Keeping in our Liturgy the Vigil of Pentecost, as distinct from the feast day of Pentecost itself, means we are in this Mass participating in the fermenting prayer of the 120 apostles in the Upper Room on the ninth day, us with them who are awaiting the Promise of the Father. Let us put ourselves into the 120 apostles; let us put ourselves with the Upper Room Church of Jerusalem. What would it be like to be in the room, there with the Twelve (including Saint Mathias) and with Blessed Mary, with Saint Mary Magdalene, Saint Martha, Saint Mary Cleophas, and other of the Holy Women; with Saint Mark, Saint Luke, Saint James the first bishop of Jerusalem, and others.
That leaves about 100 disciples not named. Let us make ourselves one of them, so to speak. Let us, as they undoubtedly did, look around, and see all the holy men and women in the Upper Room. Let us, as they undoubtedly had, have hearts lit up by the presence of Christ Ascended to the Right Hand of the Father: His presence known to them transparently, but really and actually known to them through the opening of Scripture and the breaking of bread. Can we doubt that in the very room where Christ in His Resurrected and Glorious Body taught the apostles how to read Scripture so as to open it to Him, and where He commanded them to Take, Eat, and Take, Drink at the Last Supper, and demonstrated it unmistakably at the house in Emmaus—can we doubt that these 120 religious sheep spent the nine days opening Scripture and Breaking Bread, and can we doubt they sensed and knew Christ’s Presence? That they felt Christ’s Presence? That He Who is the I-Am was abundant in His I-Am-ness amongst such faithful disciples who were over the whole of the nine days together with one accord devoted to prayer, and devoted completely?
What would it be like to be in the Upper Room having already witnessed Christ’s Ascension? Would they even have words for this unfathomable mystery? My thinking is, they would not have many words, because their hearts were so drawn into Christ, so filled by the presence Holy Spirit, so infused by awe, wonder, adoration, and trembling—that is, infused by Holy Fear: that because they felt protected, fed, healed, guided (all of which means they felt loved)—their fellowship was a holy fellowship, their identity that of members incorporated into the mystical Body of Christ—that is was a room that took everyone’s breath away, only to be filled with the Holy breath of the Holy Ghost who was remaking them and restoring their likeness.
We know their hearts were on fire through Christ known through the opening of Scripture. Peter’s sermon on Pentecost included a long quote from the Prophet Joel, which we heard. Joel articulated what he heard by the Holy Spirit from Christ, that I, Christ, will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Joel heard Christ say that sons and daughters will prophesy – which means, be able to speak about how the Holy Spirit is present in their lives. Male and female servants, young men and old men, all will be given the Holy Spirit poured over them. And can we doubt that in reading this Scripture together—for it is fitting to understand that being gathered together with one accord devoted to prayer would read Scripture aloud as a whole community—can we doubt that, knowing Who was speaking, that is, knowing Christ was speaking through Joel, that the message of the Holy Spirit out-poured upon all needed to be proclaimed aloud to all Jerusalem, even all the nations of the world?
And we know they were finding Christ in the Psalms, for Peter again in his Pentecost sermon quoted from Psalm 16, which means they read together this Psalm, where Christ, addressing the Father, said “Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell; neither shall Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption.” Christ, being the Holy One of Israel proclaimed by the Prophets but not yet revealed in the flesh until His Nativity of Blessed Mary, showed the Upper Room apostles the very basis for Christian Hope: that the Resurrection itself is clearly seen in this verse from Psalm 16, attesting to Christ’s very teaching that everything about Him can be found in the Old Testament.
My dear brothers and sisters, by the ninth day, we can say that the living water within the Upper Room was ready to burst—the womb of the Upper Room ready to go boom. Christ said, He who believes in me, as the Scripture had said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ The hearts of the Upper Room apostles were full of the Holy Spirit—emulating Blessed Mary, emulating Saint Elizabeth, emulating Saint John Baptist, Simeon, and many others. They were ready to proclaim publicly “Abba! Father!” aloud to all Jerusalem and aloud to the whole world: knowing that through them the Holy Spirit would bear witness to Christ and His Gospel. In Liturgy our hearts dwell in the Upper Room: we dwell in the Upper Room to receive the Holy Spirit and be filled ever-more by Him; that our sense of Christ’s ascended presence is transparent, real, unmistakable, and convicting. And that we not merely say, but truly know, ourselves to be led by the Spirit of God, and hence truly Sons of God, who yearn for the spiritual milk of Christ, that our illumined hearts may truly be on fire. Amen.