Often we are asked, If we celebrate Pentecost because of the coming of the Holy Spirit, why do the Jews celebrate it? The Jews do, in fact, also celebrate Pentecost. You heard that earlier this morning when you followed with attention the reading of the book of Tobit as it was read at the memorial shrine of the blessed Theogenes.^[1] There it was said that on the day of Pentecost Tobit prepared a lunch and invited some of his friends who were worthy to participate in this feast since they feared the Lord. It says, On the day of Pentecost, that is, the holiest day of the weeks. In fact, seven times seven equals forty-nine; to this number, one is added for the sake of unity in order to be able to bring us back to the head, the beginning. Unity in fact provides cohesion to every multitude; and the multitude if it is not cemented in unity is an agglomerate of disputing and quarrelsome people. If, however, there is concord, they form a single soul. Scripture asserts just this when speaking about those who had received the Holy Spirit. It says that they had a single soul and heart toward God.^[2] Thus it makes fifty days, which is the mystery of Pentecost.

But why, then, do the Jews celebrate Pentecost, if not because in their celebration there was something prefigured there? Pay close attention to me! You know that among the Jews a lamb is killed and the Passover is celebrated thus, like a figure of the passion of the Lord that would happen later. No Christian can ignore what I am saying. You also know that they were commanded to find a lamb among the goats and the sheep.^[3] But can a lamb be found among goats and sheep? That command, in itself, was impossible, but it pointed toward the possibility that the Christ would come in truth in our Lord Jesus, who according to the flesh was born from the seed of David^[4] and drew his origin from both the sinners and the righteous. In the genealogy of the Lord, according to the generations that the Evangelist recorded,^[5] we find many sinners, because he also came from sinners; and the church today is assembled from both the just and sinners.

We understand how devoted he was who, as he himself maintained, left his dead father so as to lay hold of the Lord of life. For he says, First permit me to go and bury my father.^[1] The one whom he had left behind as dead he begs that he might return and bury. Sorrow did not hold him nor death detain him, because he was hastening to life. He had not yet closed the eyes of the dead man, not yet buried the stiff limbs, but as soon as he learned that the Lord had come he forgot the feeling of paternal piety, believing that there was a greater piety in loving Christ more than one’s parents. Perhaps he had read the prophetic passage that says, Forget your people and your father’s house.^[2] So he forgot his father and remembered his Savior. Perhaps he had also heard the Lord’s Gospel words: The one who loves his father or mother more is not worthy of me.^[3] Thus, as Tobit is justified because he abandons his meal for the sake of a burial, this man is approved because he abandons the burial of his father for the sake of Christ. For the one is not afraid to pass over his meal because of some earthly work intervenes, while the other fears lest some delay cause him to omit the eating of heavenly bread.^[4] Thus, although in consideration of Christ we owe burial to everyone, this man forsook his father’s burial out of love for Christ.

Once the people fell down in the desert and died.^[1] Aaron their chief priest came and stood in the midst of those who died and of those who lived,^[2] so that the devastation of death might not advance even further among the rest. And then came the true high priest, my Lord, and he came into the midst between those dying and the living. That is, he came between those Jews who accepted his presence and those who not only did not accept but also killed themselves more completely than him, saying, The blood of that one be on us and on our children!^[3] So also all the righteous blood that has been poured forth on the earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah whom they killed between the sanctuary and the altar, will be required from that generation^[4] that said, His blood on us and on our children.^[5] Therefore, these are a part of the dead people because they do not properly perform either the feast of unleavened bread or the feast days. But their feast days have been turned into sorrow and their songs into lamentations,^[6] they who, even if they wished, could not celebrate the feast days in that place that the Lord God chose.^[7] And indeed we ourselves did not say to them, You will have no part in this altar or in the inheritance of the Lord, but they themselves of their own accord refute the true altar and the heavenly high priest and have been brought to such a point of unhappiness that they both lost the image and did not accept the truth.^[8] Therefore it is said to them, Behold, your house is left to you deserted.^[9] For the grace of the Holy Spirit has been transferred to the nations; the celebrations have been transferred to us because the high priest has passed over to us, not the imagined but the true high priest, chosen according to the order of Melchizedek.^[10] It is necessary that he offer for us true sacrifices, that is, spiritual,^[11] where the temple of God is built from living stones,^[12] which is the church of the living God^[13] and where true Israel exists.

Do not be surprised, reader, that sometimes, typologically speaking, people’s good deeds have a bad meaning and their bad deeds a good meaning; that God is light^[1] would never have been written in black ink but always in bright gold^[2] if this were not permissible. But even if you should write the name of the devil in pure white chalk, it still means deep darkness. Tobit’s being blinded, therefore, denotes, as the apostle says, that blindness has come on a part of Israel.^[3] He was wearied with burying and blinded,^[4] because the one who tirelessly perseveres in good works is never deprived of the light of faith; the one who neglects to watch and stand firm in the faith and act powerfully and be strengthened^[5] spiritually lies down and sleeps from fatigue. The apostle’s saying fits him well: Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you.^[6] Because of their swift flight, swallows^[7] are a figure of pride and volatility of heart, since their uncleanness immediately blinds those over whom it holds sway.^[8] For the one who recklessly enslaves his soul to the volatility of licentiousness and pride sleeps, as it were, lying down beneath a swallow’s nest. Now this blindness got the better of the people of Israel especially as the coming of the Lord in the flesh was imminent, when they were both being oppressed by the yoke of Roman slavery and transgressing the precepts of the divine law by very immoral living.

The righteous are tested in order to bring about their improvement. This is why we must be strong in the face of temptations, knowing they do not occur in order to humiliate us but in order to make us grow if we face them with a serene mind for the sake of Christ.

Why have you spoken like one of the many foolish women?^[1] He says, O woman, there have been many foolish women since the beginning of the world. There are countless women who, from the earliest times, have shown themselves unreasonable: some less so, others more, some carnally, others also spiritually. Rebecca was foolish when she said to Isaac, Give me children,^[2] because in fact Isaac did not have the power to do so, since the power and initiative were God’s. But even more foolish was that obscene Egyptian whore who, assaulting the chaste and righteous Joseph with the utmost godlessness, said, Lie with me!^[3] Tobit’s wife was foolish, who unjustly said to Tobiah, Where are your alms? Where are your good works? See, this shows how you have been brought low!^[4] But even more foolish, because she was more wicked, was that abominable, filthy and lustful Delilah, who, having seduced Samson in secret, who loved her purely, ruthlessly consigned him to derision and death.^[5]

Tobit’s relatives taunted him,^[1] and even his wife upbraided him as if he had served God in vain.^[2] But he rebuked and instructed them^[3] and turned to God in prayer. There were some among that people who with foolish temerity treated with derision the misfortunes of his people because they were already far from the original happiness of their holy ancestors who once nobly served God in their midst. But the same people earnestly took care to correct these through all their more learned and chosen ones and turned to imploring God’s mercy to obtain eternal life. Nor should it seem absurd that this Tobit, blind as he was and preaching God’s word, is said to signify both reprobate and elect alike. For the patriarch Jacob too, while wrestling with the angel, was both lamed and blessed, signifying, that is, by his limping the unbelievers of his nation and by his blessing the believers.^[4]

Regarding the second kind of prayer,^[1] see Daniel: And Azarias standing up prayed in this manner and opening his mouth in the midst of the fire he said . . . .^[2] And Tobias: And I began to pray with tears, saying, You are just, O Lord, and all your works are just and all your ways mercy and truth. And your judgments are true and just forever. And since the passage in Daniel has been obelized^[3] on the ground that it is not found in the Hebrew text, and those of the circumcision reject the book of Tobias as not being canonical,^[4] I shall quote the words of Anna from the first book of Kings: And she prayed the Lord, shedding many tears. And she made a vow, saying, O Lord of hosts, if you will look down on the affliction of your servant, and so on.^[5] And in Habakkuk: A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet with song. O Lord, I have heard your voice and was afraid. O Lord, I reflected on your works and was astonished. In the midst of two animals you will be known; in the approach of the years you will be recognized.^[6] The example just given illustrates very well the definition of prayer inasmuch as he who offers it unites it with praise of God. And again, in the book of Jonah: Jonah prayed to the Lord his God out of the belly of the fish. And he said, I cried out of my affliction to the Lord my God, and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell you heard the screams of my voice. And you have thrown me into the deep in the heart of the sea, and a flood has surrounded me.^[7]