Pentecost is one of the most important feasts of the liturgical year. It celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Church being made manifest, and the culmination of the Easter season. And yet, despite the great importance of the day, the fifth-century pope, St. Leo the Great, who is widely considered to be the first systematic commentator on the liturgical year, seems to neglect it. Of the six sermons he preached on Pentecost Sunday, half are devoted to the Ember Days, rather than pondering the mysteries of the solemnity.[1]
The Ember Days are four weeks of fasting scattered throughout the year tied to the changing of seasons. Each Ember week, Christians dedicate themselves to fasting, prayer, and almsgiving on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. While the universal Church no longer obliges us to keep the Ember Days, many Catholics still choose to do so.
For St. Leo, the importance of the Ember Days was tied to the very mystery of Pentecost itself. To understand why, we must first explore his Trinitarian theology. The saintly pope explains that all the Persons of the Holy Trinity act together for our salvation: “Whatever the divine government does in managing all things, it comes from the providence of the whole Trinity. In the Trinity, the kindness of mercy is one, the application of justice is one, and there is no division in action where there is no difference in will. What the Father illumines, the Son illumines, and the Holy Spirit illumines.”[2]
Just as the Father and the Son are one,[3] so too are the Son and the Holy Spirit. Scripture makes the unity between the Son and Holy Spirit clear by using the same titles for both: just as the Son is the Truth,[4] the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.[5] Christ is our advocate before the Father, while the Holy Spirit is another advocate[6] As a result of the unity between the Son and the Holy Spirit, St. Leo considers Easter and Pentecost to be the same feast and the same saving mystery,[7] only with different Persons of the Trinity manifested.
This unity of the Trinity does not mean that the Persons are indistinct. Although the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit act inseparably in the work of salvation, different works are appropriated to particular Persons. St. Leo clarifies that “the mercy of the Trinity divided for itself the work of our restoration so that the Father was appeased, the Son was the appeaser, and the Holy Spirit enkindled the process.”[8]
Christ saves us through his actions by offering us both saving mysteries and an example.[9] The saving mysteries are the acts that affect our salvation. They include above all his Passion, Death, and Resurrection. The saving mysteries can be considered the objective condition for salvation. Christ’s example are what we are called to imitate. Our imitation of Christ’s example can be considered the subjective condition for salvation. While Christ through his Paschal mystery offers salvation to all, we are individually saved by following his example. However, we are wholly incapable of following the example without the gift of the Holy Spirit.[10]
To put it simply, Easter and Pentecost are the same solemnity celebrated under different aspects. On Easter, we celebrate the gift salvation being offered to all humanity by Christ’s paschal mystery. On Pentecost, we celebrate being made able to receive salvation by the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We follow Christ’s example not only by being baptized into his death and Resurrection and participating in the sacramental life of the Church, but also by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. It is appropriate to practice fasting after meditating on the Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, since it is the Paraclete himself who makes our penance salvific.[11] It is a powerful defense “against the desires of the flesh and the snares of the devil” by which we can “overcome all temptations with the help of God.” For this reason, the saintly pope numbers fasting as “among the greatest gifts of the Holy Spirit.”[12]
Fasting after Pentecost Sunday in St. Leo’s time also represented a return to regular discipline. In the early Church, it was common for Christians in Rome to fast out of devotion every Wednesday and Friday, except during the Easter season. The Pentecost Ember Days were the first opportunity to fast after the long Easter season. St. Leo therefore exhorts his people “[t]he order of the holy feasts has been performed, dearly beloved, and the devotion of spiritual joy is fulfilled[, n]ow it is right to come back to the healthy practice of frugality and to provide the remedy of a fast, both for training our souls and for subduing our bodies.”[13]
While there are still many great solemnities over the next two months, the return of green vestments signals a return to normalcy for us too. Therefore, this year, as we move into Ordinary Time, consider embracing St. Leo’s exhortation to fast this week on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Fortified with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, consider following the example of Christ, by dedicating this first week of Ordinary Time to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
[1] Leo is believed to preach six sermons on Pentecost Sunday: sermm. 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81. In addition to these six, he also preached serm. 80 during the Ember Days. Of these sermons, sermm. 75-77 focus on the mystery of Pentecost, while sermm. 78-81 focus on the Pentecost Ember Days. Cf. A. Chavasse, Introduction, in Leo Magnus papa, Tractatus Septem et Nonaginta, edited by idem., Turnhout 1973 (CCSL 138), clxxxviii-cxci.
[2] Leo, serm. 77.1. All quotations of St. Leo’s sermons are taken from St. Leo the Great, Sermons, trans. J.P. Freedland – A.J. Conway, Washington 1996 (Fathers of Church 93) unless otherwise noted.
[3] Jn 10:30.
[4] Jn 14:6.
[5] Jn 14:17.
[6] Jn 14:16.
[7] Leo, ep. 16.3: “The very Son of God, the Only-begotten, wished that there be no distinction between Himself and the Holy Spirit, either in what the faithful believed about them or in the power of their works, since there is no difference in their nature. He says: ‘I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate, to dwell with you forever, the Spirit of truth’; and again: ‘But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your mind whatever I have said to you’; and again: ‘When he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will teach you all the truth.’ And so, since Christ is truth and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and the title ‘Advocate’ is proper to both, there is no difference in the feast where there is but one mystery.”
All quotations of St. Leo’s letters are taken from St. Leo the Great, Letters, trans. E. Hunt, New York 1957 (Fathers of Church 34).
[8] Leo, serm. 77.2. Cf. also Leo, serm. 76.2: “Certain things come to us under the name of the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit, so that the acknowledgment of the faithful in the Trinity might not err. Although it is inseparable, it will never be known to be a Trinity if it is always mentioned without differentiation.”
[9] St. Leo uses the distinction between saving mystery (sacramenta) and example (exemplum) explicitly six times (sermm. 25.6; 35.3; 63.4; 65.2; 67.5; 72.1). The clearest example is in serm. 25.6: “These works of our Lord, dearly beloved, are useful to us, not only as a saving mystery, but as an example for imitation also [non solum sacramento nobis utilia sunt, sed etiam imitationis exemplo ]—if only these remedies would be turned into instruction, and what has been bestowed by the mysteries would benefit the way people live [si in disciplinam ipsa remedia transferantur, quodque inpensum est mysteriis, prosit et moribus]. Let us remember that we must live in the ‘humility and meekness’ of our Redeemer, since—as the Apostle says—’if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him.’ In vain are we called Christians if we do not ‘imitate Christ.’ For this reason did he refer to himself as ‘the Way,’ that the teacher’s manner of life might be a model for his disciples, and that the servant might choose the humility which had been practiced by the Master [Frustra autem appellamur christiani, si imitatores non sumus Christi, qui ideo uiam esse se dixit, ut conuersatio magistri sit forma discipulis, et illam humilitatem eligeret seruus, quam sectatus est Dominus.]” [I have edited the translation by J.P. Freedland – A.J. Conway for the sake of clarity.]
Some scholars argue that exemplum would be better translated as “paradigm” rather than “example.” For the sake of simplicity, I chose “example” nevertheless. Cf. B. Green, The Soteriology of Leo the Great, New York 2008, 114.
[10] Cf. Leo, serm. 77.2: “It was right that those to be saved should do something for themselves, and, when their hearts were turned to the Redeemer, that they should cut themselves off from the domination of the enemy. In regard to this, the Apostle says: ‘God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, ‘Abba, Father.’’ And again: ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.’ And again: ‘No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.’”
[11] Leo, serm. 79.3; “Let the Catholic Christian, then, recognize the fruit of his fasting; for even amid great almsgiving it will be barren unless it springs from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle says that no virtues profit without love, and again he says that ‘the love of God is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.’”
[12] Leo, serm. 76.9.
[13] Leo, serm. 80.1.
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