The Holy Spirit is the source of everyone's movement toward God through Church
- reflections at the feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit -
One of the stichera of the Vespers of the feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit says: “The Holy Spirit gives everything: He inspires the prophecies, He sanctifies the priests, He has taught wisdom to the uneducated, He has shown fishermen to be theologians; He fulfills the whole tradition of the Church. You who are of a the same being and of the same dignity with the Father and the Son, the Comforter, glory to You!”
The text of the stichera tells us about the role and importance of the Holy Spirit in the work of salvation. The Holy Spirit is present in our human time no matter what period we are in - the Old or New Testament. He is the One who works to prepare the coming of the Son of God in the flesh through the prophecies, He inspires the prophets who prepare the people for their inner and outer path. The outer road is the image of the inner road to God.
At the same time, the Holy Spirit chooses and ordains God's servants who will provide the human work with divine power that leads the people to God. The priesthood that works with the grace of the Holy Spirit maintains the consciousness of God's presence in the people. The Holy Spirit is also the giver of wisdom. This is the wisdom that leads to the kingdom of God and the salvation of man. Even if man is not educated in the things of the world in the measure of faith and devotion, he receives another wisdom from God. St. Paul says: “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. (1 Corinthians 2: 6-7). The wisdom given by God guide man towards the eternal life. Following it, man is offered the knowledge of God and of himself as creature made by Him with the vocation with which He endowed him. God's wisdom leads man to understand the spiritual dignity and height for which he was created. The Holy Spirit also endows the one chosen by God with the ability to speak about Him, that is, he becomes a theologian and a guide in the understanding and spiritual path he has to take. And here comes this enumeration of the work of the Holy Spirit ending with a conclusion that shows us what the Church is. The church is the work of the Holy Spirit. The order of the Church - the prayer, the Divine Liturgy, the Holy Sacraments, the other blessings and prayers, as well as the whole community - social work that takes place in the Church, are fulfilled through the acting or breath of the Holy Spirit. In other words, there is no Church without the Holy Spirit. He is the One who constitutes the Church.
At the end of the stichira we find the explanation why the Spirit does all this. He is ‘of one being and one dignity with the Father and the Son.’ He Himself is God because He has the same nature or being as the other two persons of the Holy Trinity. The three persons of the Holy Trinity are one God because they have the same nature or being. The Holy Spirit has the same divine dignity. This doctrine was confirmed at the Second Ecumenical Council in 381 when the Holy Spirit and His equality and dignity with the Father and the Son were proclaimed.
In another stickira of the Vespers of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the text shows the attitude to which the Holy Spirit invites us: “In Your courts, Lord, we as believers, bowing the knees of soul and body, we praise You, the Father without beginning, and the Son together without beginning, and the Most Holy Spirit together eternal, Who enlightens and sanctifies our souls.” A true believer is one who follows the humble attitude both on the inside of the soul and on the outside of the body. The believer is invited not only to an external attitude towards God but also to inner one - body and soul because in this way man appears as a coherent whole and reflecting his creation by God. The believer in the Church learns his gestures and his authentic attitude towards God.
But if we talk so much about the feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, emphasizing its importance, we naturally ask ourselves: what is its role? “Why then did the Lord Jesus Christ determine not to give the Holy Spirit until He should be glorified? – asks St. Augustine. We need to first inquire in what manner the Holy Spirit was not yet in holy people, as bet as we are able, before we speak further, in case this should trouble anyone. We read in the Gospel concerning the Lord Himself newly born that Simeon by the Holy Spirit recognized Him; that Ana the widow, a prophetess, also recognized Him; that Zachariah, being filled with the Holy Spirit, said many things; that Mary herself received the Holy Spirit to conceive the Lord. We have therefore many preceding evidences of the Holy Spirit before the Lord was glorified by the resurrection of His flesh. Nor it was another spirit that the prophets also had, who proclaimed beforehand the coming of Christ.”[1]
Fer. Augustine makes it clear that the same Holy Spirit worked in both the Old Testament and in the beginnings of the New Testament. God did not divide His work. He kept the same way of working in history through the Holy Spirit. St. Augustine draws another conclusion about the specific meaning of the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; and this is evident from His very manifestation during this event:
“How is this to be understood, unless the special giving or sending of the Holy Spirit after the glorification of Christ was to be such as it had never been before? For it was not that it had never occurred previously, but it had never been known in a way such as this. For if the Holy Spirit was not given before, how were the prophets who spoke filled? … How then was ‘the Spirit not given, since Jesus was not yet glorified,’ unless because that giving or granting or mission of the Holy Spirit was to have a certain character of its own in its very advent such as never had happened before? For we read nowhere that people spoke in tongues that they did not know through the Holy Spirit coming on them. But this is what happened then [in Acts, when it was necessary that his coming should be made plain by visible signs, in order to show that the whole world, and all nations constituted with different tongues, should believe in Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit (…). The Holy Spirit, whether by shape of a dove or by fiery tongues … by motion within time and by [various] forms, manifested Himself co-eternal and unchangeable with the Father and the Son.”[2] The conviction of St. Augustine based on the scriptural testimonies and with him of the whole Christian tradition together is that the Holy Spirit inspires and moves all things, history and events, man and deeds towards the kingdom of God before, during and after Christ coming. It is the conviction based on the words of the Savior: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15: 5). Everything that is done for the salvation of man and for the kingdom of God cannot be done without God's help and work. St. Augustine tries to understand the difference between the work of the Holy Spirit before and after the glorification of Christ. Observing the event and what happened there he shows that what is distinct in the event of Pentecost is the charism of speaking in tongues about Christ due to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This reminds us of the episode with the Tower of Babel in which, due to man's arrogance, God mixes tongues to make him understand his fragility and the need for the necessary foundation for any healthy project that is humility. This means to understand that God is the One who guides and helps all human projects if they are in accordance with His will and plan.
St. John Chrysostom emphasizes the community oriented character and the altruistic instinct of the work of the Holy Spirit as we see it at Pentecost: “For the gift was more marvelous ... and the people of old possessed the Spirit themselves but did not impart to the others, while the apostles filled tens of thousands with it.”[3] St. John Chrysostom sees in the new manifestation of the same Holy Spirit a call to communion through generosity and instinct directed towards the neighbor. It is the rediscovery of the communion in the perspective of God's saving message addressed to man.
Father Staniloae sums up very well the significance of the feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit: “The Descent of the Holy Spirit is the act of transition from the saving work of Christ in His personal humanity to the extension of this work to other human beings. Through the Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension, Christ lays the foundation of the Church in His body. Through this the Church is born virtually. This divine life, extended from His body (Christ’s body – t.n.) to the faithful, is the Church. This life radiates from His body elevated to the full state of pneumatization through His ascension and seating at the right hand of the Father, in the supreme intimacy of the infinity of God's life and love for men.
The Church, virtually in the body of Christ, thus comes into being actually by irradiating the Holy Spirit from His body into other human beings, which begins at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descends upon the Apostles, making them the first members of the Church, the first believers in which the power of the pneumatized body of Christ extends. Without the Church the work of salvation of Christ could not be accomplished.”[4] Central to the feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit is the altruistic gesture of God through His Holy Spirit, a manifest sign of His love for man and His creation, of giving Himself together with His saving work to man. He does this to restore His creation from within and to raise it from suffering and death to the eternal joy of life in the endless rest of divine love. God forms the Church in the Person of His Son by assuming and transfiguring the human nature through Incarnation, Suffering, Death, Resurrection and Ascension. In the end He gives the fruit of the whole effort of Christ to man for whom all had been prepared for the healing of suffering and death, and for the restoration of man into full triune communion.
In this Church founded by Christ we find all that is necessary for us as human beings: “The Church is the house of the living God - says archimandrite Vasile. There are stored and kept piously, as received from God, the Holy Scriptures, the treasure of divine Wisdom, and also there we have the Holy Sacraments through which God pours out His divine grace on each of us. In the holy Churches we have the Holy Body and Blood of Christ, through which we have fellowship with God. Indeed, the holy Churches are the fountain of life, with the living water, at which anyone can run and drink. Here we learn about God, here we meet the Savior, and through His holy servants we receive the holy gifts that the heavenly Father has given to men.”[5]
The Church is the environment in which we find the Word of God preserved in the Holy Scriptures, in the Holy Sacraments that communicate to us the grace of the new life, in the Holy Eucharist through which we share in the risen humanity of the Savior Christ. Here we actually meet God and His friends, that is, they are the saints, whose prayers go up to God for our comfort.
In the Holy Spirit we are recreated in the image and likeness of God and we also receive the means of grace that help us to actualize them in concrete life according to the vocation given us by God.
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†HG Bishop Ioan Casian
[1] Augustine. Tractates on the Gospel of John 32.6 in Thomas C. Oden (ed.) Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (New Testament I Va/ John 1-10). Ed. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois USA 60515, p 267 col.1
[2] Augustine. On the Trinity 4.20.29-21.30 in Thomas C. Oden (ed.) Ancient Christian Commentary … p 267 col.2
[3] St. John Chrysostom. Homilies on the Gospel of John 51.2 in Thomas C. Oden (ed.) Ancient Christian Commentary … p 268 col.1
[4] Dumitru Stăniloae. Orthodox Dogmatic Theology (vol 2). Ed. IBMBOR: Bucharest 2003, p 202 (Romanian)
[5] Archimandrite Vasile V. Vasilachi. Under the veil of the eternity. Word of Life – Theological Collection – New York, Ed. BookMasters Inc.: Ashland OH, 1995, p 95 (Romanian)
