“I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people”
The Scriptures contain many prophecies about Jesus, but there are also prophecies about the Holy Spirit.
The celebration of Pentecost didn’t begin with the Apostolic Church. It was an ancient feast central to ancient Israel’s calendar. Called the Feast of Shavuot (The Seven Weeks) in Hebrew and Pentekostes (The Fifty Days) in Greek – both referring to the time since Passover – it commemorated the 50th day after God led them out of Egypt, when he ratified the covenant at Mount Sinai and gave them the Law through Moses.
The Law was a sign of God’s love. Its purpose was to make God’s people holy, providing a way of life that set them apart as a sign of his love and goodness so that all peoples could recognize the one true God through them. But Israel’s part was to keep the Law by their human determination, and they failed and fell into sin again and again.
While God continued to recall his people to the Law, the prophets also foretold that he would intervene in a powerful way to break the cycle. Even Moses exclaimed “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets and received his spirit!” (Numbers 11:29). Other prophets spoke of God’s work “when the spirit is poured from on high and the desert becomes fruitful” (Isaiah 32:15), sending “the spirit on your children, blessing on your descendants” (Isaiah 44:4). Other promises speak of cleansing and renewal of the heart: “I will put my spirit within you so that you walk in my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep them” (Ezekiel 36:27).
This is why it is so significant that the Holy Spirit was sent on Pentecost: he is the fulfillment of the prophecies about the new law, and at the same time gives the power to live by it. Through the Holy Spirit the Sacraments of the Church happen, giving us God’s grace and transforming us by his love. God gave a law at Mount Sinai that was a sign of his love, but in the Holy Spirit, he has given us Love himself.
-Fr Nate
