Good as place as any to post my thought for the day! Today is the Feast of the Ascension moved to the Sunday. Our Lord said that the Holy Spirit could not descend until He ascended into Heaven. Does this reveal a great Mystery about the Trinity? Is it that more than one Person in the Trinity cannot exist simultaneously in this world? What does this mean about the Nature of the Trinity? Perhaps, we cannot know.
Jesus says that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and about the Holy Spirit He says that the Spirit of Truth will guide you into all truth. Therefore, the Holy Spirit points toward Christ, and there was no need to guide people to the Truth while Christ was with the apostles on Earth. The Truth was with them... The Father sends the Son The Son revals the Father The Holy Spirit continues God's work in people's hearts after Jesus ascension
I’d be fairly sure that at least one of the Fathers contemplated these Words. I just haven’t come across it. But the Fathers covered so much ground. In a nutshell, did Christ actually mean that, rather than it being an arbitrary declaration, it was impossible for the Third Person to come into the world until the Second Person had left it? There is the instant that the Spirit overshadowed Our Lady and Jesus was conceived-perhaps the one monumental exception (and probably the central event in the history of the Universe) that proves the rule? This leaves huge questions as to what is the relationship between the Three persons within the Unity, both in the world and in Heaven, and between the Trinity and the fallen world. Perhaps, we are not capable of such understanding, but if this is what He meant, Christ was not trying to hide it from us. We see only through a glass darkly. The world could not hold all the books that could be written about Jesus Christ.
I think this is one of the greatest mysteries of Heaven, something almost impossible for us to fully comprehend. God willing, we will have all eternity to understand it more deeply. I once heard an interesting explanation God often looks at the whole. In the Old Testament, He views the people of Israel as a whole, marriage as one, the Church as one, and even nations and states as collective entities. Of course, in His justice, God knows every individual heart and judges each person righteously. If we take the example of a state, it has judicial, legislative, and executive authority the courts, parliament, and the government or president. God is infinitely more complex than any human system, and obviously His roles are not divided in such a way, but I believe that many structures and systems in the world reflect, in some way, the order God has placed into human reason, even when we are not consciously aware of it. What I find especially fascinating is the way God reveals Himself: first as the Father, then as the Son, and then as the Holy Spirit. In a certain historical sequence, the revelation unfolds in this way, yet the importance or divinity of none of the divine Persons is diminished as time progress..
My husband and I have discussed this. His theory is that it was the Holy Trinity's way of showing that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father AND the Son. So, the Holy Spirit is sent to the Apostles once the Son reunites with the Father.
That sounds precisely right. Had He not ascended, the Spirit could not proceed. Let us pray that our Orthodox brothers and sisters, who share so much with us, will finally realise this Truth of truths.
---- "A True Letter of Our Saviour Jesus Christ Consecrating the Drops of Blood which Our Lord Jesus lost on His way to Calvary. St. Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary, with St. Matilda and St. Bridget, wishing to know something of the Passion of Jesus Christ, offered fervent and special prayers, upon which there appeared to them Our Lord Jesus Christ who spoke to them … ... the drops of blood which I lost were 28,430..." [For the entire text of A True Letter of Our Savior Jesus Christ, see pp. 27–29: https://www.motherofmercychapter.com/Prayers/Pieta Book.pdf ] I remember someone asking about the Pieta Prayer book. The online version above can be downloaded. It includes both The Fifteen Prayers revealed by Our Lord to St. Bridget (pp. 4–15) and the Pieta Prayer Book (pp. 15–29).
