My brothers and sisters, today is the Great Feast of Pentecost — beyond any doubt, one of the greatest feasts of the entire Church year. It is also known as “Trinity Sunday,” for on this day the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity accomplish the fullness of their self-revelation to mankind. Yes, it is true that all Three Persons of the Trinity were already revealed on Theophany, when the Holy Spirit descended visibly in the form of a dove upon the Lord Jesus Christ. But today, that same Holy Spirit descends also even upon sinners such as us. Today the Holy Trinity not only reveals itself to mankind, but pours out the very fullness of its divine life upon us as well. Indeed, one might even say that today is the feast day of theosis, of deification, on which the Holy Trinity offers each and every one of us to be “filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:19).
Today is therefore not only the culmination of all of God’s great work of salvation, but also of all creation itself (and indeed, it is for this reason that the entire cycle of the normal Church year dates itself precisely from Pentecost). As Fr. Dumitru Staniloe (echoing St. Maximus the Confessor) writes:
God created this entire visible world so that, through man, He might become all in all. This is the human person’s specific mission: to be the link between God and the world, a link between all things, by uniting his spirit with God.
Such union of our spirit with God becomes possible precisely today, when His Most-Holy Spirit descends to freely and voluntarily fill us with Himself. Today, all things have at long last been accomplished, and we can finally again call out to God with the exceedingly sweet and triumphant prayer: “O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things, Treasury of good things and Giver of life: Come and dwell in us, and cleanse us of all impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.” This prayer is the quintessential prayer of our Christian life in this world — which is perhaps why we all felt its absence so keenly during these past ten days, when “Christ is risen!” was no longer sung but the Holy Spirit had not yet descended to fill the void left in our hearts by the Leavetaking of Pascha.
But — as with all things, both in the Church and in our lives as a whole — the providence of God wisely and deliberately arranged for us to experience this absolutely necessary sense of emptiness, in order to stir up within us a more fervent and heartfelt longing for the coming of the Comforter. For truly, the Holy Spirit cannot take up His abode in a heart which has no room for Him. The gifts of God are indeed freely given, but they nevertheless (as one of the poets once wrote) cost us “not less than everything.” The Kingdom of Heaven is indeed the “pearl of great price,” for which we must sell all that we have (Matt. 13:46). “For the LORD thy God is a jealous God” (Deut. 6:15), and our hearts are quite simply insufficient to contain both His love and that of any other.
The Church, therefore, does absolutely everything in Her power to enkindle divine love within our hearts, for lesser loves can only be driven out by a greater love. This, truly, is the work of all our lives on this earth: to learn to love rightly, to learn to love God alone. And such a thing can only be taught to us by the Spirit of the God Who is love — which is, of course, why the foremost fruit of the Spirit spoken of by St. Paul is precisely “love” (Gal. 5:22).
Yet, although God alone can grant us the gift of such love, nevertheless it still belongs to us to make ourselves ready to receive it. When Christ ascended into the heavens, His final commandment to His disciples was: “tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). And, faithful to words of the Savior, they “all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication” (Acts 1:14) until the Holy Spirit at last descended upon them on this day.
So it must be with us, my dear brothers and sisters. If we wish to become the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit, if we wish to acquire the divine love of Christ, if we desire to be “filled with all the fulness of God,” then above all else we must abide continuously in the Holy City “with one accord in prayer and supplication,” awaiting His coming with patience and watchfulness and faith.
But let us note well: if we wish the Holy Spirit to abide in us, then we ourselves must not only abide continuously in prayer, but precisely with one accord in prayer. In the kontakion for this feast, we sing: “Once when He descended and confounded the tongues, the Most High divided the nations; and when He divided the tongues of fire, He called all men to unity.” And without such unity, we cannot in any wise become the dwelling-place of God. To become the temple of the Spirit of Peace, we ourselves must be at peace with one another; the Holy Fathers tell us that nothing drives the Holy Spirit away from us so quickly and effectively as anger and judgment and hate.
Let us remember the words of Christ’s High Priestly Prayer just before He went to His Voluntary and Life-Giving Passion:
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:21-26)
This prayer finds its fulfillment today, on the great day of Pentecost. All things have been accomplished. All things have been forgiven us. All things have been given unto us. God offers us now, today, to become nothing less than “partakers of the divine nature” (2. Pet. 1:4), participants in the divine life of the Most-Holy Trinity.
Only one question remains: are we ourselves willing?
I think that for most of us, the answer is that part of us is willing, and part of us is not. If we were wholly willing, we would already be saints. If we were wholly unwilling, we would not be standing here today. If we have been baptized and chrismated as Orthodox Christians, then the Holy Spirit has already descended upon us just as surely as He did upon the disciples on this day. Our task, then, is simply to allow Him to purify our hearts, to drive away all half-loves and earthly attachments, and thereupon to bring forth the fullness of the fruits of His presence within us: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance… [for] they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22-25).
We do this through a life of prayer. We do this through continuous, whole-hearted, unconditional forgiveness. And we do this through keeping a ceaseless vigilance over our own hearts.
But none of this do we need to do alone. God is infinitely nearer to us than we might often imagine. He awaits only the slightest inclination of our hearts toward Him to run out to meet us, as the father ran out to meet the Prodigal Son. And He Himself will fill us with divine power to accomplish all that is necessary for our salvation — so long as we are willing to open the doors of our heart to Him. He asks of us only this one thing: “My son, give me thine heart” (Prov. 23:26). And in return, He gives us nothing less than Himself.
May this great and holy day, which marks the beginning of the rest of the Church year, also mark a new beginning of the rest of our Christian lives on this earth. May each one of us strive with all our might to offer nothing less than our whole hearts to the Most-Holy Trinity. And may each one of us truly become “filled with all the fulness of God.” Amen.
For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Ezekiel 36:24-28
(Third Old Testament Reading for Vespers of Pentecost)