MID-PENTCOST and STAYING HYDRATED
(Wednesday, May 10)
On this Wednesday’s feast of Mid-Pentecost (Mesopentikosti, Prepolovenie), which is the mid-point between Pascha and Pentecost, the main theme is “living water” and *spiritual thirst*. Most of us have returned to business-as-usual after the “high season” of Lent and Pascha, when we might have been more attentive to prayer and our spiritual health. So now we remind ourselves to wake up to our spiritual thirst, which we may have been neglecting, as we sing in the Troparion of Mid-Pentecost: “In the middle of the feast, O Savior, fill my thirsting soul with the waters of godliness (eusevias, blagochestiya)!”
The Gospel-reading for Mid-Pentecost is from John 7, where Christ comes to Jerusalem and teaches at the Temple “in the middle of the feast,” – but it is not in the middle of Pentecost. It is in the middle of another feast, the feast of Sukkot (of the Tabernacles or Booths), which is in autumn and not in the spring. Why this reading, then, on our feast of Mid-Pentecost? The feast of Sukkot is more appropriate for the main theme of our Mid-Pentecost feast, because the 7-day feast of Sukkot involved a very joyous libation ceremony or “Pouring of the Water” (Nisukh HaMayim), which was drawn from the Pool of Siloam and brought up to the Temple every morning of the feast. Our Lord uses this occasion to talk about His “living water,” on the last day of the week-long feast: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (Jn 7:37-38) And then the Evangelist John explains, “But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
What a wonderful promise! This morning we can be one of those people, out of whose heart “will flow rivers of living water.” We just need to come and drink, of His grace, which pours out abundantly on us, when we open our hearts to communion with Him, fortifying our faith in Him instead of remaining in our own self-centered thoughts or fears. It is worth it, we are worth it, to be vessels of His grace throughout our day, rather than spreaders of gloom and morbidity, as we might become when just focus on our own voices, or the voices in our own heads. “Come, let us drink a new drink, not miraculously drawn from a barren rock, but the fountain of Incorruption springing from the tomb of Christ in Whom we are established.” (Paschal Canon, Irmos 3)
