Augustine Sokolovski
Today is the celebration of Mid-Pentecost. The very day of Mid-Pentecost means the passage of exactly the period that separates Easter from the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. Like the most important, twelfth feasts in honor of the Lord in the orthodox tradition, the Mid-Pentecost, in the image of blessed eternity of the City of God, is celebrated by the Church for eight days.
It is important to understand that both events - Easter Day and Pentecost - represent the true revelation of the Paschal Mystery of the Resurrection of Christ.
To understand the essence of the celebration of Mid-Pentecost, it is important to turn to the mystery of the Paschal Dogma. The resurrected Lord Jesus appeared to the Apostles for the required number of days. In Scripture it is symbolically denoted by the number forty. The resurrected Lord Jesus spoke to the disciples about the mysteries of the Kingdom of God.
In the light of these appearances of the Savior, the Apostles wrote the New Testament texts, which were included in the canon of the Holy Books of Scripture under the name of the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles. These New Testament texts are an example and a model, a normative norm, norma normans, of all the proclamation and teaching of the Church for all time. They are the Paschal reading of all that "that the Lord Jesus did and taught from the beginning" (Acts 1:1).
On Mid-Pentecost, during the liturgy, an excerpt from the Gospel of John is read, in which the Lord Jesus proclaims His Messiahship in the face of those who accuse Him in the Jerusalem Temple. “But already in the middle of the feast, Jesus entered the temple and taught,” the initial words sound (Jn. 7; 14-30).
This reading allows us to come close to understanding how the Apostolic Community, in the light of the Resurrection, remembered what the Lord Jesus said as a messianic manifestation of the Spirit that had already taken place. The Pascha of the Resurrection gave a new and complete understanding of what He had previously said in his earthly life. On the Day of Mid-Pentecost, the Church, as a Society of Believers, partakes in the mystery of connecting the Paschal perspective with the events of the Earthly Life of the Lord.
Finally, Mid-Pentecost is a reminder of how each day brings the Church and the Universe closer to the Eschatological Meeting with the Lord. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ is the Faith of the Church, part of the Paschal Dogma. Halfway - half the way, which has already been passed.