For Pentecost: The Descent of the Holy Spirit (An Excerpt from "Silent Rosary")
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Tomorrow (June 8th) is the Feast of Pentecost. To celebrate that occasion, I’ve copied the chapter from the book Silent Rosary: A Contemplative, Exegetical, and Iconographic Tour Through the Mysteries. The icons in the book are my work, and the text is by my husband, Addison Hodges Hart.
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The Descent of the Spirit
Readings for reflection:
Acts 2:1-42; John 14:15-16, 25-26; 15:26; 16:7-11; 20:19-23; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
When the early Christians claimed that the risen and ascended Christ “filled all things,” was still present with them “until the end of the age,” and was, with the Father, “abiding” with them and within their “hearts” (see Eph. 4:10; Matt. 28:20; John 14:23; Gal. 4:6), they were affirming their belief in “the Spirit of the Son.” And the Spirit of the Son, they also affirmed, was also the eternal Spirit of God.
The identification was so categorical that Paul could even write that “the Lord” (a title he most frequently used for Jesus Christ) is “the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18), apparently without any fear of being misunderstood by his readers. In saying this, he was not confusing the person of Jesus with “the Spirit,” as if they were indistinguishable, but he was indicating that “the Lord Spirit” was the means by which Jesus Christ continued to be present and active among believers. In Paul’s teaching, Christ could only be encountered now through the Spirit and no longer “in the flesh.” “[T]hough we have known Christ after the flesh,” he wrote, “yet now henceforth know we him [in the flesh] no more” (2 Cor. 5:16; KJV). Whenever Paul spoke of “the flesh” of Christ in his epistles, he was specifically referring to Christ in his pre-resurrection life. His post-resurrection life had become omnipresent and could now be perceived everywhere – even within the disciple’s innermost being. Along these same lines, Jesus’ enigmatic but reassuring words in John’s Gospel somewhat parallel Paul’s teaching: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor [Paraclete, Advocate, Encourager = Spirit] will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7; emphasis added). For John as well as Paul, in the wake of the ascension it is the Spirit’s work that is most essential in the life of the follower of Christ.
The word spirit means “wind” or “gust” (the same word, in essence, as “ghost”) or “breath.” The divine Spirit was understood to be God’s living, inexhaustible, permeating breath and the source of all contingent life. For the ancient Hebrews, this was taken quite literally. The very air one breathed was directly given by God; he was everywhere present and the immediate cause of every creature’s life-breath. We can see this assumption in such texts as Psalm 104:29-30, which speaks of creaturely life and death in terms of breath: “When thou hidest thy face, [all creatures] are dismayed; when thou takest away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When thou sendest forth thy Spirit [literally, breath], they are created; and thou renewest the face of the ground.” Ecclesiastes 3:19-21 says something similar:
For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath [or, spirit], and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knows whether the spirit [breath] of man goes upward and the spirit [breath] of the beast goes down to the earth?
And this from Ecclesiastes also: “[A]nd the dust returns to the earth as it was [when one dies], and the spirit [breath] returns to God who gave it” (Eccles. 12:7).
Indeed, without God’s “breath” operating upon the roiling chaos “in the beginning,” there would have been no creation of any kind: “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit [wind, breath] of God was moving over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2) Nor would there have been the creation of man and woman without the breath/spirit of God: “[T]hen the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7). So it is that in describing the death of Jesus, Luke’s account has him crying out from the cross in the words of Psalm 31:6: “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit [breath]!” (Lk. 23:46) And all four Gospels express his death in terms of Jesus either breathing his last or giving up his spirit/breath (Mk. 15:37; Matt. 27:50; Lk. 23:46; Jn. 19:30).
Death, in biblical idiom, is in fact always the exhalation of one’s “last breath” and a “giving up of the spirit.” This is because life itself was seen as a palpable, tangible participation in spirit. The distinction between such a palpable “natural” spirit/breath from God and God’s “supernatural” power-bestowing Spirit/Breath has been sharply made by theologians down the ages – and even in the scriptures, where many unresolved ambiguities are to be found, the two are often distinguished. For example, “the Spirit of the LORD” that strengthens Samson to slay the lion and tear binding ropes asunder (Judges 14:6; 15:14) is more than “natural” and certainly not his “life-breath” – it is a “supernatural” power that comes upon him. Admittedly, this particular example concerns a primitive idea of “Spirit.” But in a much more sophisticated context than that of the book of Judges, the Spirit who speaks through the prophets of the Old Testament is regarded as an extraordinary gift of utterance and likewise not a “natural” gift.
Turning to the New Testament, the Spirit of God and Christ is also a “supernatural” gift of both power and utterance. He discloses “the mind of Christ,” and in himself is both known and unknowable, a mystery hidden in the very intimacy of his indwelling presence. He abides among the members of Christ’s body and is the church’s deepest mystical reality, but – like the passing wind – he cannot be grasped or fully comprehended by the intellect: “The spirit/breath/wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit/breath/wind” (Jn. 3:8; my rendering). And Paul puts it like this:
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him,”[1] God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what person knows a man’s thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God… The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”[2] But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor. 2:9-11, 15-16)
And it is the Spirit, not a sacred book (as important as that may be), around whom the disciples of Jesus are to be gathered: “When the Spirit of truth comes,” Jesus says to his disciples in John’s Gospel, “he will guide you into all the truth… He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (Jn. 16:13-14). The Spirit takes precedence over the scriptures because they can only be rightly interpreted “spiritually”: “[F]or the scripture kills, but the Spirit gives life… but when a person turns to the Lord the veil [that obscures the spiritual meaning of scripture] is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit…” (2 Cor. 3:6, 16-17a, my rendering) We have, of course, seen ample evidence down the ages how the scriptures can be mishandled and turned into instruments of abuse even by well-intentioned people.
Paul tells us why the Spirit must take priority over all else in the “spiritual” lives of Christ’s followers, and this is the reason: It is only through the Spirit’s hidden operation that Jesus’ disciples can hope to be “transformed” into his image. The genuine goal for the believer in the Christian tradition means – as the Greek fathers in particular expressed it – “to become by grace what Christ is by nature.” As Paul stated it, “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a glass [a metallic mirror] the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory [that is, gradually], even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18, KJV, altered slightly). The Spirit’s invisible operations are made visible in the ongoing transformation of the disciple’s character. Paul referred to this as the development of “the fruit” – the produce – “of the Spirit” in believers’ lives: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23). Here, then, is the language of authentic Christian “spirituality” – the contemplation of Christ “in the Spirit” that finds its fruition in Christlike character. Anything less than this is a failure to understand what the gift of the Spirit means for the follower of Jesus.
We find two accounts in the New Testament of Jesus bestowing the Spirit on his followers, specifically as power for them to spread his message. In John’s Gospel, Jesus appears to his disciples on the evening of the day of his resurrection. He breathes on them, telling them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” His disciples are to be an extension of his ministry of forgiveness to those willing to receive it (see Jn. 20:19-23). The second account of the Spirit’s bestowal is much more dramatic in its details than John’s. It is found in the second chapter of the book of Acts and it is this scene from Acts that, in stylized form, we see depicted in our icon.
The scene is Jerusalem, probably in the upper room mentioned in Acts 1:13 (or so we may presume, though it is not specifically designated; “the house” in 2:2 could possibly refer to a different location), where the nucleus of the first Christian community is gathered – the twelve apostles, possibly the 120 disciples mentioned in 1:15, including “the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and [Jesus’] brothers” (Acts 1:14). It is the Jewish feast of Shavuot (“Weeks”; see Lev. 23:15-21) or – as the Greek-speaking Jews called it – “Pentecost” (“Fiftieth” – celebrated fifty days after Passover). Suddenly there is the sound of “a mighty wind” and “tongues as of fire” rest upon all those present. Both wind and fire were customary symbols of the Spirit – of God’s Breath (and breath brings with it the power of life itself). The disciples begin to speak in a variety of languages “as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). The sound of the wind and the voices is tremendous enough to attract a crowd, a multitude of Jews from many nations who have gathered in Jerusalem for the feast. To this crowd Peter gives an address which “cuts” them “to the heart,” and – so Acts tells us – “about three thousand souls” repented (had a change of heart), were baptized, and were added to the nascent community (Acts 2:41).
Our icon presents one version of this scene. The apostles are gathered around the central person of Mary, both because she is mentioned in Acts 1:14, suggesting that she was present at the Pentecost event as well, and also because she was the premier symbol of the “virgin mother” church. Present, too, in the scene is the apostle Paul – an ahistorical addition indicating Paul’s importance in the formation of the church.
Looking again at the Pentecost account in Acts, there are two aspects of it that are not often emphasized, but deserve our mention. The first is Peter’s promise to those who receive the message he proclaims: “you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Keeping in mind what we have said above about the role of the Spirit in transforming those who seek to follow the way of Jesus, this assertion is not to be overlooked. Repentance (change of heart) and baptism for the forgiveness of sins are not ends in themselves, according to Acts. A life in the Spirit, which – as we have seen – means the gradual process of being “changed into [Christ’s] image from glory to glory,” is the primary goal for those converted.
The second aspect in Acts 2 to note is the Spirit’s work of forming a sacramental, prayerful, learning community of equality and sharing: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the [communal] prayers… And all who believed were together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:42, 44-45). In other words, the coming of the Spirit is both for personal transformation and the formation of a true disciple-community.
[1] See Isaiah 64:4.
[2] Isaiah 40:13.
