PART II

 

 

17. THE CROSS AND HOLY SPIRIT

 

…the tender Father took up his crucifix and made the sign of the cross, saying, “May our Lord impart to you His Holy Spirit.”

 (St. Vincent Strambi, CP comment on St. Paul of the Cross, CP)

 

 

As Christ hangs on the cross with His arms open, he embraces the whole world in His mercy, like outstretched wings of a dove to protect us (cfr. Mathew 3:16); or as he pours out His Spirit, symbolized in His blood together with the life giving waters, that pour out from His side:

 

How precious is your mercy, O God! The children of Adam take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the rich food of your house; from your delightful stream you give them drink. For with you is the fountain of life, and in your light we see light. (Psalm 36:8-10)

 

After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove coming upon him. (Matthew 3:16)

 

Those open arms also remind us of wings of a mother hen, who protects her chicks. How He wishes that all may heed His call in coming to Him, to be sheltered under the protected 'wings' of the Holy Spirit, who moves our hearts from within, and protects us from the assaults of the Evil One.

 

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were unwilling!" (Matthew 23:37)

 

Unfortunately there are those who resist. As Bishop Fulton Sheen said, they are like mud that hardens in the sun, unlike those open to Christ's loving embrace, who are like wax melting in the sun.

 

"The same sun shines upon mud that shines upon wax. It hardens the mud but softens the wax. The difference is not in the sun, but in that upon which it shines. The Divine Life which shines upon a soul that loves Him, softens it into everlasting life; that same Divine Life which shines upon the slothful soul, neglectful of God, hardens it into everlasting death.” (Sheen 1939)

 

We either move into the Light of Christ by the way of truth, or prefer to walk along the way of 'untruth', in a life that prefers the darkness of sin. We have the choice. God respects our freedom. Love, after all, is a free act; it cannot be forced on us. That is God's risk. We can in fact freely choose to say no to a life of love.

 

"God in the beginning created human beings and made them subject to their own free choice. If you choose, you can keep the commandments; loyalty is doing the will of God. Set before you are fire and water; to whatever you choose, stretch out your hand. Before everyone are life and death, whichever they choose will be given them". (Sirach 15: 14.17)

 

"And to these people you shall say: Thus says the Lord: See, I am giving you a choice between the way to life and the way to death." (Jeremiah 21:8)

 

It is the Holy Spirit, urging and animating us from within, to respond to that call of Christ…the same Spirit that hovers over the waters at Creation…to generate life and growth in the Spirit

 

The earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the waters...Then God said: "Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures" (Genesis 1:2.20)

 

And as mentioned, it is the Spirit who also descends like a dove on Jesus in the waters of the river Jordan, while he is baptized by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:16-17)

 

Bear in mind that wind or breath is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit… רוח האל 'Ruah' in Hebrew… as we don't know when it will blow or from which direction it will come to lead us. The wind also makes a sound. So too, we can hear the Spirit speaking to us deep within our 'heart'  [1]

 

"Do not be amazed that I told you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:7-8)

 

The Spirit of God however, is powerfully present in the quiet breeze as we are reminded of when God came to Ezekiel in a Theophany.[2]

(1 Kings 19:11-12)

 

Then the Lord said: Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord; the Lord will pass by. There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord—but the Lord was not in the wind; after the wind, an earthquake—but the Lord was not in the earthquake; after the earthquake, fire—but the Lord was not in the fire; after the fire, a light silent sound. (1 Kings 19:11-12)

 

We also see God bringing life into skeletons by breathing on them.

 

Thus says the Lord God: From the four winds come, O breath, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life. (Ezekiel 37:9)

 

In the gospel we see Jesus giving the Holy Spirit to his apostles by breathing on them:

 

“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” (John 20: 21b-23)

 

There are not many words that Jesus says during His Passion but the few He says are impacting. He quietly prays in the garden of Gethsemane. He is silent before Herod, and at one point before Pilate, and finally few words are spoken from the Cross. It is in this quiet presence from the crib to the Cross, that God speaks volumes to us, through Christ, in the Spirit. This is also true of Mary and Joseph. There are 30 silent years of Jesus in quiet meditation and labor, where Jesus prepares the way for His ministry. After His baptism, guided by the Spirit, He spends 40 days of silent meditation in the desert as an immediate preparation for His ministry. Think also of the many hours during His ministry, in which he spends nights in prayer, often before important decisions He makes, like the time when he chose His apostles.

 

In those days he departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named apostles. (Luke 6: 12-13)

 

This is known as solitude, which is different to loneliness. Loneliness is sterile, fruit of a life in crisis. In loneliness, one may want to get away from people out of avoidance. In solitude one may move away from other people, for a quiet period of time, during which one allows oneself to be guided and filled with the Spirit of God; it's a rich moment of encounter, not of isolation. The quietness of solitude is like the calm clear water of a pond which permits us to see in detail what is at the bottom of it. In the same way, it is in solitude especially, that permits us to hear the voice of God, through the Holy Spirit, as we contemplate ourselves, our place in the universe, along with the reality people are facing in the world. Those who embrace a contemplative life style, like the monks and nuns, know well what this is all about. A life that doesn't find moments of solitude is empty, with nothing to share with others.

 

Even in a very active life, moments of solitude are important. Retreats are a good opportunity for solitude. St. Teresa of Calcutta spent 4 hours in silent contemplation per day! One wouldn't think this possible considering all she was involved in. There is a saying in Spanish, that 'Afilar la guadaña, no retrasa la siega' (Sharpening the sickle, does not delay the harvest). So, that great dynamism of Mother Teresa, where she accomplishes so much in a short time, could be attributed to her life of prayer, which energizes her with the 'Love and Life' that comes from God.

 

Albino Luciani, before becoming Pope John Paul I, in 1976, wrote a book called 'Illustrissimi' or 'To the Illustrious Ones'. Each chapter was a fictional letter written to outstanding historical people, mostly Italian, with an inspirational lesson. When he writes to Figaro the Barber, he tells the story of a madman who shatters the windows of a shop and then things inside. This attracts a number or bystanders, who watch and make comments. Afterwards, an old man arrives with his tool box, and with great patience and over many hours, glues back together again the broken pieces of the objects inside the store. Meanwhile, the uninterested crowd disperses. For me, this is a good sort of story to highlight the message in 1 Kings 19:11-12 already mentioned, that God is working through the old man (the 'breeze' so to say) and not through the man who smashes things up (the 'violent strong wind' or 'earthquake' so to say)

 

It is from the silence of the cross, Jesus breaks it with His last words: "Father in to your hands I commend my Spirit" (Luke 23:46)

 

And throughout the rest of history, after His crucifixion, Jesus remains with us silently in the Eucharist, witnessing to His sacrificial love for us present in His Body and Blood, as we contemplate them separated from each other. As mentioned before, this separation reminds us that it is on the Cross, that His Blood is separated from His Body as he was dying for us. The fraction of His Body also reminds us or His lacerated Body on the Cross.[3] We recall also that he becomes present to us in every Eucharist that we celebrate, by the power of the Holy Spirit, at the time of the consecration.

 

Even the history of the bread and wine, speaks symbolically, of this sacrificial Love as we have seen from the seeds that break open and emerge above the soil, till the crushing of the wheat grains and grapes, in order  to form the  bread and wine. And we must include the hard labor of the many people involved, from the farmers, to the people who transport the harvest of wheat or grapes, and to those who bake the bread and make the wine. But we must not forget, of the silence of these elements during their journey, to become bread and wine. However, even before the seeds sprout, there is a silent delay of the seed in the ground in preparation for the journey that lies ahead. This is like the 30 years of hidden, quiet life of Jesus in preparation of three years of ministry that would impact history like none other. The process of growth of the plant is also very gradual to the point that we cannot see the actual growth of the plants happening, unless we use time-laps photography….it's like the metaphor of the race of the hare and the tortoise. Rushing forward too fast in life, can lead to exhaustion, as one 'runs out of steam'. The parable of the sower reminds us of this in the second example that Jesus gives:

 

Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep.  And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots. (Mark 4:5-6)

 

So change in life happens gradually; we must be patient with ourselves and others. We should not be fixated in the past like ultra conservatives, nor rush forward like extreme progressives. The truth remains somewhere in between. When we are in a group on pilgrimage, there are those who tend to rush forward and others who drag behind. Collectively as Church, we must know how to go slower for others to catch up, while urging those who get stuck on the way, to be confident and less fearful, so as to help them move forward, trusting in the Holy Spirit to guide them. Those who tend to rush forward should slow down, for the others to catch up. By speeding forward, they would be like a speeding train that derails on a curve. There have always been conservatives and progressives in the Church. Both play a role in the journey through history. The danger is in the extremes where the Evil Spirit is at work, but not the Holy Spirit.

 

 

 

18. THE CROSS AND THE TWO CRIMINALS

 

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