Acts 2:1-11; John 7:37-52;
8:12
Today we celebrate the Great Feast of Pentecost at which the
Holy Spirit comes upon on the Apostles as they are gathered together in
obedience to the command of the risen Lord. The same divine breath which
first gave us life from the dust of the earth now comes as a mighty, rushing
wind. The divine glory beheld by Moses in the burning bush now rests upon
each one personally as flames of fire. The divided speech of the
tower of Babel is now overcome by the miracle of speaking in different
languages as a sign that all peoples are invited to share in the life of the
Lord. This great feast manifests the fulfillment of God’s gracious
promises for the entire world and every human person in the Body of Christ, the
Church born at Pentecost. Today we
celebrate the restoration of our true unity in God through the presence of the
Holy Spirit, the Comforter sent by the risen and ascended Savior Who is seated
at the right hand of the Father in heavenly glory.
The sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit empowers the Church as
a living icon of the common life of humanity in which our divisions and resentments
are healed. He enables us to become
persons in communion united organically as members of the one Body of Christ
instead of isolated individuals obsessively choosing sides over against one
another due to the fear of death. The
Persons of the Holy Trinity share a common life of love, unity, and holiness;
by the power of the Holy Spirit manifested at Pentecost, we participate by
grace in Their eternal communion. Our
journey to theosis calls us to nothing
less than being united in and with God such that we become radiant with the
divine energies in every dimension of our being, like an iron left in the fire
of holy glory.
As those who bear the divine image and likeness, we become both
more truly human and more like God as we find healing from the passions that
divide and separate us, and instead embrace our life together. That is why St.
Paul wrote, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control.” (Gal. 5:22-23) That is why St. Silouan the Athonite taught, “One
can only love one’s enemies through the grace of the Holy Spirit.” And “He who
does not love his enemies, does not have God’s grace.”[1]
The
Lord said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in
Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water.’” He uses the image of living water to describe
what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, even as He did with St. Photini,
the Samaritan woman at the well. Our risen
and ascended Lord did not send mere theological ideas, moral instructions, or
spiritual practices to His followers. After
His Ascension, the Savior sent the Holy Spirit to quench the deep thirst, the
primal longing, of all the broken, confused, and alienated people of the world for
sharing personally in the eternal life of God, for nothing else can truly
satisfy us as those who bear the divine image and likeness. So much of our pain and misery stems from obsessively
seeking fulfillment in created things that can never provide it. Doing so only enslaves us further to our
passions and separates us from one another.
Wind, fire, and water are powerful realities that escape our
control. At Pentecost they convey the profound mystery of what it means to be
drawn into the divine life in ways that transcend even the best rational
definitions: As living members of the
Body of Christ, we may truly know and experience God from the depths of our
hearts and in our common life as did the Apostles.
In
order to celebrate this great feast with integrity, we must mindfully open ourselves as fully as possible to the
sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit.
In order to do that, we must live faithfully each day through the
spiritual strength that we gain from participating in the sacramental and
ascetical life of the Church. The Holy
Spirit came upon Christ’s followers as they were gathered together in obedience
to the Lord’s command, and we must never fool ourselves into thinking that the
spiritual life is an individualistic endeavor that caters to our preferences, prejudices,
or feelings. Pentecost calls us to get
over the pride that divided the tongues of humanity in the first place and to gain
the humility to find our true personhood as members together of the Body of
Christ, where the distinctive beauty of our souls will shine evermore brightly
as we partake of the same living water as did the Apostles.
Indeed, Pentecost calls
us to become so receptive to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit that we
overflow with His living water, becoming channels of blessing that enable our
neighbors and world to flourish with the peace, joy, and holiness of God’s
Kingdom. As the Savior said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to
Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water.’” We must turn
away from all that separates us from being filled to overflowing with the life
of our Lord in His Body, the Church, if we are to know such blessedness. We must kneel in prayer and live in humility
as we forgive our enemies, share our resources with the poor, and take up the
daily struggle to purify our hearts of all that would keep us enslaved to
self-centered desire. We must refuse to
define ourselves or our neighbors according to the categories of the fallen
world (such as nationality, race, or social standing), for the Holy Spirit has
healed such divisions. To do so is to
miss the point of this great feast, for Pentecost is the reverse of the
divisions of the Tower of Babel in which language and culture become
spiritually irrelevant as we share by grace in the life of God.
At Pentecost, let us
turn aside from all that would keep us from true unity in Christ as “a
chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people,
that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into
His marvelous light…” (1 Pet. 2:9) That is the only way to be illumined by the One Who said, “I am the light of the world; he
who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Our
calling is nothing less than to overflow with the
gracious divine energies poured out abundantly for the salvation of the world
on this great Feast of Pentecost and to live accordingly each day of our lives.
[1] See Jean-Claude
Larchet, “On the Love of Enemies According to Saint Silouan,” https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2020/10/on-love-of-enemies-according-to-saint.html
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