In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
The Holy Spirit has come, He lives in us and abides in us, He guides us in all Truth. The Spirit brings Life for He leads us to Christ Who is Life. The Holy Spirit has come and all is different, all is new. And we pray along with David, “Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalm 50:13 ʟxx)
And we are thirsting for Him, our world is thirsting for Him, because our world is heading towards death. And not only that, evil is around, wickedness follows wickedness as the Devil seeks the corruption of our race. To our world we do not need to prove the existence of evil for it is apparent—we live in a state, whatever our own purity, surrounded by evil and we will end in death. Oh the tragedy of living in this world!
Yet our thirsting is our knowledge that things are not meant to be this way: there is Truth, there is Beauty, there is Righteousness. Many in our world know, while this is the way of this world, it is not how things are meant to be. There are moments of lucidity, of clarity, when many in our world come to themselves and remember the Father’s House, (see Luke 15:11–32) and it is for us to guide them in all Truth by the power of the Holy Spirit. (see John 16:13) We need to speak to this world, to,
Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontos and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians,
And to all the peoples around us today that they hear “the mighty works of God.”
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Of old the tongues were confounded because of the audacity in the building of the tower, but now the tongues are made wise for the sake of the glory of Divine knowledge. There, God condemned the impious because of their offence; and here, Christ hath enlightened the fishermen by the Spirit. At that time the confusion of tongues was wrought for punishment, but now the concord of tongues hath been inaugurated for the salvation of our souls.
— Doxasticon, Vespers Aposticha for Pentecost (Tone 6)
The Church is calling us to bring this Message into the world, the Message of Hope, the Message that evil has been defeated, the Message that death no longer holds power over us, the Message that the spirits which afflict us have lost their authority: and this Gospel of the Resurrection is brought into a world which is thirsting for the living Water of the Holy Spirit. It would be a profound act of callousness, of hatred towards our neighbours, of ego-centrism, to leave them in the despair of this world when we have received the Gospel of Hope and of Love.
Let us therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let our thirsting be for righteousness that we may be filled with the Holy Spirit (cf. Matthew 5:6) not being satisfied for our own sakes but that we may share the blessings we have received, quenching the thirsting of as many as would drink of the living Water, and thereby be shown as true heirs of the Promise and inheritors of eternal Life.
To our crucified, risen and glorified God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who has sent us the Comforter to vivify and guide us, be all glory, honour and worship, together with His unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”
— Acts 2:1–11
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.'” Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This is really the prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the scripture said that the Christ is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this man!” The Pharisees answered them, “Are you led astray, you also? Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed.” Nikodemos, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee.” Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
— John 7:37–52, 8:12