We have just celebrated Pentecost, which is when The Holy Spirit descended on the disciples in the early Church and does, every year, during the liturgical commemoration of this Feast. Last Sunday was the Feast of The Holy Trinity, so I thought I would display my little essay on The Holy Spirit, which I wrote for an exam question last year. So here it is:
The Holy Spirit is the bond of love, which keeps the Father and Son together in love in the intimacy of the Trinity. Therefore no sacrament would be complete without the presence of the Holy Spirit, in whom we live, move and have our being. During the Sunday Eucharist, we define our belief in the Spirit by saying:
'We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.'
The Spirit was sent into the world by Christ as the Comforter and as the one who 'abides forever.' Thus is the Spirit essential to any sacrament and is, with the Word, the Prime Mover of that sacrament. We see the matrix for all this right at the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis, when the Spirit of God hovers over the waters, bringing order out of chaos and the world into existence through the Word. Thus is the Spirit already working in conjunction with the Father and the Son.
In the Eucharist, the words of the consecration 'breathe' and make present Christ on the altar, out of time and space. We can see how the Shechinah, the Divine Presence was already present in the desert with the Children of Israel, in the pillar of cloud and especially in the Tabernacle. And with Moses face-to-face at the burning bush and on the mountain of Sinai. It was the Spirit who knit the bones of the nation of Israel together in Ezekiel 37, in a prefiguration of the Resurrection. Without the breath of the Holy Spirit in the Eucharist, the bread and wine would remain bread and wine and not become the Body and Blood of Christ. And yet it remains a Mystery.
A unifying Force-this is what the Priest proclaims just before the Our Father in the Liturgy, as he lifts the newly consecrated bread and wine:
'Through Him, with Him, in Him, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is Yours, almighty Father, forever and ever, Amen.'
But the Spirit does not just 'appear' at a certain part in the proceedings. He/She (the word is both male and female in the Hebrew) is present from the moment the priest says 'The Lord be with you' and the congregation responds 'And also with you' at the beginning of the Mass. We could say that the Spirit is the conductor of the liturgy, which moves like a symphony, in its different parts, variations and cadences, to its natural conclusion, making Our Lord present, and bringing clarity, healing and reconciliation to the world and those present, who must take it out to the world.
The Spirit is the unseen hane who guides the liturgy, movingthe hearts of the faithful and drawing us in Christ to the Father, as we make intercessions for ourselves and others. It is in the Spirit that we feel the JOY of the Eucharist. It is the Spirit, touching our hearts, that makes us feel contrition and gives us the desire to open to our hearts to God, so that we may receive Him in abundance. The Spirit, working in love with the Father and the Son, empowers us to love so deeply in the Eucharist that sometimes it is almost impossible to bear. We may turn with renewed compassion to others, as we allow the action of the Spirit, within the sacrifice of the Mass, to transform our lives.
It must not be forgotten that the central part of the Mass is the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, re-enacted out of time and space. This is the definitive outpouring of love which intersects the past, present and the future. In the beginning of creation the Spirit intersected the chaos to bring order and temporal time. Here His action is both temporal and eternal, in the economy of grace. Here the very essence of God is made manifest, and transmitted to us through the redemptive action of Christ on the Cross. As we receive the very essence and substance of God, we are divinized as a result.
Every blessing and shalom from
Sister Gila
1 comment:
Well done. On Holy Trinity Sunday our Rector said it was the most difficult thing to explain. He only just touched the suface, where you really make it come alive. As an 11 year old I asked my Vicar what the Trinity meant, he said "come back and ask me when you are older". So many thanks for a really thought provoking blog. Barbara
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