GLORIOUS is the Lord in His work of creation; His spirit renews the face of the earth (Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34). The glorious Jesus will send the Spirit of truth to His disciples, who will glorify Him in guiding them to the whole truth (John 15:26-27; 16:12-15).
Send forth Your Spirit
PSALM 104 begins by acclaiming the greatness of God. From his innermost being, the psalmist is called upon to offer praise to God. God is truly great, clothed with honor and majesty, wrapped in a mantle of radiant light. It is not as if God is visible, but God’s garments are discernible: the glories of creation revealing the greatness of God. The splendor and the order that exist in the universe are indication of His presence and evidence of His glory. Indeed, the earth is full of God’s grandeur in His creatures. Not only in its appearance is the natural world marvelous, its very complexity is absolutely astounding, manifesting the wisdom of their Creator (cf. Proverbs 8:22-31; Wisdom 9:9).
And not only the act of creation, but also the unceasing divine providence in creation makes God’s glory evident. God takes fatherly care of all living things, sustaining them and providing for them. Creation is not something once for all in the distant past; it is ongoing and the power of God is experienced in the constant renewal of life all around. God’s glory in creation reflecting His ongoing action should endure forever; may He continue to delight in His works! His breath, His spirit keeps them alive—the same spirit/ breath that made man a living being (Genesis 2:7). Without the divine spirit, creatures return to the dust whence they were taken. For God who creates also recreates; with His spirit life is sustained and renewed as in a new creation. That is reason enough to praise the Lord.
The advocate from the Father and the Son
IN the Fourth Gospel the Holy Spirit is called “Paraclete,” the Advocate or Helper. The Spirit helps Jesus continue the work he has started and, therefore, helping those who are called by Jesus to salvation. Giving the basics of the Trinitarian perspective, it is twice said that the Spirit will come from the Father and sent from the Son Jesus. The Father is the fountainhead from whom the Spirit proceeds, and the Spirit comes as the witness of Jesus, sent by Him to guide the disciples who will also be His witnesses. Jesus must be one and present with the Father, in order to be able to send their Spirit to them (John 16:7).
“All have the same life-breath,” says Qohelet (Ecclesiastes 3:19). It is the one Spirit/Breath of the Father and the Son who gives the new life to the disciples and to the world. This Spirit is “the grandeur of God…[that] will flame out, like shining from shook oil,” writes the priest-poet Gerard Manley Hopkins:
“There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and ah! bright wings.”
The Spirit of Truth
THE Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Truth in the Fourth Gospel. In the world’s search for truth, the Advocate Spirit’s role is to witness to and glorify the Son who is the Truth. The Son shares in everything the Father has, and the Spirit makes known to all the mystery of the Son and, therefore, reveals to the world, as well, the mystery of the Father. The Spirit will guide the disciples of Jesus to the whole truth, to ever deeper understanding of Jesus’ revelation, even as they have not as yet fully comprehended what Jesus has told them already. Jesus has many more things to tell them, but they cannot bear them now at the moment. The Advocate Spirit will be there to instruct them about the things that are to come, taking what is of Jesus and making it known to them.
Again, Gerald Manley Hopkins in 1877, just before his ordination to the priesthood, captured in his poem “The Windhover” what being caught up with the Holy Spirit means in his union with Christ the Lord:
“I caught this morning, morning’s minion,
kingdom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in its riding
of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
high there, how he rung upon the rein of the wimpling wing
in his ecstasy! Then off, off forth on swing,
as a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend; the hurl and gliding
rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
stirred for a bird,—the achieve of, the mastery of thing!”
Alálaong bagá, with Pentecost we celebrate the in-breaking of the time of fulfillment—in the power of the Holy Spirit. The fullness of the Spirit renews the earth, filling the whole world with God’s grandeur, ready to ignite—if we will. “Come, Holy Spirit, come! Shed a ray of light divine…our inmost being fill!”
Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio-streaming on www.dwiz882.com.