The Giving and Fulfillment of a Divine Promise

As Aaron and I have discovered time and time again, the Holidays that I am about to describe are directly related to one other, and moreover, the Catholic Feast Day is born out of an already present Jewish Feast Day. Again, uncovering the roots of my faith make it so much more rich and alive to me. The fact that Christ used a festive celebration to bestow His spirit upon His people, makes me believe that that festive celebration was important and the meaning of it should be remembered and passed on. Pentecost Sunday is a holiday that Christians honor and celebrate year after year as the closing of the Easter season- it is celebrated on the 7th Sunday following Easter. I wonder how many of those Christians are aware of the fact that large assemblies were gathered on the first Pentecost, then Shavuoth, to give thanks to God for giving them the law on Mount Sinai? Christ used this day for a reason and I am loving uncovering these roots of my faith.  

Holiday: Shavuoth- May 14, 2013 & Pentecost Sunday- May 19, 2013

Celebration: Shavuoth or The Feast of Weeks, occurs fifty days after Passover and commemorates two things: thanksgiving for the grain harvest and for the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai. Coming seven weeks from the second day of Pesach (First Fruits), Shavuoth is a time for reading the Book of Ruth, for eating dairy foods and fresh bread. In the Old Testament, the priests offered two loaves made from the newly harvested grain.

It was on Shavuoth that the Holy Spirit fell on the Apostles and the Church was born, the Christian feast of Pentecost. It was ten days after the Ascension of Our Lord, and the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary were gathered in the Upper Room, where they had seen Christ after His Resurrection. Christ had promised His Apostles that He would sent His Holy Spirit, and, on Pentecost, they were granted the gifts of the Spirit. The Apostles began to preach the Gospel in all of the languages that the Jews who were gathered there spoke, and about 3,000 people were converted and baptized that day.
Because these feast days naturally coincide, they just make sense to celebrate together.

Historical background:

Most of us have been taught that Pentecost is the Church’s birthday, and in a way that is true, but as recorded in Acts it is very much rooted in Judaism and a renewal of the covenant as the people of God. The renowned Biblical Scholar after Vatican II, Raymond Brown, insisted that if we are to understand Pentecost as recorded in Acts we must first understand that this festival and the other two, Passover and Tabernacles, that the Jews as pilgrims went up to Jerusalem, came to have salvific significances that originally had associations with the feasts celebrated when the Hebrews were a nomadic and agricultural people.

Originally the Hebrews, as seen in the lives of the Patriarchs, were a shepherding people who for six months of the year had to move their flocks along the water beds, as after April there was no more rain until October. Before setting out the shepherds would offer a new born lamb or a goat to God to pray to be able to find enough pasture for their flocks for the next six months. This was naturally a Pastoral Feast and was referred to as Passover with the lamb or goat known as the Passover. When they became an agriculture people, the livelihood of the people were celebrated in three feasts. At roughly the same time in April they offered the first grain of their barley harvest. This festival of Unleavened Bread lasted for six days and before cutting the first harvest, all leaven bread was discarded.

About seven weeks later, usually in May or June the main harvest, the wheat crop, took place, and the first sheaths or first fruits were offered to Yahweh and was known as the Feast of Weeks. In Autumn, late September or October, it was the time for harvesting the fruits and especially the grapes and making wine. The vines were usually grown on hillsides, but the farmers lived in a village. Thus in harvest time they made huts or booths in the field to protect their fruits from thieves and animals. The huts were covered with foliage in order to let light come in and here the families would eat their meals under the evening skies. It was always a joyful and thankful time.

Later in the history of the Israelites these feasts were attached to salvation events that Yahweh had done for His people. Passover and unleavened bread became associated with the migration to Egypt and its eventual exodus from bondage. So the spring lamb sacrifice became attached to God passing over the homes of the Israelites when their doors were marked with the blood of the sacrifice lambs. As they had to leave in haste, they ate in haste which meant that it was unleavened bread that was prepared for the journey and not leaven that takes time to prepare.

The week of Tabernacles became attached to the wandering time in the wilderness when the Israelites lived in tents or booths. So it expressed those forty years in the desert before reaching the Promised Land. Both these festivals are mentioned in the Johannine Gospel when Jesus also went up to Jerusalem to join in the respective celebrations.

What of the feast of Weeks as being salvific? It is not mentioned as being kept in the Gospels, but it is in an apocryphal book of the first century, and more importantly it appears in the calendar of the Essene community. Members of this community had withdrawn to the desert near the Dead Sea to prepare for the Last Times. They believed that Yahweh was about to deliver His people once again and renew His covenant and so they were in the desert preparing for this coming. Like their ancestors they were being led back to the Promised Land.  In the Essene Calendar Pentecost was the most important event as all members renewed their covenant, and new members were admitted to the community after a preparation of two years by pledging to the covenant. The Essenes truly believed in the renewal of Israel. 

Through the Dead Sea Scrolls, contemporary with Jesus’ life, we know that later Rabbinic interpretation of the events of old had calculated that it had taken approximately fifty days to journey from Egypt to Mt. Sinai. This of course was the occasion that Yahweh gave the Law and Covenant to Moses. God had called these stragglers who were no people to be His people and He would be their God. Furthermore in later rabbinic teaching it was said that when God spoke in the thunder and lightning on Mt. Sinai, Moses climbed the mountain to speak with him.  The people below on the plain witnessed all this through mighty wind and tongues of fire. It was further maintained that when Yahweh thundered on Mt. Sinai He invited all people to be His, but only the Hebrews responded. In his writing about this occasion, the Jewish historian, Philo, suggested that the people knew of this as angels carried this message to them in tongues. Pentecost meant the renewal of giving of the Law and the covenant that Yahweh made with His people at Mt. Sinai.

So it would seem that the renewal of the covenant at Pentecost, the Greek Word for fifty days, was known in the early first century A.D. and certainly by the author of Acts. So the First of Weeks, now Pentecost, became with the other feasts, an integral part of the whole salvific process not only for the Jews who saw themselves as being the people who Yahweh has led out Egypt, through the desert and brought to the promised land but also for the first Christians who we must remember were also Jews. 

Amongst those early Jewish Christians, especially those living in the Johannine community Jesus himself is the paschal lamb that is slain for the sin of all. He dies at the time when the lamb is slain for the Passover as we have recorded in the fourth Gospel. Paul also would refer to Christ in Passover terms. “Christ is our Passover, therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leavened of malice and wickedness but with the new of truth and sincerity.

The offering of the first sheaf of harvest was soon seen as a symbol of the resurrection, especially illustrated by Paul in his resurrection theology when he spoke of Christ being the first fruits of all them that have slept. This first fruit, the sheath, is a thanksgiving offering and the assurance that all the sheaves would be gathered, and so in turn all will be resurrected. 

Now to the beginning of Acts - The author has prepared for this occasion by ensuring that there are the Twelve, and just as there were forty years wandering in the desert before reaching the Promised Land, and Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness too tempted by Satan in preparation for His ministry, so in Acts there are Forty Days too to prepare for the renewal of Israel at Pentecost.

Having become one of the festivals for which all Jews traveled up to Jerusalem, fifty days after Passover and for Jesus’ disciples, those events of the first Easter Day or  would have found the disciples travelling from Galilee where they had returned to their fishing nets. The author of Acts uses this feast as the occasion for the renewal of the people of Israel and their Covenant. 

Jerusalem is of course filled with pilgrims at festival time and the Twelve with Mary, the women, other disciples and members of Jesus’ family were all gathered in the home of one of the disciples. What were their thoughts? Were they thinking about their own history and how their ancestors of old had made that trek from Egypt to Sinai? Did they ponder on those events that unfolded on this holy mount? Did their minds stray to the infidelity of the Hebrews after agreeing to be God’s people and obey His Laws? Were they recalling and sharing those remarkable events seven weeks ago? Wherever their thoughts or discussions were, the whole atmosphere was changed in a twinkling of an eye. 

The episode that followed as described by the author is so reminiscent of the Sinai experience. Noise is almost unbearable, and tongues of fire symbolized something divine was happening – in this case, the outpouring of the Spirit upon them, that gift promised by their dear Lord before His death. 

This renewal of the covenant through the power of the Holy Spirit had to be a noisy and visual business as was the giving of the covenant on Mt. Sinai.

Biblical basis:

Acts 2:2-4
2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested[a] on each one of them.4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Exodus 24:12
12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.”

Exodus 24:13-18
13 So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them.”

15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Leviticus 23:16
16 You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering ofnew grain to the Lord.

Ways to Celebrate:
-Craft ideas for kids and youth:
**Make a ten commandments craft...this one is for younger kids but can be reworded as they get older

**Make a Holy Spirit mobile with the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit

-Fun family ideas:

**Wear red to mass (red is a symbol of the fire of the Holy Spirit)
**Bake red velvet cupcakes
**Hold a family dinner and make blintzes, a dairy based food. Because the Torah is likened to milk, as the verse says, "Like honey and milk [the Torah] lies under your tongue" (Song of Songs 4:11). Just as milk has the ability to fully sustain the body of a human being (i.e. a nursing baby), so too the word of God provides all the “spiritual nourishment” necessary for the human soul and this is the day God gave his commandments as spiritual nourishment.
**Practice the ten commandments using sign language!
**Have everyone make origami doves and hang them all around the dinner table!

-Religious traditions:
**Attend mass together
**Read the story from exodus about the recount of the giving of the Holy Spirit

How we celebrated:

Go in Peace, Giving God Glory with Your Life

When events in our lives happen on a weekly basis, they tend to lose their allure. They don't seem THAT special or worth making much of a fuss over. As is the sad truth with the Lord's Day- Sunday. Because it comes every week and is celebrated in much the same way every week, if celebrated at all, the beauty and joy that should emanate from this weekly remembrance of the sacrifice the Lord made for us and the gifts He continuously blesses us with, is instead a dull rhythm among the many other beats and motions of our every day life. I did a study with a group a while back on an apostolic letter written by Pope John Paul II entitled "Dies Domini" which focuses on keeping the Lord's Day Holy. I want to share with you some of the profound thoughts that he discussed and how they impacted my view of the Lord's Day.

For the entire letter, please follow this link...

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_05071998_dies-domini_en.html

"The custom of the "weekend" has become more widespread, a weekly period of respite, spent perhaps far from home and often involving participation in cultural, political or sporting activities which are usually held on free days. This social and cultural phenomenon is by no means without its positive aspects if, while respecting true values, it can contribute to people's development and to the advancement of the life of society as a whole. All of this responds not only to the need for rest, but also to the need for celebration which is inherent in our humanity. Unfortunately, when Sunday loses its fundamental meaning and becomes merely part of a "weekend", it can happen that people stay locked within a horizon so limited that they can no longer see "the heavens". Hence, though ready to celebrate, they are really incapable of doing so."

"Do not be afraid to give your time to Christ! Yes, let us open our time to Christ, that he may cast light upon it and give it direction. He is the One who knows the secret of time and the secret of eternity, and he gives us "his day" as an ever new gift of his love. The rediscovery of this day is a grace which we must implore, not only so that we may live the demands of faith to the full, but also so that we may respond concretely to the deepest human yearnings."       

Holiday: Sunday- The Lord's Day- celebrated weekly

Celebration: "It is Easter which returns week by week, celebrating Christ's victory over sin and death, the fulfillment in him of the first creation and the dawn of "the new creation". It is the day which recalls in grateful adoration the world's first day and looks forward in active hope to "the last day", when Christ will come in glory and all things will be made new."  

Historical background: In the last post, I discussed the roots of the Shabbat- the day of rest in the Jewish faith. The Lord's day is seen as the fulfillment of the Shabbat and emphasizes the same values and practices. However, the difference is that The Lord's Day is seen as a feast day, a day of great celebration and joy! I will talk about the transfer of the celebration from Saturday to Sunday in this section since the roots of The Lord's Day share the same roots as Shabbat.

"Because the Third Commandment depends upon the remembrance of God's saving works and because Christians saw the definitive time inaugurated by Christ as a new beginning, they made the first day after the Sabbath a festive day, for that was the day on which the Lord rose from the dead. The Paschal Mystery of Christ is the full revelation of the mystery of the world's origin, the climax of the history of salvation and the anticipation of the eschatological fulfillment of the world."

"In him, the "spiritual" meaning of the Sabbath is fully realized, as Saint Gregory the Great declares: "For us, the true Sabbath is the person of our Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ". This is why the joy with which God, on humanity's first Sabbath, contemplates all that was created from nothing, is now expressed in the joy with which Christ, on Easter Sunday, appeared to his disciples, bringing the gift of peace and the gift of the Spirit . It was in the Paschal Mystery that humanity, and with it the whole creation, "groaning in birth-pangs until now", came to know its new "exodus" into the freedom of God's children who can cry out with Christ, "Abba, Father!". In the light of this mystery, the meaning of the Old Testament precept concerning the Lord's Day is recovered, perfected and fully revealed in the glory which shines on the face of the Risen Christ. We move from the "Sabbath" to the "first day after the Sabbath", from the seventh day to the first day: the dies Domini becomes the dies Christi!""

What The Lord's Day REALLY Means:
"A comparison of the Christian Sunday with the Old Testament vision of the Sabbath prompted theological insights of great interest. In particular, there emerged the unique connection between the Resurrection and Creation. Christian thought spontaneously linked the Resurrection, which took place on "the first day of the week", with the first day of that cosmic week which shapes the creation story in the Book of Genesis: the day of the creation of light. This link invited an understanding of the Resurrection as the beginning of a new creation, the first fruits of which is the glorious Christ, "the first born of all creation" and "the first born from the dead.""

"Sunday is not only the first day, it is also "the eighth day", set within the sevenfold succession of days in a unique and transcendent position which evokes not only the beginning of time but also its end in "the age to come." In celebrating Sunday, both the "first" and the "eighth" day, the Christian is led towards the goal of eternal life."

Celebrating as a Community:
"For this presence to be properly proclaimed and lived, it is not enough that the disciples of Christ pray individually and commemorate the death and Resurrection of Christ inwardly, in the secrecy of their hearts. Those who have received the grace of baptism are not saved as individuals alone, but as members of the Mystical Body, having become part of the People of God. It is important therefore that they come together to express fully the very identity of the Church, the ekklesia, the assembly called together by the Risen Lord who offered his life "to reunite the scattered children of God". They have become "one" in Christ  through the gift of the Spirit. This unity becomes visible when Christians gather together: it is then that they come to know vividly and to testify to the world that they are the people redeemed, drawn "from every tribe and language and people and nation.""

"But because of its special solemnity and the obligatory presence of the community, and because it is celebrated "on the day when Christ conquered death and gave us a share in his immortal life", The Sunday Eucharist expresses with greater emphasis its inherent ecclesial dimension. It becomes the paradigm for other Eucharistic celebrations. Each community, gathering all its members for the "breaking of the bread", becomes the place where the mystery of the Church is concretely made present. In celebrating the Eucharist, the community opens itself to communion with the universal Church,(45) imploring the Father to "remember the Church throughout the world" and make her grow in the unity of all the faithful with the Pope and with the Pastors of the particular Churches, until love is brought to perfection."

"It is also important to be ever mindful that communion with Christ is deeply tied to communion with our brothers and sisters. Like the first witnesses of the Resurrection, Christians who gather each Sunday to experience and proclaim the presence of the Risen Lord are called to evangelize and bear witness in their daily lives.Once the assembly disperses, Christ's disciples return to their everyday surroundings with the commitment to make their whole life a gift, a spiritual sacrifice pleasing to God"

-When I was doing this study with my group, one of the members commented that, "Faith is personal, not individual." I really liked this comment because it shows that we all NEED each other. Faith is meant to be communal and we are supposed to share in its joys, mysteries, sorrows, and depths together.

"Sunday should also give the faithful an opportunity to devote themselves to works of mercy, charity and apostolate. To experience the joy of the Risen Lord deep within is to share fully the love which pulses in his heart: there is no joy without love!"

"If Sunday is a day of joy, Christians should declare by their actual behavior that we cannot be happy "on our own". They look around to find people who may need their help."

"In the Sunday commemoration of Easter, believers learn from Christ, and remembering his promise: "I leave you peace, my peace I give you", they become in their turn builders of peace."

-I love the idea of celebrating the beauty of the day by serving those around you! What an incredible way to commemorate the Lord's Day!

Biblical basis:
Galatians 3:28
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 4:6
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Genesis 2:2-32 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

Deuteronomy 5:12
12 “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.

Leviticus 23:1-3 23The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts.

3 “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places.

Exodus 20:8
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Exodus 35
35 Moses assembled all the congregation of the people of Israel and said to them, “These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do. 2 Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. 3 You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day.”

Why we should Celebrate:
"Coming as it does from the hand of God, the cosmos bears the imprint of his goodness. It is a beautiful world, rightly moving us to admiration and delight, but also calling for cultivation and development. At the "completion" of God's work, the world is ready for human activity. "On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done". With this anthropomorphic image of God's "work", the Bible not only gives us a glimpse of the mysterious relationship between the Creator and the created world, but also casts light upon the task of human beings in relation to the cosmos. The "work" of God is in some ways an example for man, called not only to inhabit the cosmos, but also to "build" it and thus become God's "co-worker""

"In fact, the Lord's Day is lived well if it is marked from beginning to end by grateful and active remembrance of God's saving work. This commits each of Christ's disciples to shape the other moments of the day — those outside the liturgical context: family life, social relationships, moments of relaxation — in such a way that the peace and joy of the Risen Lord will emerge in the ordinary events of life."

"Rest is something "sacred", because it is man's way of withdrawing from the sometimes excessively demanding cycle of earthly tasks in order to renew his awareness that everything is the work of God. There is a risk that the prodigious power over creation which God gives to man can lead him to forget that God is the Creator upon whom everything depends. It is all the more urgent to recognize this dependence in our own time, when science and technology have so incredibly increased the power which man exercises through his work."

"Through Sunday rest, daily concerns and tasks can find their proper perspective: the material things about which we worry give way to spiritual values; in a moment of encounter and less pressured exchange, we see the true face of the people with whom we live. Even the beauties of nature — too often marred by the desire to exploit, which turns against man himself — can be rediscovered and enjoyed to the full."

Why is mass seen as an obligation:
"One should never forget the genuine heroism of priests and faithful who have fulfilled this obligation even when faced with danger and the denial of religious freedom, as can be documented from the first centuries of Christianity up to our own time."

"Even if in the earliest times it was not judged necessary to be prescriptive, the Church has not ceased to confirm this obligation of conscience, which rises from the inner need felt so strongly by the Christians of the first centuries. It was only later, faced with the half-heartedness or negligence of some, that the Church had to make explicit the duty to attend Sunday Mass."

"The rest decreed in order to honor the day dedicated to God is not at all a burden imposed upon man, but rather an aid to help him to recognize his life-giving and liberating dependence upon the Creator, and at the same time his calling to cooperate in the Creator's work and to receive his grace. In honoring God's "rest", man fully discovers himself, and thus the Lord's Day bears the profound imprint of God's blessing."

-It's interesting to me that it was made an obligation because so many people just decided to stop celebrating Mass. Even today, all over the world, people put themselves at a huge risk for persecution if they attend mass, yet because they are so convicted, they still attend. In the United States, we have complete religious freedom, but just decide not to attend when it doesn't fit into our lives. When I think of those people who risk their lives on a weekly basis for the opportunity to celebrate Mass, it makes me feel guilty and embarrassed at the times that I just couldn't make time for Mass.

Ways to Celebrate:

-Craft ideas for kids and youth:
**Family Sabbath Box- Keep a box in the middle of the table that holds a notebook for each member of your family. During or after Sunday dinner, have each person open their book to the next blank page and write or draw something that shows what they did to celebrate the Sabbath/ Lord's Day and how they are thankful for that opportunity because it brought them joy! It could be spending time with family, praying, doing works of charity, or any other activity. Make sure to include the date so you can look back and remember all that you have done.

-Fun family ideas:
**Do a volunteer project together
**Bake something and write a sweet note to deliver to your neighbors
**Hold a special dinner every Sunday night

-Religious traditions:

**Go to Mass!
**Add a special prayer to your Sunday dinner-
Where should I begin, Jesus, to unclutter my life?
I have yielded to temptation and filled my days with more commitments than I can comfortably manage.
Help me make myself a little less busy..

Free my time.

I have crowded my space with too much baggage:
With gadgets and conveniences and possessions.
Help me to let go of whatever I cling to.

Free my hands.

I have filled my head with trivial distractions:
News, weather, gossip and prejudices.
Help me to focus on more important concerns.

Free my mind.

Jesus, my life is cluttered with more idols than I realized.
I have given them a reverence they do not deserve!
Teach me to renounce their claim on me,and end my divided allegiance.

Guide me to a simpler life and more generous service to You!
Amen

Connecting Shabbat and The Lord's Day:
I am excited for the opportunity to focus on making the entire a weekend a celebration of all that the Lord has done for us and making Him the focus of all that we do. By ushering in the Sabbath on Friday and spending Saturday focusing on the rest and peacefulness of the celebration, Sunday can be dedicated to celebrating the joy of the day! Our days and weeks fly by, so by trying to dedicate more focused time to our Lord on the weekends, I feel like the spirit of his presence will be strengthened throughout the week.

How we celebrated:

Our celebrations vary on a week to week basis right now because we are not living together and have not had the opportunity to establish our own traditions in our own home. However, we have lots of good ideas and things we want to incorporate once that time comes. Now, we celebrate by going to mass, sharing a breakfast together and with family and friends when we can, going for walks, and having a relaxing Sunday dinner. I am excited for the future when we can create our wknds focused around the rest, joy, and rejuvenation that come along with the Sabbath celebration!

One of our Sunday breakfasts with the Wechters