This is a fire
that does not destroy ...
This fire consumes nothing good
but everything evil.
This is a fire that burns
less and less
the nearer you get to it and
more and more
the farther you distance
yourself from it.
It is the fire that is
the Holy Spirit.
+ Dr. Peter Kreeft
+ Dr. Peter Kreeft
Sometimes you hear or read a homily that stirs with its pithiness and power. Stanley Hauerwas', "God's New Language," in Jesus Changes Everything, as well as Dr. Peter Kreeft's Pentecost Sunday reflection, "The Coming of the Spirit," in Food for the Soul, both packed a punch for me this Pentecost. Praying you find these reflections on the Spirit to be good for you, too.
God's New Language
(In Pentecost) a new era has begun, a new creation is born. All is finally summed up through God's new creation of the Church.
The mighty wind that gave birth
to the Church at Pentecost,
however, involves
the affairs of nations and empires.
That wind, that Spirit,
created a new nation that was no longer
subject to the constraints of the past
and boundaries that keep us apart.
God's salvation is the creation
of a new society that invites each person
to become part of a new age that
the nations of this world cannot provide.
At Pentecost God undid
what was done at Babel.
It is only against the background of Babel that we can understand the extraordinary event of Pentecost. The sound that was like the rush of a mighty wind signaled a new creation. The fire of the Holy Spirit burned clean, making possible a new understanding. The Jews of the diaspora heard in their own language these Galilean followers of Jesus telling of the mighty works of God. God's people themselves, who had been scattered among the tribes, learning their languages, were now reunited in common understanding. The wound of Babel began to be healed among the very people appointed to be a pledge of God's presence.
The joy of that healing surely must have made them ecstatic. It is literally a joy not possible except by God's creation.
It is a joy that comes from
recognizing that we have been freed
from our endless cycles of conflict,
injury, and revenge.
It is the joy of unity that
we experience all too briefly
in moments of self-forgetfulness.
The unity of humankind prefigured at Pentecost is not just any unity but a unity made possible by the apocalyptic work of Jesus of Nazareth. It is a unity that breaks down barriers and draws people together. Attempts to secure community through the creation of a single language, not to mention a single political or technological system, are attempts to make us forget our histories and differences rather than find the unity made possible by the Spirit through which we understand the other as other.
At Pentecost God created
a new language, but it is an
embodied language of care.
It is a baptism of fire
through which we enter
a community whose memory
of its Savior creates the miracle of
being a people whose very differences
contribute to their unity and
love for one another.
We call this new creation Church.
She is constituted by
must not only be told but also
+ Stanley Haurwas,
Jesus Changes Everything,
+ pgs. 46-49
The Coming of the Spirit
Acts 2:1-11
1 When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
2 And suddenly
there came from the sky a noise
like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house
in which they were.
3 Then there appeared to them
tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest
on each one of them.
4 And they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and
began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
they were all in one place together.
2 And suddenly
there came from the sky a noise
like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house
in which they were.
3 Then there appeared to them
tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest
on each one of them.
4 And they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and
began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
5 Now there were devout Jews
from every nation under heaven
staying in Jerusalem.
6 At this sound,
they gathered in a large crowd,
but they were confused
because each one heard them
speaking in his own language.
from every nation under heaven
staying in Jerusalem.
6 At this sound,
they gathered in a large crowd,
but they were confused
because each one heard them
speaking in his own language.
7 They were astounded,
and in amazement they asked,
“Are not all these people
who are speaking Galileans?
8 Then how does each of us
hear them in his own native language?
9 We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites,
inhabitants of Mesopotamia,
Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia,
10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt
and the districts of Libya near Cyrene,
as well as travelers from Rome,
11 both Jews and converts to Judaism,
Cretans and Arabs,
yet we hear them speaking
in our own tongues
of the mighty acts of God.”
and in amazement they asked,
“Are not all these people
who are speaking Galileans?
8 Then how does each of us
hear them in his own native language?
9 We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites,
inhabitants of Mesopotamia,
Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia,
10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt
and the districts of Libya near Cyrene,
as well as travelers from Rome,
11 both Jews and converts to Judaism,
Cretans and Arabs,
yet we hear them speaking
in our own tongues
of the mighty acts of God.”
Why did the fire at Pentecost take the shape of tongues? And why did it appear on their heads? Because it gave the Apostles power to speak not their own minds but the mind of God, not with their own tongues but with tongues — that is languages — that they had never learned from human beings. This was a miracle
from heaven.
In pagan Greek mythology,
Prometheus stole heavenly fire
to give it to mankind, and
Zeus was so angry at this act of charity
that he chained Prometheus to a rock.
But in Christianity, God is not jealousy
but love, and
He Himself gives us fire from heaven,
the Holy Spirit,
who is the very life of God Himself.
John the Baptizer had prophesied this when he said, "I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the One who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matthew 3:11).
This is a fire that does not destroy. It is the fire Moses saw in the burning bush that was on fire but not consumed (Exodus 3:2-3). But the author of the Letter to the Hebrews wrote, "Our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29). Why is this not a contradiction? Because this fire consumes nothing good (as in Exodus 3:2) but everything evil (as in Hebrews 12:29). This is a fire that burns less and less the nearer you get to it and that burns more and more the farther you distance yourself from it. It is the fire that is the Holy Spirit of God, who is the very love between the Father and the Son that is the very life of God Himself.
Pentecost's miracle, where everyone understands each other's tongues, reverses the babble of the Tower of Babel, where language was confused. Mankind in its pride had built a great tower to storm heaven itself, saying, "Let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves" (Genesis 11:4). But the foundation of that tower was only human pride and human cleverness, and that tower collapsed when language itself collapsed into many languages so that they could no longer understand each other. Pentecost reversed that confusion of languages and restored unity to humanity, as a foretaste of heaven, where we will all understand each other and speak the same language.
What language will that be? I think the closest approximation to it on earth is music, the universal language. There is an old Jewish and Christian story that God created the world by singing it into existence. Both C.S. Lewis, in his Chronicles of Narnia, and J.R.R. Tolkien, in his Silmarillion, used that tradition in their stories of creation.
Pentecost "worked" because
it did not proudly try to rise
from earth to heaven,
like the Tower of Babel,
but humbly descended
from heaven to earth,
like Christ —
the Christ who said,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
Whoever saves his life
(that is, greedily grasps his life)
loses it,
and whoever hates his life
in this world
(that is, gives it up, gives it away in love)
will preserve it for eternal life"
(John 12:24-25).
(John 12:24-25).
Mary understood that that was the way God worked when in her "Magnificat" she said, "He has shown the strength of His arm, and has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty" (Luke 1:51-53). As Christ said, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (Matthew 23:12).
Love gives itself away and thus saves itself.
It dies and resurrects.
Nothing that has not given itself away
and died to itself will be resurrected.
C.S. Lewis, who had thousands of books and loved them deeply, was once asked whether he thought he would have his books in heaven, and he answered, "Probably only the ones I gave away on earth." We don't know whether or not that applies to books, but we do know that that applies to life. Give your life to God and others, and you will save it eternally. Hug it to yourself and you will lose it eternally.
At Pentecost, God gave Himself
away to mankind a second time.
He had given mankind His Son;
now He gives us His Spirit.
Living in the Holy Spirit
means living in what the Holy Spirit is,
which is the life of self-donation,
making a gift of yourself.
And that life is not dull and dead
like ashes but glorious and alive
like fire.
It's also catching;
we "catch fire" from those
who give that kind of love to us,
and then we pass it on to others.
+ Peter Kreeft,
Food for the Soul,
+ pgs. 395-397
Bonus Quote:
Without the Holy Spirit ...
God is far away,
Christ stays in the past,
the Gospel is a dead letter,
the Church is simply an organization,
authority a matter of propaganda,
liturgy is only nostalgia, and
Christian living a slave of morality.
Without the Holy Spirit ...
God is far away,
Christ stays in the past,
the Gospel is a dead letter,
the Church is simply an organization,
authority a matter of propaganda,
liturgy is only nostalgia, and
Christian living a slave of morality.
But with the Holy Spirit ...
God is with us,
the universe is resurrected and
groans with the birth pangs of the Kingdom,
the risen Christ is here,
the Gospel is a living force,
the Church is a community
in the life of the Trinity,
the body of the Living Christ,
authority is a service that liberates people,
mission is Pentecost,
the liturgy is memory and anticipation,
and human action is God’s work in the world.
+ Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius IV,
Address to the World Council of Churches
1968 A.D.
God is with us,
the universe is resurrected and
groans with the birth pangs of the Kingdom,
the risen Christ is here,
the Gospel is a living force,
the Church is a community
in the life of the Trinity,
the body of the Living Christ,
authority is a service that liberates people,
mission is Pentecost,
the liturgy is memory and anticipation,
and human action is God’s work in the world.
+ Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius IV,
Address to the World Council of Churches
1968 A.D.
Bonus Post:
May God's Kingdom come, His will be done.
Que le Royaume de Dieu vienne,
que sa volonté soit faite.
愿神的国降临，愿神的旨意成就。
Nguyện xin Nước Chúa đến, ý Ngài được nên.
Jesús nuestra Rey, venga Tu reino!
🙏💗🍞🍷👑🌅🌇
que sa volonté soit faite.
愿神的国降临，愿神的旨意成就。
Nguyện xin Nước Chúa đến, ý Ngài được nên.
Jesús nuestra Rey, venga Tu reino!
🙏💗🍞🍷👑🌅🌇
With anticipation and joy,
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