Our father among the saints, Leo the Great was the bishop of Rome during difficult times. He was an eminent scholar of Scripture and rhetoric. During an invasion by Attila the Hun, St. Leo met him outside the gates of Rome. After some short words, to everyone’s surprise, Attila turned and left. Three years later, during an invasion by Genseric the Vandal, St. Leo’s intercession again saved the Eternal City from destruction.

I. The Holy Spirit’s work did not begin at Pentecost, but was continued because the Holy Trinity is One in action and in will.

Today’s festival, dearly-beloved, which is held in reverence by the whole world, has been hallowed by that advent of the Holy Spirit, which on the fiftieth day after the Lord’s Resurrection, descended on the Apostles and the multitude of believers , even as it was hoped. And there was this hope, because the Lord Jesus had promised that He should come, not then first to be the Indweller of the saints, but to kindle to a greater heat, and to fill with larger abundance the hearts that were dedicated to Him, increasing, not commencing His gifts, not fresh in operation because richer in bounty.

For the Majesty of the Holy Spirit is never separate from the Omnipotence of the Father and the Son, and whatever the Divine government accomplishes in the ordering of all things, proceeds from the Providence of the whole Trinity. Therein exists unity of mercy and loving-kindness, unity of judgment and justice: nor is there any division in action where there is no divergence of will. What, therefore, the Father enlightens, the Son enlightens, and the Holy Spirit enlightens: and while there is one Person of the Sent, another of the Sender, and another of the Promiser, both the Unity and the Trinity are at the same time revealed to us, so that the Essence which possesses equality and does not admit of solitariness is understood to belong to the same Substance but not the same Person.

II. Each Person in the Trinity took part in our Redemption.

The fact, therefore, that, with the co-operation of the inseparable Godhead still perfect, certain things are performed by the Father, certain by the Son, and certain by the Holy Spirit, in particular belongs to the ordering of our Redemption and the method of our salvation. For if man, made after the image and likeness of God, had retained the dignity of his own nature, and had not been deceived by the devil’s wiles into transgressing through lust the law laid down for him, the Creator of the world would not have become a Creature, the Eternal would not have entered the sphere of time, nor God the Son, Who is equal with God the Father, have assumed the form of a slave and the likeness of sinful flesh. But because

“by the devil’s malice death entered into the world (Wisdom 2:24),”

and captive humanity could not otherwise be set free without His undertaking our cause, Who without loss of His majesty should both become true Man, and alone have no taint of sin, the mercy of the Trinity divided for Itself the work of our restoration in such a way that the Father should be propitiated, the Son should propitiate , and the Holy Spirit enkindle. For it was necessary that those who are to be saved should also do something on their part, and by the turning of their hearts to the Redeemer should quit the dominion of the enemy, even as the Apostle says,

“God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father (Gal. 4:6),”

“And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Cor. 3:17),”

and

“no one can call Jesus Lord except in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3) .”

III. But this apportionment of functions does not mar the Unity of the Trinity.

If, therefore, under guiding grace, dearly-beloved, we faithfully and wisely understand what is the particular work of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and what is common to the Three in our restoration, we shall without doubt so accept what has been wrought for us by humiliation and in the body as to think nothing unworthy about the One and Selfsame Glory of the Trinity. For although no mind is competent to think, no tongue to speak about God, yet whatever that is which the human intellect apprehends about the essence of the Father’s Godhead, unless one and the selfsame truth is held concerning His Only-begotten or the Holy Spirit, our meditations are disloyal, and beclouded by the intrusions of the flesh, and even that is lost, which seemed a right conclusion concerning the Father, because the whole Trinity is forsaken, if the Unity therein is not maintained; and That Which is different by any inequality can in no true sense be One.

IV. In thinking upon God, we must put aside all material notions.

When, therefore, we fix our minds on confessing the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, let us keep far from our thoughts the forms of things visible, the ages of beings born in time, and all material bodies and places. Let that which is extended in space, that which is enclosed by limit, and whatever is not always everywhere and entire be banished from the heart. The conception of the Triune Godhead must put aside the idea of interval or of grade , and if a man has attained any worthy thought of God, let him not dare to withhold it from any Person therein, as if to ascribe with more honor to the Father that which he does not ascribe to the Son and Spirit.

It is not true Godliness to put the Father before the Only-begotten: insult to the Son is insult to the Father: what is detracted from the One is detracted from Both. For since Their Eternity and Godhead are alike common, the Father is not accounted either Almighty and Unchangeable, if He begot One less than Himself or gained by having One Whom before He had not .

V. Christ as Man is less than the Father, as God co-equal.

The Lord Jesus does, indeed, say to His disciples, as was read in the Gospel lection,

“if you loved Me, you would assuredly rejoice, because I go to the Father, because the Father is greater than I;”

but those ears, which have often heard the words,

“I and the Father are One ,”

and

“He that sees Me, sees the Father also,”

accept the saying without supposing a difference of Godhead or understanding it of that Essence which they know to be co-eternal and of the same nature with the Father. Man’s uplifting, therefore, in the Incarnation of the Word, is commended to the holy Apostles also, and they, who were distressed at the announcement of the Lord’s departure from them, are incited to eternal joy over the increase in their dignity;

“If you loved Me,” He says, “ye would assuredly rejoice, because I go to the Father:”

that is, if, with complete knowledge ye saw what glory is bestowed on you by the fact that, being begotten of God the Father, I have been born of a human mother also, that being invisible I have made Myself visible, that being eternal “in the form of God” I accepted the “form of a slave,” “ye would rejoice because I go to the Father.”

For to you is offered this ascension, and your humility is in Me raised to a place above all heavens at the Father’s right hand. But I, Who am with the Father that which the Father is, abide undivided with My Father, and in coming from Him to you I do not leave Him, even as in returning to Him from you I do not forsake you. Rejoice, therefore,

“because I go to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.”

For I have united you with Myself, and am become Son of Man that you might have power to be sons of God. And hence, though I am One in both forms, yet in that whereby I am conformed to you I am less than the Father, whereas in that whereby I am not divided from the Father I am greater even than Myself. And so let the Nature, which is less than the Father, go to the Father, that the Flesh may be where the Word always is, and that the one Faith of the catholic Church may believe that He Whom as Man it does not deny to be less, is equal as God with the Father.

VI. And this equality which the Son has with the Father, the Holy Spirit also has.

Accordingly, dearly-beloved, let us despise the vain and blind cunning of ungodly heretics, which flatters itself over its crooked interpretation of this sentence, and when the Lord says,

“All things that the Father has are Mine (John 16:15),”

does not understand that it takes away from the Father whatever it dares to deny to the Son, and is so foolish in matters even which are human as to think, that what is His Father’s has ceased to belong to His Only-begotten, because He has taken on Him what is ours. Mercy in the case of God does not lessen power, nor is the reconciliation of the creature whom He loves a falling off of Eternal glory. What the Father has the Son also has, and what the Father and the Son have, the Holy Spirit also has, because the whole Trinity together is One God.

But this Faith is not the discovery of earthly wisdom nor the conviction of man’s opinion: the Only-begotten Son has taught it Himself, and the Holy Spirit has established it Himself, concerning Whom no other conception must be formed than is formed concerning the Father and the Son.

Because albeit He is not the Father nor the Son, yet He is not separable from the Father and the Son: and as He has His own personality in the Trinity, so has He One substance in Godhead with the Father and the Son, filling all things, containing all things, and with the Father and the Son controlling all things, to Whom is the honor and glory for ever and ever.  Amen.

© 2010, Preachers Institute. All rights reserved.

In this sermon, Fr. Josiah presents an intriguing idea: What happens if Christians experience Ascension, but do not experience Pentecost.

Introduction: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.

The last ten days in the Church have been unusual.  In some sense we have been living between two realities.  On the leave-taking of Pascha we ceased the sustained celebration of the Holy Resurrection of the Lord as well as our saying, “Christ is risen.  Truly He is risen.”  The next day we celebrated the Glorious Ascension of our Savior into the heavens to sit at the right hand of the Father.   For these days between Ascension and Pentecost we have been in a waiting mode.  We, like the Apostles of old, have been heeding our Lord’s ascension instructions to “wait in Jerusalem to be clothed with power from on high” (St. Lk. 24:49).  We have been waiting for the Holy Spirit to come.

Why were the Apostles waiting?

The obvious answer to this question is that they were waiting because the Lord Jesus commanded them to tarry until Pentecost.  There is, however, much more to this waiting than that.  We must understand very clearly the difference between the apostles before Pentecost and after Pentecost.  Something dramatic happened to them that changed them personally.  They were transformed.  Fear turned into martyric boldness; fishermen became the world’s teachers;  doubt was replaced by mountain-moving faith.  All because of Pentecost.

The Necessity of Pentecost.

Some of us do not understand the necessity of Pentecost.  Pentecost is many things, and we have spoken about these realities before.  Pentecost is revelation of the Holy Trinity to the world. This is why this Feast is also called “Trinity Day” in the Church.  The Apostles knew the Father.  They had become the disciples of the Son.  And now they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  Pentecost is also the birthday of the New Testament Church.  It is the democratization of the Spirit of God to all believers.  It is the unification of all mankind, and the definitive beginning to the reversal of the chaos of the Tower of Babel.  All of these things we have previously discussed, but today I wish to point out that Holy Pentecost is the evidence that Christianity is not a man-made or earthly religion.  It is not a set of ethical standards.  It is not for moral guidance.  Christianity is a miraculous and divine communion between God and man.  Christianity is the spiritualization or divination of man.

If Christianity were simply a man-made religion, even if it were the best and most beautiful man-made religion, there would be no need for the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem these days awaiting Pentecost.  Why would they need to?  They had for years lived in close contact with Christ, and had been His most intimate students.  They could have simply begun to write and teach and pass on what they had learned.  They had been fully trained, and so it is time to start training.  This is how it is with every other of the world’s religions.  Not so with Christianity.  Christianity is not about ideas, moral guidance, ethical norms, social structures, etc..  Christianity, of course, is not free from these things, but this is not what Holy Orthodoxy is about.  Holy Orthodoxy is about the coming of the Holy Spirit into man.  It is about human transformation and deification, not ideas.  There is no Christianity without Pentecost.  Orthodoxy without the Holy Spirit is not Orthodoxy.

Many Christians tragically live between Ascension and Pentecost.

With that said is it not tragic how often we live with our Orthodoxy as a set of ideas.  We think we are Orthodox because we believe certain things in our heads and were born or converted to a certain family or at a certain time.  If the Apostles had remained in the state they were in between Ascension and Pentecost they would never have brought the Gospel to the world.  They would never have become the great saints they did.  They would never have crushed the demons like they did.  They did all of these things because they were living in union with the Holy Spirit of God.

Sometimes we Orthodox evidence little proof that we are living post-Pentecost.  Our faith is weak. We are bound by sins.  We have little Christian joy.  We read or listen to the Acts of the Apostles and think that the Apostles were living a different way of life.  We pick up and read a book on the life of a particular saint and the saint’s mode of being appears to us to be foreign and almost unintelligible.  Why? Because we are not living in the Holy Spirit.  We are more like the fearful and doubting disciples prior to Pentecost.  Others around us seem to be radiant.  They endure trials with joy.  They don’t worry.  Why?  Because they are in a dynamic relationship with the Holy Spirit.  They are sincerely praying the Prayer to the Holy Spirit,  “O Heavenly King, O Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, Who art in all places and filleth all things, the Treasury of Good Things and Giver of Life, come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every stain, and save our souls O Good One.” The Holy Spirit is in these ones abiding in them, cleanses them, and saving them!

Christianity without Pentecost is Empty Form!

If our Orthodox life is not permeated with the presence of the Holy Spirit it is all in vain!  Consider first that the Holy Sacraments or Mysteries of the Church are all dependent completely upon the Holy Spirit.  Baptism saves us because we are not born of the water alone, but of water and the Spirit (St. Jn. 3:3-5).  Chrismation itself is an individual’s personal Pentecost.  The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Ordination is the special bequeathal of the Holy Spirit to men, and the substance of the priesthood is that priests bear the Holy Spirit in the community.  This is why our Lord gathered the twelve together and breathed upon them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whoever’s sins you remit are remitted.  Whoever’s sins you retain are retained” (St. John 20:23).  Marriage is simply temporal and earthly if it is not consecrated by the Holy Spirit and bound together in His love.  Holy Unction without the Holy Spirit is simply a complex skin treatment!  It is the Holy Spirit in the sacred oil healing our souls and bodies!  Confession is insincere and pointless unless it is a Spirit-inspired compunction and a Spirit-empowered absolution.  And think of the Mystery of Mysteries and the Sacrament of Sacraments:  the Holy Eucharist.  The existence of the Holy Eucharist is completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit Whom the priest calls down upon the Holy Table in the epiklesis:  “changing them by Thy Holy Spirit.”

This liturgical reality is beautifully evidenced in many different saints’ lives, especially those saints who were bishops or priests responsible for the celebration of the eucharist.  The story is told of St. Basil the Great that he had hanging over his altar a beautiful oil lamp made in the form of a golden dove. Always at the time of the transformation of the gifts the dove would begin to swing.  A similar story is told about our Holy Father John of San Francisco and Shanghai.  St. John would see the Holy Spirit descend as fire into the holy chalice at the epiklesis as he served liturgy.  On one occasion the liturgy was delayed because St. John would not go on since he saw no fire.  Wondering why he turned to his deacon and saw his face was covered over in a black cloud.  Asking the deacon what was wrong the deacon confessed that he had not prepared for the liturgy properly.  Once the deacon divested and left the altar the fire came and liturgy could continue.

All of the Holy Mysteries are empty forms without the Holy Spirit, and this may be said about all matters of our faith and practice.  Fasting is simply dieting if it is not an attempt to acquire the Holy Spirit.  It is not a coincidence that our Lord went into the desert to fast for forty days “led by the Holy Spirit” (St. Lk. 4:1). Sin is not overcome except by the Holy Spirit.  He is One Who enables us to “mortify the deeds of the body” (Rom. 8:13).  We could go on and on. There is no prayer without the Holy Spirit praying in us.  There is no church without the Holy Spirit.  There is no Church Temple without the Holy Spirit. This is why when we erect a true church temple the bishop chrismates the altar and the temple itself.  The Temple has its own Pentecost for it truly becomes not simply a functional gathering place, but the House of God and Temple of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit lives there.  If He does not then the Temple become a Temple of Satan (Rev. 2:9).

Our Goal is to Acquire the Holy Spirit.

In the light of truth we see then that St. Seraphim was correct when he was asked by someone, “What is the purpose of this life?”, and he answered, “The acquisition of the Holy Spirit.”  “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone?  Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?  Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (St.Lk. 11:11-13).  All of our Christian effort and spiritual struggle is guided toward this one thing: obtaining an increase of the Holy Spirit.  This is what it means to become spiritual.  This is the goal of Christianity:  the union of man with God by the Holy Spirit.  Let us not betray the true nature of our religion by living as though Orthodoxy was about ideas, morals, etc.  Nonsense.  Christianity is about becoming one with the True God: by grace becoming what He is.  Now some of you may be thinking, “But how do we experience Pentecost? What do I do if I feel stuck between Ascension and Pentecost?”  An answer to these questions will be given in next Sunday’s homily.

Now to God the Father, and to the Ascended Lord Jesus Christ, and to the Holy Spirit poured forth today be all glory.Amen.

Fr. Josiah Trenham is the pastor of St. Andrew Orthodox Church in Riverside, CA.

© 2009, Preachers Institute. All rights reserved.