One of the great epic tales begins with the simple line, “Call me Ishmael.” It is Moby Dick by Herman Melville. In the opening paragraph, he writes, “Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos [his melancholia] get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off-then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”
As I read that, I’m thankful that my strong moral principles also prevent me from going out into the street and knocking people’s hats off… or even knocking a few blocks off. However, I do confess that there are days when I would not place a bet on those moral principles. At those times, something else helps me keep my peace and my sanity.
Last week, we talked about the Kingdom of Heaven: what it is like and where it is located. We concluded that it is glorious and beyond description, and that its location lies just beyond a thin veil, as near to us as our skin. Just on the other side of the veil is the very throne room of our God, our Savior, the Saints, and the holy angels. However, we cannot cross the veil or even see through it, so how can we participate in the Kingdom of our God?
You are familiar with the Venn Diagram, even if you may not know it by name. It uses overlapping labeled circles to compare groups, showing both what makes each group distinct and what they share in common in the overlapping sections. For example, there are three circles: one labeled “Killing Machine,” the second “Cuteness,” and the third “Eternal Sleep.” In the overlapping section between “Killing Machine” and “Eternal Sleep” is “Vampire.” The center, where all three—“Killing Machine,” “Cuteness,” “Eternal Sleep”—overlap, is “Cat.” I’m thinking of one in particular. Within our life with God, there is something similar.
If there is a Venn diagram of this life with God, God and the Kingdom of Heaven are in one circle, and we are in the other. There is also a point where the two circles overlap—where the veil is pulled back. What can we find there? The best answer is the Sacraments, and the Holy Eucharist makes this most evident.
The Eucharist begins with things that are entirely of Earth and made by us—bread and wine. The circle with God and the Kingdom of Heaven includes the Person of Jesus Christ. When these two circles overlap—Bread and wine with Jesus—when the veil is momentarily pulled back through the Sacrament and the words of institution, the result is the Body and Blood of Christ. Heaven and Earth share space and produce the blessing. However, this is one-sided. Everything is directed and given to us. Yes, we give God our praise and thanks, but God wants more of us. He says clearly, “I am a jealous God,” so He wants to participate wholly in our lives, and He wants us to participate wholly in His—remember Jesus’ great priestly prayer: “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one.” (John 17:23) So, how is this accomplished? The answer lies in more fully understanding the Holy Trinity, and the first part of that understanding is knowing why three, and not just one or many.
We know that God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is outside of time. God has always been and is uncreated. God is. Period. The one definitive statement we can make about God is, “God is love.” This love is perfect. However, for it to be perfect, it can’t be held within one person; it must be directed at another, but not just any other. God’s perfect love must be directed at one who can receive and return the same perfect love. Therefore, we have the Father and the Son. They can both give and receive each other’s perfect love. However, for this perfect love to be complete, a third is required who can share and participate in a community.
Richard of St. Victor, in his study De Trinitate, writes, “Love not only tends to another person, but also tends to sharing love. When two persons mutually love each other, they can love and be loved and communicate their riches, but they cannot share their love. For that, still another person is required, a companion of love… Thus, love can be realized by a duality of persons, but it can only be completed by a trinity of persons.”
We say in the Nicene Creed that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. In a way, and don’t take this too far or we’ll all burn at the stake for heresy, the Father and the Son are like a husband and wife who have a child. The husband and wife love one another, and the child receives their shared love and returns it. It is in the love of these three that love is perfected and completed. But then God did something funny, something that really makes no sense whatsoever—God created us, but not because He was bored and needed a plaything. God created us so that He might love us with the same love shared within the Holy Trinity, and so that we might love Him to the best of our abilities. Yet, in order for that to happen, a part of Who He is must become part of who we are. God had to create a means —a conduit that goes both ways: Heaven to Earth and Earth to Heaven. As above, so below. The placement of this conduit came in two steps. First, God sent His Son, Jesus, and “to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13)
Second, having become children of God, as we have been saying in the Eucharistic Prayer, “That we might live no longer for ourselves, but for him who died and rose for us, he sent the Holy Spirit, his own first gift for those who believe, to complete his work in the world, and to bring to fulfillment the sanctification of all.” (BCP 374) Through the giving of the Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit, the pathway from Heaven and Earth was established.
This pathway, which is the Holy Spirit, then allows us to participate in the love and life of the Triune God. It is the Holy Spirit who bears witness to our spirit, assuring us that we are indeed God’s children. It is the Holy Spirit who speaks to our spirit, enabling us to hear and receive the Word of God and to speak to God even when our own words fail us. It is the Holy Spirit who passes freely through the veil, both coming and going, so that God might dwell in us—so that the Kingdom of God is not only in our midst but within us as well. And it is the same Holy Spirit who holds us eternally to God, giving St. Paul the knowledge to say, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
All this and more is the work of the Holy Spirit, including preventing me from going out into the street and knocking people’s hats off.
In a commentary on John, Saint Cyril of Alexandria summarized this work of the Spirit for us: “As long as Christ was with [the disciples] in the flesh, it must have seemed to believers that they possessed every blessing in him; but when the time came for him to ascend to his heavenly Father, it was necessary for him to be united through his Spirit to those who worshipped him, and to dwell in our hearts through faith. Only by his own presence within us in this way could he give us confidence to cry out, Abba, Father, make it easy for us to grow in holiness and, through our possession of the all-powerful Spirit, fortify us invincibly against the wiles of the devil and the assaults of men.”
Today, we celebrate the fire of the Spirit descending and lighting upon all God’s people, but this is not a one-time event. It is ongoing, a continuous giving and receiving of Heaven, of God working from within the soul of every believer.
On this Pentecost, give thanks for God’s presence in your life through the giving of His greatest gift, the Holy Spirit.
Let us pray:
O King of glory,
send us the Promise of the Father,
the Spirit of Truth.
May the Counselor
Who proceeds from You
enlighten us
and infuse all truth in us,
as You have promised.
Amen.
Candle in a Cave 