When the Most High descended and confused tongues, He scattered the people; but when He distributed the tongues of fire, He called all men to unity. Therefore with one voice, let us praise the Most Holy Spirit.

Kondak

The Jewish people celebrate three great feasts annually: the feast of Passover, the feast of Pentecost and the feast of Tabernacles. The feast of Pentecost takes its name from the fiftieth day after Passover and also from the fiftieth day from the beginning of the harvest. Pentecost is actually the Greek word for fiftieth day. While originally Pentecost was a feast of harvest and thanksgiving, it later became connected to the anniversary of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai on the fiftieth day after the Jewish people were led out of captivity in Egypt by Moses. There is a great    affinity between these two events: escape from Egypt and slavery and the freedom that comes from a covenant with God. Their covenant with God was expressed by their acceptance of the Ten Commandments. The price of freedom was adherence to the way of living that is expressed in these rules.

There is also an intrinsic connection in our Christian faith between the promise of resurrection, revealed by the resurrection of Jesus, and a promise to live in accord with the Jesus way of living, summed up so wonderfully in the Great Commandment that has two parts:

 You shall love the Lord your God with your whole, soul and mind and your neighbor as yourself.   

Jesus declared that the Law and all the prophets can be summarized by this one basic rule of living. True freedom comes from living in accord with this one, basic rule.

The Kondak we use today says, in essence, that this way of living will bring unity to all men. It is the key to our understanding of human life.

Unfortunately as we look around at our world today, we see that we have not achieved this unity which God had hoped to achieve by coming into the world. Of course He knew that His revelation would not be heeded by all since He also gave to mankind the sacred gift of free will. It is essential that we who say we believe that God revealed to us how to live, make every effort to live in accord with this God-given rule. Our goal must be that we, who believe, live in accord with this rule of living regardless of how other people live.    Authenticity!