Pentecost Sunday
With joy, we drink in the sobriety of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
“Laeti bibamus sobriam profusionem Spiritus”
(St. Ambrose 4th Century Hymn)
The ultimate paradox is the Holy Spirit. He comes as a flame, the burning desire of our heart. He comes as a dove, pure and innocent. He comes a breath, a Holy Kiss, that breathes love into our hearts. He comes as a Paraclete, an Advocate, a companion Who walks beside then enters within our very being. He comes as the Shekinah, the Glory Cloud, that whirlwind of fire which burns night and day within our soul making us the temple of the God’s glory. He comes as Light revealing the awesome and amazing presence of Divine Love. He comes as the One Who intoxicates us, not with debauchery and depravity, but with integrity, honesty, and sanctity.
Intoxication, that rather offensive term, creates the paradox for we are intoxicated, not with just any drink, but the chalice filled with God’s gift of pure love, which glorifies, sanctifies and ultimately divinizes us. This chalice of love, as Solomon’s Song sings, “is better than wine” (Song of Solomon 1:2). Love fills us with a power of superhuman strength, a courage that come from Christ Who conquers the world (John 16:33).
St. Basil, a mystic from the East, describes this intoxicating Spirit as the Sunshine permeating, spreading over the whole earth, yet “is enjoyed by each person as though it were for him alone, so the Spirit pours forth his grace in full measure, sufficient for all and present as though exclusively to everyone” (St. Basil, Treatise on the Holy Spirit, Office of Reading, Second Reading, Week 7 Easter, Tuesday).
Filled with God’s glory, St. Paul quoting Ezekiel declares, “We are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people’” (2 Co 6:16). We belong to Christ bonded by Divine Love.
Divine Love intoxicates us, indulges our deepest desires. His Love gives us free reign to live without restraint, remorse, or rule. In love, we do freely, effortlessly what we want as Augustine preaches: “Love, and do what you will” (St. Augustine Sermon on 1 John4:4-12, # 8; https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/study/module/augustine). St. Paul tells the Colossians the same,
Be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God (Col 1:9–11).
Absolutely free, the Spirit infuses in our very souls the truth of who we are: not just children of God, but brides arrayed in splendor and majesty, not the splendor and majesty of jewels, silver, and gold, but covered, embrace in Divine Love. This love gives us might, endurance, patience, delight, and pure joy. Embraced in the Spirit, our very nature finds ultimate fulfillment. In Divine Love, the source of all love, makes us ecstatic. Every emotion, passion, and desire explode with joy. In the Spirit, our joy is complete (John 15:11; I John 1:4).
Sober, that somber, dour word of a stiff disposition, contrasts the reality. Sobriety, a word of ecstasy and majesty, for the Holy Spirit empowers sobriety: a term if understood biblically gives us a determination and commitment that infuses in us innocence, purity, and transcendent power. Sobriety makes us alert and gives us power to resist and destroy roaring lions (1 Pet 5:8). Sober, we belong to Christ. He calls us friends. No longer enslaved by selfish passions or pleasures, sobriety unlocks the chains corrupting our true passions tempting us to satisfy them with counterfeit, even demonic forces. Sobriety allows the Spirit to set us free and this freedom intoxicates us with joy.
The Holy Spirit, known for its intoxicating sobriety, is the ultimate paradox. He intoxicates us not with foolishness, but with wisdom. Wisdom, Scripture relates, is the “fashioner of all things, penetrating and purifying” (Wis 7:21). Scripture continues:
For she is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her. For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. Though she is but one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself, she renews all things; in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets (Wis 7:25–27).
The Spirit of Wisdom, understood scripturally, fills our souls with such a joy—an exultation—that arouses suspicion.
As on the first Pentecost, accused of drunkenness at the 3rd hour of the day, the crowd, perplexed, amazed, offending, even mocking, saw the euphoria, the ecstasy, and excitement of the Spirit burning away the dross of fear and filling the apostles, filling the world, with divine prophesy, dreams, and visions (Act 2:17). Ecstatic, the Spirit of the Lord comes at Pentecost as promised fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy.
The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear (Is 11:2–3).
Touched by the Spirit, sobriety unleashes in us a driving force for perfection. We excel seeking excellence knowing the Spirit’s power is at work within giving us his gifts. These gifts, as Isaiah promised, satisfy our deepest longings. Wisdom gives insights into the heart and mind of Divine Love. Understanding penetrates Love’s plans, bringing good out of the evils we confront. Knowledge grasps the truth of Divine Love, setting us free to explore and expand. Counsel discerns God’s ways, testing the origin of every spirit: its authenticity and veracity. Courage perfects love casting out all fears. Piety comprehends our adoption into the Fatherhood of God seeking to please Him in all things. And Fear (Respect) of the Lord realizes the immensity and intensity of Divine Love. The gifts of the Holy Spirit, gifts of Divine Love, conform and transform us bringing life to where death was.
Death entered through envy (Wis 2:24) and envy stole the joy from our souls. Death dried up love and made us live in a desert, a howling wasteland, empty without a soul. Here, darkness and desolation surround us. Parched like the desert, the Spirit comes quenching our inmost desires. We, seeking and thirsting for the living God, longing and yearning to behold his face (Ps 42:2), the Psalmist tells to “seek you (God), my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where no water is” (Ps 63:1).
Having lived in the drought of love, that dry, parched, deserted place, the Spirit comes as a torrential rain, a monsoon of grace. Having been touched by the power and glory of the Living Spirit, nothing less than the Holy Spirit satisfies for we have drunk and have become drunk—intoxicated—by Divine Love. No longer do we hunger and thirst for earthly delights. They cannot and will not satisfy. The Spirit and the Spirit alone, satisfies.
No better analogy exists explaining and exploring the mystery of this intoxicating Spirit as rain. Rain, a single element, yet all life depends upon this life-giving force. So too with the Holy Spirit, his power and presence rains down life. He, the breath of God, imbues life out of his love into all the creatures bestowing grace upon grace, goodness upon goodness, and beauty upon beauty. Eyes inspired, seeing the wonders of life springing forth from death, we declare, “How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep!” (Ps 92:5)
No one comprehends the Holy Spirit. Not even the great mystics and masters trying to express the profundity and immensity of the power and presence, and ultimately the adoration and glorification owed to this Spirit. Yet, today we do give “glory and wisdom, thanks and honor, power and strength to our God” (Rev. 7:12), for He did not abandon us in death, but restored us. Giving us his life by drinking that chalice of death, we too now drink of the chalice, not the chalice of death, but the chalice intoxicating us with Divine Wine poured out from the side of Christ.