Wisdom Words
Again I thought of the sun and a ray and light.
But here again there was a fear lest people should get an idea of composition in the Uncompounded Nature,
such as there is in the Sun and the things that are in the Sun.
And in the second place lest we should give Essence to the Father but deny Personality to the Others, and make Them only Powers of God, existing in Him and not Personal.
For neither the ray nor the light is another sun, but they are only effulgences from the Sun, and qualities of His essence.
And lest we should thus, as far as the illustration goes, attribute both Being and Not-being to God, which is even more monstrous.
*Gregory of Nazianzen (Church Father, c. 330-389). "Gregory Nazianzen on the Holy Spirit." Oration XXXII. www.piney.com .
However much we may talk of "spirituality" and however fond we may be of using the epithet "spiritual", the Person of the Holy Spirit is the Great Absent One in the "spirituality" of the West, as has often been lamented. As a consequence, we regard many things as "spiritual" that in fact still belong absolutely and entirely to the realm of the "natural man", who is lacking precisely in the "gift of the Spirit." We mean here everything that falls within the scope of the "feelings" and are by no means "spiritual" or wrought by the Spirit.
Gabriel Bunge (Benedictine monk, Switzerland). Earthen Vessels: The Practice of Personal Prayer according to the Patristic Tradition.
Therefore, do not love what is passing away; but by doing the will of God become worthy of becoming one with the Son and the Father and the Holy Spirit according to the prayer of the Savior, who said, "As I and you are one, that they also may be one in us" (cf. Jn. 17.21).
*Origen (Church Father, b. Alexandria, Egypt, c. 185-254). "An Exhortation to Martyrdom." In The Classics of Western Spirituality. Trans. Rowan A. Greer.
Today's Scripture: John 20.21-23 (CEV)
21After Jesus had greeted them [his disciples] again, he said, "I am sending you, just as the Father has sent me." 22Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone's sins, they will be forgiven. But if you don't forgive their sins, they will not be forgiven."
Comments
Jesus, in his first post-resurrection appearance to his disciples, gives the charism (Greek, gift) of the Holy Spirit. This is the sole mention of a pre-Pentecost charism of the Spirit for followers of Jesus. Interestingly, the Holy Spirit is given with two apostolic callings: being sent forth on mission with the Gospel, the priestly role of forgiveness.
This leads us to some conclusions. These conclusions are vital in such a time of pluralism and, likewise, privatization of the faith of the Church for personal satisfaction.
First, the Person of the Holy Spirit is definitive in any Christian spirituality. This raises the question of whether a church or professing Christian is truly being Christian without living a Christian spirituality. This question, also, applies to persons whose practices and beliefs fall outside the general Christian living-tradition, even when such persons do so out of an openness to other faith traditions and with good intent. In an age of pluralism, the blessing is the loosening of our boundaries, the threat is to forfeit with tolerance, sincerely and unknowingly, what is essential to spirituality being Christian spirituality: which implies a lineage traced backward of faith and practice to Christ.
Second, we cannot honor and be bringing to fulfillment in ourselves, as churches and Christians, the vocation of mission and reconciliation without the guidance and empowering of the Holy Spirit. This is humbling to us, possibly, in an age in which we are taught to be self-sufficient; therefore, we can seek to manage mission and other aspects of church vocation, rather than discerning and acting from the inspiration and leading of the Spirit of God.
Third, Jesus breathes on His disciples, who are the corporate Person of Christ, the Body of Christ. The charism of the Holy Spirit is in union with the whole Body of Christ. The Spirit gifts and uses us within the context of the mystical Body of Christ. There is no privatization of Christian spirituality. The Christian, being truly Christian, cannot decide his or her own faith and its practices. Also, he or she seeks to be respectful of and enact the teachings and practices of the living-tradition centered in Christ Jesus. This does not mean criticism of other faiths; for example, Buddhist teachers give the same advice of teaching and practice to Buddhists in regard to the historical Buddha. No true Buddhist behaves in belief and practice like a Christian, and the reverse pertains, also.
We, then, see that the Holy Spirit is central to the Church and each Christian fulfilling the apostolic vocation. For the apostolic witness and priestly ministry continues in persons and churches who are Christian exactly through being one with the spiritual-genealogy we share through the apostles to Christ Jesus, Himself. This is hard to over-stress in an individualistic age when many church's popularity derives, it seems, from preaching privatized faith and a psychologized mutation of the Gospel of Jesus and the living-tradition of the Universal Church.
Finally, contemplative Christianity, as all true Christianity, will not bypass the defining role of the Holy Spirit in the practices of spirituality. Every Christian is essentially a charismatic, for the gift of the Holy Spirit is central to being Church and being a Christian. The Holy Spirit, as the Immediacy of Christ, is the Person connecting us with the entire Godhead - Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Contemplation entails that by the Spirit we are lifted into union with God, and we join in the love-communion of the Three-and-One.
Spiritual Exercise
1) In your own words define "Christian spirituality?"
2) What, in your estimation, are essential practices that define a Christian spirituality?
3) What is the role of the Holy Spirit in your prayer life?
4) How might the Holy Spirit be inspiring the Fruit of the Spirit in other faith traditions? Practices of faith?
5) In what sense is every Christian a charismatic?
6) How might pastors and priests instill within churches more a sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit?
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*Brian K. Wilcox lives with his wife, Rocio, their two dogs, St. Francis and Bandit Ty, and their fish, Hope, in Southwest Florida. Brian is vowed at Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in South Georgia. His passion is living a contemplative life and inspiring others to experience a deeper, increasingly-fulfilling relationship with the Christ. He advocates for a spiritually-focused Christianity and the renewal of the focus on the Church toward prioritizing seeking to meet the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons and empathic relating with diverse spiritual traditions.
For replies and biographical information, and submission to "The Light Shines" daily devotionals ~ a ministry of Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL, see next page:
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