I greet you today, dearest Brothers and Sisters in Christ, with the joy of the feast overflowing in my heart, and I hope that is something that you all share with me as we have reached the epilogue of our 4 months journey through Great Lent, Holy Pascha, Ascension…and have now reached the incredible celebration of the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
I bring a question to the forefront of our thoughts this morning…something to challenge where we are at in our relationship with God: Are we living our lives in and through the reality of Pentecost?
The Disciples on the days following Ascension, spent 40 days after Pascha having their eyes opened. Then after His Ascension, they didn’t immediately go out and preach the word of God to the masses. They didn’t confront the pharisees like a young Saul, or the High Priests, or even Caesar Himself about a life of Christ. They didn’t speak languages and perform the miracles we hear about in the book of Acts.
Perhaps this is where many of us find ourselves today. We started Great Lent preparing for our Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection. After Pascha, we participated in and shouted this glorious reality that Christ is Risen from the Dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs, bestowing life! We watched as God has gone up with the shout, with the sound of the trumpets as Christ Ascended to the Heavens! Yet for so many of us, this is where our participation in this reality seems to end: “God did all of these wonderful things for me…can’t wait until next Lent when He can do them again”…
We are reminded on this day of Pentecost that just knowing and understanding the wonderful things that God has done out of love for us is not enough. Simply basking in the glow of Pascha and the Ascension and thinking “that was neat” is not how we were meant to live.
In our massive dome, there are a lot of large windows. On beautiful and bright days, the beams shoot down into the center of the Church, encasing the white incense smoke and creating a special beauty in the Church. At the Liturgy for the Holy Spirit on Monday, I watched as some of the children (although not where they were supposed to be) were looking up and trying to find the spot where they could stand and be completely illuminated by the beams. When their faces finally found the perfect spot, the sun radiated their entire face as a delightful smile grew on their faces.
What an image for us on this feast of Pentecost! Are we ones that are content to see the light from a distance and say “O, that’s pretty…”. Or, like the children, do we seek after the light in our own lives, and allow it to bathe us in radiance? This is the difference between a person who lives through the Acension, and one who embraces their role as a receptacle of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
May we all seek after the radiance of the Holy Trinity within our lives…and like the children, take delight and joy in the fact that God is not only with us…He is Within Us!