On How the Holy Spirit Was Manifested and Shared Out at Pentecost (Part II)

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE. Ο ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΜΕΣΩ ΗΜΩΝ! ΚΑΙ ΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΑΙ.

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ON HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS MANIFESTED AND SHARED OUT AT PENTECOST (Part II)
By Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki

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The promise was now fulfilled and the Holy Spirit, given and sent by both the Father and the Son, descended. He shone round about the Holy Disciples and with Divine power kindled them all like lamps or, rather, He revealed them as heavenly lights set above the whole world, who has the word of eternal life, and through them, He illuminated all the earth. If from one burning lamp someone lights another, then another from that one, and so on in succession, he has light continuously. In the same way, through the Holy Apostles ordaining their successors and these successors ordaining others, and so on, the grace of the Holy Spirit is handed down through all generations and enlightens all who obey their spiritual shepherds and teachers...

"...Christ had ascended bodily into heaven, so if He had not sent His Holy Spirit to accompany and strengthen His Disciples and their successors in following generations who taught the gospel of grace, He would not have been preached to all nations, nor would the proclamation have been passed down to us. That is why the Lord, in His All-surpassing Love for mankind, showed at Pentecost that His Disciples were partakers, fathers and ministers of Everlasting Light and Life, who bring us to new birth for eternal life and make those who are worthy children of light and fathers of enlightenment. Thus, He Himself is with us unto the end of the world, as was promised through the Spirit (St. Matthew 28:20). For He is one with the Father and the Spirit, not according to hypostasis, but in His Divinity, and God is one in three, in one tri-hypostatic and Almighty Divinity. The Holy Spirit always existed and was with the Son in the Father. How could the Father and Divine Mind be without beginning if the Son and Logos/Word were not also without beginning? How could there be a pre-eternal Logos/Word without there also being a pre-eternal Spirit? Thus the Holy Spirit ever was and is and will be, Co-Creator with the Father and the Son, together with them renewing that which has suffered corruption, and sustaining the things that endure. He is everywhere present and fills, directs and oversees everything. "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit," says the psalmist to God, "Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?" (Psalm 139:7). 

He is not just everywhere, but also above all, not just in every age and time, but before them all. And, according to the promise, the Holy Spirit will not just be with us until the end of the age, but rather will stay with those who are worthy in the age to come, making them immortal and fillings their bodies as well with eternal glory, as the Lord indicated by telling His Disciples, "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever" (St. John 14:16). "It is sown", says the Apostle (meaning buried and committed to the earth), "a dead natural body", that is to say, an ordinary created body with a created soul, stable and capable of movement. "It is raised" (that is, comes back to life), "a spiritual body" (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:44), which means a supernatural body, framed and ordered by the Holy Spirit, and clothed in immortality, glory and incorruption by the Spirit's power (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:53). "The first man, Adam", he says "was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. The first man is of the earth, earthly; the second man is the Lord from 1:18 heaven. As is the earthly, such are they also that are earthly: and as is the heavenly, such are they that are heavenly" (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:45, 47-48).

Who are these heavenly people? Those who are steadfast and immovable in their faith, who always abound in the Lord's work and bear the image of the heavenly Adam through their obedience to Him. "He that obeyeth not the Son," says Saint John, the Lord's Forerunner, through the St. John the Evangelist, "shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (St. John 3:36). Who can endure God's wrath? "It is a fearful thing", brethren, "to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31). If we fear the hands of our enemies, even though the Lord says, "fear not them which kill the body" (St. Matthew 10:28), who in his right mind will not fear God's hands raised in anger against the disobedient? For the wrath of God will be revealed against everyone who lives impurely and unjustly without repenting and holds the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18).

Let us flee from wrath and hasten through repentance to obtain the kindness and compassion of the Divine Spirit. If anyone feels hatred towards another, let him be reconciled with him and restore love, lest his hatred and conflict with his brother should bear witness against him that he does not love God. "For if you do not love your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you have not seen?" (Cf. 1 John 4:20). When we love one another, let our love be unfeigned, and let us show it in deeds, by neither saying nor doing, nor even enduring to hear, anything insulting or harmful to our brethren. As Christ's beloved theologian taught us, "Brethren, do not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth" (cf. 1 John 3:18)...

"...Let us, brethren, I beseech you, abstain from deeds and words hateful to God, that we may boldly call God Our Father. Let us truly return to Him, that He too may turn back to us, cleanse us from all sin and make us worthy of His Divine grace. Then shall we keep festival both now and forever, and celebrate in a godly and spiritual way the accomplishments of God's promise, the coming of the All-Holy Spirit among men and His resting upon them; the fulfillment and perfection of the blessed hope in Christ Himself Our Lord.

For to Him belong glory, honor and worship, with His Father without beginning and the All-Holy, Good and Life-Giving Spirit, now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. (Source: Saint Gregory Palamas. The Homilies)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"--Saint John Chrysostom

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George