Scripture Opened and Bread Broken
Part 2 of the Eastertide Mystagogy on Receiving the Holy Spirit
[Note: the audio recording above will vary in places from the prepared text below.]
My preaching last Sunday on Our Lord’s resurrection appearance to disciples in the Upper Room on Easter Day evening, where Christ bestowed upon them the Holy Spirit, included this part: I said, “This moment for Christ’s apostles receiving the Holy Spirit was profoundly important for the disciples, therefore it is profoundly important for the Church; and therefore it is profoundly important for our faith. Yet receiving the Holy Spirit is also an experience that happens in the life of a Christian, not only at Baptism but repeatedly in the life of a Christian who is obedient and faithful. What it means to receive the Holy Spirit, therefore, is of primary importance for Christians. And so it will be the theme of the Eastertide preaching this year, framed in this way: “How do we receive the Holy Spirit?”
How the Holy Spirit is received is a relevant even at the foot of the Cross, for Saint John records Our Lord’s final word on the Cross: “It is finished” immediately following which John describes Our Lord bowing His head and giving up the Spirit. The existence of the Church rests in this moment, of the Spirit being given to Blessed Mary, S. John, S. Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Clopas, and a few others. Christianity even can be said to truly begin at this moment of the giving of the Holy Spirit by Christ from the Cross. From this moment, the Church began to grow. And from this moment contemplated as a mystery we are to be led into as Christians, the Church can continue to grow, and find new means for growth in the life of a parish. For the Church always grows from the presence of the Holy Spirit received: which means accepted, heard, pondered, and then responded to.
It is not difficult to defend the doctrine, for we see it even on the day of Easter, earlier in the day than Our Lord’s Upper Room appearance. We see it with two disciples who were setting off to walk from Jerusalem to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem: Cleopas, and “the other guy,” his unnamed companion. They had not received the Holy Spirit, despite His presence everywhere and in all places. They were not yet sensitive to Him; as Luke describes: “Their eyes were kept from recognizing Him” which is the signal that they had not yet received the Holy Spirit; for as Saint John writes in chapter 14 of His Gospel account, Jesus said “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things.” And also in chapter 15: “When the Counselor comes, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, Who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness to Me.” And in chapter 16: “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth.”
How then did the two disciples (Cleophas and the other guy, according to tradition, Luke himself) receive the Holy Spirit? It began when their eyes were opened! And how were their eyes opened? It was through the Breaking of the Bread, the actions of the Eucharist performed by their guest; as Luke says: “When He was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized Him.” Their eyes were opened, in other words, through the same four actions Jesus did at the Last Supper when He instituted the Eucharist, and all by means of the Holy Spirit. And having their eyes opened, then and only then were they able to look back upon the seven mile walk and know Who was with them: it was Jesus. And know what Jesus did with them: He opened up the Scriptures, which means He showed them how to read Scripture Christologically: that is, as always of Christ, relating to Christ, concerning Christ, and spoken by Christ.
Therefore to our Eastertide question, “How do we receive the Holy Spirit?” our first answer is through the breaking of the bread: not mechanically, but received in faith, thoughtfully and intentionally. In a broader sense, the answer is to participate in the holy Mass. For the Mass is of the same structure as the Emmaus episode: the Scriptures opened is the first half of Mass (the Liturgy of the Word) where we hear the readings opened by means also of the prayers and whatever hymns we may sing; and the Breaking of the Bread is the second half (the Liturgy of the Eucharist), where we break the bread, also by means of prayers and hymns.
The Mass is structured on the Emmaus episode, because the pattern of receiving the Holy Spirit at Emmaus is the same pattern as receiving the Holy Spirit at Mass: the two-fold pattern of Opening the Scriptures and Breaking the Bread. The Church rests on this pattern, the Christian faith rests on this pattern, and our capacity to experience the Holy Spirit – to receive Him, accept His gift, hear His gift, ponder His gift, and then responded to His gift – rests on this pattern. Through this pattern, the Apostles of the Church, the Fathers of the Church, and all the Saints of the Church have received the Holy Spirit. May our participation in the Mass, knowing the Holy Spirit is available to us, give us the same active and real presence of Christ in our lives as the Apostles, as the Fathers, as the Saints of the Church have in theirs The same as for Cleopas, and the other guy. Amen.