My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

ON JUNE 7th OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH CELEBRATES THE HOLY AND GLORIOUS FEAST OF PENTECOST (Part II)

Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn of the Feast of Pentecost Mode pl. 4

Blessed are You, O Christ our God, You made the fishermen all-wise, by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit, and through them drew the world into Your net. O Lover of mankind, glory You.

The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost does not indicate that the Holy Spirit was previously absent from the earth and from people, but that, as we mentioned before, the Holy Spirit operates in a different way. We can offer two points that interpret the Descent of the Holy Spirit and His different energy.

The first point is that on the day of Pentecost the Holy Apostles understood that the Holy Spirit is a particular hypostasis (Person) and not simply energy of God. The Holy Spirit, which appeared faintly in the Old Testament as a breath, as a sound, as the voice of a breeze, as an inspiration of the Prophets, is manifested at Pentecost "as a self-existing hypostasis". Thus, when the events which manifested the hypostasis of the Son had been completed, there began the events which manifested the hypostasis of the Holy Spirit (Saint Gregory Palamas).

The second point by which one can interpret the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost is that the Holy Spirit made the Disciples members of the Body of Christ and gave them the power to participate in Christ's victory over death. God cannot be compared with human data. The Angels possess freedom naturally, but they exercise it without hindrance, they want to use it directly because they have nothing to prevent them from acting on it, for they are not hindered by the body or any other opposing force. Human beings are independent and have freedom, but their free will has been traumatized and it is not easy for them to carry out their desires. This is why desire and free will need to be strengthened by God. In the Old Testament, it says that he who listens "receives favor from the Lord" (Proverbs 8:35). And the Holy Apostle Paul writes: "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose" (Philippians 2:13).

This means that the Holy Spirit came down into the hearts of the Holy Apostles and is working in men through their own will and not as servants. But men must respond to the energy of the Holy Spirit with their will since god does not violate their freedom. However, desire and free will must be reinforced by God because in the fallen state man is enslaved, he is an attached being.

In general, when we speak of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, we cannot understand it as an incarnation, for only the Son and Logos/Word of God became Incarnate, but as Its hypostatic manifestation in the world, which transformed the Disciples and changed them from mortal men to living members of the Body of Christ...

"...After promising to His Disciples that he would send the Holy Spirit, Christ gave a clear command: "stay in the city of Jerusalem until you have been clothed with power from on high" (St. Luke 24:49). The Holy Disciples kept this command and remained together in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, in stillness and prayer, waiting for the outpouring of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Therefore the Holy Evangelist Luke assures us: "And they were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God" (Luke 24:53).

At this point, I should comment briefly on the phrase: "until you have been clothed with power from on high" because it is quite characteristic. Christ does not say that they will simply receive the Holy Spirit, but that they will be clothed with it, as with some spiritual suit of armor in order in order to fight the enemy (Satan). It is not about spiritual enlightenment of their minds, but about a transformation of their whole being. There will be no point in their body and no energy of the soul which will be left uncovered by the energy of the Holy Spirit.

It is well known that with Holy Baptism, which is regarded as an introductory Sacrament it introduces us into the Church and we become members of the Body of Christ, we have clothed ourselves with Christ Himself: "for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27). But at the same time, we clothe ourselves in the Holy Spirit as well, according to Christ's explicit promise. Moreover, this is the purpose of the two Sacraments of Baptism and Chrismation, which are interconnected.

The Christian's clothing himself in the Holy Spirit is not outward and superficial, but inward, like the uniting of iron with fire. Iron that is made red-hot is afire completely, not a small part of it. Thus all who receive the Holy Spirit feel that it fills their heart, it gives light to their eyes, sanctifies their ears, stifles their bad thoughts, ideas spring up, wisdom is granted, persons are filled with grace. (Source: The Feasts of the Lord. An Introduction to the Twelve Feasts and Orthodox Christology by Metropolitan of Nafpaktos HIEROTHEOS)

(To be continued)

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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