Remain in Jerusalem! Homily for Pentecost Sunday

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Our Lord; in the first reading last Sunday, we read that Our Lord commanded the disciples to not depart, or remain, in Jerusalem, and,

wait for “the promise of the Father
about which you have heard me speak;
for John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

This Sunday, when we celebrate the feast of the Pentecost, and the fulfillment of the promise of Our Lord, we read:

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.

Remain in Jerusalem, was the command of Our Lord to the disciples, and they were faithful to this commandment, remaining “all in one place together,” and earlier in Acts (1: 14) we read that:

They all joined together constantly in prayer,

along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

The word, the command, the request; “remain” is not foreign to the language of Our Lord. Listen, for example, to His words to His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night before His Passion.

“I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.” (Mt 23. 38)

These words allow us to understand that Jerusalem is not just a definite geographic location, it is also an attitude. It is an attitude of remaining in unity – with Holy Mother Church, an attitude of unity in prayer, an attitude of waiting for the Passion (including our own) to unfold, and an attitude of waiting for the fulfillment of the divine promises.

In the Gospel according to John (15: 9) Our Lord says to his disciples:

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide [or remain] in my love.

We understand Jerusalem, therefore, to be the place of the love of God the Father and God the Son; the Love of the Father for the Son, and of the Son for the Father. And where these two persons of the Holy Trinity are, can the third, the Holy Ghost be far behind?

And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.

With the entry of the Holy Spirit into the room, we have the laying of the foundation of the New Jerusalem which will be completed at the end of time.

Let us contemplate an aspect of St. John the evangelist’s vision of the New Jerusalem for just a moment:

It has a great, high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels (Rev 21: 12)

Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. (Rev 21: 25)

The book of Revelation teaches us that the New Jerusalem has no gates because it will receive the nations and the kings of the earth (24) – in other words people will come in. But Our Lord’s words to Peter “and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it” (Mt 16: 18) teach us also that the task of the New Jerusalem is to go out through these open gates and combat the world.

Listen to the words from the first reading:

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Those of us who are filled with the Holy Spirit from the moment of our Baptism, are enabled to proclaim the Kingdom of God to those people who have lived in darkness. As we hear in the Gospel today, through the apostles Our Lord Himself instructs us of our task, as citizens of His Jerusalem:

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.

To employ the words of St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians:

Brothers and sisters:
No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

We have all been given the great gift of the Holy Spirit so that renewed at every Eucharist, we might sally forth from the great city of God, and do battle with the forces of darkness that lurk around us. It is our obligation to bring light to the world and convert the world to the recognition of the triumph of Our Lord. We are not alone in this battle, we have with us the Advocate, who will teach us what to say (and do) (Jn 14: 26).

Remain, therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, faithful to your tasks, and strong in His Love!

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the Cathedral parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, on 23 May 2026.)

(Image reference: Pentecost (detail), El Greco, c. 1600, Museo del Prado, Madrid.)