the human heart. Advent prepares us for Christmas, Lent for Easter, Easter for Pentecost. Eusebius says, “We prepare for the feast of Easter by forty days of fasting, and we dispose ourselves for Pentecost by fifty days of a holy gladness.” Why so much joy? The same historian tells us: “At Easter we receive Baptism; at Pentecost we receive the Holy Spirit, and this is the perfection of Baptism. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ strengthened the Apostles; it was Pentecost that perfected their charity and made them invincible. On that day, the Holy Spirit was given to the Church, with all the fullness needed to subjugate the whole world. That is why I regard Pentecost as the greatest of all feasts.”1 1. Eusebius of Caesarea, Life of Constantine. The ten days preceding it are consecrated by pious Christians to recollection and prayer. They shut themselves up in the Upper Chamber with the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles, in order to prepare to receive the Holy Spirit with the abundance of His gifts. Greatness of the feast All these preparations for our Catholic Pentecost are not exaggerated in the slightest if we reflect on the excellence of this feast. First of all, by the greatness of its object, it leaves all secular feasts far behind. Secondly, it surpasses the Jewish Pentecost as much as the law of grace surpasses the law of fear, as much as the accomplishment of the mystery of our redemption surpasses the types and figures that announced it. The third Person of the adorable Trinity descending on the world to regenerate it, as on the
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