Whitsun 2007, Christ's Breath

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I am.

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

Whitsunday

Sunday, May 27, 2007

John 14: 32-31

            In the evening the sun descends in a blaze of color. If we let ourselves be carried by sunset’s mood, we may find ourselves becoming quieter, reflecting on the day’s events. And despite growing darkness, we have no fear: for we know that the sun will soon rise again to enlighten another day.

            Pentecost is like a bright evening in the story of mankind. At Ascension, the Sun of Mankind disappeared from sight. And yet the light did not leave us, for at Whitsun the disciples began to remember everything Christ had told them. The light of understanding dawned within them. The flames of their love rose up, and the warm light healed their sore hearts. Praise for the incredible new day of humanity broke forth from them. They offered themselves into this new streaming of light.

            The Act of Consecration is itself a Whitsun event. In the gospel reading we hear and remember what Christ spoke to humanity. The warmth of our love for Him rises like flames. Yet this is not a fire that consumes, it is a fire that creates, creates the light of understanding; creates warmth of heart and a fiery enthusiasm of will.

            Through the fire of our love, we are elevated to a creative stream, a collective place where all creatures sing His praise. We become, in the words of the poet:

A hole in a flute

That Christ’s breath moves through –

…the concert

From the mouth of every

Creature

Singing with the myriad

Chords.[1]

 www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Hafiz, “A Hole in the Flute” in The Gift, translated by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 203

Whitsun III 2008, Tongues of Flame

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I am.

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

Whittuesday

May 13, 2008

He Qi

John 14: 23-31

Our tongue is a unique muscle. All our other muscles are attached to bones at each end. Therefore they can only move along one channel. But the tongue rises out of the floor of the mouth; its other end is free to move wherever it needs to, in order to form speech.

In the account of the Pentecost event, the word ‘tongues’ appears several times. First, from the great single fire of the Holy Spirit, there separate out tongues of flame that descend upon the heads of the apostles, filling them each with the healing spirit.[1]

The result is that they begin to speak ‘in other tongues’ out of the spirit.[2] They speak in a new way. They speak out of freedom. They do not use the old form of glossolalia, the babbling that was connected with the sibyls and oracles of nature. But rather they speak out of the fire of their hearts, out of the universally human core of their being. They speak out of minds awakened and inspired by the great synthesis, the universal spirit whose being is love. They speak from the heart about their own experiences with this being.

Because they speak from the heart, even those gathered in Jerusalem from other regional dialects can, to their amazement, understand them. “We hear them,” they say, “declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. What does this mean?”.[3]

What it means is that speech is becoming free and universal again. It means that the separation of men into different language groups is being lifted. In the story in Genesis, men built a tower to the heavens for their own self-aggrandizement. The Lord had said to the angels, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, nothing they plan will be impossible for them. Let us go down and confuse their language so that they will not understand each other.”[4] Differing languages limits our abilities, and teaches us humility. Thus was mankind as a whole prevented from planning their own destruction.

Now, at Pentecost, God’s Spirit descends again. He descends to lift the curse of languages that separate. Now the Spirit that unites can speak through us again. Now we can begin to work on building the great spiritual city of peace, the New Jerusalem.

This is how this universal, healing, freeing fire of the Spirit works in us:

·         It enlightens the head’s understanding with truth’s overview.

·         It warms the heart so that it connects with others in empathy for their point of view.

·         It frees the speech, the tongue and the body’s will, to deeds inspired by the spirit of love.

Through the fire of the Spirit’s universal tongue, through unifying speech, we can work on becoming one humanity again.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Acts 2:3

[2] Acts 2:4

[3] Acts 2: 11,12

[4] Genesis 11:1-8

Whitsun II 2008, Light Up the World

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I am.

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

Whitmonday

May 12, 2008

John 14: 23-31

We think of the sun as a shining orb that slowly travels across the sky. We see the light it sends down to earth, illuminating all things. We feel its warmth on our skin. So we could say that we are not separated from the sun. The sun is not only up in the sky, but also where it works and has its effects, here on the earth. We live in fact the midst of the sun.

The sun supports everything. Although its light may vary in quality from place to place, the sun’s living light is not attached to one particular place on earth. It shines for all of the earth, for all of humanity. It shines on good and bad alike. Nothing is hidden from the sun; eventually all comes to light.  The sun is the great living symbol of universal tolerance.

Christ, after his sojourn as a human being on earth, returned to his home in the sun. But since the earth is not separated from the sun, He continues to be in our midst. He continues to shed His living light of love on all alike, both good and bad. He supports everyone. Nothing is hidden from Him. Although His light may be refracted into differing religious colors, His Spirit of Love is the one, unifying healing Spirit, whose living light surrounds the whole earth. He is the living quality of universal tolerance.

The Sufi poet Hafiz expresses something of Love’s universal acceptance. He writes:

Even

after

all this time

the sun never says to the earth

“You owe me.”

Look

what happens

with a love like that –

it lights up the whole

world. [1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Hafiz, “The Sun Never Says”, in Love Poems from God, Daniel Ladinsky, p. 170

Whitsun 2008, Embrace of God

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I am.

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

Whitsunday

May 11, 2008

John 14:23-31

A flame is the light and warmth that arises from the transformation of earthly matter. It is the perfect picture for how the flaming light of our awareness arises out the body’s work of transformation of our food. It is also the fitting picture for how warmth arises when this awareness is converted into active, loving deeds of limb.

In the events of Easter, Christ rooted Himself in the earth. At Ascension, Christ, the Tree of Life, expanded His being into the heavens, joining heaven and earth. His expansion into all of the earth means that every human being has a share in His being, in His love, at least unconsciously. For His love is the very life of the earth, the very life in our bodies.

However, it is our task not only to receive His life, but also to become aware, conscious of Christ’s relationship to us, or else this life in us will gradually fade. The Life will be forced to withdraw. Christ’s life in us needs to wake up, rise up, become a flame of conscious in us. We need to join with Him in conscious awareness, in love. We need to join hands with Him, so that our hands become His hands on earth. The food we receive to support His work on earth is Communion with Him. His work on earth is the transformation of the earth itself.

Whitsun or Pentecost celebrates the moment in human history when this wide-awake knowledge of His spirit, the love connection of each individual to Christ on earth, lit up in the awareness of His disciples. They were together in heart and mind, celebrating the meal in remembrance of Him. And suddenly flames appear. In the light of the flames they understood Christ’s mission on earth. They felt the immensity of His selfless love. Into their wills they took the warmth of His intentions, so that His deeds would continue to bear fruit on earth through their deeds. They began to return His embrace of love.

One of the mystics said,

The embrace of God puts fire into the soul.

by which the soul entire is felt to burn

for Christ, accompanied by light so great the soul

suspects the immensity of God’s appalling goodness.

You won’t get used to it, nor will you know its scope.

The effect of this fire within the soul is to render it

certain and secure that Christ is there within it.

And still, what we have said is nothing

compared to what you find in the embrace of God.[1]

His love leads to the light of awareness, to warmth of will. So may we, as Christ gives us the strength to do, become the flames of His love. As He says: “Arise, rise up; let us be on our way.” John 14: 31 Let us transform the earth.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Blessed Angela of Foligno, “His Blazing Embrace”, in Love’s Immensity, Scott Cairns, p. 88.

Whitsun III 2009, Odor of Roses

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I am.

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

Whittuesday

June 2, 2009

John 14:23-31

Another image in the Pentecost story is the picture, or rather the sound of the wind. The disciples are sitting together in prayer, shut up in a room, when the roaring of a strong wind is heard. This sound fills the whole house. And on the back of the wind comes a fire, tongues of the flame of spirit awareness, which settle over each of them. A heightened understanding of the great truth of things, that the universe is permeated by love, is often accompanied by an awareness of one’s own smallness.

The poet describes this Pentecostal mood:

The wind, one brilliant day, called

to my soul with an odor of jasmine.

"In return for the odor of my jasmine,

I'd like all the odor of your roses."

"I have no roses; all the flowers

in my garden are dead."

"Well then, I'll take the withered petals

and the yellow leaves and the waters of the fountain."

The wind left. And I wept. And I said to myself:

"What have you done with the garden that was entrusted to you?"[1]

Expanded awareness is the key to Pentecost, and expanded awareness inevitably means the pain of an expanded and true self-awareness.

Yet note in the poem that the spirit wind will take away anything we have to offer—even the withered petals and leaves of our failures. For on the back of the spirit-wind comes the purifying fire, the fire of love, creative of being. Autumn’s leaves and withered petals will spirited away to be burned, but there will  always be the water in the fountain, so that even what has died will be transformed into new life

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Antonio Machado, “The Wind, One Brilliant Day”, translated by Robert Bly.

Whitsun II 2009, Loving Through Death

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I am.

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

Whitmonday

June 1, 2009

John 14:23-31

A second image that belongs to the Pentecost story is the image of the dove. She is a creature belonging to both the air and the ground. She descends and ascends again and again, to the realm of light and warmth where gravity has little pull. And she returns to earth, happy to walk and feed there.

We too are creatures of two worlds, the airy world of soul and the world of earth. The poet explores our dual nature:

What's it like to be a human

the bird asked

I myself don't know

it's being held prisoner by your skin

while reaching infinity

being a captive of your scrap of time

while touching eternity

being hopelessly uncertain

and helplessly hopeful…

it's being on fire

with a nest made of ashes

eating bread

while filling up on hunger

it's dying without love

it's loving through death[1]

In the Pentecost story, the dove is the bird of truth, sent by Christ from the Father’s realm. Christ has expanded His being, so that now His feet are grounded in the earth, and His heart is in the clouds that surround the whole earth. Through the dove He sends the truth that we shall indeed keep on being creatures of two realms. But gradually, through love we shall make earth’s nest of ashes into a phoenix fire; we shall reach infinity through hope, touch eternity by loving through death. And one day the two realms will be one.

 www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1]  Anna Kamienska, in Astonishments: Selected Poems of Anna Kamienska,

 ed. and trans. by D. Curzon and G. Drabik)

Whitsun 2009, Voice of the Fire

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I am.

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

Whitsunday

May 31, 2009

John 14:23-31

At the first Pentecost event, the disciples see a mighty fire that divides itself into separate flames. Each flame comes to rest over the head of one of them.

In paintings by Fra Angelico, the flame also appears above the heads of angels. It is the symbol of an expanded awareness, an awareness that a river of love, the water of life, flows through all of creation, pervading the entire universe. The flames are the fire of love, a love which creates, whose flames are creating our eternal existence.

A sudden awareness of the love that creates and bears the universe can at the same time make us aware of our own shortcomings in the realm of love. How loveless we can sometimes be! This painful self-awareness becomes the fire that burns, that burns away the dross of our selfish egotism. Once overcome, however, we can then proceed to generate the fire and warmth of a quiet but enthusiastic love for others, especially for those whose path is different from ours. We can generate an enthusiastic love for the truth. We can generate enthusiasm for deeds of service.

The poet[1] helps us become aware of our fear of this transformation of the self:

On the left is a blazing fire and

On my right a cool flowing stream

One group of people walk toward the fire, into the fire

And the other toward the cool flowing waters

No one knows which is blessed and which is not.

But just as someone enters the fire,

That head bobs up from the water

And just as a head enters the water

That face appears in the fire….

The voice of the fire says:

I am not fire, I am fountainhead

Come into me, and don’t mind the sparks.

Our true self is a fire that burns; it burns away egotism; it burns unextinguished in the waters of life-giving love.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Rumi