At our shrine in Walsingham, England there is a lovely mosaic depicting the scene described in today's first reading. The Blessed Mother stands in the upper room surrounded by the apostles. Obedient to Jesus' call to go to Jerusalem and wait, they are all waiting for God's new thing. In typical biblical depiction of theophany (God manifesting), there is loud wind and there is fire, described here as tongues alighting on each of the upper-roomers.
This means that the Holy Spirit has now been given, and we see it manifest here in the story of peoples of many tongues hearing the Good News each in one's own language -- a tale symbolizing that there shall be no national or linguistic boundaries. The new phenomenon -- the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church -- will be open to all and will reach the known world.
A bit of background information will be helpful. The ancient Jewish festival called shavuot was a celebration of harvest, there being observed fifty days (pente konte in Greek) from Passover to the wheat harvest. In time rabbis added to the feast celebration of the giving of the Law, believed to have taken place at Sinai after fifty days. So shavuot celebrates the harvest of produce and the giving of the Law. Any informed Jew would see that the Christian "upgrade" here is the harvest of souls and giving of the Spirit. This is another way in which Luke, author of Acts, emphasizes continuity from Judaism to the Christian Movement.
The Church which has now received the Holy Spirit released by the Exaltation of Jesus, will have seven sacraments mediated by that same Spirit. There will be the Eucharist in which we are fed spiritually; Confirmation in which we make our adult faith profession, and are commissioned for service; Penance in which we received sacramental assurance of God's forgiveness, and counsel; Holy Orders in which bishops, priests and deacons are ordained for all generations to come; Holy Matrimony for the blessing of Christian marriage; and Unction, the anointing for healing. But before any of these can be experienced, there must be Baptism, the primal sacrament, in which God incorporates us into that family of faith, not after reaching some fictitious age of accountability, not after an imaginary understanding of the sacramental work of the Spirit, but rather at any age, as the Church relies on God's grace.. Today, we have an infant, Madelyn Grace Johnson, for baptism. Her parents have chosen for her patron and heavenly prayer-partner Saint Grace, a mediaeval figure whose persistence in her conversion to Christianity cost her her life. In the present world, a new Christian certainly needs to grow up encouraged in the spirit of persistence, with a community of faithful people who have her back!
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