The Great and Holy Feast of Pentecost (source)
By the mercy of God, my beloved, we
have reached the end of the feasts of Pentecostarion. The first feast
is the Resurrection of the Lord, which is the greatest in the
Orthodox Church. And in this way we differ from the [West], which
celebrates Christmas with more grandeur. The Orthodox of the East, as
the Queen of Feasts have Pascha. For forty days we hear “Christ is
risen”. After the Resurrection, is the Ascension of the Lord, which
we celebrated ten days ago. What meaning do these feasts have? In the
Resurrection: Christ lives and reigns. In the Ascension: “Let us
lift up our hearts.”
And today, my beloved, we have
Pentecost, the great feast which is the fulfillment of the work of
the divine economy, and signified the descent of the Holy Spirit. If
you go to Mount Athos, in the Byzantine churches, you will see how
Pentecost is depicted.
Byzantine iconographers, not like those
today who are merchants of Christ, were artists who painted with faith
and mixed their paints with their tears, and fasted in order to depict
the icon of Christ and the Panagia, creating wonderworking icons. Out
of ten-thousand icons today, I doubt if we would find one which is
wonderworking. Every icon of course has its worth, due to whom it
depicts, but another grace comes from the eye and hand of a
sanctified iconographer.
Therefore, in the Byzantine icon of
Pentecost, you will see that in the center is depicted a prophet, the
Prophet Joel. He is depicted holding a scroll, on which is written
the phrase: “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh...” (Joel
3:1-2)
I wish to speak, but I hesitate. For
what benefit is there from the feasts? For many now, a feast is a
party, a gathering, a dance... We do not lessen our sins, but
increase them. And for the Church a feast is joy and spiritual
exaltation, while we celebrate according to a Judean or idolatrous
manner. That terrible prophecy of God is fitting for us, when He
says: “Your feasts, my soul hates.” (Isaiah 1:14)
I hesitate furthermore, for Pentecost
is a feast which is the most difficult for a preacher among all the
other topics. For what are we? Nature, worms, unclean animals,
lowly-people, sinners, “having unclean lips among a people of
unclean lips.” (Isaiah 6:5) How can we speak today regarding the
Holy Spirit, in an age which is known for its atheistic speeches,
heresies, and generalized corruption?
In my place should be one of the Holy
Fathers, whose spirits were intangible, and had not a molecule of
carnality, and who, when they were praying, did not walk on the
earth. And you, my listeners, should be purified, so that our spirits
would be in harmony, and so that we be exalted above the heavens,
like the Holy Apostles, so that the Holy Spirit would come upon us as
well.
Behold why I hesitate to speak. But one
phrase from today's prayers from the Kneeling Vespers helps to remove
my hesitation. Believe me, I would not have even broached the topic,
unless those words had strengthened me: “For in fear I stand before
You, casting my soul's despair into the sea of Your mercy.” (From
the Third Prayer of the Kneeling Vespers) I stand, it says, with fear
before you, O Lord, and I the sinner, throw my soul's despair into
the abyss of Your mercy.
I therefore throw myself into the
incomparable mercy of God, and calling upon the grace of the Holy
Spirit, I dare to utter a few words. For more properly, I don't speak
myself; I become a microphone so that the opinions of the Fathers of
our Church can be heard.
Pentecost! “I will pour out my Spirit
upon all flesh...” The pouring out of the grace of the Holy Spirit,
my beloved, in the Holy Scriptures and according to the Fathers of
the Church, is characterized by many names. From all of this, I will
take one alone, the name “gift”. Why is it called this? Because
it is the culmination of everything that God has granted and
continues to grant to us.
The grace of the Holy Spirit is not the
only good thing which mankind has received from God. “In Him we
live and move and have our being”, says the Apostle Paul (Acts
17:28), borrowing a phrase from the ancient poet (Aratos). We swim
within the abyss of the energies and the gifts of God. What is there
that we don't have as a gift from God!
I leave the gifts of the earth and the
sea. I bring to mind the greatest gifts which come from on high, from
heaven.
The first [great gift] is light, those countless
rays of the sun, which travel at breakneck speeds, covering
unimaginable distances. As one Saint said, every ray of the sun which
shines upon a flower, a child, an old man, a beggar, a condemned man,
upon the face of every person, what is it? It is an embrace by the
heavenly Father. The hour when you sense the ray of the sun enlighten
and warm you, it is as if God is saying: “O man, I love you.” How
much would we pay for how many millions of kilowatts of energy from
the sun? And instead of saying thank you, instead of “Glory to You
Who has shown forth the light” (The Doxology), God receives
blasphemies! And regardless, He sends His light “upon the thankless
and sinners” (Luke 6:35).
Another [gift] is water, the rain
which comes from the clouds, and falls upon the soil and makes it to
grow all those things which nourish us. Every corner is a field. What
could we pay for, and what does God receive for all of this water?
The hen, when she drinks a sip of water, lifts up her head to heaven,
as if to say: “Thank you, O Lord.”
Another is the air. Like the fish which
swim in the water, and couldn't live outside of it, thus does man
life within the ocean of the air. And only Earth has this atmospheric
air. If we removed the atmosphere, we would die of asphyxia. Because
of this, the astronauts carry with them Oxygen tanks. And think of
how much it would cost if the Oxygen were sold by pharmacists. Only a
few rich people could afford it. And for this, again there is
thanklessness and ingratitude that our good God receives.
Besides these ordinary gifts of God,
however, there are also extraordinary gifts, such as in the Old
Testament, the manna, that sweet water, which was received by the
mouths of the Jews who desired them. And those thankless ones watered
the Son of the Virgin “with gall instead of mana” (hymn from Holy
Friday). This is what man is.
Listen, my beloved, that up till now
all of these gifts benefit me here. I told you understandable and
simple things that we all know and can experience, and which
penetrate our lives.
But man is not designed for here alone,
for only this natural sphere, for the life of the body. He is not
just a body. He is also a spirit, and primarily a spirit. He
therefore, has another life, a life in the sphere of the spirit. And
there, in the sphere of the spirit, he has need of other provisions.
How can I make you understand? I seek the grace and the power of God.
Above all physical gifts which we
sense, because we live with them and depend on them, is another great
and uplifted gift. All of those gifts, ordinary and extraordinary,
are small. Today's great gift is the Holy Spirit. “Taste of the
gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38) Great and necessary for our
life is the light, the water, the air, but all of these are simply
icons and symbols of that great gift, which is called the Holy
Spirit.
The Holy Spirit has come! God has
fulfilled His promises. It was prophesied of in the Old Testament by
the Prophet Joel. It was the promise of Christ to His disciples,
before He ascended into the Heavens. It was the completion of the
work of the divine economy, the grand work of God for the salvation
and glory of fallen man. Without the gift of the Holy Spirit, the
work of the divine economy would be imperfect and incomplete. Today,
this work is completed. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the
Holy Spirit!
+Bishop Avgoustinos
On the Monday of the Holy Spirit, 1961.
(amateur translation of text from source)
The Holy Spirit descending upon the Disciple at Pentecost (source)
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!
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