HAVE YOUR WAY, O HOLY SPIRIT

HOMILY FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE PENTECOST SUNDAY

 

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

It is Pentecost. The word ‘pentecost’ simply means the 50^th day. It is an agricultural feast celebrated 7 weeks (50 days) after the Passover. The feast was more frequently mentioned in the New Testament than in the Old Testament. It received its importance in Christian belief and liturgy from the event that happened Acts 2, which are the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, the gift of tongues, the discourse of Peter and the formation of the first Christian Church. The author of the Acts of the Apostles (Luke) makes the Pentecost the birthday of the Church. And so, we must start by wishing the Christian Religion a Happy Birthday. We wish very many prosperous and spirit-filled years ahead. May she continue to be relevant for mankind. May she continue to be the voice of the voiceless, the hope of the hopeless, and the strength of the weak. Amen.

Today, we must join our intents, voices, and actions together to beckon on the Holy Spirit to have His way in our lives, in the life of the Church and in the life of our society. In the Gospel (John 20:19-23), Jesus gave this same Spirit to his apostles. They were in fear, but Jesus came to dispel those fears and the apostles where invigorated and joyful again. Jesus did not stop at that. He breathed into them, to remind us of the initial breath with which man was created (Gen 2.7) and said to them: Receive the Holy Spirit. So, as the breath of Genesis 2 is creating, the breath of John 20 becomes recreating. It is that spirit that would give them the power to forgive sins or to retain them. It is this same Spirit that is a principle of Christian unity. The Second reading (1 Cor. 12:3b-7.12-13) says that the Holy Spirit is the reason for our status as the children of God. We all received the same spirit by virtue of our baptism, and so ought to live according to this singular source of our life. The First Reading (Acts 2:1-11) insisted on this same spirit of unity which spurred the apostles to speak to everyone and be understood by everyone in his/her own language. There came many languages, one understanding which served as a correction of the episode of the tower of Babel (Gen. 11. 1-9) which was one language, many understandings.

Today, we remind ourselves of the presence of this same Holy Spirit in our world, Church and individual lives. The understanding of the person of the Holy Spirit followed a progression in the Biblical history. And from this understanding, we discover the principles of the Holy Spirit. However, even in the progressive nature of this understanding, both progressions are necessary and indispensable for the perfect awareness of the person and works of the Holy Spirit. One hand of this progression is the understanding of the Holy Spirit as a thing, as the other hand is the understanding of the Holy as a living being and as a person.

The spirit of Yahweh as a dynamic entity...

The Old Testament discourse on the Holy Spirit favoured the understanding of the spirit as the action of God the father; that is, as a thing. Here, the Spirit is conceived as a dynamic entity by which Yahweh accomplishes His ends; it saves, it is a creative and charismatic power, but remains impersonal. The revelation of the Holy Spirit as a person to them had not come to their cognition. Nevertheless, irrespective of this understanding of the Holy Spirit as the spirit of Yahweh, the person of the Spirit cannot be said to have never existed. The problem lay in man’s interpretation of the divine revelation. We extract a five-finger principle from the manifestations of the spirit in the Old Testament.

1. It is the spirit of life. Spirit as a principle of life is almost always considered as a foreign element to man, given by God and taken back by him. Spirit is sometimes synonymous with breath. The creation waters had the presence of the spirit in it (Gen 1:2). Breathe can be seen either as the sign and principle of life or as something unsubstantial; windy words uttered from the mouth. The spirit of life is the breath. The breath is the breath of God, the wind communicated to man by divine inspiration. In Gen. 2:7, God breathed into man the breath of life and man became a living being. In Ezekiel 37:5, the dry bones could only be restored to life by the breath of God which shall cause them to live.

2. It is the spirit of activity. When the spirit is in man, it is also the source of agility. This agility can be considered as disposition, as action and as courage. When the Lord calls, he infuses his spirit into the person. In Exodus 31:1-3, the Lord said to Moses that he has called Bezalel, and have filled him with the spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship. The spirit is the source of strength for work, the source of the disposition even to work and the source of the courage to work more. When you are strong, achieve or have the strength to work more than any others, then trace the gift to the spirit of vitality and activity.

3. It is the spirit of conversion. The spirit is the cause for our penitence. In Psalm 51:12, the penitent asks God to renew a firm spirit in him. In Ezekiel 11:19, the Lord promises to put a new spirit within the penitents and to replace their hearts of stone with a heart of flesh; and so they observe his commandments (cf. Also Ezekiel 36:26-27). In the same Ezekiel 18:31, the Lord enjoins the people to cast away every sin to give way for a new heart and a new spirit.

4. It is a spirit of prophesy. The spirit is an inspiring one. The spirit of Yahweh is the one which inspires prophesy. In Isaiah 61:1, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed men to bring good news to the poor, to mend the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and freedom to those in prison. Here, the spirit becomes a source of prophesy. In Ezekiel 2:2, it was when the spirit entered into the prophet that he started hearing what Yahweh was speaking to him. The spirit spurs us to prophesy (cf. Joel 2:28)

5. It is a spirit of charisma. The spirit confers upon those who receive it the qualities necessary to fulfil their mission. The Lord promises in Isaiah 42:1 that he will give to his chosen servant his spirit to bring forth justice to the nations. The Lord also inspires them to deeds above and beyond the expected; and this is the true sign of the spirit –that a man rises above his habits and attainments. It was this same spirit that reposed permanently on David and the messianic king.

The spirit of Yahweh as a person...

The conception of the spirit as the power of God is still felt in the New Testament. The exclusive difference lies in the definitive revelation of the Spirit as a person, and no longer simply as a dynamic force of God.

1. As the power and companion of Jesus. The development of the hypostatization of the Holy Spirit has its root in the incarnation. The Holy Spirit was the power behind the virginal conception. This is in line with the OT principle of the Holy Spirit as a spirit of life. In Luke 1:35, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. Can he who is not a person cause another person to come into existence? The Holy Spirit was also the power behind the ministry of Jesus. It is the power which drives Jesus into the desert (Mk 1:12) and the power by which Jesus expels demons (Mt 12:28). The spirit is given to Jesus in baptism (Mt 3:13-17). In fact, the baptismal formula of Mt 28:19 is obviously the eye-opener of the person of the Holy Spirit. This same spirit continues as our power and companion today.

2. As the paraclete of the Father and the Son. The last days of Jesus were filled with the promise of the Holy Spirit. I will ask the father and He will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him (John 14:16-17). Jesus confirms that the world was yet to know the person of the Holy Spirit, as he uses the pronoun ‘whom’ to identity Him. This shows him to be a person. Here, too the Holy Spirit becomes our empowerment and sustenance.

3. As the foundation and unity of the Christian Church. The spirit that came down on the apostles on the Pentecost day not only became the source of power to them, but became known as the foundation and unity of the Christian Church. To begin anything in life, seek to have the Holy Spirit as the foundation. To talk about peace and unity in any family, beckon on the Holy Spirit.

4. As the source of all gifts. The Holy Spirit is the source of every divine gift. In 1 Cor. 12 and 14, Paul discusses elaborately on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the principle of love, of prophecy, of hope and of faith. Paul also corrects the aberration noticed in these gifts, as regards the speaking in tongues. (cf. My Reflection on 2016 Pentecost Sunday). I dwelt on this gift of the tongues last year.

5. As the inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures. The spirit inspires the sacred writers of the OT having David as the point of contact (Mt 22:43; Mk 12:36). In 2 Tim 3:16, All scriptures is breathed out by God. The Holy Spirit is the principle behind the inspiration and the writing of the Scriptures; and so, the principle behind our own inspiration. He is still active in the Church and our world today. We pray that we may allow the Holy Spirit to have his way in us.

May this same Holy Spirit be felt in us now and always. Amen. Happy Pentecost Sunday. God bless you.