Ukrainian Orthodoxy		Orthodoxie ukrainienne

Very Reverend Ihor Kutash kutash@unicorne.org

(Trinity Sunday - Pentecost - The Descent of the Holy Spirit)

Anyone who has lived upon this earth for some time with some awareness has already realized that things here are not easy. In the midst of so much beauty there is so much trouble, hardship and worry. The world's beauty seems to promise that one can be truly happy on this planet - but there always seems to be something lacking. And if you go pursuing that happiness it seems always to elude you. If only we could find it and if only it would stay with us! But is such a thing possible? Or is it just a temptation?

Today's Feast - the Day of Pentecost, the Descent of the Holy Spirit brings us a Gospel reading (John 7:37-52,8:12) with images which speak of a happiness that lasts and that makes other people happy, too. Jesus says: "If any one thirst, let him come to Me and drink". It is not only water that people thirst for. Jesus offers relief from a spiritual thirst, from the thirst for happiness, from a thirst for answers to our hard questions - a thirst for meaning. There is a time when it is pleasant to be thirsty!

When you know that your thirst will be satisfied with a nice cool drink - and when you are enjoying that drink, you are happy that you were thirsty and you look forward to being thirsty like that again! It is when you fear that your thirst will never be satisfied - that you will die without a drink - that thirst is a fearful and horrible thing.

Jesus says: "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water'". It is not that followers of Christ never know thirst - but that we know by faith and experience which has been proven over and over again, that our our thirst will be SATISFIED! Not only that, but we shall be sources for satisfying other people's as well. So rich is this experience that it is as though RIVERS OF WATER were flowing through us - LIVING, that is bright, clear, pure, cool water, the kind you want to drink, the kind you want to swim in to be refreshed and clean.

This promise of the Lord's also shows us the preconditions for receiving this kind of happiness. First we must be thirsty and we must know that we are thirsty. It is the Holy Spirit working in us that helps us with this. He awakens a thirst in us for real happiness, the kind that is satisfied only by living in God's love. He helps us realize how thirsty we really are for that kind of life.

Then another precondition is that we must be willing to share. The living water which satisfies all our thirst does not flow out of a selfish, cold, unforgiving, suspicious heart. If we are always worried only about ourselves, we will not notice how God continually meets our needs and points us towards lasting and true happiness - the spiritual happiness of being connected to Him by faith and mercy and kindness to others.

Oh Lord: help us to realize how thirsty we really are. And give us the joy of drinking your Holy Spirit and sharing Him with others.

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