The Pentecost is an activation for the salvation that was once fulfilled on the cross and had to be transmitted to people and this happens by accepting it. “The apostles were all together in one place”: This means that the Church was gathering and the Holy Spirit descended on the Church as a whole and on every individual in it.
After the Ascension of the glorified and triumphant Christ over death, The Holy Spirit became able to descend as Apostle John said in today’s Gospel: “Up to that time the spirit had not been given” – it wasn’t yet in people and with them – “since Jesus had not been yet glorified” i.e. he didn’t die and rise yet.
The Holy Spirit proceedeth from the Father and dwells in the Son. It comes from them together and at the same time it doesn’t come except from the triumphant Christ over death. The Spirit carries to humanity the results of the saving death and shows that the apostles gained salvation and became capable of giving it to those who believe in Christ and are baptized in His name.
This shall happen until eternity. What happened in the attic happens to every baptized person if he believed and confessed and received the body and blood of the Lord. The power of all divine sacraments is in the crucified Christ and is activated in us in the life of the Church.
If we were in the Church since baptism, we would be able to derive all the powers of the Trinity that are reflected in us through the Myron, communion, repentance, marriage, priesthood, funeral, the sign of the cross and the anointing of the sick. The Church is all of these together, because it is in a state of calling for the Holy Spirit for the whole universe. When the Holy Spirit descends on us, the Church shall appear through us.
Those who became for Christ only are the ones who the Holy Spirit descended on, and those do not leave anything not for Christ in their hearts. Those are the temples of the Holy Spirit and Messiahs through grace. Those speak about God’s greatnesses because they are constantly close to Him.
Every one speaks in his own language, i.e. according to the amount of holiness in him and the amount of understanding if he had received this gift. Such person transmits the Holy Spirit through preaching and every person understands and receives this preaching according to his mind and the ability of his heart. There is no difference between the descent of the Spirit in the Pentecost and its descent today in the Holy Sacraments and the word of the Gospel if we read it while opening all our senses and with obedience.
No person can take all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives the gifts according to the ability of every person to activate. One could be a preacher, a teacher or a servant in the management of the Church or a priest or an active layman. All of these together are witnesses for the Holy Spirit and its work. From this aspect, the Church is a movement or a flow and not only an order, organization or gathering.
The Church grows through the gifts that descended on its members. If lots of people responded to the Divine Spirit and submitted their souls to it, the Church would appear alive and active in the human society and would change our situations and we would gain each other through the Spirit because gifts interact and integrate. If lots of gifts were inactive, we should try to request them from God in order for Him to appear alive and effective and for the rising Christ from the dead to be glorified.
Translated by Mark Najjar
Original Text: “العنصرة” –Raiati 23- 03.06.2012
