(Acts 2:1)

1^ST CATEGORY NT

QUESTION 95. WHAT WAS THE ORIGIN OF THE FEAST OF PENTECOST AND THE REASON FOR ITS INSTITUTION? — It is certain that all the institutions of our religion borrow their strength from the Old Testament, and bear as the seal of the testimony of the old law. Indeed, all the events that took place under the old law were so many figurative signs of our faith, so that we cannot doubt the truth of the teachings that we propose to our belief, when we see them announced so much centuries ago, not only by words, but by the much more powerful language of facts. Now, if we do not have to hear the things figured in the same way as the figurative signs, we now have to consider what is the origin of the feast of Pentecost and the reason for its institution. The divine Scriptures reveal their mysterious meanings to the attentive and religious souls, and keep them closed for careless souls. It was not proper, indeed, that a truth whose intelligence is reserved to those whom their merits render worthy, should be manifested indifferently to all. Here is the reason for the institution of Pentecost. Just as the day of the Lord is the first to begin again the week and the day when the mystery of the Passover was fulfilled for the redemption of the human race (because after a period of seven days we are necessarily returning to the first day of the week, which teaches us that the duration of the world will be consumed by the number seven, and that it will thus reach eternal rest); so Pentecost is the first day after seven weeks. Never does Pentecost fall another day until the day of the Lord, to teach us that all the mysteries which have for their object the salvation of men began and were fulfilled on the Lord's day. It is the day of the Lord that the world was created, just as after the fall, it was the day of Sunday that was repaired, and the figure of this repair was given to us in circumcision which was the sign of future faith. Indeed, after the past week, the eighth day is the first for a mysterious reason. This is the day the Lord has made. He only did this one day, and it was from him that all others should come into being. That is why he was resurrected the day he did, and according to the number we have given reason. It was on this day that he gave the law of Sinai through his servant Moses, so that the law was the figure of the evangelical preaching, as the paschal lamb had been the figure of the Savior's passion. Indeed, Pentecost, that is to say, the law was given to the Jews the same day that the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles to assume them with a divine authority, and to give them the knowledge of evangelical preaching. This fact is thus confirmed by a double proof, because it has been predicted and figured, and that the Holy Spirit by this visible manifestation proves the divinity and supernaturality of this event, of which our law receives the most glorious testimony. Uneducated men who issue in various languages ​​before strangers the greatness of God, show that they are divinely inspired. The law was therefore given by Moses to the children of Israel on the third day of the third month, as we read in the book of Exodus (Exod. 19:16), and that day is the fiftieth day or the day of  Pentecost since the fourteenth day of the first month Passover was celebrated in Egypt. The Holy Spirit therefore descended on the Apostles on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1), to inaugurate the preaching of the new law, in order to show that the old events were the figures of future events, and thus to give a new pledge of certainty to our faith; for one cannot look upon what was announced from the beginning as false. This is why the psalm fifty describes the time of the remission of sins and reparation, to teach us that the same providence had designated the fiftieth day and the first. That is why the manna again fell from heaven to feed the Jewish people on the first day, which is the day of the Lord, as the following six days prove, during which the Israelites gathered the manna to rest the seventh, that is to say, the Sabbath day. (Exod. 16:14) Now, the manna is the figure of this spiritual food, which after the resurrection of the Lord has become a truth in the mystery of the Eucharist. All these things have been accomplished to return to harmony with the fact of the first resurrection, so that Satan cannot gloat, but he is as stunned, he who by his deceptive hopes has made man fall from the heights where Jesus Christ had placed it. We now have to prove that things must be understood in the way we have exposed them. The fourteenth day of the first month that the Passover was celebrated in Egypt was the fourth day of the week. (Exodus 12:2) What gives us reason to hear it thus, is that the fifteenth day of the second month, which was the day of the departure of the children of Israel, seems to have been the day of the Sabbath, so it was not that day, but the evening only that this cloud of quail was sent to them from heaven. The manna fell from the sky in the morning, that is to say the day of the Lord who is the first of the week that begins again. They collected the manna six days in a row, and rested on the seventh day, which was the Sabbath day. Now count from this day until the third day of the third month when the law has been given, and you will find that it is the fourth day of the week that the law was given. In fact, from the fifteenth day of the second month, Sabbath day, to the third day of the third month, there are ninety days. Take back the nineteen days, and return to the fifteenth day of the second month, which was the Sabbath day, before which fourteen days are from the first, and go to the first day of the second month, and you will have fourteen more days. Add them to the nineteen days of which we have spoken, and you will find that the first day of the second month was the Sabbath day. Add at the head of the first month seventeen days, because this first month must be cut off from the thirteen days preceding Passover; indeed, it is the fourteenth day of the first month that the Passover was celebrated. By removing thirteen days and adding another seventeen days, you will find that the fourteenth day of the first month was the fourth of the week. And to avoid the boredom of a longer enumeration or the trouble of examining each member of this question in detail, I give you an abridgment here, so that you know for sure how many days have elapsed from the Passover until the day when the law was given, and you can more easily conclude which day of the week the Passover was celebrated. The law was given on the third day after the second month. So here we have two months and three days. Take away from these two months the thirteen days that preceded the feast of Passover, and it will remain fifty days. It is easy to see now that the law was given on the fourth day of the week. The manna fell from the sky on the first day, since the Israelites collected it for six consecutive days, the first day of the week was the sixteenth of the second month. By going from this first day to the eighteenth of the month when the law was given, you will still find the fourth day of the week. Now, if you count on this fourth day, either ascending or descending until the fiftieth, you will fall on the fourth day, and the reason is that the Jews celebrated the Passover in Egypt on the fourth day of the week, that they also received the law on the fourth day, and that they departed from Egypt on the fifth day. The promulgation of the law is therefore the feast of Pentecost.