Sunday, March 7, 2021
Chapter 7 - God the Holy Spirit    Quiz    Song
Hi các em, it is now time for us to take a closer look at the third and the last person in the Holy Trinity who is, the Holy Spirit. And if anyone could remember, from a previous chapter we learned that without the Spirit: Scripture is just a book; Jesus is only a teacher; and the Church is only a community club. Sounds pretty important, doesn't it? So who is really this person?
The central mystery of Christianity is the revelation of God as Trinity. That is, there is only one God but in three persons. The third person of the Trinity, is the Holy Spirit. With the Father and the Son, the Spirit is eternal or in other words, without beginning or end. The images of the Spirit often associate with dove (Jesus' baptism) and fire throughout Scripture (besides wind and water).
Recall how the sun acts as an image of the Trinity. Its light is an image of the Father, the Creator, who said, "Let there be light." Its heat is an image of Jesus, who saved us by the warmth of his love. Its energy is an image of the Spirit, who enlivens (brightens up) and energizes us with grace. Fire produces these same three effects. It lights, heats, and produces energy.
In his book Meditations, Anthony Bloom quotes a Japanese Christian saying: "ln the Christian religion I think I understand about the Father and the Son, but I am confused about the honorable bird." Well that Japanese Christian is certainly not alone in his confusion is he because I think we can all relate to his experience.
When we think of the Spirit or... the honorable bird, the first thing that often comes to our mind is Pentecost. Pentecost? Yes, that is the name of the day when the Holy Spirit descended (came) upon the Apostles. Trong tiếng Việt mình gọi đây là lễ Chúa Thánh Thần hiện xuống và được mừng vào ngày thứ 50 sau Chúa Nhật Phục Sinh (is celebrated the 50th day from Easter Sunday).
On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came and filled the disciples with amazing power. He fulfilled Jesus' promise of asking the Father to give his followers another Helper/Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit. Collectively (As a group), the disciples became temples or the Holy Spirit (where God resides) and members of Christ's body which is the Church. This laid the foundation of how the Church is born or, Pentecost is the birthday of the Church.
Before we dive in further, one thing we should be aware of when speaking of the "coming of the Spirit" is it can create the impression that the Holy Spirit was not around before Pentecost. This is not true. The third person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, has been around as long as the Father and the Son. After all, there is one and only one God.
The following sum up how the "coming of Jesus" and the "coming of the Spirit" are uniquely parallel. In the coming or birthday of Jesus, Jesus himself becomes the sign of God's presence and the instrument of God's activity in his world. Then in the coming of the Spirit or birthday of the Church, well the Church becomes the sign and also the instrument of God’s presence in our world.
So once again, what really happened? When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place. Suddenly, there was a noise from the sky, which sounded like a strong wind blowing. Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
Then it comes just another interesting part. The people in the crowd had come from many different nations so they were amazed to hear the apostles speaking in their native tongues. They asked one another: How is it that all of us hear them speaking in our own native languages? Then it dawned (became clear) on them. The answer lays in the Old Testament story of the Tower of Babel. It begins:
At first, the people of the whole world had only one language and used the same words. As they wandered about in the East, they came to a plain in Babylonia and settled there. They said to one another: Let's build a city with a tower that reaches the shy, so that we can make a name for ourselves. But the Lord did not approve. He mixed up their language and scattered them all over the earth.
Have you found the answer yet? Hearing the apostles speak in their own native tongue was a sign that what happened at the Tower of Babel is now being reversed. To put it another way, the Holy Spirit will unite the peoples of the world, who split into hostile factions and whose sin had scattered across the earth. The following sums up the symbolic role that "speech" played at Babel and Pentecost: Sin divides and the Spirit reunites.
But we're still speaking many languages, aren't we? True. And I wish that everyone could speak English fluently or whichever language that's deemed (considered) universal because not being able to express oneself fully is a frustrated feeling. Sadly the Spirit didn't come to solve this language barrier situation (or at least that's how I see it).
So what is the meaning of his coming then? The Spirit came to give us strength and guide us in difficult situations so that all of us (who are the members of the Church) can know what to do to expand God's kingdom on earth and help God in recreating the world. And just how are we going to do that? By giving and praying.
As you can see, builders of God's kingdom on earth don't require any degree or experience in any languages (it would definitely help but still, preferred but not required), so don't you ever worry of being unemployed because we're always hired! Nevertheless, have you ever thought about which language we will speak when we see God and others in the final days? To be honest, I can't wait to find out!
Now that we get an idea of what we should do in the Church, who is the Church and what's in there? St. Paul who changed from a persecutor of Jesus to an evangelist of Jesus, wrote: We are one body in union with Christ. We have been baptized into the one body by the same Spirit. Christ is the head of his body, the Church. He is the source of the body's life.
In simple words, Jesus is our teacher so he is the head. We, are Jesus' followers, so we are the body. Another term for this body is the Church so again... who is the Church? We are.
One of the images from Scripture that I really like when talking about this relationship of head and body is Jesus being the vine and we are the branches. You can immediately see that the connection between the two is vital (crucial) to the life of the branches so no matter what this world has to offer you, I hope you won't trade it with your faith because faith is all we have to be able to stay on this vine.
Back to the coming of the Spirit, Pentecost wasn't just regarded as the birthday of the Church, but also the start of the Church's mission to the world. Individually, the apostles were graced with remarkable virtues, gifts, and fruits to be used for the building up and spreading of God's kingdom on earth, or for bringing everyone from all nations to that vine of life.
Speaking of life, what would life in the Spirit be like? Drawing upon Scripture, Christian tradition describes the day-to-day activities of the Spirit in our lives in terms of the following:
With virtues, faith, hope, and charity are called the theological (related to God) virtues. Faith is đức tin, hope is đức cậy, and charity or love is đức mến (the most important one among the three). Given to us through baptism, they relate us in a personal way to the Trinity and are the foundation of our spiritual life. Faith empowers (gives power to) us to receive and accept God's revelation. Hope empowers us to trust that God's plan for us will be realized. Charity empowers us to love God above all else and our neighbor as ourselves.
With seven gifts of the Spirit (7 ơn Chúa Thánh Thần), the prophet Isaiah lists the gifts beginning with wisdom and ends with fear of the Lord. However, it is believed that we should ask to receive these gifts in reverse order, which is from bottom to top. It is because in this order that we can be more sensitive to the presence of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives. Without further ado, let's see how the gifts of the Spirit in its reverse order will strengthen us:
Lastly, with fruits of the Spirit, Christian tradition teaches us that when we live in harmony with the virtues and the gifts of the Spirit, we are blessed with a variety of fruits. St. Paul lists nine fruits of the Spirit and he puts love at the top of the list. He puts it there for a good reason because in a true sense, the other eight fruits are simply colors in the rainbow of love. Although the number is not important, some translations have three more fruits which add in modesty (humility), goodness, and chastity (purity).
In the words of Dwight L. Moody: It is love all the way; love at the top, love at the bottom, and love all the way along, down this list of graces. If we only just brought forth (introduced) the fruits of the Spirit, what a world we would have! In fact, the fruits aren't just colors in the "rainbow of love", but they also act as a kind of foretaste of heaven (indication of what heaven is like). Because of how beautiful, poetic and lyrical it is, below are the same fruits again but with some inspirational quotes and Bible verses along them:
As you can see, life in the Holy Spirit is full of greatness. And it's so wonderful that without the Spirit, life would be so lifeless (Scripture is just a book, Jesus is only a teacher and so on). As a matter of fact, many teachings and events of Jesus' life weren't understood by his own disciples. However, when the light of the Spirit struck them on Pentecost, suddenly those same teachings and events of Jesus' life came alive with profound meaning and beauty.
One similar effect that can help we understand the work of the Spirit is after you snap a picture with an instant camera (which uses a special type of film called self-developing), the film rolls out. At first, it seems to be totally blank, but then the natural light strikes the blank film and a beautiful picture emerges (appears). The film here represents us or every member of the Church who are nothing (blank) without the light, and the light or the Spirit is what will transform our life into something meaningful and beautiful.
That is quite a magical touch for sure but if you think about it, the Holy Spirit or God frequently works through very unlikely people. Saint Paul explains it this way in his first Letter to the Corinthians: What seems to be God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and what seems to be God's weakness is stronger than human strength. God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to shame the wise, and he chose what the world considers weak in order to shame the powerful. He chose what the world looks down on and despised and thinks is nothing, in order to destroy what the world considers important.
To sum up, today we've learned "just a bit" about the third and the last person in the Trinity who is the Spirit. A key takeaway is just like how things are real but we can’t really see them in the dark, the Spirit is like a light to help us see and understand more about our faith and our lives. He is the source of light and guidance in absolutely everything an in every problem so if we want the miracle or magic to happen, we've got to let "the Light" in.
Aside from transforming us into a holier person by gracing us with virtues, gifts and fruits, the Spirit came to stay and help us fulfill our mission as Jesus' followers which is to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
An old legend says that when Jesus ascended (went up) to heaven, he still bore the wounds of the crucifixion. When the angel Gabriel saw him, he said, "Lord, how greatly you suffered! Do all the people on earth know how much you loved them?" Jesus replied, "Oh, no! Only a few do." Gabriel was even more shocked and said, "How will the rest find out?" Jesus said, "I told Peter, James, John, and their friends to tell them." Gabriel said, "Lord, what if they fail to do so? What if they let you down? Don't you have a backup plan, just in case?" Jesus said, "No, I'm counting on them not to let me down. And I'm counting on the people they tell not to let me down."
To conclude, always stay in church and stay as close to God as you can via mass, prayers and charity. As branches can't bear fruit apart from the vine, we can't bear fruit apart from Jesus.