Augustine Sokolovski
On the first Sunday after Pentecost, the Orthodox Church celebrates All Saints' Day. In the Roman Catholic Church, as well as among some Protestants, it is the Feast of the Holy Trinity, and All Saints' Day is always celebrated on November 1st. This is important to know because the connection of "All Saints" to Pentecost is one of the most overwhelmingly important characteristics of Orthodoxy.
There is no separate Feast of the Holy Trinity in the Orthodox Church. However, in some Local Churches, in the Russian Church, and in those particularly related to it by a common origin or history, Pentecost is also often called the Feast of the Holy Trinity.
Holy Scripture and the faith of the Church attest that the Son of God, made man in Jesus Christ, fully, definitively, and irrevocably reveals God the Father. In the same way, and in the same final and irrevocable fullness, the Holy Spirit reveals the Son of God. This is one of the principal dogmatic meanings of the Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
No one has ever seen God the Father. The Son of God rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. To speak in the simple human language of "analogical theology," neither the Father nor the Son, is "accessible" to humanity anymore. The Holy Spirit, on the contrary, is "accessible" to all. Moreover, He is this accessibility of God here on earth, until the Second Coming of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the complete openness and unlimited accessibility of God.
But accessibility is often synonymous with vulnerability. The Holy Spirit is easy to appropriate. This is why there have been, are, and will be so many heresies, errors, and schisms throughout Christian history. The truth of the Gospel has also often been distorted, either by greed or by violence. But the punishment for such "mastery" of the Holy Spirit is extremely severe. Jesus says in the Gospel that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will absolutely not be forgiven, neither in this age nor in the Kingdom to come.
If the Son of God fully reveals God the Father, and if the Holy Spirit fully reveals the Son of God, then who reveals the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is revealed in the saints. By the power of grace and by the mysterious choice of divine predestination for the salvation of creation, the saints acquire the ability to reveal the Holy Spirit here and now on earth. They will be able, after the Second Coming of Christ and the end of history, to reveal the Spirit in His fullness, or, better still, the Spirit himself will reveal himself fully, definitively, and irrevocably in the saints.
Every day of the year, the Church celebrates the memory of the saints. Thus, the entire year, or, as the liturgical books say, the Time of God or the Season of the Lord, is a continuous celebration of All Saints' Day. It is a thanksgiving to God for the exploits of the saints, for the divine grace already manifested in them. It is gratitude for the past, for the path taken by the saints. For its part, the feast of All Saints' Day after Pentecost is a harbinger of the future. It is a prophetic foretaste of that future triumph, when, according to the words of the Apostle Paul, God will be all in all.
The time after Pentecost fills the Church with hope. After all, looking at this countless host of witnesses, as the New Testament texts call the saints, believers, living through the last times, know that in this flock of heavenly birds, by the Holy Spirit, there is still a place for everyone.