NOTES for Act 2:38-43

Apostle Peter's first sermon on the day of Pentecost led many people to be "pricked in their heart" and to ask the question:"what shall we do?" Everyone, who receives the Gospel, asks this same question. And here is the answer, that God proposes us through His Church.

Firstly: repent. We have already spoken several times about repentance here. Let's simply remember that: it is a turn-out of the spirit, the recognition of the fact that we are not self-sufficient, that we are sinful and our invocation to God as source of life and love. Secondly: be baptized. It is about complete ablution as sign of repentance and beginning of a new life. In the name of Jesus Christ means trusting Him and obedience to Him, for the sake of union with Him in His death and resurrection. Thirdly: the gift of the Holy Ghost. It isn't enough to be purged from sin, it is necessary to be filled with righteousness; it isn't just enough to begin a new life, but it should be a life dwelt in the Holy Spirit. And all this is given to us as a gift, and we only have to accept, cultivate and keep the gift.

Luke gives here a definition of the fullness of Christian life. Indeed, if the essence of this life is union with God, receiving His presence and action in each of our days, then where and in what has He left us this presence and action of His? You will say, everywhere? That is true, but this kind of presence of His is diffuse, impersonal; it does not imply personal relations with Him. Then you will say, in Jesus Christ? Yes, for He is with us "always, to the end of the age." He is the Word of God, come in the flesh, and He remains with us in the Word of God, in the Bible. Luke calls this "the apostles' teaching" because the apostolic perception of the Old Testament and the apostolic witness to Christ are precisely our Bible.

Where else do we meet Christ? Of course, in prayer. In prayer addressed to Him and in prayer to the Father, which we share with the Son. And there is a special presence of Christ in His Body and Blood, in the Eucharistic meal, the "breaking of bread." And finally, let us remember Jesus' words that "as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me." That means there is His presence in every person we meet, and there is His special action in those who "received the Holy Spirit, having believed." Therefore "fellowship," brotherly love, and mutual help are also an encounter with Christ and a receiving of Him into one's life.

Let us pay attention to all these "channels of communication," not trying to emphasize some of them at the expense of others, and let us try to live not by "either-or" but by "both-and."

As often happens, the most important thing in today's Gospel reading is its direct meaning. In the conversation taking place at night with Nicodemus, a man no longer young and wise with experience, the Lord speaks about a new birth, about the fact that a new life can begin for a person who has believed in Him. And this life, He says, begins as the result of birth from the Spirit of God, birth from above. It is frightening and sad when a person does not live this life born from above, given by the Spirit. But this fact should not lead us to despondency; on the contrary, Christ's direct command to the person is: be born and live. As God said through the prophet Ezekiel: I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he turn and live.

From the Lord's words about birth from above, another conclusion follows clearly: this birth depends on you yourself. The Creator's will for your birth from above already exists and has been clearly expressed by the Lord. And this opens for us the joyful, paschal side of these words.

Among the Pharisees there were different people, and they related to Jesus in different ways. Among the spiritual leaders of the movement there were some who showed sincere interest in Him and in His words. Nicodemus was one of these people. He comes to Jesus with words of support and approval, calling Him a "true teacher." It is hard to say what meaning Nicodemus put into these words. It is entirely possible that he did not consider Jesus the Messiah. But Jesus Himself, as we see, is not going to discuss the question of His messiahship with Nicodemus.

In response to Nicodemus's assurances that he and those of like mind see in Jesus a true teacher, Jesus immediately speaks to him about a second birth. About birth from above. From water and God's breath. Usually people say: this is about baptism. Yes, it is clearly about baptism. But why, then, is Nicodemus so astonished? Those purifying washings that came to be called baptism were already long and well known to the Jews.

If this mysterious Teacher had merely proposed one more purifying washing, there would have been nothing unusual in that. But He speaks about a second birth, and Nicodemus does not understand Him. Though he should have: "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do you not know even this?" Jesus speaks of the second birth as something that could and should have been known to Nicodemus, if only he were a true teacher of Israel. And clearly the issue is not simply purifying washings. Still, Nicodemus speaks about the benefit of new birth as something self-evident but unattainable. He does not ask "Why?"; he says "How?" How can one be born a second time?

Why is clear: it is the most radical way to be freed from impurity. To begin life again. From a clean slate. And never again be defiled. But how? Jesus says: from water and God's breath. This sounds strange, because in those days it was commonly thought that God either purifies a person or sanctifies him. First He purifies, then He sanctifies. First purification, washing, and a sacrifice for sin, and then a sacrifice of peace. And perhaps then God's breath will descend upon a person. But purification and God's breath at once? Yet Jesus is speaking of the life of the Kingdom.

Of how accessible it is here and now, and in this sense His words are "about earthly things." About the breath of the Kingdom that purifies. And every time renews a person, as if bringing him to birth again: for in the Kingdom every day is new. And, of course, water: for until the full transformation of human nature there is no escaping sin. This is "about earthly things." And this is incomprehensible. As for "heavenly things," they are not yet even being discussed. They lie ahead. When the Kingdom is revealed in our fallen world to the end, fully transforming it. And there will no longer be any need for purifications. But that lies ahead. For now there are right steps. For now, "earthly things."

As much as we are in a better position, than Nicodemus, who heard these words the first. Obviously, it was very difficult for him to understand them, but it's much easier for us, knowing already what took place afterward.

All our life, all our thoughts and acts are penetrated by sin from birth - egoism, pride, fulsome praise, condemnation... Sin leads to incorrect (fallen) actions, having very ponderous consequences, which in their turn provoke new sins in us, and in our neighbors. And all this rolls, as a snowball, taking more and more speed. Certainly, such a life has nothing in common with the Kingdom of God. Can we stop it? If yes, then how?

Jesus says that a new birth is necessary for that, or regeneration, because the old life has to stop completely, and it is only after that, a new life can begin. Our participation, our desire is indispensable here, - what is called by the word "repentance". It is exactly through repentance that we come to freewill death in the water of Baptism, where ends our sinful life; and the next step is the acceptance of the new life, which the life-giving Holy Spirit, sent to us by the loving Heavenly Father grants us . And here we are, newborn babies, washed by water and Spirit, entering in the Kingdom of God...

It is so ideally. In practice - it is only partial for us. Our repentance is incomplete; we continue to repent even after the Baptism. Consequently, our sinfulness does not die completely, and we ought to be cleaned again and again. And birth from the Spirit - is rather not regeneration, but the generation in us of a new life similar to the grain of mustard, which will have to grow and grow. Yes God will make of us that fertile soil, in which the growing Kingdom will come to maturity and bring fruits!

Jesus uses the comparison of the spirit with the wind (it is a play on words in the Aramaic language): the spirit, quite as the wind, blows everywhere; we can feel its breath, but it is impossible to determine the beginning and the end of its flow. Only the spirit knows the source and the purpose of its movement. The idea of Jesus and the image used by Him are clear up to this point, and here He makes a quick turn: "So is every one that is born of the Spirit". How - "like that"? It seems, He means that the new life "isn't in the flesh, but in the Spirit" (Rom. 8) is so different in comparison with ordinary life, of which the beginning and the purpose are incomprehensible.

And nobody asks if we agree or not. The wind blows where it wants. Nobody can indicate it where to go, how to act, where to blow. Nobody has power on it. It shows itself where it wants. The Lord lets know here that the Spirit is as this wind. Sometimes it seems that right here He {the Spirit} would manifest itself, because we are in need of Him right now. But we have silence in reply, because He's free, and He Himself is freedom. Without Him, we even couldn't know what it is like, how we can live, when there are no strict rules and rites, without obligations "you give me, I give you ". Certainly, it would have been easier and quieter, if we knew accurately where, how and for what pay we could meet Him, and receive the wishful. But then, He wouldn't be God.

In the Book of Acts there are special passages that, as it were, sum up everything said before, and at the end of the second chapter of the book we see exactly such a passage. It would seem that, considering how much happened during the time described in the first chapters of the book, this summary should have concerned some fundamentally important things - for example, the Ascension or Pentecost, since in the end those very events determined the existence of the Church itself.

But the author of the book speaks about something else: he simply tells about the life of the Church at that time, about the process of its existence, its dwelling in the world - and its dwelling in the Kingdom. It is no accident that the passage speaks of the breaking of bread, prayer, and fellowship with the apostles. This was the life of the Kingdom in the early Christian Church, and so it remains today. Nothing new was invented, and nothing new could have been invented, because the Savior Himself defined this life during the Last Supper.

But community life was more tightly knit than ours is today. Of course, the text hardly speaks of some common life like that characteristic of medieval monasteries, which often resembled large dormitories. Such forms of shared life were not very characteristic of Jewish life.

But there was something else: a community fund, replenished by generous donations from wealthy brothers, a community fund from which everyone in need could receive help. Of course, the Synagogue in every age was also marked by charity. But here, it seems, there is something more than charity as such - here there is poverty in the sense in which the prophets spoke of it, poverty as a spiritual state and not as a material condition. The recognition of the simple fact that everything belonging to you is yours only conditionally, until it becomes more needed by one of your brothers. The understanding that unconditional ownership on earth does not exist - here there is only the right of use, determined by concrete circumstances, circumstances that require us to consider nothing our own and to use everything that is needed. And this is the projection of the life of the Kingdom into society, a life where there is nothing of one's own; and if there is, then it is a lost life. Whoever wants to keep his life for himself loses it, as the Savior Himself says, but whoever gives it to Christ, making it part of the Kingdom, receives it back in a fullness unimaginable in an untransformed world.

The community life of the first Christians was a kind of practice in the life of the Kingdom. After all, it is better to get used to the new life as early as possible, so that later, when the Kingdom is revealed in all its fullness, one may enter it as naturally as possible for a fallen person.

As we can see, the people who heard Peter took his preaching seriously. The question "So what should we do?" did not sound by chance. In fact, if this concerns the rejection of the Messiah Himself, and a conscious one, there is no escaping the consequences of such a sin. Both Yahwism and Judaism traditionally viewed conscious sin as something whose consequences weigh over a person endlessly, even if that person deeply and sincerely repents of what he has done. And here the sin was participation in the death of the Messiah... There was something to think about and something to fear.

Peter immediately points the people listening to him to the only possible way out of the situation. It is a way out made possible precisely thanks to the One whom, according to the apostle's word, people killed and God raised. And this way out is connected with the possibility of sharing in that new life, the life of the Kingdom, which on the day of Pentecost became a reality open to everyone.

Entering the Kingdom, a person begins his life anew. From a clean slate. The consequences of all the sins he has committed remain in the former life, provided, of course, that the person does not drag them along with him. And so that this does not happen, the very conversion of which the evangelist speaks is necessary. In the Synodal translation it is traditionally called repentance, but the matter is precisely conversion: the corresponding Greek word of the original, at least, means exactly this. And conversion is not only a return to the God from whom one has turned away. And not only emotional remorse over sins committed.

It is also reflection on what one has done, awareness of the spiritual quality of one's actions, of the intentions that stand behind them. And it is a conscious rejection of those among them that are incompatible with the Torah, with the Gospel, and with the commandments given by God. Then one can truly begin a new life from a clean slate. Then the communal life described by the author of Acts could also become a reality: after all, it can exist only as long as every member of this community lives the life of the Kingdom in all the fullness available to him. As it should be in the Church with a capital C.

Peter's answer to the question of what Christianity is and what a Christian should do sounds completely clear. First of all, it is a matter of repentance for sins committed and of washing in the name of Jesus Christ, which frees a person from these sins and from their consequences once and for all. And then a new life begins, life in the Kingdom, inseparable from what the apostle calls "the gift of the Holy Spirit." That is how the Synodal Translation reads. But the Greek text allows another, more convincing interpretation: receive a gift from God, the Holy Spirit.

The divine breath that permeates the Kingdom is the chief gift to Christians from God. A gift received through Christ, in union with Him as King of this Kingdom. Here lies the answer to the question of what a Christian should do. Live. Live in the Kingdom. If Christianity were some new religion, the question of what its adherents should do would be entirely appropriate. But the point is that Peter is not speaking about religion. In the religious sense he offers his hearers nothing new. Even the washing, or as it is commonly called in English, baptism, of Christians is only one form of the cleansing washings that existed in those days.

The difference here is not in the religious form, but in the content, in what was connected with the washing. Here there was not simple cleansing, but a cleansing in which those being cleansed asked the Savior Himself for cleansing. So that afterward those cleansed would be bound to Him and could share in the life of that Kingdom of which He is King. The cleansing washing here became a kind of pass into the Kingdom.

But this was only the first step, and afterward one had to live in the Kingdom. To live so that the Christian's heart becomes the place where the Kingdom abides. So that it would be not only around, but also within. Because otherwise it does not happen; otherwise one cannot share in the life of the Kingdom. The breath of the Kingdom entering the Christian's heart becomes the chief gift from God. Now one must learn to live with this gift, to live so as not to lose it. This is the chief Christian discipline: the science of life in the Kingdom, the science of acquiring and preserving in one's heart God's gift, the breath of the Kingdom.

The reaction of the Jews listening to Peter's preaching may seem strange, given that his last words spoke of their guilt. Peter, calling them to believe in Jesus Christ, is not afraid of this truth. We need to learn from him how to act when, in speaking about something or preaching, we are not afraid to tell a person the truth, even knowing that it is "against him."

And what is the reaction? "They were cut to the heart." And this happened precisely because what was said was the truth and was said with love. Besides, these people did not close themselves off or harden themselves against the truth spoken to them; they accepted it and wanted to change something. Then God responds to this readiness of heart and sends a gift: compunction of heart, something that changes the heart itself, and changes it for the better, building mercy and love for those around it. And the Lord was no exception: they came to love Him too. And what can be more wonderful than the feeling of love for God?

On the day of Pentecost, a new age begins: the age of apostolic preaching and the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church. More has probably been said and written about this chapter than about all the rest of Acts, but here we can dwell on only a few points. When we speak of the Spirit, we must understand how He, invisible and incomprehensible, manifests Himself in the life of a person and in the life of the Church. First of all, the fire in their hearts prompts the apostles, who had previously been afraid to appear in public, to go out into the squares of Jerusalem and preach the Kingdom revealed in Jesus. In Peter’s preaching we see extraordinary boldness (some would probably say “originality”) in the interpretation of Scripture, especially the psalms of David. This too is a gift of the Spirit: to see and perceive God’s revelation in Scripture and in contemporary events. Finally, in the last part of the chapter we see how the Spirit multiplied and transformed the apostolic community. These verses (41–47) are worth reading carefully once again in order to understand the principles on which the Lord begins to build His Church.

Today's reading tells us about that triumph of the Kingdom which Jesus promised His disciples. And this triumph proved to be nothing other than the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, described by the evangelist in such detail (vv. 1-4). At first glance, this description contains all the traditional elements characteristic of the Old Testament prophetic tradition: in ancient times the action of the Spirit of God at times manifested itself as the blowing of wind (2 Sam. 5:22-24), and the presence of God, usually called "glory" in the Bible, often resembled fire or light (Exod. 40:34-38). But now this presence touches not only those who were in the room. It spreads also to those who listened to the apostles in the streets of Jerusalem. And they perceive the apostles' preaching as though the apostles were speaking in the native languages of the pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem for the feast from many different countries (vv. 5-13).

The point, of course, is not that the apostles suddenly acquired some supernatural ability with foreign languages. Even if this had been so, in the streets of Jerusalem during the feast of Shavuot (Pentecost) so many nations and languages were represented that the apostles would not have been able to preach to everyone at once, even if each of them had actually begun speaking some foreign language: in the list given by the evangelist, which is plainly incomplete, there are clearly more than twelve. The point, it appears, is that those who listened to the apostles also found themselves in the Kingdom, where there are no language barriers. Here meanings are perceived not through the word but directly, from heart to heart, while their embodiment takes place already in the listener's soul, which naturally expresses what has been received in the words of its native language. Thus the Savior's words about the Kingdom and the Spirit, spoken to the apostles during the Ascension, were fulfilled (Acts 1:8).

But Pentecost was only the beginning of the history of the Kingdom entering the world, and now the apostles understood this perfectly. Thus Peter, on the one hand, speaks of the end of time, which has already come (vv. 14-21), and on the other hand, of the new era that began after the Savior's resurrection (vv. 25-36). The main meaning of his preaching is that it is still not too late to turn and accept the crucified and risen Messiah; although the last day has already arrived, the gates of the Kingdom are still by no means closed. On the contrary, they are thrown wide open for everyone who is ready to enter (vv. 37-40).

Such witness was extremely unusual: according to traditional ideas, only judgment was associated with the end of time, and there was no talk of conversion; it was thought too late to repent on the day of judgment. But now it turned out that the history of salvation was, in essence, only just beginning, and that everyone had a chance for it, even those who were directly or indirectly involved in the death the Savior had to die on the cross (vv. 36-38). Thus earthly history ended and the history of the Kingdom entering the world began.

It is no wonder that Jesus' words shocked Nicodemus so much. In his view, a place in the Kingdom of the coming Messiah was guaranteed to him by the very fact of being born to Jewish parents and belonging to the chosen people. But the Lord tells him, and us, that what is born of the flesh (that is, of people, even Jewish people) is flesh, and that in order to enter the Kingdom of the Spirit one must be born of water (receive baptism) and the Spirit (receive that gift of the Spirit which, according to the word of the Lord, everyone who believes in Him receives - John 7:38).

Of course, it is easy for you and me to smile at an authoritative Jewish teacher who does not understand such simple things, since we know what the Lord Jesus is speaking about. Yes, thanks be to God, unlike Nicodemus, we understand when the Teacher speaks "of earthly things"; but does that mean we will understand when He begins to speak "of heavenly things"? If He calls birth from the Spirit "earthly," what then is "heavenly"? Perhaps we should not exalt ourselves so much over Nicodemus; beside the Lord Jesus we always remain slow-witted disciples...

Today our thoughts are on the Cross of the Lord. The sinless Son of God gave Himself over to the most agonizing execution, and the Cross - the place and instrument of His death - is terrifying, monstrous. And now the Church finds and exalts this Cross. Is it really in order to plunge us into horror and destroy us?

No. Contemplating the Cross and remembering the One crucified on it, we can sense His presence in our suffering and in our death; we can discover in ourselves the capacity for compassion. And besides this, all of today's texts say that the Cross of the Lord is the instrument of our salvation, the supreme manifestation of God's love, the revelation of God's glory. Then, contemplating the Cross, we can place our frozen heart under the searing rays of His love and discover in ourselves the capacity for thanksgiving. Crucem Tuam adoramus, Domine... We worship Your Cross, O Master...