“Through the Holy Spirit every soul is made alive, and exalted in unity, in mystic holiness”
(Vespers Song of Ascent)
Every year I try to comprehend the reason we as a spiritual community set out to make serious progress from Forgiveness Sunday through the Great Lent and Holy Week, making the ominous trek to the place of Calvary, experiencing once again the trauma of our Lord Jesus’ crucifixion, imbibing the overwhelming joy of His holy resurrection, then celebrating the Feast of Feasts to such an extent that we over-indulge ourselves with the paschal foods and beverages, so that when the feast of Pentecost comes about we are about where we had been before the cycle began.
The challenge is to keep the flames of Pascha night burning in our hearts. We are made children of the Light and heirs of the everlasting Kingdom ushered into time and space with the mystical event of the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of the Lord. That happens with the descent of the Holy Spirit on us at Pentecost. Every soul is made alive. Not that our souls were dead or asleep before then, but enriched and enhanced by the Holy Spirit. And it’s not that we were bereft of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is “everywhere present and fills all things,” as we continually remind ourselves each time we recite the glorious prayer to the Spirit. Yes, everywhere, but in a special way in the hearts of those who have been baptized into Christ.
If, however, the fires of the Spirit are banked by us willingly or unintentionally, we are like all other persons who are not baptized, or who have no interest in things of the Lord. So the song of the Church rings out a reminder and a warning. Know that your soul is or can be radiantly alive with Christ in the Holy Spirit. You will realize it when you are integrated with yourself. When your mind is free of all anguish, grief, misery, remorse, vindictiveness, envy, frustration, self-rejection and suffering, your thoughts are filled with positive energy. When your heart is empty of heaviness, sighing and emptiness, you can fill it with warmth and love for all people and all creatures.
The inner barometer of the Spirit measuring how near or far you are from being like the Lord Jesus is the measure in which you are one with all persons everywhere. When you are “exalted in unity,” you will be praying for every person whose names you know, as well as for categories of those whom you know only through the media. You will know and live by the French proverb: To know is to forgive. And you will pray for those who dislike you, abuse or use you, asking the Lord not to hold their sins against them on your account.
What would it take for us as individuals, as families, as a parish community, as a deanery, a diocese and a continental Church to dedicate ourselves to living “in mystic holiness”? The ingredients for such a divine happening would include searching for the signs of Jesus Christ in one another, rejoicing in the happiness of all God’s children, encouraging all that is good, kind, caring, sharing and loving among us, bringing peace to each gathering and meeting, bonding in the blessings of unity in every way, taking every opportunity to bless one another with uplifting words and gestures, so that all of us are made to feel glad to live in the light of Christ radiating from one another.