Magnificat Vol. LVI, No 5 113 day of creation He descended on chaos to make it fruitful; the Divine Redeemer putting the finishing touch to the great work that was the object of all His mysteries; a new people destined to adore God in spirit and in truth, from the rising to the setting of the sun; the face of the earth renewed; Jewish figures replaced by the reality; Paganism struck dead; the universal covenant of God with men, promised during forty centuries and at length perfected: such are the wonders, such are the subjects of meditation and praise to be found in the feast of Pentecost. History of the feast Let us now call to mind the circumstances amid which this mystery was accomplished. After the ascension of their Divine Master, the Apostles returned to Jerusalem, where they awaited the fulfillment of His promise. They withdrew to a cenacle, that is, an upper room, shut off from the other rooms. In Palestine, since the houses have a flat roof, the highest room was the largest and the most secluded. It was here that the Jews had their private oratories.2 It is believed that the Apostles assembled in the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, the fervent disciple mentioned by Saint Luke. Whatever the place of their assembly, they represented the Universal Church. They were in expectation of their Divine Master’s favors, when on the tenth day after His ascension and the fiftieth after His glorious resurrection, the Holy Spirit descended upon them. It was a Sunday, the day after the Jewish Pentecost, so that the New Law would be proclaimed at the very same time of year that the Old Law, which was to make way for it, had been given on Mount Sinai. But behold the difference! The Old Law had been promulgated in the midst of thunder and lightning and with the peal of trumpets. It threatened offenders with death. It was written on tables of stone. It was tiresome with the multiplicity of commandments and practices to 2. The Empress Helen had a magnificent church built on the very spot that the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles. which it subjected a crude, ignorant people, who had to be bent to obedience by fear rather than by love. The New Law, on the contrary, is a law not of terror but of grace, destined to be written not on stone, but in the human heart. As the work of the Holy Spirit, who is the source of consolation, sweetness and love, it could not be promulgated with the dreadful pomp and the threats that had accompanied the promulgation of the Mosaic Law. God had had slaves long enough: He wanted children. Therefore, on Sunday, Pentecost Day, at about nine o’clock in the morning, as the Disciples were all gathered together, they suddenly heard a sound like that of a mighty wind coming from heaven. It filled the whole house where they were enclosed.3 This signal of the arrival of the Holy Spirit was intended to rouse their attention: it was full of mystery. This wind coming from on high, the harbinger of holy inspirations, was the breath of grace which maintains the spiritual life in our soul, just as air 3. Acts of the Apostles 2:2-3. Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Virgin Mary and the Apostles
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