PENTECOST – Metropolitan of Strumica, Nahum
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“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John7, 37-39)
The Holy Spirit the Lord enters and acts in a special way in the Church and in the world on the day of Pentecost. The Church becomes the Body of Christ. Anyone who is baptized into the Church receives the uncreated grace of the Holy Spirit in his heart. And if with his ascetic-hesychastic and liturgical-catholic life, under the supervision of and obedience to his spiritual father, one activates and actualizes that grace, rivers of living water will flow from his heart.
“Now some of them wanted to take Him; but no one laid hands on Him. Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, Why have you not brought Him? The officers answered: No man ever spoke like this Man. Then the Pharisees answered them: Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers and Pharisees believe in Him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” (John7, 44-46)
Here is another Gospel passage in which we clearly see the conflict between the word of the law and the Spirit of the word; between form and essence; between the institution and the charismatic person; between the formality of the Old Testament and the Spirit of the New Testament; between the false prophets and the Truth Christ; between the secondary and primary function of the mind; between dualism and healing; between scholasticism and Orthodox spiritual experience; between painful logic and healthy mysticism; between darkness and enlightenment; between fallen nature and the Holy Mystery; between nomism and antinomianism.
We see that when someone touches the human heart with a word with (in) power, then that person ceases to act according to the plans of his reason or the assigned tasks or collective oblivious schemes, and begins to act according to his new, transfigured feeling and his new conscious nous – which has accepted the new feeling and the new knowledge. The servants refused an executive order, and they say this in their faces, they say this freely to their superiors – the chief priests and the Pharisees, without fear; as would they pass on something usual.
Do you see why I tell you that first we should reach our own heart through the prayer of the mind in the heart, and then through transfigured and enlightened thought, converted into a word with power, to reach the hearts of others?
” Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 7: 37–52; 8:12).
And those who keep His commandments, follow Him. Those who feed (nurture) their hearts and minds with good deeds, in obedience to their spiritual father, follow Him. Those who sympathize and help the poor, the imprisoned and the sick. Those who do not think that they themselves are better than anyone else. Those who see the fault for everything only in themselves, follow Him. Furthermore, those who have harmonized the way of their struggle with the level of their spiritual maturity are following Him. All of them will have light in their life, as a consequence of living such a way of life, they will purify their hearts, receive the gift of the prayer of the mind in the heart and enlighten their minds.
After all, as usual, there was a dispute about Him, both among the people and among the rulers and the Pharisees. Between those with an open heart and those with a hardened heart. And always, in any dispute, there are those who do not respect the freedom of others and want, at any cost, to impose their opinion – regardless of its correctness.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us!
Metropolitan of Strumica, Nahum
(19.06.2021 16:02)
