20080615 Pentecost and the Holy Spirit

20080615 Homily on Pentecost and the Holy Spirit

Acts 2: 1-11

St. John 7:37-52; 8:12

The Holy Spirit is hard to understand – we know and confess that God is “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – One God”. But what is this Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit was present in the beginning, participating in the creation “In the beginning God made heaven and earth. The earth was invisible and unfinished; and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water. Then God said, “let there be light, and there was light.” (Genesis 1: 1-3). When the Triune God created man, he created him in the “Image of God” (“Then God said “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” Genesis 1:26) then “[having formed him] out of dust from the ground, God breathed in his face the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” That is, God made man in the image of the Creator and God-man, Jesus Christ – and breathed grace into him through the Holy Spirit. [footnote- it is in reverence for the “Image of God” in all of us that leads the Orthodox Church to forbid cremation].

Since this time, we have corrupted the image of God and suffered the consequences, to include the loss of the Grace of the Holy Spirit [Then the Lord God said, 'My Spirit shall not remain with these people forever, for they are [sinful]].” and He subsequently decreased their lifespan (Genesis 6:3).

God continued to work through humanity for its salvation. For the Jews, Pentecost was a celebration of the bringing of God's law. But as St. Paul points out in his letter to the Hebrews, the Law cannot perfect a person. In the end, its primary purpose has been and remains to remind us of our inability to be reach the perfection for which we all strive. We all break the law. We fall short of the standard of perfection. We miss the mark. We sin.

It is in this context that today's feast (and the Holy Spirit) can and must be understood. For while we can talk about the historical actions of the Trinity at creation, of how the Holy Spirit spoke through the prophets, and even how He worked within the Apostles at the birth of the Church two thousand years ago, what you must understand is what all this means for you and for us today. We are not primarily historians or theologians, but people seeking to “live life in abundance”, to grow the power and wisdom of God within our own lives, this parish, this community, and this world.

Christ came to save each of us from our sin and to deliver us from the sins of this fallen world. As we learned last week, being both fully God and fully man, Christ bridges the chasm that separated man from perfection. This week we learn that it is the Holy Spirit that gives us the strength to work our way across that bridge. The Holy Spirit allows us to obey Christ's command to “be perfect as God is perfect.” Christ stresses this power when He tells His disciples in Acts 1:8 “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” God gives us this power, first at Chrismation, then throughout our lives as we participate in the Mysteries of the Church because He knows that we cannot cross that chasm without it.

There is another part of today's feast that is especially relevant for us today, as we celebrate not just Pentecost, but also the first confessions of [two of our young parishioners]. God wants us to be perfect, and he sent us His Son and the Holy Spirit to make this possible. But God's knowledge and understanding of us is as perfect as His love for us. He knows that we will make mistakes as we cross that bridge. So listen to what else the Holy Spirit does for us, as described in St. John's account of the coming of the Holy Spirit: “[And after Jesus had blessed his disciples], He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. (St. John 20:19-23). It is the Holy Spirit that operates within the Sacrament of Confession – as in all the Sacraments- working through the (unworthy) priest to bring about the forgiveness of sins.

It is God's will that we come to perfection. For this He sent both His only begotten Son and His Holy Spirit. This is the perfection that all yearn for, and it is possible thanks to the grace and love of God.