The Holy Spirit, and Being Christian

[sub-labels: Being Christian, Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity]

Yesterday was Pentecost Sunday, a celebration of that event in the Bible when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Jesus' Apostles, fifty days after Christ's resurrection (7th Sunday after Easter Sunday), as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.

In my understanding, the Feast of the Pentecost in fact has been celebrated in Jewish tradition even before this said event, under a different name, in some circles to commemorate the giving of the Law in Mt. Sinai. Under Christian contexts, this feast commemorates the giving of the Law in Mt. Sinai, and The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, as well as symbolizing Judgment Day. Please correct me where I am wrong.

Anyway, yesterday I was happy to have been able to attend mass. I had a whole-day event thing yesterday, and I failed to attend Saturday's anticipated mass or the early 6:00am Sunday mass due to some unfortunate circumstances. Alas, I was able to attend the 8:00pm mass at the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice, University of the Philippines - Diliman Campus. I was happy during mass, and I don't know why - maybe because I was able to attend mass (and I so wanted to), or maybe that whole-day event thing I attended was fun, or maybe occasions within the past week has etched a smile inside. In any case, I learned new things again this time.

First, the priest opened his homily by saying the three most important events that we Christians celebrate are: Christmas (God sending his Son), Easter (God the Son overcoming being human, and resurrecting from the dead), and Pentecost (the giving of the Holy Spirit and its gifts). I thought, "Cool!" I didn't know that. I mean, Christmas and Easter - fine. But yeah, Pentecost.

Second, the priest wears Red on Pentecost. As of now, I haven't yet read the reason behind this. But anyway, in the past few weeks, I have been doing "emcee-ing" chores (acting as an MC or Master of Ceremonies) in this Christian Life Program we're organizing. I don't do the speaking/lecturing; I do just that - emcee-ing, which is simply leading the opening and closing prayers, and giving an introduction to the topic and to the speaker. (Well it's not that simple for a first-timer... The nerves can get to you. :D)

One of the things I was doing for my "emcee-ing" was wearing a shirt color that was somewhat significant to the session's topic (I got these ideas from a CLP I attended elsewhere). For example, when the topic was "God's Love," I wore RED to symbolize love. When the topic was "Who is Jesus Christ?," I wore BROWN to symbolize wood, from which the Cross on which Jesus was crucified was made. When the topic was "What it means to be a Christian," I wore WHITE to somewhat symbolize cleanliness, purity, holiness, etc. For the last couple of weeks, I have been thinking of what to wear when the session topic is "Repentance and Faith." I have thought of wearing VIOLET (or PURPLE - I don't yet know their difference) because from memory I know that the colors of both Advent and Lent are VIOLET. (I checked elsewhere and this seems to be true, except on Gaudete Sunday or the third Sunday of Advent where ROSE is the theme color). In fact, the priest wears a vestment of such color (violet) during Advent and Lent. I thought, this is cool.

I distinctly remember two homilies by two priests (both I think were bishops) in two different masses. One said during a Christmas day mass something like: "We Christians ought to be the happiest people on earth... because we know very well of God's great love for us, particularly manifested in his giving of his only Son, Jesus Christ, to eventually die for our sins and save us." The other said during a gathering of a religious group something like: "To be Christian means to be Holy. To be Christian means to be a Saint." Again, these two messages say that "Christians are Happy," and that "Christians are Holy." I associate being "Happy" with the season of Advent, the eager waiting for God's Son coming down from Heaven and being born to live among us here on earth. I associate being "Holy" with the season of Lent - a time for repentance, a time for reflection on Jesus' suffering because of our sins. Of course, Advent is also actually a time for repentance.

In any case, I thought, this is cool! I will wear purple on the "Repentance and Faith" session - the same symbolic colors of Advent and Lent. Because Christians are Happy and Holy.

Third (going back to Pentecost Sunday), I remember the priest talking about the Holy Spirit - how one will act if he is filled with the Spirit. He first reminded us that we have received the Spirit during our baptism, but to use the gifts of or from the Holy Spirit is altogether a different thing. Essentially, the priest said (from my memory) that, when one is filled with the Spirit, one does things in the will of the Father without question or hesitation, and with humble persistence. He gave examples - for example, John Paul II's persistent message to his fellow countrymen in Poland, even from his pre-Pope days, to give up communism, and how the rest of eastern Europe and even Russia (or USSR) followed suit after Poland. The priest said the late John Paul II was filled with the Holy Spirit. He gave probably two other examples, but I'm sorry I have forgotten them already.

But I guess this is the priest's most important point of all. That is the Holy Spirit. You allow it to work in your life, and you will do great things in the eyes of God. How do we do that? I believe we do that by being clean and holy (i.e. by repenting if you are in sin), and then by having faith in Jesus, in his promise of salvation, in God's will, and in what God can do for us through his Holy Spirit, and in what we can do with the Spirit in us. Repentance and faith. Essentially, we should first make ourselves as immune as possible (and if possible, totally and completely immune) to evil spirits, so that indeed we become more open to the Spirit. And then when the Spirit enters us, we do great things - from the simplest of things on a regular and constant basis (e.g. being patient with "difficult" people), to the greatest of things to serve God (e.g. going on evangelizing missions to Africa, the Middle East, and in communist Asia and other non-Christian countries).

Because being Christian is not just not sinning. After all, there is a saying that goes, "if you try to not do something, you will tend to do that something." That "something" maybe failure - "if you try not to fail, then you may not succeed." Because being Christian is not just about attending mass or attending service or praying. And so on. But while all of those are part of being Christian, they do not solely define what it means to be a Christian. We are also called to service (to serve), to be saints.

And then there's the Holy Spirit. It's there, it's waiting for us, ourselves, to use God's own good and powerful works here on earth.

It's not easy? It certainly is not. But with the Holy Spirit in us, it is very easy.

It takes getting used to; it also takes mental conditioning. Because the Enemy, Satan, can be very deceitful. Satan might sometimes make us think we are filled with the Holy Spirit. And so, when you are really filled with the Spirit, you will see this. Of course, it is also wrong (and even in fact an unforgivable sin) to think that the work of the Holy Spirit is by the devil.

In any case, a path to being a true Christian, to being holy and to being truly happy, is with the Holy Spirit. So one other thing we can start doing right now, is to pray for the Holy Spirit in our own lives. We can start to pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit also.

In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul lists nine (9) gifts from the Holy Spirit. These include wisdom, knowledge, healing, discernment of evil spirits, speaking in tongues, and understanding of tongues. In Catholic contexts, there are seven (7) gifts of the Holy Spirit which include piety and fortitude. Please don't confuse the two, and please don't think they are the same and contradicting. They are two different things. I (personally) use gifts from and gifts of to differentiate the two. I would think that the 9 gifts are like tools we can use, while the 7 gifts are results.

Is the Holy Spirit God but a different person from the Father (and from the Son)? I say, yes. I am no C.S. Lewis, but here is my own personal explanation. I am human and I have a body and I have a mind and a soul. I know I have a mind because I think I do. (I think therefore I am?) But I also believe I have a soul (a spirit) because I believe when I die, there is this spirit that will continue to live on (hopefully to go up to Heaven) - and that is still me. My body and my mind may die, but I know I will still have that spirit. For some, their bodies are still functioning but their minds cannot remember. Still for others, their bodies are not functioning but their minds still are. Someone might "hypnotize" me or influence my mind, to cause my body to do something bad, and if ever I maybe imprisoned for that bad thing that forensics might prove I (my body) did, but anyway, it was not me completely - it was not really my mind.

Anyway, so I would like to look at myself as three persons myself: my body, my mind, and my soul (or a four-person self, with the heart included*). And that is how I see God. God is the Father who has made himself human (Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Father - all of us humans being his children) and who has made himself available to all of us humans (through the Holy Spirit).

We know that we were made by God the Father in his own image and likeness. What is the Holy Spirit like? Is it also in a human shape of - maybe just that - spirit, air, untouchable by the human touch, can pass through walls, can fly, etc? Or is it a dove-like thing? I do not know. But I know God the Father is in heaven, and he works through us here (since sending his Son who has since ascended to heaven) through his Holy Spirit. I think the dove is a great symbol of the Spirit, because there can be many doves (or some other bird) which can be in many different places on earth at the same time.

But I also think what shape or form the Holy Spirit is in is not so important. The thing is, by being a spirit, God can manifest himself and his power to anyone, anywhere.

The important thing is, again, that we ask for the Holy Spirit to enter (and even dominate) our lives. That is the easy path to being a Christian. Sometimes, we may not know that it is there already or that it has already worked in our lives, or sometimes we may think it is there but may not yet be. When we say God is in our presence - that is the Holy Spirit. But again, let us be true Christians, let us be happy and let us be holy. Let us pray for the Holy Spirit in our lives.

I would like to say that this post and perhaps most or all posts in this reactions+reflections blog reflects mostly on what I have read or understood so far to this point. I am very much welcome to any and all of your comments.

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* I think that the "heart" is really a cross between the body and the mind. Or it can be viewed as the compassionate, human side of the mind, with the "mind" as the logical, rational side, and thus in this case, when I say "mind" I actually mean "heart and mind." In any case, this is a separate discussion altogether, and I shall not expound here any further.