Pentecost and the Holy Sprit

After His death and resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples for forty days before he was taken up into heaven on a cloud.1 He was no longer physically present on earth. Shortly after this, the Holy Spirit came down upon the disciples, just as Jesus had promised:

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. 2

“The aim of Pentecost is the continuation of Christ’s Incarnation within the life of the Church.” 3 The Holy Spirit, acting through people, continues the work of Christ. The Holy Spirit lives in us. The Holy Spirit enables us to know Christ here and now. The Holy Spirit helps us to be Christ’s witnesses to the ends of the world. The Holy Spirit comforts us, teaches us, guides us, and sanctifies us.

In the icon of Pentecost, we see the Spirit coming upon the Church (as personified by the Apostles.) Below, the cosmos stands as a shriveled figure, paralyzed, grown old, reaching out to receive the Spirit’s life passed on to us. Creation does not come alive until it receives the life of the Spirit, and this only comes through us. 12

The Holy Spirit 4

First of all, it is important to realize that the Holy Spirit is a who, not a what. The Holy Spirit is not some abstract force, but is a person, one of the three eternal persons of the Trinity. Because the Holy Spirit is a person, we can enter into a relationship with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, the same as the Father and the Son are God.

Secondly, the Holy Spirit is very mysterious, a quality which makes the Holy Spirit very difficult for anyone to describe. Scripture uses symbols to describe the Holy Spirit, because symbols can communicate things words cannot. In the Acts of the Apostles, there are two symbols used to describe the Holy Spirit: wind and fire.

Spirit as Wind

The word “spirit” actually signifies “wind” or “breath” in Greek. Jesus himself says, while talking about being born of the Spirit: “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” 5

“We know that the wind is there, we hear it in the trees as we lie awake at night, we feel it on our faces as we walk on the hills. But if we try to grasp and hold it in our hands, it is lost. So it is with the Spirit of God.” 6

Holy Spirit as Fire

The Holy Spirit is also like fire. Fire, like the wind, is free and alive. It cannot be held on to or measured. “We feel the heat of the flames, but we cannot enclose and retain them in our hands. Such is our relationship to the Spirit. We are conscious of his presence, we know his power, but we cannot easily picture to ourselves his person.” 7

Naturally occurring forest fires are actually healthy for the life of the forest. The fire clears out the dead wood and allows for new growth. The Holy Spirit has the same effect upon us. The Holy Spirit heals what is unholy in us and gives us life.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit:

O Heavenly King, Comforter
Spirit of Truth,
Who are everywhere present
and fill all things,
Treasury of blessings and Giver of Life,
Come dwell within us,
Cleanse us of every stain
And save our souls
O Gracious Lord!

Christian Life and the Holy Spirit

“The whole aim of Christian life is to be a Spirit-bearer, to live in the Spirit of God, to breathe the Spirit of God.” 8 Each Christian receives his or her own personal Pentecost at Chrismation, where the newly baptized person is “sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit”. 9 The Christian is to bring forth Christ in the world, just as Mary, who was overshadowed with the Holy Spirit, gave birth to Christ. Obviously, we do not give birth to Christ in the same way Mary did. Rather, because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in us, we give birth to Christ in the world through our actions, through our prayers, and through our very being.

God wants to be “all in all,” to have all of His creation healed and divinized to reflect his glory. The Holy Spirit, dwelling in the temple of our bodies, brings this about. We are to struggle towards our own divinization in God. We are to become “participants of the divine nature.” 10 We are to become true images of God. We are to live in the Kingdom of God not only at the end of time, or after we die, but HERE AND NOW! We do this through the Holy Spirit.

"Acquire the Spirit of peace and thousands around you will be saved." Saint Seraphim of Sarov

The Church

The presence of the Holy Spirit in people is the Church. That is why we say that Pentecost is the “birthday of the Church.”

The Church is the united people of God, people who are energized by the Holy Spirit. The Church is found where there is a gathering together of people to worship God and to work for God in the world, to spread the Gospel and to be God’s presence for all people. Jesus who walked and talked on the earth is not physically present to the world in the same way as he was 2000 years ago. He is present to the world through the Holy Spirit, and present in the world through those who are united to Him through the Holy Spirit in the Church. “Christ had a body, [and] his body is now the Church.” 11