Conversion and the Spirit Poured Out

At the moment when no one can stand before the Day of the Lord, God himself opens a way: to return to him. This second movement of the book is that of the turning. To the call to conversion answers the pity of God, who restores what the plague had destroyed; then, far surpassing the mere repair of the harvests, God promises to pour out his Spirit on all flesh. This promise is the summit of the book, the one the Church will see fulfilled on the day of Pentecost.

Rend your hearts

God’s answer to the distress is not destruction, but a call to return. In the very heart of the threat, God issues a pressing invitation: “But even now, oracle of the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with lamentation.” Joel 2:12. The return asked for is not first a rite, but a movement of the whole being toward God. And Joel makes it precise by an image that goes to the depths: “Rend your hearts, and not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God; for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in kindness.” Joel 2:13. To rend one’s garments was the outward gesture of mourning; to rend one’s heart is the inward conversion, which alone counts in God’s eyes. And the ground of this call is the very nature of God: he is slow to anger and rich in kindness, ready to forgive whoever returns. It is because God is merciful that conversion has meaning.

Convoke the assembly

The call then widens to the whole people, without exception. The prophet again sounds the trumpet, but this time to gather for a great fast of supplication: “Sound the trumpet in Zion, proclaim a fast, convoke an assembly.” Joel 2:15. And he wants no one to be missing, from the oldest to the smallest, so much so that even the newly wed leave their feast to join it: “Gather the people, proclaim a holy assembly, gather the elders, bring together the children and the infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his chamber, and the bride her pavilion.” Joel 2:16. Conversion is everyone’s affair; no one is too old or too young, and nothing, not even a wedding, comes before this return to God. At the centre of this assembly, the priests lead the prayer, placed between the portico and the altar, and they intercede for the people: “Between the portico and the altar, let the priests, ministers of the Lord, weep, and let them say: Lord, spare your people, and do not give over your heritage to reproach.” Joel 2:17. The prayer of the priests bears the whole people before God, and asks him to spare his own for the honour of his name.

God takes pity

To this conversion, God answers at once with pity. The text marks the turning of the book in a single sentence: “The Lord was moved with jealousy for his land, and he had pity on his people.” Joel 2:18. The jealousy of God, here, is the ardent love he bears for his land and his own; this love drives him to save them. And God promises to give back what the plague had taken, the grain, the wine and the oil that had vanished at the start of the book: “Behold, I am about to send you the grain, the new wine and the oil, and you will be satisfied with them.” Joel 2:19. Where the land was in mourning, it is called to joy: “Land, do not fear, be glad and rejoice; for the Lord has done great things!” Joel 2:21. And God then utters a promise that surpasses mere repair: he will make up for the lost years themselves: “I will make up to you the years that the locust, the yeleq, the chasil and the gazam have devoured, my great army, which I had sent among you.” Joel 2:25. Not only does the harvest return, but the very time of the disaster is redeemed, as though the devoured years were given back. And the restoration culminates in a recovered presence: “And you will know that I am in the midst of Israel! I, I am the Lord, your God, and there is no other.” Joel 2:27. The true gift is not only the harvest restored, but God himself in the midst of his people.

The Spirit poured out on all flesh

Then comes the summit of the book, which infinitely surpasses the restoration of the goods of the earth. Having promised food and his presence, God announces a gift of another order, the gift of his Spirit, poured out not on a few but on all: “And it will come to pass after this that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, your young men will see visions.” Joel 3:1. Under the old covenant, the Spirit of God rested only on a few chosen ones, prophets, kings, judges. Here, God promises to pour it out on all flesh, that is, on all men, of every age and condition: sons and daughters, old men and young men. And God pushes the newness further still, down to the lowest of society: “Even on the servants and on the handmaids, in those days I will pour out my Spirit.” Joel 3:2. The servants and the handmaids, who counted for nothing in the social order, also receive the gift of God: the Spirit crosses every barrier, of age, of sex and of condition. This gift accompanies the signs of the Day of the Lord, wonders in heaven and on earth: “The sun will be changed into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the day of the Lord comes, great and terrible.” Joel 3:4. And the promise ends on a word of salvation offered to all: “And whoever invokes the name of the Lord will be saved; for on the mountain of Zion and of Jerusalem there will be a gathering of the saved.” Joel 3:5. Salvation is no longer reserved: it is open to whoever invokes the name of the Lord.

The fulfilment at Pentecost

This promise of the Spirit poured out on all flesh is fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Fifty days after Easter, the Holy Spirit descends on the gathered Apostles, and before the astonished crowd, Peter rises and declares that what is happening is precisely what Joel had announced: “What you see is what was announced by the prophet Joel.” Acts 2:16. And Peter then cites the very text of Joel: “In the last days, says the Lord, I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy.” Acts 2:17. What Joel announced for “after this” has come: the Spirit is poured out on all, and the Church is born of this outpouring. The word on the salvation offered to all is likewise fulfilled: Peter takes up the verse of Joel, “whoever invokes the name of the Lord will be saved” Acts 2:21, and the apostle Paul will say it again to announce the salvation opened to Jews and gentiles alike, “whoever invokes the name of the Lord will be saved” Romans 10:13. What Joel had glimpsed, the Spirit given to all and salvation offered to whoever invokes the Lord, is the very grace of the Church, where God dwells in the midst of his people by his Spirit.