On Wednesday after the Sunday of the Paralytic, the Feast of Mid-Pentecost is celebrated, which marks the halfway point between Pascha and the Feast of Pentecost.
Mid-Pentecost is one of the Feast days of Jesus in the Orthodox Church and is dedicated to the Wisdom of God, that is, of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This day combines the themes of Easter and the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the other while paving the way for the glory of the Ascension of Jesus, which is celebrated after 15 days. The fact that the feast is the midpoint of the two great feasts reminds the Christians of the Jewish adjective used to refer to Jesus, ‘Messiah’, which is translated in Greek as Χριστός (‘anointed’).
In the middle of the Jewish Passover celebration, Christ goes to the sanctuary and teaches. His teaching inspires admiration, but also causes a lively controversy between him and the people and the teachers. So a new theme is added: Christ as Teacher. He who, while not getting a formal education, has all the wisdom, because it is the Wisdom of God that created the world.
Therefore, he who teaches in the temple, among the teachers of the Jewish people, amid the feast, is the Messiah, Christ, the Word of God. He who is condemned by the so-called wise men of His people is the Wisdom of God.
This feast highlights the teaching work of Jesus Christ. The teaching of the Lord came like living water and a river of grace that quenched the thirst of the humankind and refreshed the face of the earth. Christ is the source of grace, of the water of everlasting life, which quenches thirst and waters the souls of people who are constantly tormented by thirst.
During the Byzantine era, this day was celebrated at the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in the presence of the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Byzantine Emperor.
Source: Church of Cyprus
