Mass readings for Pentecost:
Acts 2.1-11 Psalm 104, 1, 24, 29b-31, 34 1 Corinthians 12. 3b-7, 12-13 John 20.19-23
The late Jaroslav Pelikan, great biblical scholar of the past fifty years, wrote a very thorough and for many, authoritative commentary on the Book of Acts in which he noted that when the Holy Spirit comes, among the many things he does, he is usually described as “filling” – filling up the spaces, the places and the people where he visits.
Now, you might say, “so what?” But the author of Acts, known in tradition as the same Luke who also gave us the gospel that bears that name, what he is doing in this is trying to describe the reality of spiritual life. Spirit fills in a manner not unlike a liquid does in physical terms a jug. And, if our first reading from the Book of Acts went on a couple of more verses, we’d hear someone in Jerusalem accusing the disciples Spirit of being “filled with new wine” (Acts 2.15), that is, of being drunk, intoxicated by alcohol rather than being filled with the Holy Spirit.
So, the spiritual dimension of our being is like a jug, a glass, a bottle, can be empty or full, or half-empty or half-full; they can be filled with God’s spirit or something merely intoxicating, but not of God.
Indeed, the Holy Spirit does not intoxicate us; but inspires us. To intoxicate is literally to poison, to take in that which is toxic. Now, we can say according to the wisdom of the ancients that “the dose makes the poison” that some intoxicants properly administered do have salutary effects, but I think it fair to say that to be filled up with one is never a good thing. But to be inspired, well, what an exciting, exhilarating thing that is; and who can have too much inspiration?
So, the questions for us are, with what are we filled? Are we empty? Half-full? Or have we diluted whatever of the Spirit we do have? To switch metaphors slightly, has water gotten into the gas tank? That’s not good for the engine. Don’t we all want to, to borrow an old advertising tagline, put a tiger in our tank?
Now emptiness is something a lot of people experience at one point in life or another. And we know that in this situation a great many fill themselves up quite literally, with substances of this world: food, drink, drugs, they look to fulfil the spiritual hunger by satisfying physical appetites.
So, when feeling a little down, one might have a bit of chocolate, a bowl of ice cream; and that gives us comfort. At the end of a long, tiring day, a glass of red wine with a hearty meal; a finger or two of whisky in the evening – these are minor pleasures that help us relax and rest from our labours, but we know they really only work in moderation: you can make yourself sick on chocolate; and of course, drunk on whisky with consequences that come for most of us in the form of hangovers.
Addictions can form, and most addicts to some degree recognize themselves as being entrapped in them; and at some point, from them they look to escape. And there is then a further recognition that the emptiness they’ve tried to fill with physical substances like food and drink and drugs, can’t be filled because it’s a spiritual void, and can only be filled with spiritual matter. So, as imperilling as addiction to physical substances is, from a Christian perspective, there is an even greater danger in satisfying the soul’s hunger with spirits that are not of God – for while the addict may yet find mercy from God because they can yet know of their need for him; those who fill themselves with malevolence, and are satisfied by this, they’ve turned from God, they’ve rejected him, and they’ve purged him from that spiritual space we call the soul and put something else there.
I remember an interview from the excellent documentary series, World at War, produced by Britain’s Thames Television in the 1970’s. It’s about the Second World War, but its opening episode looked at the origins of National Socialism in Germany, the rise of Hitler. It featured an interview with a member of the German resistance, a man who worked to overthrow the Nazis; and as part of the plan to do this, he actually enlisted in the SS who were Hitler’s bodyguard. While describing his duties in ironically protecting Hitler at public events, he admitted that for a passing moment, he was a little envious of the people who came to hear Hitler speak because he could see how enrapture they were. Their ecstasy was, in itself, envied. Now, for him, as he describes listening to Hitler, it was always same old thing. Indeed, he said Hitler really was slow getting started, but he always managed to wind up the audience to a fever pitch by the time he finished. However, knowing the rhetorical tricks, the lies, the ridiculousness of the argument, he was never taken in; but how perversely attractive it is to be taken up into that energy, that spirit despite it being so evil. Well, we know, that malevolent spirit that led a nation to murder millions and launch a horrific war, was truly diabolical. Yet, we also know that while many were never possessed by it, they lived in fear of it; in fear of those who were possessed by it, who gave themselves to it in the Faustian bargain of becoming a super race who would rule for a 1000 years.
Now, I know that in the minds of many, looking at the current leadership in much of the western world, they see contemptable people in power; but I would not classify them with the likes of tyrants like Hitler or Stalin or Mao – because for the most part I would say much of our political class is far from being possessed by any spirit, they are mostly empty; empty like the T.S. Eliot’s Hollow Men of whom he wrote they were,
“Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;”
Rather than demon-possessed, they reflect the loss of faith, both in traditional values and in the ability of humanity to find meaning and purpose in life. Lacking conviction around anything but their need for power and status, they respond to whomever, whatever, manifests true spirit whether it be of God or not. They seek to harness it, manipulate it; but they don’t know really what they are doing, and what danger they place us all in by doings so.
It’s spirit that turns people out into the streets, whether in demand for justice or bloody revenge, for their God-given rights or the extermination of their enemies. And we should be careful in our discerning of these spirits.
The Holy Spirit, being God, is a spirit of truth, of love, of mercy and reconciliation, but also very much one that demands justice and peace for which its adherents will sacrifice everything. As it proceeds from Christ, as it does from the Father, it proceeds from the Word of God, and that word is a rational word, a logical word. So, as passionate as we might become in being inspired, as much as we might feel righteous anger, the Holy Spirit does not impede our ability to discuss, to listen with attention, to engage with others, and to not be threatened by their words even as they are those of the devil himself. Christ verbally sparred with Satan, we know who got the better of that exchange every time.
To the spirit of God, to the Holy Spirit, be opened. For so many that is a fearful thing; and so, a matter of profound trust. But remember, I’m not asking anyone to trust me, a priest, or to trust the bishop, nice fellow that he is; nor, for that matter, Pope Francis because the basis for these relationships is trust in the Holy Spirit, and so, that must come first. So, to be opened here in this time of worship, of penitence and praise, of community of faith and communion in God, is an opening to the divine who will lead you and I, teach us, shelter and protect us so that the most precious thing about us, our very souls, can never be violated, taken, or corrupted. But we must choose, choose according to our free will, our feeble human will with the indispensable help of God’s grace for which we all must continually pray. Because failing to fill up on the Holy Spirit means there will either be a horrible void, or worse, a filling up with things worse than we can imagine. So, rather be filled with the Holy Spirit, and become a sign to others of the way to him who can fill them too, fill them abundantly with life, eternal life.
Amen.