Holy Orthodoxy remembers Pentecost first of all as the descent of the Holy Spirit with tongues of fire, then as the revelation of the Holy Trinity, then as the Spirit-filled gathering of all in the Holy Eucharist, initiating hallowed communion in which all things were held in common for the Common Good (Acts 2: 42-47). For desert seers, the revelation of the Holy Trinity unfolds the Eucharist, which in turn communicates radical communion in which the Common Good revolves decisively at centre. The Pentecostal revolution from private property to the reign of the Common Good has therefore already happened as the result of the revelation of the Holy Trinity and participation in the Holy Eucharist at Pentecost. Prophetic visions and visionary dreams of the Hebrew prophets, are all fulfilled by the slaughtered Lamb, disempowering ruling powers. The Book of Revelation is the prophetic vision of Christ the slaughtered Lamb, completing the revelation of the Holy Trinity and radical communion, communicated during the Holy Eucharist on the day of Pentecost.
Holy Pentecost is still decisive, just as it has always been, regenerating Holy Orthodoxy by unveiling the Holy Trinity at the heart of the Eucharist. It is the Holy Spirit whose revolution turns everything right round, giving Pentecost power to disempower worldly powers anew in every generation. Spirit-filled saints are revolved seers for whom the Common Good long ago replaced the self-interested economy that wars against divine economy. When Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire, radical communion and the Common Good were exiled to the desert, where they abide to this day in the wilderness at the heart of Christian monasticism, both communal and eremitical. Desert Hesychasm has never lost this awareness of radical communion or the reign of the Common Good, because it has never forgotten the revolving mysteries of the Holy Name. Falls from the glory of grace are simply reversals of the revelatory Name, of which the reign of Capital is an economic example that glaringly subverts the Common Good.
The Holy Name restores glory to God, glory from which falls from glory fall fatally short. ‘I AM,’ is God’s Name, radically revealing God in the midst where self-love usurps God, vainly replacing wholesome glory with vainglory. The Name saves by restoring glory to God, undoing obsession with private property at its root. Communion with God in glory is radical because it undoes self-centred, delusional powers at the root, cutting through confused division that imposes class war, setting the interests of investing masters against those of wage slaves. Communion never wavers from the glory of the Common Good, so never reacts against the generosity of radical communion. The Christian economy of Pentecost freely holds all things in common for the good of all, living from God’s reign of glory at centre in the midst, extinguishing self-interested abuse of the many in the interests of the wealthy few. Pentecost turns all forms of counter-revolving abuse right round, releasing vainglorious oppression into the glory of Spirit-filled communion. Beginning with radical communion in Holy Trinity, it nourishes the Holy Eucharist, liberating the generous glories of the Common Good. Pentecost has always released radical communion in the desert, revering the communion of prophets in the wilderness, opening to the right-glorifying communion of saints in the desert, unseating the worldly power of inordinate wealth, in the interests of the Common Good.