As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in My love.
John 15:9
The Church celebrates the Feast of Pentecost for an entire week. As we are about to conclude the feast, we offer another reflection on its importance.
For those of us who have children, imagine if someone asked you to tell something about your child and you said, “well, he was born.” And then added nothing else. No one would do that. We always describe our children based on how they are growing. Like, my child is in college, or my child is in high school, or my child is graduating this year. We share things that reveal that our child is alive, growing and participating in life. We might even share that our child is struggling, since that is also part of life.
Now, imagine if someone asked you to describe your child’s spiritual life. And you said, “well, he was baptized.” And then added nothing else. What if someone asked you to describe your spiritual life, and you said “well, I was baptized” and nothing else. This would seem to indicate that we are not very spiritually alive, because if we are alive, there is a lot more to say than just “well, I was baptized.” We should be able to say things like “I have read the Bible,” or “I am active in a community,” or “I receive Holy Communion each week.”
In John 3:3, a man named Nicodemos, went to Jesus by night, because he was curious to know Jesus, but also afraid because of his position on the Jewish Council, people were ostensibly against Jesus. Jesus told him, in John 3:3, “Truly I say to you, unless one is born from Above, He cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemos said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” (John 3:3-5)
We come out of the womb as children of our parents. Through Baptism we become children of God. Through Chrismation we receive the Holy Spirit and we become Orthodox Christians. Through our birth, we become alive as human beings. Through Baptism and Chrismation, we become alive in Christ and in the Spirit. And if we are alive, then we grow, we do things. We aren’t just born and it stops there. At least it shouldn’t.
The original feast of Pentecost was a Jewish feast, held fifty days after Passover, to commemorate the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. It happened on this day, fifty days after the Resurrection, that the Lord sent down the Holy Spirit in the form of tongues of fire to sit on the heads of the disciples, and the Holy Spirit changed them. It transformed them from illiterate fishermen who lacked knowledge and confidence, to confident and bold leaders who could now speak in all the languages known to mankind. Pentecost, it is said, is the day the church was born. But we don’t celebrate Pentecost merely as a historical occasion. Because the birth of the church was not the end of the story. The church is alive and growing, to this very day.
Let’s discuss two words that are connected to the Holy Spirit. The first word is grace. This word is best defined when it is used in the sacrament of Ordination, when the bishop prays over the person being ordained, “The Divine Grace, which always heals what is infirm and completes what is lacking.” We call on the Holy Spirit to come onto ordinary bread and wine, and to complete them to become the Body and Blood of Christ which we receive in Holy Communion. We call upon the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of confession, to come down on sinful, broken people, and restore spiritual wholeness, to make them pure and clean again as they were at their baptisms.
The second word is the word “abide.” With the Feast of Pentecost, we have resumed offering the Prayer of the Holy Spirit in our Divine services: Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, everywhere present and filling all things, the treasury of blessings and the Giver of Life, come and abide in us, cleanse us form every stain and save our souls, O Good One. We ask the Holy Spirit to come and abide in us. The word abide means to live with or be attached to. We don’t hear this word often in modern society, it is a more archaic word. The only time we tend to hear it is connected to rules and laws, that we have to abide by them. In this instance, we are asking the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in us, to abide in us. Jesus used this word many times in the New Testament. In John 6:56, He says “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” In John 15:4-7, He says “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, He it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” He continues in John 15:9-10, As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
The gateway to the Father is Christ, and the gateway to Christ is the Holy Spirit. If we allow the Holy Spirit to abide in us, we will find Christ, and He also will abide in us.
Imagine if I invited you to stay in my home for a week, to abide with my family. And then for that week, I ignored you, gave you no food, no attention, no bed to sleep on. What good would that invitation to have abide been? It would actually be construed as rude. So, when we ask the Holy Spirit to abide in us, but we pay Him no attention, we give the Spirit no space to operate in our lives, we ignore His grace, or we devalue it by doing things that create more empty spaces, then we are no better than the guy who hosts people in his home but pays them no mind or is rude to them. The challenge for today is to ask ourselves, have we invited the Holy Spirit to abide in us? And if so, are we being good hosts to Him? We should ask ourselves how we can be better hosts, how we can better take care of the One who gives us grace. Many of us run to God, whether it is the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, or all three, only in times of crisis. The Christian life is not meant to be restricted to the times we are in the foxhole, and the bombs are going off around us, but rather to allow ourselves to be guided by the Spirit, for Him to abide in us at all times and in all places. Surely, we need to be born of water and the Spirit, but life doesn’t end at birth. We are to grow continually. May we continue to invite the Holy Spirit to come and abide in us, and may we receive Him as if we are receiving a new guest into our homes—may we show hospitality to Him, may we be generous with Him, may we honor Him.
The hymn we sing in honor of Pentecost says “Blessed are You, O Christ our God, who by sending down the Holy Spirit upon them, made the fishermen wise and through them, illumined the world.” We are disciples, descendants of an unbroken line of the Orthodox Church that traces its roots to that day of Pentecost. In many ways, we are like the disciples were before Pentecost—unsure, illiterate, anxious. As we celebrate Pentecost, we pray that the Holy Spirit will come upon us to make us wise. The disciples were illumined by the Holy Spirit, and through them the world was illumined as well. Let us be illumined by the Grace of the Holy Spirit. But let’s not let the story end there. Through us, may we also seek to illumine our little corner of the world.
O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me! Thou knowest when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou discernest my thoughts from afar. Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, lo, O Lord Thou knowest it altogether. Thou dost beset me behind and before, and layest Thy hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it. Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend to heaven, Thou art there! If I make my bed in Sheol, Thou art there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there Thy hand shall lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Let only darkness cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to Thee, the night is bright as the day; for darkness is as light with Thee. For Thou didst form my inward parts, Thou didst knit me together in my mother’s womb. .I praise Thee, for Thou are fearful and wonderful. Wonderful are Thy works! Thou knowest me well; my frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth. Thy eye beheld my unformed substance; in Thy book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are Thy thoughts, o God! How vast is the some of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. When I awake, I am still with Thee. O that Thou wouldst slay the wicked, O God, and that men of blood would depart from me, men who maliciously defy Thee, who lift themselves up against Thee for evil! Do I note hate them that hate Thee, O Lord? And do I not loathe them that rise up against Thee? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139
Let us live in the Spirit! Let us allow the Spirit to live and grow in us!
