The Jewish feast of Shavuot fulfilled at Pentecost (The Roman Liturgy)
'The Feast of Weeks' or 'Shavuot' fell on the anniversary of God giving the Torah to Moses on Sinai, and celebrated the first-fruits of the harvest. The Christian Pentecost fulfils both aspects.
After Our Lord ascended into Heaven, the Apostles and Our Lady spent nine days in prayer, awaiting the promised coming of the Holy Ghost. This happened “when the days of the Pentecost were accomplished.” (Acts 2.1)
Pope Pius XII, referring to the words of Pope Leo XIII, teaches that this moment represented not the birth of the Church (as some say today) but its promulgation to the world:
“‘The Church which, already conceived, came forth from the side of the second Adam in His sleep on the Cross, first showed Herself before the eyes of men on the great day of Pentecost.’
"For the Divine Redeemer began the building of the mystical temple of the Church when by His preaching He made known His Precepts; He completed it when He hung glorified on the Cross; and He manifested and proclaimed it when He sent the Holy Ghost as Paraclete in visible form on His disciples.”[1]
We can understand this aspect better—and see how the Gospel fulfils what was prophesied and foreshadowed—by considering the Old Testament feast of Pentecost, known variously as The Feast of Weeks or Shavuot.
Shavuot – The Feast of Weeks
Pentecost was an important feast for Israel, one of the three feasts for which all Jewish men were supposed to return to Jerusalem. It fell on the fiftieth day after the 16th of the month of Nisan – which is the day after Passover (15 Nisan).
The exact calculation was the subject of a dispute between the Pharisees and the Sadducees at the time of Christ, with the tradition of the Pharisees prevailing.[2]
In Scripture, the feast is primarily presented as celebrating the first fruits of the harvest. This agricultural side of the feast contains types and foreshadowings that are fulfilled in Christ and the Church, but there is an additional event that the Jewish feast celebrates, on which we shall focus here.
That event is the giving of the Torah (the Law) on Mt Sinai, which also took place on the fiftieth day after the first Passover when Israel left Egypt.
Today, the Jewish people celebrate it in various ways, including by visiting their synagogues to hear the Ten Commandments read. Dom Prosper Guéranger explains:
"Israel had passed the waters of the Red Sea, thanks to the protecting power of his Paschal Lamb! Seven weeks were spent in the Desert, which was to lead to the Promised Land, and the very morrow of those seven weeks was the day whereon was made the alliance between God and his people.
“The Pentecost (the Fiftieth Day) was honored by the promulgation of the ten commandments of the Divine Law; and every following year, the Israelites celebrated the great event by a solemn Festival.”[3]
However, what does this have to do with the Gospel?