Pentecost Message (502)

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

 I wish to all of you the gift of the Holy Spirit. As I say it wholeheartedly every day, “May the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (Anaphora of the Divine Liturgy). I pray the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, “present in all places and filling all things” to speak to our hearts and minds. May He lead us to hear His voice and to do His Will. 

  Our Lord Jesus “came to give us life and to give it to us abundantly.” (John 10:10)  He told the Samaritan woman: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.  The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. (John 4:13-14)  And He told the crowd: “Whoever is thirsty should come to me and drink. As the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in me, streams of life-giving water will pour out from his heart.’ And the Gospel writer explains: “Jesus said this about the Spirit, which those who believed in Him were going to receive. At that time, the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been raised to glory.”(John 7:37-39)  The Holy Spirit is “the treasury of blessings and the giver of life.” Without the Holy Spirit we cannot receive the living water promised by our Lord. Without Him, we cannot profess our faith. No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. (I Corinthians 12:3; I John 4:2-3) How consoling! How reassuring! How comforting! How hope-filling it is to know that Christ is risen! Christ has been glorified. Christ has gone to heaven in order to send down to us His Holy Spirit. He told us at the Last Supper: “I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if go, I will send Him to you.”    (John 16:7) 

 “God is love,” my friends.  God the Father loved us; this is why He gave His Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16)… God the Father loved us indeed; so He sent to us His Son to show us the truth. “I am the Way, the Truth and Life,” says Jesus.  God the Father and the Son, two in one, sent to us His Holy Spirit to lead us to the fullness of truth.

In fact, the Holy Spirit, the gift of God the Father, is described as the eternal love between the Father and the Son.  The reality of God’s love surrounds us so closely that we do not see it. We look through it. How could we make people aware of God's presence in our lives and theirs?  God's loving presence is so obvious, that it is very hard to prove.  The air we breathe, the light in which we see everything, the life that is in us, the blood that circulates in our body how many times a minute.  These are obvious things; there is no way of proving them.  All it takes is to tune in.  God is everywhere for those who have eyes to see! 

A little fish was rushing through the water past a big fish. The big fish stopped it and asked: "Where are you going, honey?

  - "I am searching for that wide thing they call ocean," said the little fish

  - "The ocean?" asked the big fish. "You are in it."

  The little fish shook her little head and said: "No! This is not the ocean. This is water," and she kept running.

How true it is, you cannot see the picture if you are within the frame. How many times we miss the forest, because we are counting the trees!  How many times we spend our life looking for God who is hidden within us!  The Holy Spirit is God’s presence within us. He is “present in all places and filling all things.”  Our Lord told Nicodemos: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)

 Our Lord Jesus, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, in the deep mystery of His Incarnation, that is becoming a human being like you and me, took flesh of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.  We go to the Father through the Son; but we go to the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit.

 How beautiful and how reassuring is the thought that the Holy Spirit lives within us.  Saint Paul writes to the Community at Corinth reminding them of this fact when he asks, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you ?” (I Corinthians 3:16) It is such a blessing, and yet also such a responsibility that God Himself, Who can not be contained in the heavens, the Uncontainable One, dwells in our hearts.  We would be blessed to ponder this mystery every day in a spirit of awe and wonder and with great joy and thanksgiving. And, let us not forget, that He lives equally in the hearts of all the believers.  This truth should motivate us to treat others with great love, great respect, and great charity.

It is the Holy Spirit Who develops our intimacy with God.  “God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” The Holy Spirit  makes us children of God and also heirs through the Sacramental Mystery of Baptism, which we call in our Eastern tradition, the Holy Enlightenment. (Cf. Galatians 4:6-7)  The Holy Spirit teaches us about the Father’s love for us, and is even the Vehicle by which that love enters our lives.  “God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.”  (Romans 5:5)

This love of God poured into our hearts is a transforming love. One of the Eastern Fathers tells us, “Finding in us a state of deformity, the Spirit restores our original beauty and fills us with His  grace, leaving no room for anything unworthy of our love.  The Spirit frees us from sin and death, and changes us from earthly men and women into spiritual men and women, sharers in the divine glory, sons and heirs of God the Father, who bear a likeness to the Son and are His coheirs and brothers and sisters, destined to reign with Him and to share His glory.”  [Didymus of Alexandria]

 Our Eastern Liturgy sings the praise and glory of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is not only seen as the source of all good things, but He is the source of renewal and restoration of a fallen and broken creation.  We sing at the beautiful prayer of the Paraclisis  “Through the Holy Spirit the streams of grace will flow to refresh the whole creation, to bring it to the fullness of life.”

 On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended over the Apostles in the form of fiery tongues. May He descend over us all. May He set our minds and hearts on fire. May He use us to spread  His light and warmth and love.

Most Rev. John A. Elya

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