Holy Pentecost 2020 (Covid-19)

So, what would you prefer; would you rather lose £10 or find £10?
I think it is safe to say that we all experience ‘loss aversion’ that is our tendency to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains. Loss and giving up can be difficult concepts for us to accept, since both are often equated to failure and it has been suggested that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains. For many, if not all of us, loss and giving up have been a dominant feature of this pandemic period.
 
There is however a different dimension to loss a giving up. I refer to the spiritual life. Let me take you back to the start of our life with Covid-19 (Coronavirus). Fr David shared his thoughts and the thoughts of Elder Zacharias of Essex with regard to ‘Hesychia’. This is a state when there is an inner stillness and one abides alone in spirit with God; attained only through loss and giving up!

There is a story of a Japanese sage who served tea to an enquiring professor. The sage poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”, he cried. “Like this cup,” the sage replied, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you anything unless you first empty your cup?”
This Sunday is 8th Sunday of Pascha, Holy Pentecost and is followed by The Day of the Holy Spirit on Monday.  Pentecost Sunday commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit in the form of flames to the Apostles, as recorded in the New Testament in Acts, 2. The Holy Spirit allowed the apostles to speak in other languages through 'tongues of fire', and they started preaching the Gospel to the Jews who come to Jerusalem for the feast of Shavuot (Pentecost),  a festival that celebrates the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. We recognise this day as the birth of the Church for two reasons. Firstly, the descent of the Holy Spirit completed the Trinity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - the basis of Christian theology. Secondly, it was the first time that the Apostles had preached to the masses.
And so, Pentecost is a celebration. However, Henri Nouwen reminds us that …
"We cannot celebrate Christmas when there is nothing new born here and now; we cannot celebrate Easter when no new life becomes visible; we cannot celebrate Pentecost when there is no Spirit whatsoever to celebrate. Celebration is the recognition that something is there and needs to be made visible so that we can all say yes to it.’
 
This is not a time of loss, of giving up or of emptying, but rather This is a time to celebrate the coming and receiving of the Holy spirit.  At baptism/Chrismation we each had the name of the Holy Trinity invoked over us.  We were washed clean of sin.  And coming out of the baptismal font, for those of us who were baptized in the Orthodox Church, we immediately received the sacrament of Chrismation, we received the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in each of us.
 
In the Orthodox Church this is the only prayer, among all the prayers of the Church, that is ad- dressed to the Holy Spirit and for the last 50 days we have ‘given up’ saying our introductory Prayer to The Holy Spirit 
 “O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, who art everywhere and fillest all things, Treasury of Blessings and Giver of Life: come and abide in us, cleanse us from all impurity and of thy goodness, save our souls.”
The prayer is so important that we should preface all of our prayers with it! But arguably it is just as important that we remember and understand what it is we are saying and why.  I therefore invite you, for the next few days to look at the Prayer to the Holy Spirit phrase by phrase; to perhaps use each phrase as a daily meditation.
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Meditations on the Prayer to the Holy Spirit.
O Heavenly King,

• The Holy Spirit is truly God, just like the Father and the Son.
• What’s more, this is a reminder that we have a King; we are His subjects, and it is our goal to bring our hearts under His holy reign.

Comforter,

• In Greek, this word is Paraclete, which is not only one who brings comfort, but also one who makes us stronger, who encourages us and who is our helper and would advocate for us and defend us.
• The Holy Spirit is actively working toward our salvation, encouraging our good efforts and also making efforts on our behalf.

Spirit of Truth,

• When Jesus dies on the Cross, His disciples don’t really understand what is happening. They are still looking for the new King of Israel — in fact, even after His resurrection, they continue to ask if He is about to take the throne of Israel now.
• They do not yet understand that the Kingdom of God is not of this earth and is in fact much larger and more revolutionary than an earthly government could ever be.
• Jesus says that the disciples are ‘not ready to bear’ all of this information yet, but when the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide them to understanding.
• The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, because He speaks to our heart and reveals the Truth of the Gospel and the Truth of God’s love for us and of the whole plan for our salvation and deification.

Who art everywhere present and Who fillest all things,

• God is everywhere — we cannot hide from Him; there is nowhere we can go to be away form Him.
• The Holy Spirit is everywhere present, and while He cannot be contained, He is present in all things.
• Of course, when we are chrismated we seal the Holy Spirit inside of people, and when we bless our food or when a priest blesses holy water or an icon etc we are asking the Holy Spirit to come down into this thing.
• The Holy Spirit can and does fill up all things — even the humblest form of matter can be filled with the Holy Spirit.
• God truly loves His creation.

Treasury of Blessings

• All good things come from God — and so we are not surprised to find that the Holy Spirit is a treasury of good things.
• In his letter to Galatians, St. Paul lists the specific gifts of the Holy Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Gal. 5: 22-23)
• If we hope to have any of these things, we should look to the Holy Spirit, the treasury of blessings.

and Giver of Life,

• The Holy Spirit is the giver of life everlasting to all who place their hope in the Son of God.
• The Holy Spirit is the One who holds everything that exists together; He is truly the giver of all life.
• It is the presence of the Holy Spirit that makes life possible, that sustains us and our whole Cosmos.
• This planet continues to rotate and to orbit around the sun, this galaxy, this universe, the multi-verse, all of it, holds together because of the Holy Spirit.

come and abide in us, --

• After thinking of the Holy Spirit in this cosmic way, how amazing to come down to the very personal level and to think that at our chrismation, we were given the seal of the Holy Spirit.
• The Holy Spirit is within us, and several times a day, we pray that the Spirit come and abide in us. We don’t wish to be just visited by the Spirit on occasion, but to attract the Spirit to stay with us, at work in the workshop of our hearts all of the time.
• The Holy Spirit can do that — He can stay with us, and simply live in our hearts, always helping us.

 
and cleanse us from all impurity --

• The work of the Holy Spirit is to cleanse our hearts, to free us from the sins and passions that bind us.

and save our souls, --

• By abiding in us and cleansing us, the Holy Spirit saves our souls, bringing them to eternal life.

O Good One. --

• Finally, we affirm the goodness of the Holy Spirit and of God, just as God affirmed the goodness of creation every day (And He saw that it was good.)
•  God is good, and He is the source of all that is good, so we conclude, O Good One.

 
Fr Julian

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