Pentecost Message (5/98)

It is a great joy for me to share these reflections with you as we celebrate Pentecost Sunday in this year that our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II consecrated in a special way to the Holy Spirit in preparation for the Millennium as we approach the year 2000. The Holy Spirit is the source of our life. Present in all places and filling all things, the Holy Spirit, is the presence of God in the world today. The Holy Spirit is the fulfillment of the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when He promised, "I will not leave you desolate (orphaned); I will come to you." (John 14:18) I am with you always, to the close of the age." (Matthew 28:29) The Holy Spirit is the power of God, present in us and present in the world, empowering us to follow Christ, to obey the commandments, and to grow in the life of virtue.

How beautiful 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. 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 !’ " making us children of God and also heirs through the Sacramental Mystery of Baptism [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]

I don’t know if you ever thought about, but If it weren’t for the Holy Spirit, we wouldn’t be able to know Jesus Christ our Savior or have a relationship with Him or confess Him as Lord and Master of our lives. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthiians: "…No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit." (I Corinthians 12:3) Already we pointed our that it is the Holy Spirit that makes us Children of God the Father, and therefore brothers and sisters of Christ. All that we know about the life of Christ is revealed to us through Sacred Scripture. The Bible tells us about the miracles of Jesus, His teachings, His public life, and the account of His life-giving passion, death, and glorious resurrection. The Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit. If it weren’t for the Holy Spirit we wouldn’t know anything worthwhile about life or good news of Jesus Christ.

We know Jesus through prayer. It is the Holy Spirit Who teaches us to pray, and as Saint Paul reminds us, "we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words." (Romans 8:26) We also know the Lord Jesus through His Church. Pentecost Sunday is the birth date of the Church. It is the Holy Spirit Who enlivens, enlightens, guides, sanctifies the Church.

We know Jesus though the Sacramental Mysteries of the Church, and the Holy Spirit is at the heart of the sacramental life of the Church. Baptism and Chrismation are the Sacramental Mysteries in which we receive the Holy Spirit and the seal of the Holy Spirit. It would be impossible to receive Jesus in the Eucharist without the descent of the Holy Spirit at the Epiclesis of the Divine Liturgy. Even forgiveness of sins comes through the Holy Spirit. After His glorious resurrection, Our Lord and Savior Jesus said to his disciples, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." (John 20:21-23) The Holy Spirit both confirmed the apostles in Holy Orders as priests and empowered them to forgive sins by His power.

Life in the Holy Spirit is a life of commitment, of sacrifice, and of joy. It is a call to love as Jesus loved, not counting the cost and selflessly living for others. Love is the principal way to a life lived in the Holy Spirit. It is essential that our Christianity is visible in our every day actions. As Saint Paul exhorts us, "Walk by the Spirit and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." (Galatians 5:16, 25)

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. "Every good gift comes from the Holy Spirit, Who . . . is the origin of life. In the Holy Spirit, all creation is renewed and pressed forward to its original state, for He is equal in power to the Father and to the Word. [from the Anavathmi of Tone 3, 5, and 1]

I would like to close my remarks which are overflowing from my heart as a prayer for your success and your sanctification, with a quote from the famous writing "on the Holy Spirit" by our Father among the Saints Basil the Great:

"Hence [by the Holy Spirit] comes to us foreknowledge of the future, understanding of mysteries, discernment of what is hidden, sharing of good gifts, heavenly citizenship, a place in the choir of Angels, joy without cease, abiding in God, likeness unto God, and that which is best of all, being made God."

Eparch of Newton