Reflection the WORD, on May 11, 2025
The Spirit is OneActs 2: 1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
On Mothers Day, we may change the sequence of the Fifth Commandment, which says, that you shall honor your mother and your father, to the sequence of you shall honor your mother and your father, in order to put an emphasize on the Mothers, grand mothers, great grandmothers, great-great grandmothers and so on, on Earth and in Heaven.
However, it is not only that Mother’s Day is today, but we are approaching the Pentecost Sunday as well, which is the feast of the receiving of the Holy Spirit. What is the characteristic of the Holy Spirit we should pray for?
When God told Solomon, that whatever you ask, I will grant your request, Solomon prayed for the Spirit of wisdom. Whether, it was a successful prayer, it is hard to judge, because Solomon definitely deviated from wisdom at least his later years, when the cliché might have been applied, that power corrupts the heart, too much power corrupts the heart irreversibly.
He should have prayed for devotion to the commandments of God, and the unity of his soul in this devotion.
At the first Pentecost the disciples were gathered, but hiding behind closed doors. They had been waiting for ten days in Jerusalem, as they were promised to receive the gift of the Lord, which is the Holy Spirit. When it arrived, as the Scripture said, flames of fire appeared over their heads. Enlightenment. Literally and spiritually too. Transformation of the heart aiming for the unity with God.
Disciples, who became desperate and depressed after the death of the master on the cross, and were left without the physical guidance of Jesus since his ascension, these same disciples, by the touch of the Spirit, opened the doors, not hiding anymore the Gospel of the Christ. They prayed for faith and they received it in the Spirit. This event was the Pentecost.
Three thousand people joined them in Jerusalem in the hours they opened the doors and left their fear and anxiety, doubts and apathy behind. Although persecution also grew, but they did not run anymore, as they told authorities that they have to obey Jesus rather than the men who crucified him.
The first Christian groups shared everything within the congregation: food, money, land and resources, thus, there were neither beggars nor needy among them, neither slaveholders nor slaves, neither landlords nor peasants. They gave thanks together to the Lord saying that only to GOD belong the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever.
In the last 2000 years Christian scholars wrote tremendous amounts of tractates, essays, Bible interpretations, commentaries and other books, filling up personal bookshelves, religious and public libraries throughout the world and throughout centuries and millennia.
These works were written by renowned scholars and together with them, we mostly and seriously think that the case of the Holy Spirit is so complex that it is barely perceivable for the simple mortal being.
However almost nothing should be more simple than the touch of the Holy Spirit, because as God is One and the Lord is One, so the Holy Spirit is One. All manifestations are one under different names and within different roles and tasks of the same divine one.
However, there are some phenomenal characteristics where the Holy Spirit can be caught red-handed, like in its gifts to humans: the gifts of prophecy, speaking of tongues, healing of the sick, judging the souls, attaining wisdom, etc. When we contemplate these gifts, one of the major phenomena is that the giver of the gifts is One.
In order to be reborn to the similarity of the One Spirit, we all have to become, one by one, a holy wisely one-minded person, which means that we have to focus on the oneness of God, and we have to focus on the Kingdom of God whose sole importance must overcome everything on Earth.
The requirement of being holy wisely one-minded sounds very simple, though it is one of the most difficult task in our lives as the Apostle Paul wrote that "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. "
Good and bad dwell in the divided human soul in the same time and they are fighting each other all the time for the rule of the human soul. In order to get rid of the bad we have to become one minded.
That is why the Great Commandment says that "Hear, O Israel:
The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. "
God demands our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole strength and nothing less. According to the Spirit Math, just like the candle shines in the darkness and overcomes it, the light of the One Spirit must destroy the darkness in the soul, eradicating fully the bad inclinations. It is like combing the coiling wicked snakes from someone’s hair.
The Paradise is not lost, just the path to its Gate is hidden. The Path had been revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and we have to simply obey the divine road signs aka the holy commandments in order to return to the Paradise, which is the Kingdom of God.
It is obvious and clear that our relationship with God must be based on humility, as God is so much higher than humans, that it is unimaginable for a man to exalt himself over God.
We must acknowledge in our laws, that we are fully equal to each other, equally responsible for each other and for the future generations. The sin against the Holy Spirit obviously has these two major sources, first, when someone thinks that he is God's equal, so he can do what he wants regardless what are God's commandments, and secondly, when someone forces his will upon others, claiming ruling rights or superiority over the subjects or the assumed inferiors.
If at least one is humble out of two, or at least ten people are humble out of the many, then forgiveness, reconciliation, wisdom, truth, justice and hope will be present on Earth.
Innumerable tragedies and the general misery of mankind are the result of the lack of humility. Some people think that praying is futile. It is quite the opposite. Our God hears our prayers, moreover our tears and cries, and he answers with justice and mercy.
In our gatherings we keep praying for the well-being of the community, confessing and witnessing, asking for and giving forgiveness and saying thanks to the Almighty One all the time. May the grace of the Lord be with us all, as we praise his name by the Holy Spirit, according to the all-reaching call and the irresistible will of God. AMEN
