A brilliant little read, from a Russian priest... “We believe that in the Church the Old Testament prophecy has been fulfilled: ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declare, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh’ (Acts 2:17). God pours out his Spirity not upon just a certain member but upon all His people. All are charismatics since all have received the Spirit as a ‘pledge’ ( arrabôn) of the new age to which the Church belongs while still abiding in this old age. The Church is the beginning of the ‘last days’ ( eschatai hemerai). "Upon entering, the believer is set apart for ministry in the Church through the sending down of the Spirit. ‘The fullness of grace’ ( omnis gratia) has an absolute but not relative, a permanent but not temporary, character, for only charismatics can be members of the Church. The gift of the Spirit that every member of the faithfull receives in the sacrament of initiation is the charism of royal priesthood. In the Church there are no gifts of the Spirit without ministry and there is no ministry without gifts. Through the charisma of the royal priesthood the Christian is call to priestly ministry in the Church.” (Nicholas Afanasiev, The Church of the Holy Spirit, pg. 3)
Ascension
John Donne
Salute the last and everlasting day,
Joy at th' uprising of this Sun, and Son,
Ye whose true tears, or tribulation
Have purely wash'd, or burnt your drossy clay.
Behold, the Highest, parting hence away,
Lightens the dark clouds, which He treads upon ;
Nor doth He by ascending show alone,
But first He, and He first enters the way.
O strong Ram, which hast batter'd heaven for me !
Mild Lamb, which with Thy Blood hast mark'd the path !
Bright Torch, which shinest, that I the way may see !
O, with Thy own Blood quench Thy own just wrath ;
And if Thy Holy Spirit my Muse did raise,
Deign at my hands this crown of prayer and praise.
S Paul writes that we can abound in joy and hope because "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:5). This is what our life at S Giles is ultimately all about: discovering more of that divine love, which has the power in itself to transform and change us so that we can be more like Christ – merciful, kind, gracious, and forgiving.
Jesus was insistent that it is only within the love of God that we find the real fulness of human life. That fulness is described in our Easter Gospels by two words: peace, and joy. That is why Jesus came to give us life through the gift and working of the Holy Spirit. Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment – a new way of loving and serving one another. Jesus' love was wholly directed toward the good of others. That is why he layed down his own life for us to free us from sin, death, fear, and everything else that could hold us back from knowing the reality of the Divine Love.
With this new commandmant, Jesus revealed what we might call the radical plan of God for us: a new way of love that goes beyond giving only what is required or what we think others might deserve. The essence of Jesus' new commandment is a love to the death – a purifying love that overcomes selfishness, fear, and pride. It is a total giving of oneself for the sake of others – a selfless and self-giving love that is oriented towards putting the welfare of others ahead of myself. This is the love that we are called to know and live. This is the love we earnestly pray for over these days leading up to the feast of Pentecost - when the very Spirit of that love is poured into our hearts.
In this coming Sunday's Gospel, Jesus speak of himself as the true vine. The image of the vine was a rich one for the Jews since the land of Israel was covered with numerous vineyards. It had religious connotations to it as well. Isaiah spoke of the house of Israel as “the vineyard of the Lord” (Isaiah 5:7). Jeremiah said that God had planted Israel “as his choice vine” (Jeremiah 2:21). While the vine became a symbol of Israel as a nation, it also was used in the scriptures as a sign of degeneration. Isaiah’s prophecy spoke of Israel as a vineyard which “yielded wild grapes” (see Isaiah 5:1-7). Jeremiah said that Israel had become a “degenerate and wild vine” (Jeremiah 2:21). When Jesus calls himself the true vine he makes clear that no one can claim their spiritual inheritance through association with a particular people or bloodline. Rather, it is only through Jesus Christ that one can become grafted into the true “vineyard of the Lord”.
Our life at S Giles is a life lived within the vine. Our life around the Lord's Table is our continual living in him, and he in us. In the Holy Communion, Jesus offers us true life – his own life – the abundant life which comes from God and which results in great fruitfulness. As S Cyril of Alexandria put it,
From Christ and in Christ, we have been reborn through the Spirit in order to bear the fruit of life; not the fruit of our old, sinful life but the fruit of a new life founded upon our faith in him and our love for him. Like branches growing from a vine, we now draw our life from Christ, and we cling to his holy commandment in order to preserve this life. Eager to safeguard the blessing of our noble birth, we are careful not to grieve the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, and who makes us aware of God’s presence in us.
Cyril of Alexander, a 5th century church father. Who could say it better?
“He shows in what manner a shepherd may be proved good; and He teaches that he must be prepared to give up his life fighting in defense of his sheep, which was fulfilled in Christ. For man has departed from the love of God, and fallen into sin, and because of this was, I say, excluded from the divine abode of paradise, and when he was weakened by that disaster, he yielded to the devil tempting him to sin, and death following that sin he became the prey of fierce and ravenous wolves. But after Christ was announced as the True Shepherd of all men, He laid down his life for us(1 John 3:16), fighting for us against that pack of inhuman beasts. He bore the Cross for us, that by His own death he might destroy death. He was condemned for us, that He might deliver all of us from the sentence of punishment: the tyranny of sin being overthrown by our faith: fastening to the Cross the decree that stood against us, as it is written (Colossians 2:14). Therefore as the father of sin had as it were shut up the sheep in hell, giving them to death to feed on, as it is written in the psalms (Ps. Xlviii.16), He died for us as truly Good, and truly our Shepherd, so that the dark shadow of death driven away He might join us to the company of the blessed in heaven; and in exchange for abodes that lie far in the depths of the pit, and in the hidden places of the sea, grant us mansions in His Father’s House above. Because of this he says to us in another place: Fear not, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you a kingdom (Luke 12:32)."
Its fascinating just how far the Gospel writers go to make it clear that with the resurrection of Christ we really are talking about Resurrection: not resuscitation or the appearance of pure spirit or ghost. Jesus goes to great lengths to assure his disciples that he is no mere phantasm or illusion. He shows them the marks of his crucifixion and he explains how the scriptures foretold his death and rising. Several times he make the point of eating food with the disciples.
S Jerome, one of the great early Fathers of the Church once wrote: "As he showed them real hands and a real side, he really ate with his disciples; really walked with Cleophas; conversed with men with a real tongue; really reclined at supper; with real hands took bread, blessed and broke it, and was offering it to them. Do not put the power of the Lord on the level with the tricks of magicians, so that he may appear to have been what he was not, and may be thought to have eaten without teeth, walked without feet, broken bread without hands, spoken without a tongue, and showed a side which had no ribs." (From a letter to Pammachius against John of Jerusalem 34, 5th century)
S Paul states that the centrality of the gospel is the cross; but fortunately it does not stop there. Through the cross Jesus defeated our greatest enemies – sin and death. But it was his resurrection that made his victory complete and entire. Through the cross and resurrection, Jesus shows us the way to the new life he promised, and he gives us the power to overcome sin and despair, and everything else that would stand in the way of his love and truth.
Before the revision of the Calendar a few decades ago, the Feast of S Thomas occurred on 21 December. It was a poignant moment in the year: the darkest day of year is represented by the Apostle of the darkest moment of doubt. S Thomas, though his doubt, was to shine brightly by his confession of the dual natures of Christ in one Person: his divinity and his humanity: "My Lord and my God!"
S Thomas was a natural pessimist - and we all know the type. When Jesus proposed that they visit Lazarus after receiving news of his illness, It was S Thomas who said to the other disciples: "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (John 11:16). Not the most optimistic expectation of the outcome of the journey!
While Thomas deeply loved the Lord, he lacked the courage to stand with Jesus in his passion and crucifixion. After Jesus' death, its very interesting that the Apostle of pessimism and doubt was the only one who (the Gospel makes clear) actually withdrew from the other apostles. Overcome with sulleness and despair, instead of seeking the fellowship of his brothers, he instead sought loneliness.
S Thomas was the one who explicitly doubted the women who saw the resurrected Jesus. He even doubted the witness of his own fellow apostles. Perhaps the most moving part of the story of S Thomas is how Jesus reacts to the Doubter. Jesus made of point of singling him out and addresses him personally. Jesus made his presence known to him in one of the most dramatic post-resurrection scenes, and he reassured him that he had indeed overcome death and risen again.
And out of the sulleness, despair and doubt, Jesus draws out one of the simplest confessions in the Gospel, which pointed to his true identity. When Thomas finally recognized his Master, he believed and exclaimed: "My Lord and My God."
Through the gift of faith we, too, proclaim that Jesus is our personal Lord and our God. He died and rose that we, too, might have new life in him. The Lord offers each of us new life in his Holy Spirit that we may know him personally and walk in this new way of life through the power of his resurrection.
A friend of mine once argued that, in a way, the Palm Sunday procession seemed to him to be the greatest celebration in the Bible. Not that it is the greatest event. The Birth of Jesus was greater and of course our celebration at Christmas is more important to us. But when you think about it, at the Birth of Jesus itself, there weren’t too many people involved. Mary and Joseph, a few shepherds, later some wise men. The first Christmas was a private, almost secret time.
The Resurrection of Jesus was greater, and our celebration of Easter is more important. But the first Easter was a very strange time for the disciples. There was great joy, but some of the disciples were afraid, often they didn’t understand, some didn’t even believe. The Day of Pentecost was a greater day, and a greater celebration, but the coming of the Holy Spirit was an awesome and unworldly time. It would have been hard to relate to for many people.
When it comes to a truly triumphant and celebratory event in the life of Christ, then Palm Sunday might be the closest thing to that. The Passover was celebration enough. The people all came to Jerusalem and the population of the city swelled from about 55,000 to about 180,000. The city was crowded with pilgrims. And although the number of people involved in the Palm Sunday celebration would have been small compared to all the people in the city, people would have been watching and waiting for this demonstration on behalf of Jesus.
All through the gospels the people were wanting Jesus to step up and be recognized as King. They couldn’t wait for it to happen. On Palm Sunday, Jesus finally allowed them to recognize him. The people wave palm branches, the sign of royalty. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, as Zechariah had foretold. They throw their cloaks on the road in front of him. If you think about what that means, you can see that if you put your coat in front of someone riding on a mule, you are offering what you have in his service. You are saying, what is mine is yours, and I will follow you with all that I have. That is the spirit we enter into on Palm Sunday.
Its one of the fundamental laws of the Spirit. The law is even mysteriously present within nature: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. " So what is the spiritual law? " He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."
The law would have no meaning, no reference at all, except that Jesus himself manifested its reality by his own death and resurrection. In our Gospel this coming Sunday, Jesus speaks of his own death as his “hour of glory” when he would be “lifted up from the earth” and would “draw all men to himself”. Jesus saw his death on the cross as triumph over the powers of sin and darkness.
In order to allow us to approach the mystery, Jesus points us to nature, in particular a “grain of wheat.” Seeds cannot produce new life by themselves. They must first be planted in the earth before they can grow and produce fruit. What is the spiritual analogy which Jesus alludes to? Is this simply a veiled reference to his own impending death on the cross and resurrection? Or does Jesus have another kind of "death and rebirth" in mind for his disciples? Jesus, no doubt, had both meanings in mind. Jesus’ obedience and death on the cross obtain for us freedom and new life in the Holy Spirit. His cross frees us from the tyranny of sin and death and shows us the way of perfect love.
If we want to experience the new life which Jesus offers, then the outer shell of our old, fallen nature, must be broken and put to death. In Baptism our “old nature” enslaved by sin is buried with Christ and we rise as a “new creation” in Christ. This process of death to the “old fallen self” is both a one-time event, and a daily, on-going cycle in which God buries us more deeply into Jesus’ death to sin so we might rise anew and bear fruit for God. There is a great paradox here. Death leads to life. When we "die" to our selves, we "rise" to new life in Jesus Christ. This is what our Baptism is about, and this is what every celebration of the Holy Mysteries is all about: dying to ourselves, and rising to new life
W.H. Auden famously said "now is the age of anxiety." The anxiety we're talking about here isn't just the daily worry about things, like money, health, family, comfort, etc. Its a much deeper kind of anxiety which concerns our underlying belief about ourselves, the world and God. Christians make quite an outrageous claim when they declare that not only is there a profound reason behind the world, but more specifically, that reason is love. Jesus gets right to the heart of the matter in his conversation with Nicodemus: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). Jesus offered his own coming as evidence of the love which lies behind everything. God proved his love for us by giving us the best he had to offer – his only begotten Son who freely gave himself as an offering to God for our sake and as the atoning sacrifice for our sin and the sin of the world. This passage tells us of the great breadth and width of God's love.
Part of what was so radical about Jesus' words was the universality it implied: this love was not an exclusive one, for just a few or for a single nation, but an all-embracing redemptive love for the whole world, and a personal love for each and every individual whom God has created in his own image and likeness. God is a loving Father who cannot rest until his wandering children have returned home to him. Saint Augustine of Hippo says, "God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love." God gives us the freedom to choose whom and what we will love. Jesus shows us the paradox of love and judgment. We can love the darkness of sin and unbelief or we can love the light of God’s truth, beauty, and goodness. If our love is guided by what is true, and good and beautiful then we will choose for God and love him above all else. This is the single-minded love we pray for in so many of our lenten devotions.
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