Palamas & the Baptism of the SpiritThe baptism of John was a “removal of dirt from the body” but the baptism of Jesus, the spiritual word, is “an appeal for clear conscience toward God”...
Scripture ReadingJohn 14:15-21, 25-26Jesus said, ”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them...These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”Scripture ReflectionAt the Last Supper, Jesus laid bare three years of teaching which had hitherto been rather opaque. He had spoken quite openly as he ministered throughout Judea and Galilee — but often in mysterious figures and challenging parables. On the eve of his arrest, and the dawn of his passion, it was time to bring an end to mystery, and unveil all things. Jesus was about to die. No matter that he had repeatedly told his disciples that the Son of Man would rise again on the third day; death, is, of course the quintessential “final curtain”, and he had to prepare them for the unbelievable things coming soon. Hence, his “Farewell Discourse” speaks in earnest anticipation of his Resurrection, and most importantly, the coming of the Holy Spirit. In fact, we might go so far as to say that the Resurrection might only be read into this discourse, since it is explicitly concerned with the coming of the Holy Spirit. It is in these terms that he exclusively speaks of his return after his departure. And the Spirit will only come to them if they keep his commandments. Indeed, the Spirit’s prerogative is to bring to our remembrance all the words of Christ, his holy commandments. It is only those who keep these commandments to, and in, whom the Spirit will reveal Christ Himself. One’s love for our Lord is the measure of one’s fidelity to his word; and one’s fidelity to his word is the measure of love. It is Christ’s word which cleanses all of us in the Church (Jn. 15:3; Eph. 5:26). So cleansed by the baptismal water of his word, “the whole human being becomes spirit” (Palamas, Triads). This is how the Spirit comes to us, or rather, “becomes” us. The 14th century mystic, St. Gregory Palamas, devoted his Triads to revealing that the Holy Spirit’s relationship with the Christian is enhypostatic — that is, the Christian’s path of sanctification leads him progressively to an ever greater and very real identification with the person of the Holy Spirit. Hence, Christ taught: “He who is born of Spirit, is Spirit.” (Jn. 3:6). Palamas, of course, goes to great lengths to make a distinction between the Divine essence and the Divine energies, lest Christians come to believe that the deification promised in scripture makes one more than a “temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 16:19), and the singular Lord of the Universe himself in very essence. Christians don’t become the Holy Spirit, taking their personal place in the Trinity in some bizarre apotheosis; but it is in the nature of the Holy Spirit to partake of the faithful Christian energetically, that is, acting through the Christian. Likewise, it is in the nature of the regenerate Christian to partake of the Holy Spirit energetically, that is, acting through the Holy Spirit. According to Jesus, this “enhypostatic union” is synonymous with fidelity to his word. And this brings us to a key distinction between what scripture calls the baptism of John, and the baptism of Jesus: John baptized with water in the Jordan, but Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit, which he strictly identifies with his word: “The words I have spoken to you are Spirit” (Jn. 6:63). The baptism of John was a “removal of dirt from the body” but the baptism of Jesus, the spiritual word, is “an appeal for clear conscience toward God” (1 Pt. 3:21). Hence, the holy fathers of the church spoke often of the baptism of tears, those holy, cleansing tears which well up from the heart as its evils (Mt. 15:19) are washed away and rinsed clean by the spiritual words of Christ. As the heart is purified, it becomes as the wilderness where God allured his unfaithful wife, Israel, back to faithful love (Hos. 2:14); the same divine activity pervades the human heart that is progressively stripped of its attachments to vice, and discovers that the object of her desire has been her Lord all along. The human person, after all, bears the image of God, however obscured; the divine marriage is at the heart of his or her being (Gen. 1:27). And so when the heart faithfully returns to its first love, the Spirit, the divine image revealed is that of the marriage, a union of “one flesh” (Mk. 10:7-8) — or more specifically, “one Spirit”, even as there is “one baptism” (Eph. 4:4-6). All this was on the horizon as Jesus spoke these words at the Last Supper. Indeed, the advent of the indwelling Holy Spirit — the enhypostatic union of which Palamas spoke — was still on the horizon even as the Risen Lord dwelt amongst the disciples before his Ascension. It is true that the Spirit was among the disciples insofar as the Spirit was fully present in Jesus. What remained was the fulfillment of his promise to them that they themselves would become as he is — one with the Father (Jn. 10:30), who would abide with and in them spiritually. As the glory which Jesus revealed on Mount Tabor to Peter, James, and John, was so divinely luminous that they wished to erect a temple around him, so also would the glory of God in the disciples transfigure them into the very temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16). It is this luminous, divine glory — the glory of the Lamb — enshrined among those faithful to Christ’s commandments which John, in his vision, saw as being so infinitely bright that it forcefully retired the sun itself, let alone the temple of stone and blood sacrifice, to obsolescence in the New Jerusalem built upon the Word of God (Rev. 21:22-23). True to his word, Jesus had not left them as orphans. He had come to them, and soon, they would have God as a Father, receiving “the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Ro. 8:15). As the disciples faithfully awaited the fulfillment of the divine promise at Pentecost, may we also prepare ourselves in prayerful fidelity to Christ’s word, that we too may be made worthy of his promise of the Holy Spirit, and come to know ourselves as true children of the Heavenly Father — as Christ is. Amen.
Song Meditation: “Spirit Come Into My Heart”
Inspiration has struck!This Holy Week I found myself writing and recording companion songs for the journey, from the Triumphal Entry to the Resurrection. You can find all these brand new songs here:
ICYMI: New Album “Hymns & Homilies” Out NowI invite you to download and listen to my album, out now: “Hymns & Homilies” — an eclectic collection of songs for worship and musical sermons. This is not your grandaddy’s Christian music. Name your price — your support for my work of music ministry is a blessing!
Upcoming Appearances:Sundays at the Ritz are back as of 5/3 — at a new time: 7-9pm!
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