O Most Holy Spirit
Love and Will of the Trinity
Who breathes eternal life into angels and men, and draws all things perfectly back to the Trinity.
By the sacrifice of the Word and the grace of Baptism, you enter the human soul, linking us to the Trinity.
Upon request, you become our Sounding Board, Advisor, Teacher, Protector, and Trinitarian Navigator.
It is with You and in You that we can face all things, especially death.
Holy Spirit, I am awe-struck and grateful to my knees that I get to spend another day with you.
You are my portal to the Trinity, the inspiration for all true learning, my guide to practicing ‘otherness,’ my protection from falling (and also when I fall!)
You are my yoke to Jesus Christ.
Be in me and at my side all this day.
Amen
The Jewish Trunk and Christian Tree
I was asked recently about a Jewish person proselytizing a Christian. What was the advantage to converting to Judaism?
Recall that Jesus was a Jew and came to the Jews as their long-awaited Messiah; he reversed the Fall of Man, reopened Heaven, and sent us the Holy Spirit.
Many Jews accepted Jesus and the growing number of people who followed him were called “The Way.” At this time, the “Way” still considered themselves part of the Jewish religion. However, the Way became a growing threat to the leaders of the Temple (Pharisees and Sadducees) who had Jesus put to death and rejected them, so about 18 years after the first Easter, they began barring “The Way” from entering the Temple and synagogues. The Way was given a new name – “Christians.” It was considered by some to be a derogatory name. After this, Christianity had to practice their faith on their own. They combined the Saturday Sabbath service and the Sunday Lord’s Supper into one Sunday service, now called the Mass.
Christianity to the day still shares the same Jewish history and beginnings. The Jewish Torah is our Old Testament. Their “covenant” with God is our “Old Covenant” that Jesus replaced at the Last Supper with the New Covenant. We are “Judeo-Christians.” The difference is the Messiah.
Another way of looking at is that the Jewish religion is the tree trunk of our beginnings. The branches that Jesus Christ brought about to save the whole world (not just the Jews) grew out of his Jewish heritage – our Jewish heritage. The Jews currently have the tree trunk and are still waiting for the Messiah. We have the trunk and whole tree, for the Messiah has already come.
To return to Judaism, a Christian simply needs to reject Jesus Christ and return to the Old Testament and Old Covenant and begin waiting for the Messiah again.
Love discussion
We discussed love last week but I was asked to review in more detail. English has one word for love – love. That hardly captures it’s many conditions and applications. The Greeks do a much better job.
5 Loves in Greek
Eros à physical or sexual attraction
Luda à playful affection, such a laughing with mere acquaintances, flirting, dancing with strangers
Philia à deep friendship (Philadelphia = city of brotherly love)
Storge à family love, especially between parents and children
Agape à the most radical and highest love because it is elective, selfless, extends to all people; willingness to sacrifice yourself for others. C.S. Lewis calls it “gift love.” God’s love for humans.
When we say love is a verb, it means it is about the journey, not the destination. It’s about a way of being. Agape (selflessness, putting others first) is 100% verb and can be applied to every aspect of our lives, include each of the other 4 loves. In fact, Agape has the ability to raise each one of them to their highest potential.
When we say love is a verb, it also means it exists mainly in the present. You can’t act in the past or future.
The quality of one’s love can be measured not only by the attention one gives to another, but the quality of the attention we give to the other. What is the quality of the attention you are giving someone when you are preoccupied with a football game or some other thing? Not very high. It doesn’t mean you’ve fallen out of love but if you keep that up, you will.
Quote of the Week: One foot in the past and the other foot in the future guarantees you are crapping on the present.
Q: What do the Pentecost, The Passover, the Ten Commandments, the Jewish feast of Shavuot, and Tower of Babel have in common?
Let’s find out. There are 12 reading options the Church has for Pentecost and we’re only going to read three.
Reading: Ex 19:3-8a, 16-20b
Context: 50 days after the First Passover and escape from Egypt
Moses went up the mountain to God. Then the LORD called to him and said, “Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob; tell the Israelites: You have seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagle wings and brought you here to myself. Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all the earth is mine. You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.
Q: This became a national feast day for the Jews. What is it called?
In Hebrew: Shavuot (Weeks). In Greek: Pentecost (for 50th day).
Q: Shavuot (Pentecost) is one of the TWO Jewish feast days that transfers over to Christianity. What is the second?
The Passover (Pascha = Easter)
Gen 11:1-9 Tower of Babel (we will not read)
After the Fall of Adam and Eve, the next big event is Noah and the flood (Genesis 7-10). Then evil creeps back into humanity once again and, presto, we have the Tower of Babel.
The people were so impressed with their knowledge that they decided to build a tower to Heaven just to prove it before they went to conquer other lands.
God (likely) sighed.
While they were building the the Tower, God changed their languages so they couldn’t communicate.
Q: What might this have to do with the Pentecost?
After the arrival of the HS, Peter spoke to the people in Jerusalem and they all heard him in their own tongue. Whereas the Tower of Babel divided humans, the Gospel is meant to unite humanity.
Reading: John 20:19-23
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.* The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
Jesus breathes on them recalls Genesis 2 with God breathing life into Man. Jesus is breathing new life, a new start, into them.
“Receive the Holy Spirit” – Jesus wastes no time in fulfilling what he promised them just 3 days earlier. And although forgiveness is part of this reading, it is not the point of the Pentecost connection. Jesus also said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” That is the connection. Some people tend to think of Easter/Pentecost as the end of Jesus’s mission and arrival of humanity’s salvation; however, it’s not the end, it’s the beginning! More than “saving” us, Jesus is “sending” us, as there is much work to be done. We need to spread the gospel and that starts by living it. As St. Francis of Assisi once said,
“Preach the Gospel and, if necessary, use words.”
Reading: The Pentecost Acts: 2:1-11
When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together.
And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.
At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?
Then how does each of us hear them in his own native language?
We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”
Q: Why wait for the Pentecost?
It was one of the two required pilgrimages, so Jews from countries all around the Mediterranean would be there.
Jesus needed the “40 days” of preparation with the Apostles. All other 40 days were either for purification or preparation (i.e., Noah in the Ark, Moses/Jews in the desert, Jesus in the wilderness).
It replaced the greatest event in Jewish history – the giving of the Ten Commandments (Word of God) on Mt. Sinai.
Q: After the HS-fire came down on the Apostles, did it start out as tongues of fire?
No, it says the fire came and then parted onto the twelve. They would all be part of the one and same fire/HS. Being the love of the Trinity, the HS’s number one goal is unity. The Gospels goal is the unity of mankind, not division. It is the growing Body of Christ.
Q: Discuss the difference between the HS coming in John 20 and Acts 2.
Holy Spirit appears to come in stages. Every man has a spiritual nature, so the spark of the HS is already there. Baptism increases it exponentially. Confirmation again (note several times how Paul had to anoint Christians with the HS who had already been baptized. I daresay the Apostles received the HS in yet a more magnificent way for what they had to undertake. We can also grow the HS in ourselves if we choose to, as we grow in relationship to Him.
Gifts of the Holy Spirit (taken from this week’s Franciscan Media):
When you pray for guidance and receive wisdom, that’s the Spirit.
When you are tempted to do or say something rash and you resist by saying a quick Hail Mary, God’s Spirit of counsel is giving you restraint.
When you are looking for credit for your accomplishments, fear of the Lord (humility) reminds you that all your talents come from God.
When you are confused about Church teaching on a moral issue and you stumble across a podcast that gives you insight, the Spirit is granting you knowledge and understanding.
When you are at the end of your rope but keep persevering in faith, you are being filled with fortitude.
When you are feeling restless at Mass but a hymn fills you with a sense of God’s love, the Spirit is giving you piety.
Maranatha!
Ron
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