Fr. Barnabas Iankos: Our life is one in the Holy Spirit
How do we receive the Holy Spirit? Only if we break down our individual limitations and we say to the Lord: “I have no thoughts, I make no plans, I am lost, and I am in Your hands.”
When St. Seraphim of Sarov says that the goal of the Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit, he expresses the voice of the conscience of the Church. And the Saints are those who are partakers of the gifts and of the grace of the Holy Spirit. In fact, Christ makes Himself known only in the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, the goal of our life is to attract the grace of the Holy Spirit, the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. We will do this by opening our hearts to the Lord so we can be open to the Holy Spirit. The one who is receptive to the action of the Holy Spirit is the humble one. Who is humble? The one who is quiet. Who is quiet? The one who doesn’t listen to his thoughts but has his heart oriented toward the person of Christ and nowhere else. The one who doesn’t trust his thoughts and wisdom. Thoughts can dominate and destroy you. People who think they can control their thoughts deceive themselves bitterly. Thoughts fly wherever they want; they can drive you mad.
So we can make room for grace, we need to be humble and quiet, not to hear any thought, not to trust any thought, but only fill our hearts with the Jesus Prayer, with the Word of God - so we can attract in this manner the Holy Spirit.
The greatest gift of the Holy Spirit is the Church. It is in the Church that the Holy Spirit works. Maybe we are sick members of the Church; maybe we are sinners; maybe we are lost; maybe the world is scandalized by the Church because of us - still, the Church is Holy because Christ is her Head and the Holy Spirit works in her. The Church is the spring through which we receive Life, we receive the Living Water.
We get from the Church all the gifts that fill our being. Where else can we partake from the Body and Blood of Christ? Only in Church, we receive Him. What can be greater than this? The achievements and accomplishments of the world? What are those? Just things subject to death. We experience the glory and honor of holding Christ in our hands, of uniting ourselves with Him. How is this accomplished? Only through the grace of the Holy Spirit.
What do we achieve in Church? The cleansing of our sins, our burdens, our feelings of guilt. Sins weigh us down, and we say we can talk to someone so we can unburden ourselves a bit. That is what happens in the world - you unburden yourself. But in the Church, you are cleansed, you are freed, you become a new person, a new creature. How is this possible? Through the skills of the priest? By magic? Only through the grace of the Holy Spirit, Who works together with our freedom. What can we say? The Holy Spirit is everything - our breath, our life!
How do people get married? Because they decided to get married? How do they become one? Through the Holy Spirit! Everything, all the work of the Church, is done through the Holy Spirit. And we have set limits to the work of the Holy Spirit because we trust our power, our thoughts, our self-worth. But all these do not exist without the Holy Spirit. And what did God ordain? He told us to come close to Him, but united, not each on our own. Who brings this common frame and this unity? Only the Holy Spirit, as it is said: "where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them" (Matthew 18:20). Who achieves this? The Holy Spirit.
And the Church scandalizes the world today. Not because it is powerful; the Church has no worldly power. Not because we have no sins; maybe we are worse than people in the world. But why? Because the Church proposes a scandalous way of life. Which way? To become one! My life is not only mine; it is yours too! Your life is not only yours; it is mine too! It is our life, and the Holy Spirit inspires us to achieve this.
This individualism, this private space, this isolation - to look only at myself and my rights, while you are “another,” while you are a possible threat and a danger - this is the worldly thinking. And Christ came to destroy it by breaking down our individual barriers, by telling us: “I live for you! It is for you that I came into the world! I gave my Body for you: take, eat!” Christ came to teach us a way of life, a way of relating to life, a way of living in the Church.
What do people say? Let me give you an example: a couple gets married, and they imagine they will have a romantic wedding in a small church, only the two of them and their “koumbari”. Is this a wedding? Their wedding involves everyone. They marry one another to learn to love everyone. Not just the other, “the light of my eyes.” That only means death. It is hell, from all points of view, if our life doesn’t become an opening! And how will this happen? Only if we receive the breath of the Holy Spirit! And how do we receive it? Only if we break down our individual limitations and we say to the Lord: “I have no thoughts, I make no plans, I am lost, and I am in Your hands.” When these limits of self-righteousness and self-consideration break down, when we give ourselves over into God’s hands, we will see that, before anything else, He is an opening. And then we will not be able to be anything else.
That is why there are no good Christians that are closed up in themselves, isolated, strapped in their righteousness. People of God are open! If not, they can’t call themselves Christians! And this is not about psychological facts but about existential, spiritual realities. When you feel you are lost, and you see that God still touches and loves you the same, you break down the limits of your righteousness and of your morality norms. And then, what limits are you going to set for others? You will live in one way only: to receive love from God and to give it to others. Nothing else! This is what the Holy Spirit inspires us to do!
For the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God have mercy on us and save us!
Translated from Romanian subtitles: