The truth of Life is in its breath, in its breathing…
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.” (JN 20: 19-23)
The power of truth is not in its content. The external notion of truth quickly becomes opinions that get argued back and forth in the futility of trying to convince, or more often, intentionally shutting someone down. Real Truth does not shut down. It is never something forced upon us and when we attempt to force any ‘truth’ on others it is malevolent violence! We don’t believe that truth resides deep within our hearts, within our lives. We keep it locked down for fear of… Yet it longs to stand in our midst.
How can we identify Truth in this way and see it for what it is? In the Gospel passage from John on the feast of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus appears suddenly through locked doors, stands in the midst of his disciples and says Peace Be With You. There is nothing glamorous about this greeting. After saying “Peace,” what does Jesus do next? In effect, he shows them his woundedness, the signs of his death, his hands and side – the visible scars of how he was killed. This is the truth. This is not the kind of peace we may normally think of when we hear the word, much less when we are greeted with peace. The truth stands in our midst and confronts us deeply if we allow it! It is confrontational! And when we refuse to face it, we create little truths that lie in the darkness.
Jesus again says “peace be with you,” and then he sends them. After he said this, he breathed on them. Life. The truth of Life is in its breath, in its breathing. Isn’t this the Holy Spirit of God? Life itself? And how do we treat that Divine breath? Do we honor it? Do we destroy it? What makes us hold our breath? What madness makes us take the breath from another?
This Holy Spirit, the Divine breath lives in us. God breathes in us. Sometimes breathing can be dangerous, as we have been experiencing in the COVID 19 world. Breathing the virus upon one another can result in sickness and death. Paradoxically, just as Covid19 can be transmitted through breathing on someone, so the transmission and communication of the Holy Spirit is described as ‘breathing upon.’ Discipleship requires receiving the Holy Spirit, wherein, we must breathe upon one another, and allow others to breathe upon us. Perhaps not literally and physically given our current situation, but the living interaction symbolized in breathing upon is a prerequisite for Life in the Spirit. Quite simply, this is the Truth of Life. The alternative is indifference, inhumanity, the taking away of breath, the willful killing of life itself. This is the murdering of Spirit!
How are we receiving the Holy Spirit? Are we thwarting Her powerful communication of life? We as humans have been given the responsibility to ensure the Holiness of the Divine Spirit of life. That is our deepest truth perhaps. Yet, we are failing in that responsibility as evidenced in recent events, most recently in the hideous killing of George Floyd. This person’s dying words are a verdict of the void of Spirit in our world, and even a Pentecost prophecy, “ I can’t breathe!” The Divine Breath – The Holy Spirit – breathes in us, all of us, not just some. She breathes everywhere – not just in an ‘upper room’ of privilege. She is telling us that we are suffocating and literally killing each other, because we cannot or will not see Who is breathing, and Who is not.
When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (ACTS 2: 1-11)
The Wholeness of Breath is the only real peace we can offer to one another. And this whole peace of the spirit is a fire that burns. This burning is the mandate of Love that morally obliges us to see each other’s wounds and be accountable to them. This is breathing on and breathing with each other. In other words, this is the necessity and immediacy of honestly facing the devastating reality of supremacy and privilege and the systemic racism that kills life in the Spirit.
Pentecost is not a past event but the compulsory way of Living the Truth! The onus is on us. And this living Truth is hard work that involves intentional actions to dismantle structures of sin that impedes aliveness.
O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!
Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill..
(taken from the sequence in the Pentecost liturgy)