The Holy and Great Feast of Pentecost – The Sunday of the Most Holy and Life-Giving Trinity.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to the Apostle and Evangelist John (John 7:37–52; 8:12).

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying:

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, “Truly this is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?” So there was a division among the people because of Him. Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him.

Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them,

“Why have you not brought Him?” The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!” Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? But this crowd that does not know the Law is accursed.”

Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them:

“Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?”

They answered and said to him: “Are you also from Galilee? Search and see that no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.”

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying: “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

Homily

Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Today we celebrate the glorious fulfillment of the economy of salvation: the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. On this feast, the Most Holy Trinity is fully and radiantly revealed—one God in three Persons: the Father, who sends the Son; the Son, who was incarnate, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven; and the Holy Spirit, who is now poured out upon the world.

What the prophets foretold, and what thirsty hearts longed for, is now fulfilled: humanity is visited by the Uncreated Light, and the world is no longer orphaned, for the Spirit, promised by the Father, now abides with us forever. As the Lord said:

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37–38).

And the Evangelist clarifies:

“This He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive” (v. 39).

This living water is not a poetic metaphor, but the real, life-giving, and personal presence of the Holy Spirit—who is not some impersonal energy, but the third Person of the Holy Trinity, consubstantial with the Father and the Son. The spring of water welling up within the heart of the baptized is none other than the very grace of the Spirit, who transforms, regenerates, illumines, and sanctifies.

As Saint Gregory the Theologian says:

“The Spirit is light, life, and the source of holiness. He is God, and He deifies” (Oration 31.4).

And Saint Basil the Great declares:

“Through the Spirit we are restored to the likeness of God; indeed, without the Spirit it is impossible to see the Son, and without the Son, no one can come to the Father” (On the Holy Spirit, XV.36).

Therefore, it is the Holy Spirit who makes our union with God possible. It is the Spirit who makes us the Church, who incorporates us into the Body of Christ, who enables us to cry out: “Abba, Father!” (cf. Romans 8:15). It is the Spirit who makes us living temples of God, who guides us into all truth, and who leads us into communion with the divine life, just as the Lord promised.

Yet let us be attentive, beloved brothers and sisters, not to fall into a dangerous simplification: it is not correct, according to the Orthodox faith, to say that the Church was “born” on the day of Pentecost—as is sometimes carelessly stated, often echoing Western theological categories that are foreign to our Holy Tradition.

The Holy Church does not have a sudden or incidental origin. She is inscribed in the eternal design of God.

According to Holy Tradition, the Church was conceived within the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, built up stone by stone during the earthly ministry of the Lord, and brought to sacramental fulfillment through the pierced side of the Savior upon the Cross, from which flowed blood and water—living signs of Baptism and the Eucharist, the visible foundation of the Holy Mysteries.

As Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, teaches:

“The Church came forth from the side of Christ, just as Eve came forth from the side of Adam”

(Explanatio in Lucam, II, 85).

And Saint John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople, declares:

“From the side of Christ hanging on the Cross flowed the sacraments of the Church; just as God drew Eve from the side of Adam, so Christ brought forth the Church from His side”

(Homily 85 on the Gospel of John).

In that blood and in that water, the Church contemplates the mystery of Holy Baptism and the Divine Eucharist. It is from the sacrifice of the Cross that the Church receives her sacramental reality: the altar of the New Covenant is Golgotha. Every time we celebrate the Divine Liturgy, we return there, to the very heart of the Paschal mystery. The first true Eucharist is the Cross itself—not a room with a table, but the immolated Body of the Lord, whose Blood is poured out “for many, for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28).

The Apostles, therefore, were already presbyters and ministers of the New Testament. One must not suppose that the Christian priesthood was “instituted” juridically at the Mystical Supper, as though no sacred ministry existed prior to it. That Last Supper was a mystical revelation, not a legal founding act. The Apostles had already been chosen, already sent forth, already made partakers in the authority of the Master: they had preached, cast out demons, healed the sick, and performed works proper to the sacred ministry under the direct guidance of Christ.

In the Upper Room, the Lord entrusted to them the Mystery of His Body and Blood, prefiguring in sacramental form what would soon be fulfilled in the bloody sacrifice of Calvary.

The Eucharist, which unites us to the Cross and Resurrection, is the ever-present event of the Lord’s Pascha. As a Mystery of salvation, it finds its source upon Golgotha: the Supper is the liturgical anticipation of the Sacrifice, and only in the light of the Cross and the Resurrection is it revealed as the enduring Sacrament of the Lord’s real Presence.

Saint John Chrysostom writes:

“The Apostles had already been purified, enlightened, and instructed by the Lord. At Pentecost, they received the fullness of power from on high in order to carry out what they had already received from Christ”

(Homily on Acts 2:1).

The Apostles, therefore, were already shepherds, pillars of the New Israel, sharers in the power of the Risen One. And it was in the light of the glorified Christ and through the outpouring of the Spirit that the Church—One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic—began to shine forth her eternal vocation: to be in the world the living Body of the crucified and risen Lord, the universal sacrament of salvation.

Their ministry did not begin at Pentecost, but in the Pascha of the Risen Christ, when He appeared to them in the Upper Room and, breathing on them, said:

“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”.

(John 20:22–23)

The word used by John for the Spirit is pneûma (πνεῦμα), meaning breath, wind, or spirit. This directly recalls Genesis, where it is written that the Spirit of God hovered over the waters (Genesis 1:2 LXX), and when God breathed into the nostrils of man the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). Christ, the New Adam, regenerates His disciples in the breath of the Spirit, sacramentally anticipating what would be revealed in visible and glorious form at Pentecost.

The Spirit is not a force, but a living and personal Being—He speaks, comforts, guides, and sanctifies. He is the very breath of God, dwelling in the hearts of the faithful. Christ calls Him the Paraclete—ὁ Παράκλητος (ho Parákletos)—which means “He who is called alongside,” that is, the Comforter, the Advocate, the Defender.

The Lord says:

“The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and remind you of all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).

And Saint Cyril of Alexandria comments:

“The Paraclete is the Spirit of the Son, who unites us to Christ and makes us partakers of His divine nature”

(Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book XI).

Pentecost, therefore, is their visible and glorious investiture, the public manifestation of the power from on high, the consecration by heavenly fire that confirms them in their ministry and sends them into the world.

Saint Gregory Palamas writes:

“The Spirit, who was already at work within them, descended visibly in order to make them manifest to the world, and to confirm—in the sight and hearing of all—that the Triune God had made the earth His tabernacle”

(Homily on Pentecost, I).

Thus, Pentecost is not the absolute beginning, but the seal placed upon the redemptive work of Christ. It is the day when the Church, already living and real, begins to appear in her fullness to the world and to spread among the nations. It is the moment when the disciples, once fearful and hidden, become ardent heralds of the Gospel—like torches set ablaze by the flame of the Holy Spirit.

Brothers and sisters, Pentecost is not a past event.

It is renewed today, every time we receive the holy Mysteries with a contrite heart, every time we call upon the Spirit in truth.

With humility but also with deep emotion, I can tell you: I have seen Pentecost in the faces of people marked by suffering.

Some months ago, a young man, after receiving the mystery of confession, burst into tears. They were not tears of shame, but of liberation. He simply said to me:

“Father, it’s as if a huge weight has been lifted. I haven’t felt like this in years…”

Another young man, after attentively participating for the first time in the Divine Liturgy, approached in silence, almost embarrassed, and then said:

“I feel… renewed. As if something has been lit inside me.”

This is the martyria – μαρτυρία – the living testimony.

The Church does not grow through propaganda, but through authentic martyria, lived and full of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus promised:

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses (mártyres – μάρτυρες)” (Acts 1:8).

From this also comes martyrdom: the mártys is the one who bears perfect witness, even unto blood.

But every Christian is called, each day, to be a witness—even without noise or acclaim: through forgiveness, through truth, through silent charity.

Saint Maximus the Confessor writes:

“He who truly loves God is ready to confess Him in word, in deeds, in life—and, if necessary, with his blood.”

(Capita on Charity, II, 12)

And now, let us turn our gaze to tomorrow, Monday, June 9th, known as the Monday of the Holy Spirit.

On this day, we not only remember the descent of the Spirit but also the beginning of the public mission of the Apostles: it is the day on which, filled with the Holy Spirit, they begin to preach openly in the Temple of Jerusalem.

Saint John Chrysostom says:

“The Holy Spirit not only makes the Apostles wise, but also gives them courage, boldness in preaching, and tirelessness in bearing witness to the truth.”

(Homily on Acts 2:14–41)

The Liturgy of the Monday of the Holy Spirit makes us sing:

“Come, O peoples, let us worship the consubstantial Trinity! For the Father has begotten the Son before all ages, and the Holy Spirit is in God, with God, and one with the Father and the Son.”

Brothers and sisters, let us then allow ourselves to be renewed in the depths of our being.

Faith is not a spectacle to be observed, nor a tradition to be kept inert: it is a living gift, which involves us and calls us to go beyond ourselves. We were not chosen to remain spectators but to become witnesses.

We have received a fire — the Spirit of God — and this fire must not be kept jealously, but shared. That is how the world is transformed: from heart to heart, from light to light.

And yet, we must ask ourselves sincerely:

Are we truly witnesses, or are we slowly settling into a comfortable faith, one that does not disturb or take risks?

Does our life reflect the light of the Risen One, or does it hide it under the ashes of habit and indifference?

Is our heart still that living spring welling up to eternal life, as the Lord says (cf. Jn 4:14), or has it become a cracked cistern, incapable of holding the water and the joy of grace? (cf. Jer 2:13)

This is why, today more than ever, we must rediscover the power of testimony.

It is not possible to remain neutral after encountering Christ. If we have truly seen, if we have truly heard, then — like the Apostles — we too cannot remain silent:

“We cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:20).

Not out of obligation, but out of love. Not because of duty, but because the grace we have within cannot remain hidden.

So with faith and devotion, let us now turn to the Spirit with the words of the Holy Liturgy:

“O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of truth, who are everywhere present and fill all things, Treasury of blessings and Giver of life, come and dwell in us, cleanse us from every stain, and save, O Good One, our souls.”

Amen.

Archpriest Michele Alberto Del Duca.