The Christian Passover begins with Holy Thursday, when Christ instituted both the Priesthood and the Blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood, is fulfilled most perfectly in Good Friday, when, as the Passover Lamb without spot or blemish, Jesus Christ actualized the Sacrifice on Calvary and perfected in Easter, the Christian exodus, freeing us from death in the Egypt of sin through the cleansing flood of the Baptismal waters. But we live the new life, not yet in Canaan. Rather, we wander in the wilderness of the world. Still, our Lord journeys with us, and gives his very presence to us in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood.

In the course of the wilderness wanderings, fifty days after the Passover, the Jews came to Mount Sinai, where they received the Divine Law, including the Ten Commandments. The festival, originally a harvest festival, that came to commemorate this giving of the Law, the "fiftieth day" festival, is called Pentecost. It was on this day in the Sinai Covenant that the Jews became a "peculiar treasure. . . a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. " ( Exodus 19:5-6 )

VIGIL

The Christian Pentecost comes fifty days after Easter, ten days after the Ascension. As the Pentecost of the Old Covenant commemorates the giving of the Law; the new Pentecost commemorates the giving of the Holy Spirit. The old Pentecost commemorates the creation of Israel as a peculiar, priestly people ( cf. Deuteronomy 14:2 ); the new Pentecost commemorates the creation of the Church as a peculiar priestly people ( I Peter 2:9 ). So, in the Introit of the Vigil feast from the prophet Ezekiel (36:25 ), we sing: "When I shall be sanctified in you, I will gather you out of all countries: then will I pour clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness; and I will give you a new Spirit." This verse with its mention of "clean water."

And giving of the Spirit, reminds us that the Vigil of Pentecost was ever considered, along with the Vigil of Easter, to be a most appropriate time for baptisms. After the baptism, in the early Church and still today in the Eastern Church, there follows Confirmation or Chrismation,, the anointing and laying on of hands for giving of the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost is also called Whitsunday, from the white robes worn by those who had been baptized at the vigil. Hence, the period from the Vigil of Pentecost through the Saturday before Trinity Sunday is called Whitsuntide. The Vigil Introit connects these themes, for it is the white robed baptized on whom the clean water has been poured and who are given the new Spirit, the Spirit whose coming is commemorated on this Feast.

In the Vigil collect, we pray that "the Holy Spirit strengthen the hearts of them who through thy grace are born again," in the baptismal waters, and in the epistle we read how St. Paul came to Ephesus. After baptizing new converts, "when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost

came on them." (Acts 19:6 ) The Gospel from John 14, promises, in words of our Lord, that connect the old celebration of the giving of the Commandments with the new celebration of the giving of the Spirit: "keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter."

In the Offertory, we sing "O send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created and thou shalt renew the face of the earth." And, in the Communion anthem, we hear the words of Jesus, "He that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water: but this spake he of the Spirit, who they that believe on him should receive." We shall recur to this theme later in the week.

The beautiful sequence hymn sung between the reading of the Epistle and the Gospel, Veni Creator Spiritus is sung today and throughout the octave, Let us pray now in the words of this Hymn :

Come thou Holy Spirit come, and from thy celestial home, send thy light and brilliancy.

What is soiled make thou pure; what is wounded, work its cure; water what is parched and dry.

What is rigid gently bend; what is frozen, warmly send; strengthen what goes erringly.

Here thy grace and virtue send, grant salvation in the end; and in heaven felicity. Amen

WHITSUNDAY

" The Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world alleluia!" The Epistle is from the Acts of the Apostles ( 2:1 ff ) and tells the story of that first Christian Pentecost:

"When the day of Pentecost was fully come the disciples were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them: and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost."

The Greek spiritus, like the Hebrew Ruach, means both "wind," and "spirit." The tongues of fire have liturgical symbols in the tongue shaped mitres of western rite bishops and the red vestments worn by the priests and other ministers throughout the Octave.

The Gospel from John 14: 15 ff is the same as for the Vigil recounting the words of our Lord:

"If ye love me keep my commandments and I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth."  The passage, again, we see, connects the Old Covenant Pentecost–"keep my commandments"-- with the New–"give you another comforter. ...even the Spirit of Truth."

The world will never be the same. The Holy Ghost comes among us to recreate the world in the image of Christ, just as he once hovered over the waters of the primal creation. This time however, the new creation is not for time alone, but for eternity. We are being remade for a "far more exceeding weight of glory."

"Send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created and thou shalt renew the face of the earth, alleluia!"

MONDAY AFTER WHITSUNDAY

The Introit of the Mass today reminds us that even though we have received the Holy Ghost, we still need to be fed with the blessed food of our redemption during our journey from Sinai to Canaan, so we sing: "He fed them with the finest wheat flour and with honey out of the Rock hath he satisfied them." The Holy Food of the Blessed Sacrifice in which our Lord gives us his body and blood is our delight and our sustenance during this our earthly sojourn. What blessed provision has our Lord made for his people!

The epistle tells the story from Acts 2, of the first outpouring of the Holy Ghost on gentiles and the Gospel, from John 14, gives our Lord's own promise that
"If ye love me , keep my commandments and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever . . . he dwelleth with you and shall be in you . . . ., if a man love me and keep my words, my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him."

This Gospel passage has an echo in the amplification of the Supplices te rogamus that occurs in the Anglican rite, ( including St. Tikhon's) though not in the Roman:
"We most Humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, . . .

That we and all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion may worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction and made one body with him that he may dwell in us and we in him. "

As the Holy Ghost, "moved upon the face of the waters" ( Genesis 1:2 ) at the creation of the world, as this same blessed Spirit "overshadowed " the Blessed Virgin at the Incarnation ( Luke 1:25 ), so we call upon him ( this prayer is called the epiklesis, Greek "summoned" ) at the baptismal waters, for the new creation, and at, the Eucharist to change his creatures of bread and wine that they may become the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus. In Holy Communion, we partake of that which we have offered and, as St. Paul says,
"The Cup of blessing which you bless, is it not the communion of the Blood of Christ? The Bread which we break, is it not the communion of the Body of Christ? For we being many are one bread and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread." ( I Cor 10:16-17 )

The aim of this process of in-corporation is quite simply to conform us to our Lord.

Let us pray:
Breathe on me, breath of God, fill me with life anew, that I may love what thou dost love and do what thou wouldst do. Amen

TUESDAY AFTER WHITSUNDAY

"The Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world," we sing in the Introit and in the Epistle,
we continue the story of the growth of the Church under the power of the Holy Ghost.

We learn that Samaria had received the word of God. This was the place where our Lord had conversed with the woman at the well:
"If thou knewest the gift of God and who it was that saith to thee, give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." (John 4:10 )

There were many on that day who believed on Jesus. But they had not yet received the Holy Ghost. So the Apostles Peter and John went down to Samaria and " laid they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost."{ Acts 8:14-17 )

In the Gospel, we have affirmed the exclusivity of our Lord's salvation: "I am the door," -not one of many doors-- " I am THE door, by me"- not, or by some Prophet or method of prayer or meditation, or by leading a good life, or by doing good to his fellow creatures, but -- "by ME if any man enter in he shall be saved . . .I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." ( John 10:1-10 )

When our Lord spoke to the Samaritan woman about the "living water" he would give her, he actually spoke of the Holy Ghost." For, when attending the Feast of Tabernacles at the Temple in Jerusalem, on
"that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink, he that believeth on me as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

And immediately the Evangelist adds:
"But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:37-39 )

So when the Apostles came down to lay hands on those Samaritans that had believed in Jesus, that they might receive the Holy Ghost, they were fulfilling the promise made by Jesus at this feast. Thus, it is apparent that the source of this "abundant life," is none other than the Holy Ghost. For the "rivers of living water," promised not only to the Samaritan woman, but to all who believe on the Lord Jesus.

The Holy Ghost given by the laying on of the hands of the Apostles is now given by the Bishops of Holy Church who are the successors of those Apostles, having had hands laid on them by those who had hands laid on them, in a chain or succession going back to the Apostles who were commissioned by Jesus himself. You remember how after his Resurrection, our Lord appeared to his frighten Disciples who huddled behind closed doors.

"AS the FATHER hath SENT ME, even so SEND I YOU, and when he said this. He breathed on them and said receive ye the Holy Ghost, whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them. " ( John 20:19-23).

So these Apostles were sent, and wherever they found believers, they conferred the Holy Ghost, as he was conferred on them. They not only confirmed believers, but they also ordained successors, called Bishops ( from OE biscoep, from episkopos = "overseer," ) in every city, to carry on their own work. Paul wrote to Titus (2:5-7 )

"Left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city, AS I APPOINTED THEE . . . a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God. . . Holding fast the faithful word AS HE HATH BEEN TAUGHT."

And so in, successio manuum, a succession of laying on of hands, the authority and tradition is passed down, from Jesus to Apostle to bishop to bishop, to preach and teach, to offer the Holy Sacrifice, to remit sins and, in turn, to pass this authority down to others.

Most merciful Father, who hast sent down thy Holy Spirit, to set apart bishops of the Holy Catholic Church, as guardians of Faith and Order: grant that they may both set forth sound doctrine and holy worship in thy Church, and cast out all strange doctrine and false worship, that the traditions may be passed down to our children, as we have received them from our fathers, Through Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord to whom with thee and the same Holy Spirit be all glory and honor world without end. Amen

EMBER WEDNESDAY

The Ember Days, you remember, are days when we stir the flames: days of recollecting God's mighty acts of salvation for us men and for our salvation. But we also recollect his providential care for us in natural things; so we bless the crops and the harvest. We remember too that we need to send forth laborers, not only for the harvest of grain and fruits but also for the harvest of souls. Therefore, this is traditionally a time for ordination to the Sacred Ministry, combining the theme of harvest with that of Whitsunday, remembering that, after all, the Pentecost of the Old Covenant was first a harvest festival.

We begin by recalling, in the Introit, that Pentecost of the Old Covenant:
"O God when thou wentest forth before the people journeying and dwelling with them, alleluia; the earth shook and the heavens dropped. Alleluia, alleluia. Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered!"

The Epistle recalls the first Pentecost, Whitsunday, of the New Covenant: St. Peter preaches to the assembled Jews:
" This is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel: ' and it shall come to pass in the last days saith God I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.' "

In the first collect, before the Epistle, we pray: that, "the Paraclete. . . may enlighten our minds and lead us, . . .into all truth. After the Epistle, there is another collect that reminds us of the ordinations that take place at this time. So, we pray, "That the Holy Ghost descending on us may by the gracious indwelling render us a temple of his glory."

Perhaps you are a believer who feels a call of the Holy Ghost to move to a fuller relation with our Lord, in his Body, the Church.

Perhaps you have questions about the meaning and significance of the Apostolic faith and order that is maintained and signified by the Apostolic succession. Perhaps you are a communicant of a Church that has maintained the outward appearance of the succession but whose bishops have, in reality, deserted the faith and order of the Apostles. Perhaps you feel called to serve our Lord in the Sacred Ministry, but are not happy with the path available to you for ordination. If you have questions about any of these matters. Contact us by the e-mail, on the first page of this site, and we will pray together for the guidance of the Holy Ghost in your life.

Come Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of thy faithful and kindle in them the fire of thy love. Amen.

THURSDAY AFTER WHITSUNDAY

We still live in the glow of the descent of the Holy Ghost: "The Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world, alleluia!" In the Epistle, we hear about Philip's mission to Samaria where he preached, not social reform, not the need for values clarification, not self actualization, not the need to find one's real self, nor "liberation" from sexist or economic oppression but, rather he "preached Christ unto them and the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake . . "

And so in the gradual we sing:
Alleluia! Alleluia ! O send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created and thou shalt renew the face of the earth."

So it might be today, the Holy Spirit might indeed, "renew the face of the earth," if there were more preaching of Christ and less preaching of human schemes for social betterment.

We must always remember that "by Grace, are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9 )

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. by the washing of regeneration [ in the rebirth of baptism ] and renewing of the Holy Ghost [ in Holy Chrismation ] which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." ( Titus 3:5-6 )

The other day, I watched a bit of a telecast of a Service for Fallen Policemen in Washington DC. A young pop star came out and sang a song with a title something like: "It's Only you Baby."

Well, within my memory, the music would have placed the death of the policemen in a religious context: something like: "For those we love within the veil who once were comrades of our way, we thank thee Lord, for they have won, the cloudless day." But now the mention of God is forbidden at such events and we are awash in a sea of a popular culture whose words and rhythms have since the 60's engulfed us in a pseudo religion of human idolatry and achievement, of trivial distraction and self absorption, of the pursuit of puerile pleasure, all sanctified by the "new age spirit" who is in us and around us, and with us and , in fine, is us.

Like Adam and Eve, we want to eat every delectation and surrender to every distraction in sight, because it is "pleasant to the eyes and desired to make one wise,." wise, albeit, in the ways of the world. Seduced by the serpent's song: "Ye shall be as gods!" we float on a stream of idolatry to, well, to hell.

Even believers can get easily caught us in this social flow. If you don't believe that attend a service at your local mega-church; listen to what passes for "religious music" on TV or radio; make a visit to your local "religious" book store. We have been given the gifts of the Holy Ghost to help us navigate this foreign land which we now pass through, so that our focus and loyalty are with our true home. So let us pray for these gifts and that we will make good use of them:

O God who, at this time, didst teach the hearts of the faithful, by the light of the Holy Spirit strengthen us with daily increase in the manifold gifts of grace: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and ghostly strength, the spirit of knowledge and true godliness and fill us with the spirit of thy holy fear, whence all our blessings flow, through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the same Holy Spirit: God world without end. Amen

EMBER FRIDAY

"Let my mouth be filled with thy praise, alleluia! " The lesson is from the Prophet Joel:
It speaks of God's abundant blessings to be poured out upon us, relating the theme of harvest with the out pouring of the Holy Ghost, the rain that fills our souls to overflowing:
Thus saith the Lord God: be glad ye children of Zion and rejoice in the Lord God, for he hath given unto you the rain . . . and the floors shall be full of wheat and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil and ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the Name of the Lord your God, who hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God and none else and my people shall never be ashamed: saith the Lord almighty. (2:23)
"Never be ashamed", yet how often we suffer because we do not bring our petitions to our heavenly Father. Yes, he does already know our needs, but one of our needs is to ask him for those things we need in our life so we need not be ashamed. We need to come, to ask, that our joys may be full, that we may "praise the Name of the Lord our God," because he deals wondrously with us. What is it that makes us not ashamed? 'Hope," Saint Paul tell us in Romans (5:5 ), "maketh not ashamed." And whence comes this hope? He continues: "because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts." And whence comes this love of God? Again, "by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." And what does the Holy Spirit do to help our needs?

First, he teaches us, in hope, to wait. "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then so we with patience wait for it." ( Romans 8:24-25 ) But, but, you ask, how does that help? First it increases our spiritual strength. Just as bodily muscles are strengthened by resistance and effort, followed by relaxation, so are our spiritual muscles. We must learn to wait in the presence of the Lord. When the Hebrews in their Exodus from Egypt came to the Red Sea, with Pharaoh's army hot on their trail, they thought they were goners. They began to complain bitterly:
"Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness!?!"

But, God's answer to their cry was: "Fear ye not, stand still." Stand still? But Pharaoh will kill us! Well, you know what happened: God opened the Red sea so they could cross, and when the Egyptians tried to cross, they were drowned. Sometimes we must learn to "stand still," "with patience to wait for it." But, God has promised,
"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." (Isaiah 40:31)

Second, he actually aids our prayers, as we come to our Father to make known our needs,
"The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." (Romans 8:26)

In the words of an old hymn: "He brings his great salvation nigh, and he takes me as I am." But, how are we? Our Lord said, "ask and ye shall receive," ( Mat 7:7 ) But Blessed James, says
"Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye might consume it upon your lusts. , , Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" (James 4:3-4 )

In a similar vein Saint Paul exhorts us:
"Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2 )
So the reason why we ask amiss is because we are conformed to the world, not to the Word.

We enjoy the world's amusements, thrill to its applause, avoid its contempt and rejoice in its bestowal of position and status. These things are for us like the water in which the fish swim.

But, this is not a healthy air for Christians. The Holy Spirit has been given us to help us learn to breath the air of the Kingdom of God. How does He work? Chiefly, through the sacraments and through prayer.

The important thing about the Sacraments is that, when administered in the proper way by the proper persons, they always bestow the grace they promise. The important thing about prayer is not the gifts we receive; they are mere byproducts. The important thing about prayer is the not the gifts we receive; they are mere byproducts. The important thing about prayer is the relationship with the Holy Trinity. Just as with our earthly father, the most important gift our heavenly Father gives us is himself. James again: "Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you." (James 4:8 ) As we draw nigh to God, in sacrament or prayer, we are transformed by the Holy Ghost, who renews our mind in the "good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

The paradigm for defiance of the divine will is the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve deliberately, at the clever urging of the subtle serpent-"Ye shall be as gods"-- take and eat that which God has specifically forbidden. (Gen 3)

The paradigm for transformation according to the divine will is the Garden of Gethsemane. When Our Lord faced his coming ordeal, he prayed: "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." But immediately, he follows this with a prayer of total submission:
" Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." ( Matthew 26:39 )

The first impediment to submission to God's will in our prayers, is sin, deliberate defiance of God's will. Our Lord promised that "When he (the Comforter) is come, he will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment." ( John 16:8 ) The Apostle John warns us,
"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."

But he adds,
"if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (I John 1:8-9 )

So we must come to God first in penitence, for we have all "erred and strayed from his ways and followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts."

After we have confronted and confessed our sins and failings, we must still face the problem of being enwrapped in our own devices and desires. But, when we come to God in prayer,
"The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: BUT the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." (Romans 8:26-27)

"Let us there fore come boldly to the throne of grace." We have a Savior who stands by that throne, presenting the wounds of his suffering for us; I shed my blood for this sinner, he cries:
'Thou our throbbing flesh hast worn, thou our mortal griefs hast borne;
Thou hast shed the human tear; Jesus Son of Mary hear.
When the heart is sad within, with the thought of all its sin,
When the spirit shrinks with fear, Jesus Son of Mary hear.
Thou the shame, the grief hast known, though the sins were not thine own;
Thou hast deigned their load to bear; Thou hast bowed the dying head
Thou the blood of life hast shed ; Jesus Son of Mary hear.

We have also been given the Holy Spirit to "search the hearts," and to make intercessions in us, for us and with us, "according to the will of God." ( Rom 8:26-28 ) Thus in praying, we are more and more "transformed by the renewing of our minds", "according to the will of God."

"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." ( Hebrews 4:16 )

What wondrous love has our Father bestowed on his children! Well might the writer of Hebrews exclaim: "How shall we escape, if we neglect, so great salvation !" ( 2:3 )

We have spoken of prayer as an agent of transformation; Now, in the Gospel of this Mass, we see look at Sacraments as agents of transformation. We hear the story of the healing of a man sick with the palsy. (Luke 5: 17ff ) The healing was first of his soul- " Thy sins are forgiven thee." then of his body.

Three things are interesting here: first, astonishingly enough, the forgiveness was given, not because of the palsied man's faith, but because of the faith of his friends. These friends, not being able to get through the crowd that surrounded the house where Jesus was healing the sick, tore off the roof tiles and let the man down through the roof. Whereupon, the Evangelist tells us, "when he saw their faith, he said unto him: man thy sins are forgiven thee." ( v20 ) Is not this a type of the Church whose faith brings us as infants to Jesus for new birth in the waters of baptism and whose faith sustains both the sacrament of penance for forgiveness of sins after baptism and the sacrament of unction, or the anointing of the sick?

Second, the healing of the sick, is done to validate the forgiveness of sins:
"That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power upon earth to forgive sins,
(He saith to the sick of the palsy) : I say unto thee, arise and take up thy couch and go into thine house." Luke 5:24)

So the Church has ever joined the sacrament of unction with the forgiveness of sins:
"Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him." (James 5:14-15 )

The third point I would make here is that, as with Holy Chrismation or Confirmation, in which believers receive the Holy Ghost to strengthen them, and Holy Orders, in which Sacred Ministers receive the Holy Ghost for the work of a deacon, priest or bishop, this "forgiveness of sins," is done in the power of the Holy Ghost. Remember the appearance of our Lord to the disciples, after the Resurrection:

The third point I would make here is that, as with Holy Chrismation or Confirmation, in which believers receive the Holy Ghost to strengthen them, and Holy Orders, in which Sacred Ministers receive the Holy Ghost for the work of a deacon, priest or bishop, this "forgiveness of sins," is done in the power of the Holy Ghost. Remember the appearance of our Lord to the disciples, after the Resurrection:
"He breathed on them and said: receive ye the Holy Ghost, whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted."(John 20:22 )

And so, in the Ordination of a Priest, the Bishop repeats this verse at the laying on of hands: "Receive the Holy Ghost . . . " and in the consecration of a bishop, the consecrating bishops repeat the same: "Receive the Holy Ghost . . . And down the centuries the commission is passed with the laying on of hands from Apostle to bishop to bishop to bishop: "Receive the Holy Ghost .. . .; receive the Holy Ghost !

God is gracious, if we but trust him, and allow the Holy Ghost to transform our minds and hearts, our devices and desires "according to the will of the Father," will he not gladly give us all that we need, for soul and body? Will he not keep his gracious promise to come and dwell within us, and in our midst, so we "shall never be ashamed" ? Let us pray with the gradual of this Mass:
"Alleluia, alleluia, O how good and sweet, O Lord, is thy Spirit within us, alleluia. Come Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of thy faithful and kindle in them the fire of thy love. So shall we never be ashamed. O Lord"

EMBER SATURDAY

"The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts alleluia! By the Holy Ghost who dwelleth in us. Alleluia!" So begins the Mass on this day.

Like all of the Ember Saturdays throughout the year, this liturgy has multiple lessons, seven ( counting the Gospel ) no doubt in celebration of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit ( see concluding prayer for Thursday ).

The first lesson is the lesson from Joel on which Peter preached on that first Christian Pentecost:
"I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. . . and whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be delivered. " ( Joel 2:28 )

So we pray: "We beseech thee O Lord graciously pour the Holy Ghost into our hearts by whose wisdom we were created and by whose providence we are governed.
"
The Second Lesson, from Leviticus ( 23:9ff ) deals with the origins of Pentecost in the Harvest Festival:
" When ye shall come into the land which I give unto you and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest. . . After the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days. . . "

It reminds us that all we are and all we possess is from the Lord; we have it because he "gives" it to us. Thus we should comport ourselves not as Lords of the manor but as faithful stewards of his bounty.

The Third Lesson is from Deuteronomy (26:1 ff ).
"When thou art come in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,
for an inheritance and possessest it and dwellest therein, thou shalt take of
the fruit of the earth and shall put it in a basket and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name there. . . .and profess
that this day The Lord . . .hath brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. . . "

In this early Creed of the Hebrews, we see affirmation of the key element of their heils geschichte, "salvation history." In the New Covenant that Christ sealed in his blood, we are brought out of the Egypt of sin into the place which God chooses to place his Name, i.e., in the mystical Body of Christ, the Holy Church of God, the Body formed by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.

We find an echo of this lesson from Deuteronomy, in St. Paul's Epistle to the the Ephesians:
"That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth even in him, in whom we have an inheritance . . . in whom after that ye believed, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory." (Ephesians 1: 10-14 )

We see once more how the New Testament is concealed in the Old, while the Old Testament is revealed in the New. The "inheritance" of land vouchsafed to Israel is a type of the inheritance of the eternal life which the believer receives in Christ, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the Sacrament of Confirmation, Holy Chrismation is the seal or "earnest" -that is the promise and token- "of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession!"

And what is our inheritance? We are made heirs, because in Baptism, buried with Christ, the Son of God, and raised again with him, we are made members of his body, and so become, by adoption, "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." (Romans 8:17 ) So the Apostle exclaims,

"Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God." (I John 3:1 ) [ Incidentally, women are not made "daughters;" all, whether male or female, are made "sons." Only by incorporation into the eternal Son are we adopted and made joint-heirs with Christ. So the use of "gender neutral" mistranslations such as "Brothers and Sisters," to render the Scriptural "Brethren," is not only bad translation; it is bad theology. ]

This in-corporation into Christ - hence St. Paul's frequent use of the term "In Christ,"-- is accomplished by the Holy Spirit: "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the Children of God:
and if Children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." ( Romans 8:15-17 )

As for the actuality of the inheritance:: "He that overcometh shall inherit all things and he shall be my Son." ( Rev 21:7 ) As with all things where speech fails, we turn to the Apostle John:
"Beloved now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." (I John 3:2 )

What a blessed salvation our God has provided for us, sinful, rebellious souls!

In the Fourth Lesson, again from Leviticus (26:3ff ), God speaks:
"Keep my commandments and do them, then I will give you rain in the season . . ."

The verse, once more, connects the Old and the New Pentecost: "commandments" referring us to the Old Covenant Pentecost as a celebration of the giving of the Commandments, "rain" is a type of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, referring us to the New Covenant Pentecost. Cf. Joel 2:23,
'He will cause to come down upon you the rain, the former and the latter rain in the first month and the floors shall be full of wheat and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil."
And, three verses later, come the words from the First Lesson, we earlier read: " I will pour out my Spirit."
The wheat and wine are, of course, changed by the Holy Spirit, in the Holy Eucharist, to the Body and Blood of Christ and become the means he uses for the continual recreation of the Church as the Body of Christ. Note the words of our Lord in John 6: 54-56,

"Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. . . He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him.

The Fifth Lesson is from Daniel 3. The Angel of the Lord came down to protect the three heroic Hebrew youths who were thrown into a fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar. These youths were surrounded by destructive fire, yet they were not destroyed; the Apostles at Pentecost were surrounded by the consuming flames of blessing and were transformed.

"Alleluia! Come Holy Ghost fill the hearts of thy faithful: and kindle in them the fire of thy love!"

The Epistle from Romans 5, takes us back to Holy Chrismation, the sealing that is an earnest of our inheritance, and also echoes the promise from Joel 2:26 that,
"my people shall never be ashamed, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will
pour out my Spirit upon all flesh."
"We stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God . . . and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given unto us." ( Romans 5:5 )

Finally, the Gospel from Luke 4, ends this long series of readings with account of how, when the good people of Capernaum found out that Jesus was in town,
"All they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him and he laid his hands on everyone of them and healed them."

This ministry of healing is retained in the Church as the Sacrament of Holy Unction.

Again it is a ministry of the Holy Ghost within the Body of Christ. This is clearly seen if we look back a few verses in this very chapter of Luke, ( v. 18 ) where our Lord, quoting from Isaiah 61, proclaims:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised."

But we must remember, as our Lord taught us, that the healing of the body, or for that matter the meeting of bodily needs of any sort is always and only to validate the spiritual healing-never an end in itself. "That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins . . ."
Well might we sing, in the Sequence Hymn, as we have in the Mass, every day this week, and, let it be the prayer that ends our celebration of this festival of the Holy Ghost:
"Come O Holy Spirit come; and from thy celestial home send thy light and brilliancy.
Where thou art not, man hath naught, every holy deed and thought comes from thy divinity.
What is soiled, make thou pure; what is wounded work its cure; water what is parched and dry.
Here thy grace and virtue send, grant salvation in the end and in heaven felicity. Amen"

THE FEAST OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

The Sunday after Whitsunday, traditionally in the Western Church celebrates the Dogma ( thinking about ) and Doxa ( glory )of the Blessed Holy Trinity. I will try to show, and may the Blessed Trinity come to my aid, how orthodoxy, i.e, right ways of thinking and worship about the Holy Trinity are of vital importance in understanding the hows and whys of the sloppiness of much of modern thinking and behaving.

So important was this Feast in the Middle Ages that in, e.g., the ancient Sarum liturgy of England and indeed, until quite recently in the Anglican communion, the Sundays between Pentecost and Advent were numbered, not after Pentecost as is now a general custom, but "after Trinity."

The Introit of the Mass sets the tone:
Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity; we will praise and glorify him, because he hath showed his mercy upon us. O Lord our Governor how excellent is thy name in all the world.

The Epistle is from Romans 11:33:
O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God: how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out: For who hath known the mind of the Lord:"

We are here confronted with one of the great mysteries which like that of the real presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament cannot be discerned by those who know not God, cannot be known by logic, but only through the gift of faith. That is only to those to whom God reveals it. So we must first bend the knee before the mystery and ask his help to understand those things that be for our souls' salvation. For we are not left with unaided reason; God has chosen to hide these things from the wise and to reveal them instead to those who seek him, as children, in faith.

First, we will look at the undivided unity. The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5 ) is the locus classicus of Hebrew monotheism:
Hear O Israel: the Lord our God is one, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.

The Hebrew word translated "Lord" is the secret name of God, pronounced only once a year by the high priest in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. Its consonants are YHWH and that is all there is, as for all other words in the old unpointed Hebrew manuscripts.

Eventually, the Jewish scribes put in vowel points as aids to pronunciation. When they came to the hidden name of God, instead of pronouncing it, they said "Adonai" which means "Lord" So it was quite natural that they should put in the vowels for Adonai, for that is what they said. As a curiosity of the history of translation if you try to pronounce the hidden Name of God. YHWH with the vowels of Adonai, you get "YaHoWaH," hence the artificial construct "Jehovah." It ought to be abandoned, since it is an artificial creation. But what to put in its place?

There is some evidence for "YaHWeH" and it appears in some translation of the Old Testament. I believe we should not be so casual in using this guessed at form in either Bible translations or public worship. I believe that we should do exactly what the Jews did, exercise holy reticence with the hidden name and substitute "Lord" whenever the Divine Name occurs.

This Holy Name was revealed to Moses in the burning bush epiphany:
And Moses said unto God, behold when I come unto the Children of Israel and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, "I AM that I AM. . . . Thou shalt say unto the Children of Israel that the LORD God of your Fathers . . hath sent me. This is my Name forever. Exodus 3:13-14

The English "Lord" translates the tetragramaton, YHWH. And, as is suggested in the association of the "I AM," with the Divine Name, the consensus of modern scholarship is that the form does indeed represent some form of haya, the Hebrew verb to be.

To return to the Shema: "The Lord our God is one." The word translated "God" here ( as in the Exodus passage) is Elohim. In Hebrew the grammatical form here is what is called a plural of intensity. It is used in e.g. mayim (water) and shamayim (heaven) However both of these other words might be translated by plurals in .English. That is never true of Elohim except when it refers to pagan gods.

The word translated here "one," Hebrew ehadh, is also interesting. The root verb means "to unify." It is used in the expression in Genesis 2:24 about marriage,
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall become ONE flesh."

It contrasts with the word yahidh, which means unique. So we may conclude that, the Hebrew monotheism is not that of numerical simplicity but rather, in the central creed affirming this monotheism, both in the word for God, Elohim, and in the word for "one," there is the suggestion of "plurality" in unity.

Of course it is the same Name by which our Lord claimed his co-divinity with the Father:
"And Jesus said unto them [ the Jews ] verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I AM." John 8:57ff

The Jews got it, even if some liberal theologians don't, for in the next verse, they took up stones to stone him for his "blasphemy." In John 17, Jesus comes to speak to his Father before returning and he pointedly says:
"And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy NAME unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world." (Vv.5-6 )

Now we must ask, what is the nature of the plurality in the Trinity?

The Introit referenced above, as every introit and every Psalm in the daily office, is followed by the doxology:
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end. (Greek: unto ages of ages )

The formula used in this doxology is called the ontological trinity, the way in which the persons of the Trinity are related to each other in their essence. It follows the Baptismal invocation which we have in the Gospel of this Mass, it is the famous "great commission," given to his disciples before our Lord ascended, found in Matthew 28:18:
"At that time Jesus said unto his disciples: All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them
in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded."

This baptismal command is elegant in its precision. It precisely excludes heretical notions about the Trinity. First, "name" is not in the plural; it does not say, "in the names." That would have suggested three numerical individuals, tri-theism. It subsumes three "persons"under one name.

Yet, neither does it say: "in the name of Father, Son and Holy Ghost." That would have suggested Three offices for one person, modalism. ( sometimes called Sabellianism, from the 3rd Century heretic who gave this heresy its classic formulation ) It says in the name of the Father, and of the Son and and of the Holy Ghost.

Finally, the parallel equality in the conjunction, "and" rules out any subordination notion such as that which Arius introduced in the late 3rd Century into the bloodstream of Christian thought, where it still remains as a devil's irritant.

So this is a Trinity of three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. The Greek says Three divine hypostases , subsistences, in one ousia, nature or essence. It is a Trinity in which, as the 5th Century Quicumque vult, commonly called the Athanasian Creed, says,
"None is greater or lesser than another."

And in which they share many attributes:
"The Father uncreate; the Son uncreate; the Holy Ghost uncreate;

The Father incomprehensible; the Son incomprehensible; and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible.

The Father eternal; the Son eternal and the Holy Ghost eternal.

And yet there are not three eternals but one eternal. As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible."

Yet, there are differences in the Trinity. The differences are not in the essence; what then?

St. Augustine provides a solution with the term relatio. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are identical in substance but different in relation. The Father is neither created nor begotten but begets; the Son is not created but begotten; The Holy Ghost is not created but proceeds.

As I write, we are in the midst of a sea change in thinking that has been going on in the Church, below the level of consciousness of many people in the pews. Because of subtle changes in the rites of both Roman Catholics and Anglicans since the 70s, many children are growing up in these communions without connection with the orthodox traditions of Christian worship and dogma.

One might instance many examples. I will take just one: we have noted the elegance of the Baptismal formula in avoiding various heresies. The '79 book that replaced the classic Book of Common Prayer indeed keeps the traditional formula from Matthew 28, but in the introduction to that very service the formula is modalist: "Blessed be God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit." The same form is used for the Eucharist and Confirmation. The clear implication of the grammar, colon followed by unparticularized titles, is that what is on one side of the colon equals what is on the other side.

Viz., God has three names, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That this is the intent is confirmed by a reading of the Catechism of that book. God the Father is presented as "Creator," Jesus as the "only Son of God" and "perfect image of God" and the Holy Spirit as "God at work in the world and in the Church even now." There is nothing said. e.g., of the Son being "begotten of his Father before all worlds."
There is indeed nothing said about the existence and inter-relatedness of the Holy Trinity, "before all worlds, world without end." Thus, one could easily infer that, as Sabellius had long ago taught: God is known by these three names in different phases of revelation, first as The Father, then as the Son and finally as the Holy Ghost.
Curiously enough, there is a kind of nexus here between liberal Anglican and Protestant thinking and fundamentalist dispensationalism.

These new formularies, lack the elegant precision of the Baptismal Commission, whence was taken the orthodox form of the doxology. Indeed, it seems likely that they are deliberately ambiguous, to permit the older generation of orthodox thinkers to "read into" these phrases orthodox interpretations, while gradually weaning the newer generation from these "outmoded" notions, so the process can proceed largely unnoticed. Thus, are children slowly but surely separated from their roots in the Orthodox Catholic faith, deprived of their baptismal birthright and their heritage as Christians.

The most common form of modalism today is one exhibited when the invocation is phrased as, "God: Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Of course this is frequently used to avoid what are regarded as outmoded sexist, patriarchal terms such as Father and Son. This "avoidance" of the terms handed down to us by Scripture and tradition from the Fathers and the Ecumenical Councils implies, either that God has not so revealed himself, i.e. that the tradition is not true, or that this revelation, whatever its truth, is of little consequence along side our "vastly greater learning" than our predecessors in the faith.

I will try to show in further meditations that the confusions of modalism do not do justice to our faith. In reality, it is not the Father working alone; but rather, it is the Divine Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, that is involved in creation; neither is redemption an affair only of the Son but likewise of the Divine Trinity, nor is sanctification left simply to the Holy Ghost. Indeed, the faith taught by the heresies is not saving faith.

"The whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal so that in all things, the unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshiped . . .This is the Catholic Faith: which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved." Quicumque vult

Let us pray in the words of the collect for this feast:
Almighty everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace by the confession of a true faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity: We beseech thee that thou wouldest keep us steadfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities: who livest and reignest, one God world without end.

MONDAY AFTER TRINITY SUNDAY

Blessed are thou, O Lord, who beholdest the depths and sittest upon the Cherubim; Blessed art thou O Lord in the firmament of heaven and worthy to be praised forever. Alleluia Alleluia!

Gradual for Trinity Sunday

We already considered the ontological Trinity, i.e. the Trinity as it is in itself subsisting inter-relatedness. One, equal and uncreated in essence, triune and differentiated, in relations one to the other, f rom before all time and before all worlds, unto ages of ages. In this and subsequent meditations, we shall consider what theologians call the "economic" Trinity, that is, the Trinity in relation to the human race.

Now let me begin by setting the critical argument to rest. Many modern scholars, of course, do not accept as authentic all the sayings attributed to our Lord in Scripture, including some of those I have and will use in these meditations. For the Orthodox Catholic who believes in the validity of Tradition, this is irrelevant: it does not really much matter whether any particular saying can be proven to the satisfaction of the contemporary scholarly community-many of whom have only the slightest faith commitment-- to be an ipsima verba of Jesus or whether it is simply part of the oral tradition handed down in a given Christian community and thence incorporated in the core tradition. For to the Orthodox mind the oral tradition stands along side Scripture as authoritative.

In loving wisdom, the Triune God saw fit to create. So we have the affirmation in the first line of the Nicene Creed:
"I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible."

So the modalist ( and feminist ) theologians are wont to refer to the first person of the Trinity as "Creator, " rather than "Father."

But, neither life nor faith is so simplistic. The second article of the Creed says:
"And, in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God . . . . by whom all things were made."

If we go to the Genesis story: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (1:1 )

We can discover a parallel in the Gospel of John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything that was made." (1:1-3 )

And in St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians:
"God's dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: who is the image of the invisible God the first born of every creature: for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible." ( 1:13-16 )

So clearly, both the Father and the Son are involved in creation. Moreover, if we look back at the Genesis passage, the very next verse attests the involvement of the Holy Spirit, as well:
"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." (1:2 )

So we are not surprised that at the creation of man, YHWH--Elohim [ a plural form remember ] says, "let US make man in OUR own image."( Gen 1:26 )

Orthodox Catholic tradition has affirmed: That the Trinity was "before all worlds," and that, although he sustains every part of his creation, he also stands outside and apart from the world in judgment, and therefore that God is transcendent from, as well as immanent in the world.

Deism, the notion that God created the Universe and then left it essentially to "run itself," like a clock maker with his clocks, believes in transcendence without immanence. Pantheism, the notion that the world is equal to God or is contained within God (technically, panentheism), believes in immanence without transcendence. The Catholic Faith proclaims the necessity for both. For, if God be not transcendent, he can not be relied upon to save us; if he be not immanent, he can not care enough to save us.

Whereas Deism, dominant in intellectual circles of the 18th century, is too cold to have much appeal in today's world, pantheism, is almost the natural religion of modern man. New Age gurus are merely a particularly crass manifestation of the rather wide spread view of God as a "spiritual force," or a vague "spirituality" that pervades everything. One of the "sacraments" of this religion is a funeral rite in which the ashes of the deceased are scattered to the four winds, becoming joined with the all present being. That this belief is largely unconscious, and often imprecisely articulated, indeed, confirms rather than contradicts the fact of its pervasiveness.

The notion that God created the world as an emanation from his being is often part of this "natural" religion. One finds a suggestion of this idea in the collect for John Donne in the Lesser Feasts of the new Episcopal Church Liturgy:
"Almighty God the root and fountain of all being open our eyes to see, with thy servant, John Donne, that whatsoever hath any being is a mirror in which we may behold thee."

But this is not John Donne's teaching. He did not believe that creation proceeded from God as growing out of a root or flowing from a fountain. He believed, with all true holders of the Faith, that God created the world and all in it, through the Son and by the Spirit, ex nihilo, from nothing, not out of his being.

The God of the pantheist and the emanationist is very far removed from the God of the Bible and Catholic tradition: a God who is at once, the transcendent creator, the holy and wholly other, and, as well, the personal lover of souls who seeks men, that men may seek him, who judges, that we may seek pardon and bestows mercy, that we may sing his praise.

"Lord thou hast been our refuge from one generation to another, before the mountains were brought forth or ever the earth was made, thou art God from everlasting and world without end." Psalm 90:1

By the word of the Lord, were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. . . . Let all the earth fear the Lord; stand in awe of him all ye that dwell in the world, for he spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast. Psalm 33:6-9

Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thought and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts; neither are your ways, my ways saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. . . . So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void but shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I send it. Isaiah 55:6-11

The proper response to such a God is that found in Exodus 3, when Moses encountered him in the burning bush.

"Moses said: here I am. And the Lord said draw not thither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God." ( vv 4-6 )

Perhaps the worship in your parish Church treats God a little more familiarly than this?

Consider the magnificent transcendent glory and holiness of God as pictured in Isaiah 6:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: and each one had six wings: with twain he covered his face and with twain he covered his feet and with twain he did fly and one cried unto another and said: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I woe is me for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar and he laid it upon my mouth and said: lo this hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom shall I send and who will go for US? Then said I, here am I send me. Isaiah ( 6:-1-8 )

What else could one do or say, in the presence of such a God?

Finally, consider the glimpse of worship in heaven from the Revelation of St. John:
I beheld and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands and cried with a loud voice saying Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb, and all the angels stood around about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts and fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped God saying Amen: Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever. ( 7:9-12 )

Are things a bit more informal in your parish than this? The God of the pantheist is not a God whom one would have any desire to worship in this manner. The abandonment, in the general consciousness of religious leaders and well as of the laity, of belief in the Christian God who is both transcendent and immanent has resulted in the elimination of virtually any vertical ( transcendent ) dimension to worship and a reduction to horizontality ( this worldly emphasis) greater perhaps than at any time since the religion created at the French Revolution. Both word and gesture have been stripped, as far as possible of any indication not susceptible to the interpretation that the congregation is worshiping the God who is in fact the esprit de corps of the worshiping body, and nothing beyond. There is just enough ambiguity to satisfy old fogies who insist on a more traditional "reading". Thus, worship becomes largely entertainment for the congregation rather than adoration of God.

Beyond worship, the altered view of God has other consequences: Philosophical theology is largely reduced to sociology, moral theology to "values clarification." and ascetical theology to "finding one's true self" and clarifying one's "journey." The main thrust of "ministry" is social change, with, typically a left-wing agenda. Yet this empty fluff does not satisfy the human need, so most simply stop going to Church at all.

Although man was created good by the good God, we have all sinned and followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. So, we need to be redeemed and saved from our sins and from our captivity to the world, the flesh and the devil. We will consider next the nature of the Holy Trinity, as it reaches out to us in the work of salvation. Let us now come into the presence of God and pray in the tradition of Holy Church with the Tersanctus, with its threefold repetition, echoing the praise of the Holy Trinity from the Angels' song and with the preface to the Mass of the Holy Trinity:

It is very meet right and our bounden duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord, Holy Father, almighty, everlasting God: who with thine only-begotten Son and the Holy Ghost art one God, one Lord, not one only Person but three persons in one Substance, for that which we believe of the glory of the Father, the same we believe of the Son and of the holy Ghost without any difference of inequality, therefore with Angels and Archangels and with the all the company of heaven we laud and magnify thy glorious Name evermore praising thee and saying:

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts, Heaven and earth are full of thy glory. Glory be to thee, O Lord most High, Blessed is he that commeth in the Name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.

TUESDAY AFTER TRINITY SUNDAY

Blessed be God the Father, and the only-begotten Son of God, and the Holy Spirit: because he hath shewed his mercy upon us. Offertory for Trinity Sunday

We considered before the modalist invocation, God: Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. We found that "Creator," as a name for the first person of the Trinity, is not an appropriate substitute for "Father." It is not simply the Father who "creates" but rather the Holy Trinity in its plenitude. The differentia for the first person of the Trinity is his relation to the Only Begotten Son, the Son, as the Church has confessed since the 4th Century, " Begotten of his Father before all worlds."

The second person, designated as a"function." or "name" of God rather than as a subsistent person, is commonly called "Redeemer." Of course, his ontological Name is " the Son," but it is certainly common in Christian tradition to designate the Son as "Redeemer." What does that title signify? To "redeem" is to rescue, "buy-back," "deliver" from captivity or slavery. To quote the devil's disciple, "Man was created free but is everywhere in chains." I would add: Man was created good, but is every where bad. How did that happen? Seduced by Satan in guise of Serpent, our first parents, "drawn away of their own lust," (James 1:14 ) deliberately disobeyed God:
"God hath said, ye shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it. . . . and the woman saw that it was good for food, and was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband and he did eat." (Gen 3:1-6 )

It is no secret that sin is addictive, i.e. makes captive the soul. The Christian Faith has traditionally seen sin as something that has become a part of our human nature. So we all may cry with the Psalmist: "Behold I was shapen in wickedness, and in sin hath my mother conceived me," (51:5) with Saint Paul, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God," (Rom 3:23 ), with Isaiah, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way," (53:6 ) and with Jeremiah, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." ( 17:9 )

So man needs redemption. How can this be accomplished? Redemptio is the Latin rendering of the Hebrew Old Testament Kopher which usually designates a ransom-price to be paid to set the captive free. If, as the axiom has it, "Honor is measured by the dignity of him who gives it, offence by the dignity of him who receives it, then sin, as an offense of deliberate disobedience against Almighty God, must indeed bring infinite guilt. So who is able to redeem from a captivity incurred by such an offense? Only God himself could make such a ransom. But, it must be made in human flesh or it could not be effective for man. Thus only Jesus Christ, the God-man, could make such ransom for sin. And only his sacrificial death, could be adequate price.

"Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (I Peter 1:18-19)

As we learned on Trinity Sunday, there is no inequality in the Trinity, and so the Son, "begotten of his Father before all worlds," is equal to the Father. But, in order to redeem man he had to take unto himself our flesh, to suffer and to die:
"Christ Jesus , who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

So, the Son, as Redeemer, being both God and Man, was "equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead: and inferior to the Father, as touching his manhood." ( Quicumqui vult ).

"The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14 )

But, we must pause to look at this matter of "redemption," from another standpoint. If we return to the verse quoted above from 1st Peter, " Redeemed . . . with the precious blood of Christ," (1:18-19), we find something very interesting in the next verse:
"Who verily was foreordained BEFORE the foundation of the world." (v 20 )

Foreordained, by whom? We need only look at our Lord's famous pronouncement in the Gospel of John 3: 16-17:
"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved."

From the moment of the original sin, the primal disobedience, the plan already formed, from before the foundation of the world, with foreknowledge of the disobedience, began to unfold.

And so God, after pronouncing sentence of abiding sorrow and death upon the man and woman, says to the subtle, seducing serpent:
"I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heal." (Gen. 3:15 )

"And when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem, them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons and because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father." (Gal 4: 6)

We learn two things in this passage: first, that redemption from sin ends in making us adoptive sons, with our Lord, the only-begotten Son, and second, that in this adoption, the Holy Spirit is witness. So, we know now that, as in Creation, so in redemption, although the Son, is the outward standard bearer and agent of redemption, and so may be specially called "Redeemer," yet, it is an affair of the Holy Trinity: the Father loves and sends, the Son obeys and goes and the Holy Spirit, bears witness. This co-redemption is seen even more clearly in the annunciation:
"The angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the maid's name was Mary. And the angel came unto her and said," Hail thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. . . . And the angel said unto her fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God. And behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt call his name Jesus, he shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest. . . .The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Holy Ghost shall overshadow thee: and therefore that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." ( Lk 1:26-35)

The role of the Holy Ghost is made quite explicit in the other Gospels. Joseph is told by Gabriel:
"That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." (Mat. 1:20 )

Let us pause again to show how new rites are subtly undermining the tradition by permitting both orthodox and heretical interpretations. The "Incarnatus" of the Nicene Creed in the Roman Rite is direct:
"Qui propter nos homines, ut propter nostram salutem descendit de caelis, et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virginie: et homo factus est."

The Book of Common Prayer, in literal translation, is equally direct:
"Who, for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man."

The Apostles Creed said in the Latin of the Roman Communion:
"Qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto"

And, again the BCP is quite literal: "Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost."

Both the New Episcopal Rites of 1979 and the Roman Catholic Novus Ordo mistranslate both creeds with the phrase: " by the power of the Holy Spirit"

But, John the Baptist and Samuel and others although ordinary men were conceived through the power or influence of the Holy Spirit, so it implies nothing unique in our Lord's conception if we avoid the bluntness of the Gospel and the Creeds by this mistranslation. But if there were nothing unique, only extraordinary like other holy men, in the birth of Jesus, then perhaps he is the Son of God only by adoption or simply because of his obedience and willingness to take the task of redemption upon himself. Yet, as suggested above, such a one is not able to save us; only the only-begotten Son of God who was "before all worlds" is fit for this redemption.

The Lord's baptism, at the beginning of his ministry, again presents a vivid picture of the total involvement of the Holy Trinity in the work of redemption:
"John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith: Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. . . . . And John bare record saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him." ( John 1: 29-32 )

Matthew adds to the account:
"and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (3:17 )

When we come to the crucifixion, the obedience unto death that reversed the disobedience of Adam, we see again that the Holy Trinity is involved. In this Sacrifice Christ is both priest and victim; the "offertory" is in Gethsemane: "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will but thine be done." (Luke 22:42 ) And thence he proceeds to go to offer himself a ransom for many, on the cruel cross, obedient to death.

Commenting on the active role of the Father in the Crucifixion, St. Luke says:
"Him delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." (Acts 2:23 )

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son ( John 3:16 ) And the Spirit?

At the hour of his death, Jesus bowed his head and "Gave up the Ghost," and a soldier, "pierced his side and forthwith came there out blood and water." (John 19:28-34 )

St. John later commented on this event and makes explicit the involvement of the Trinity in its plenary fullness:
Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is Truth.

For there are THREE that bear record in heaven, The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these THREE ARE ONE, and there are three that bear witness in earth, the SPIRIT, and the WATER, and the BLOOD; and these three agree in one.( I John 5: 5-7 ).

The Redemption was perfected in the Resurrection and ascension: Here too we have not simply a solo work on the part of Jesus as Redeemer but the involvement of the Holy Trinity:
"Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father." ( Romans 6:4 )
"If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. ( Romans 8:11 )

And how is the redemption applied to individuals?

We earlier noted the precise wording of the baptismal commission, given by our Lord before his Ascension:
"Jesus came and spake unto them [the Eleven Disciples ] saying all power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." ( Mat 28:18-19 )

It is thus, as St. Paul clarifies for us, that the believer is identified with the death and resurrection of Jesus and thus grafted into his body the Church and made an adopted son of God.

"Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life." (Rom 6: 3-4 )

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God, for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry: Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." (Rom 8:14-17 )

In sum, as with the substitution of "Creator," for "Father," so the substitution of "Redeemer" for "Son" suggests an incomplete view of the blessed work of the Holy Trinity in the glorious redemption of the sons of God. Jesus Christ is aptly characterized as the Redeemer, because of his incarnation and death, for us men and for our salvation. Yet, it is one thing if this title is used by one who believes in Jesus as the Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, who was sent by the predetermined counsel of his Father, and in the Spirit, by whom he was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, the Spirit who was the witness of his sacrificial death and the Spirit by whom in baptism, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost we are buried with the Lord in his death and raised in his Resurrection, the Spirit that bears witness with our spirits that we have been born again, as sons of God and joint heirs with Christ; it is another thing, if this title is used to suggest that "Redeemer" is the simply the Name of God as he works out our Redemption in the person of Jesus.

Blessed be the holy Trinity and the undivided Unity; we will praise and glorify him because he hath showed his mercy upon us and hath redeemed us from our sins through the blood of Jesus whom the Father in love hath given to die for us and hath raised from the dead and in the Holy Ghost who beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the sons of God. Blessed be the holy Trinity and the undivided Unity from before all worlds and into ages of ages.

"Come O Sanctifier Almighty eternal God and bless this sacrifice prepared for thy holy Name."

From the Offertory of the Roman Rite.

We have been looking at the economic Trinity, the Holy Trinity, not as it is in itself, but as it is 'vis-a- vis' our world. In this connection, we have been examining a popular invocation-perhaps one you have heard in your own parish- "God: Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. We have discovered that the first two of these terms refer not to subsistent persons but rather to divine activities. Indeed, the activities are not solo activities, but are always of the entire Trinity: of the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. What of the third term, that replaces "Holy Ghost" with "Sanctifier"?
The Holy Ghost is called in Scripture "Spirit," and "Comforter" ( Greek Paraclete ) but not "Sanctifier." The term is sometimes used liturgically, as in the Offertory verse quoted above, a kind of misplaced epiklesis, but not in Scripture.

Of course we do find the verb, sanctification. It translates the Greek word hagiasmos. Sometimes hagiasmos is translated as "holiness." And, this gives us the meaning: "to be purified by expiation, freed from guilt; "to be purified by renewing of the soul," and finally "to be separated from worldly things and dedicated to God."

From one point of view, sanctification is an aspect of salvation, the activity of God in rescuing us from sin and restoring us to a state of righteousness and fellowship with himself. Some of you, at one time or another, may have been challenged by a street corner preacher who demands to know: "Are you saved?"
Usually, he expects a yes or no or, at worst, "I don't know." The orthodox believer, however, can not be so simplistic. He must say,"Yes, I am."
(In the redemption wrought by Christ on Calvary); "I had been," ( in the sovereign determination of God) "I have been,"( in being born again in baptism); "I am being," and "I hope that I will be." Salvation has five tenses: the punctiliar ( aorist in Greek ) is called "redemption," in which salvation is accomplished in the person and work of Christ, complete and all sufficient; the pluperfect ( action begun in the past viewed, in its effect, from another point in the past) is called election and calling; the perfect tense ( action completed in the past but still effective in the present ) of salvation is regeneration; the future tense is glorification; the present continuous tense is called sanctification.

From another point of view, however, the whole process may be subsumed under sanctification, since the setting apart of men in the likeness of his only-begotten Son was the Father's grand design behind all:
"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren."( Romans 8:28-29 )

Seen from this perspective, sanctification, begins with the sovereign purpose and election of God the Father: first to send his Son to take upon him the action of Redemption, of which you will remember the Holy Ghost was the co-operative agent at every stage ; second, to draw to himself an "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." ( I Peter 1:2 )

The furtherance of this sanctification demanded a solution for the problem of sin, man's disobedience. There could only be one; it needed God to be able to pay the redemption price; and man to be able to represent humanity, like us in every point but sin:
"The redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins . (Romans 3:24-25)
"Wherefore Jesus also that HE MIGHT SANCTIFY the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. (Hebrews 13:12 )

So we begin to see, already, that sanctification is hardly the exclusive work of the Holy Ghost. The only Begotten Son, sent by the Father, conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary,
( Matthew 1:20) became man and was crucified for us to SANCTIFY us with his own blood.

This is an echo of Exodus 24:8:
"And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you."
And so our Lord, on the night before he was betrayed, took a cup of wine and gave it to his disciples saying. "Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament [ covenant ], which is shed for many for the remission of sins." ( Matthew 26:27-28 )

After his Resurrection, on the eve of his Ascension, as we know, Jesus instituted the sacrament of baptism in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost ( Matthew 28:19 ). A few days later, at the outpouring of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, Peter preached Christ Crucified and Resurrected for our sins. The Jews who heard this were "Pricked in their hearts," and asked "What shall we do?"
"Then Peter said unto them, repent and BE BAPTIZED everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the HOLY GHOST, the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall CALL.
(Acts 2:29-39 )

And so, affirming what Jesus had said, in his conversation with Nicodemus-
"Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." ( John 3:5ff )-- the Apostles made baptism the ordinary means by which individuals were born again, regenerated and incorporated into the Redemption of Christ ( cf. Romans 6:1-5 ):
"The kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness that we have done but according to his mercy hath he saved us by the washing of regeneration [ in Holy Baptism ] and renewing of the Holy Ghost [in Holy Chrismation] which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour: that being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
( Titus 3:4-7 )

Already we have seen that the next "stage" in sanctification after baptism is the bestowal of the Holy Ghost. Again, the ordinary means is the laying on of hands and anointing in the sacrament of Holy Chrismation or Confirmation, referred to in Scripture as "sealing with the Holy Ghost."

Notice, in this beautiful passage from St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, how the whole grand scheme is summed up; notice also the participation of all three persons of the Blessed Trinity in this process of sanctification:
"Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his [ The Father's ] good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth: even in him. In whom also, we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after ye heard the word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation; in
whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. ( Eph 1:9-14)

The Process continues to be worked out in us, with our co-operation, by the Holy Ghost, through prayer and the sacraments, transforming us after the mind of Christ, until he becomes all and in all.

I close with the golden. exclamation of St. John, which sums up both the place of the three persons of the Holy Trinity and the goal of sanctification:
" Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood [ remember the riven side and the blood and water that came out symbolizing baptism and the Holy Sacrifice (John 19:34}] even Jesus Christ; not by water only but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth withness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit and the Water and the Blood: and these three agree in one. (I John 5: 5-8 )
Beloved, now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be!
But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him, as he is!
( I John 3:2 )

But we must sing with Fortunatus ( 6th century )
Jesus the health of the world, enlighten our minds, thou Redeemer,
Son of the Father supreme, only begotten of God,
Spirit of Life and of Power, now flow in us, fount of our being,
Light that dost lighten all, Life that in all dost abide.