THE DENIAL OF PENTECOST IS CALLED “GLOBALIZATION”

“THE DENIAL OF PENTECOST IS CALLED GLOBALIZATION” – a homily by Fr. Athanasios Mitilinaios

Pentecost Sunday, Homily 838

The Holy Spirit, my beloved, had already been called up from the earth. The Father said it clearly:

“My spirit will not remain in these people forever, because they are carnal.” (Genesis 6:3)

The people were driven headlong. The two clans of Adam, Cain’s and Seth’s, had mingled, moved by carnal desires. It says that the sons of Seth, his descendants, saw that the daughters of the descendants of Cain were beautiful and they intermingled (Gen 6:2) and they were ruined, to the point that God was provoked to decide for the flood to come.1 He therefore says (pay attention to this passage): My spirit will not remain in these people forever (he does not say for eternity) because they are carnal. So I withdraw my Holy Spirit.

From this, let us learn that the carnal man cannot possess the Spirit of God. It is not the custom of the Holy Spirit to come down into a man who is carnal. We now know from the New Testament that man is – not his soul only but also his body, and especially his body – a temple of the Holy Spirit. How is it possible, then, that this body which will be dragged into various immoralities, after being compromised as a temple of the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit to dwell there now within it?

Indeed, the whole way of life of the people was preserved 120 years more, and then the flood came. Only the family of Noah was saved, and humanity began to spread over the earth once more. But the root of humanity remained wicked, the will, the thought. It says this, of course, in the holy text of Genesis: the mind of man in bent on wickedness from his youth (Gen 8:21).

And when people decided to spread over the earth, they said among themselves to create a physical monument that they might remember the starting point of their beginning, from where they departed, from where they started. And they began to build the Tower of Babel. You know, to leave a monument behind, a physical sign that evokes memory, is not bad, but for them it was a work of arrogance. “Look at what we made, who we are.” God did not bless this, of course, and then God said:

‘Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that each one cannot understand what his neighbor is saying’; and the Lord scattered them far and wide over the face of the earth, and they stopped building the city and the tower. (Gen 11:7-8)

They didn’t finish the tower or the city. Babel means “confusion”, and it was so named because there was a confusion of languages; one said one thing and the other understood it differently.

Fifty days after the Resurrection of Christ, my beloved, the Holy Spirit came once again, as it is known, upon the people. This is why our Church in its hymnography notes something very characteristic,

When you descended and confounded the tongues, the Most-high divided nations…(Kontakion of Pentecost)

He divided into nations, into many groups of people. Pay attention. He was dividing into nations, it says in Deuteronomy (4:19). That is, he set boundaries for each nation, borders. To keep them is very helpful. We will see why.

…When the tongues of fire were distributed (on the day of Pentecost), He called all to unity…

While there was at first a scattering, now with Pentecost a unity occurred,

…and with one voice we glorify the all-holy Spirit.

We see, then, that Pentecost stood to correct the arrogance of the people who attempted to build the Tower of Babel, and of course, that which unites all people from now on is not culture, not buildings, not monuments, but the Holy Spirit, and whoever accepts the divine-human Person of Christ also accepts the Holy Spirit. If you do not have Jesus Christ, it is not possible to have the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit also accomplishes the spiritual life. What we call “spiritual life” is this, the life of the Holy Spirit – not the life of the human spirit (everyone who has breath). What we call the practice of “spiritual life” is not based on man’s spirit, but on the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit we cannot be saved. If the people suffer, it is because they do not have the Holy Spirit, because they do not accept Him.

The main thing that we lack today, particularly in our days, is precisely this: the Holy Spirit. The prerequisite, of course, is that the people have, as I said, believed in Christ beforehand. You must have Christ in order to have the Holy Spirit.

You may ask yourself, What can the Holy Spirit give us? First of all, with the Holy Spirit we acquire the mind of Christ. St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians, we have the mind of Christ (2:16). How? If we have Christ, we have the Holy Spirit who gives us the mind of Christ, and this means I think as Christ thought. Think about it, my thinking is Christ-like. It is anti-worldly and it is squarely oriented on the eternal things and on the will of God. He will say, I have the mind of Christ.

Second, we have the Spirit of Truth, as the Evangelist John tells us in the fourteenth chapter (14:17). As God, of course, the Holy Spirit is always truthful; the Holy Spirit cannot lie. This is said in contrast to the spirit of lies and of deception which is the devil. The Evangelist John writes, do not believe every spirit (1 Jn 4:1), but only in the Holy Spirit which is the Spirit of Truth.

This means that in the world, the spirit of error prevails, which we should be aware of, in order to distinguish it from the Holy Spirit (1 Jn 4:6). And what is the fruit of the spirit of error? Pay attention: Fortune-telling. Magic. Heresies. The nature religions, which we Orthodox Christians are going to at an alarming rate, these foreign nature religions coming from the East. The Buddhist says, we know this, we know that. Woe to us! The worldly manner of living and thinking are spirits of delusion.

(And let me tell you the latest, something completely new. It was published in a newspaper, that in some elementary schools, as a trial, in the First Grade of Elementary school – you heard right – the subject of magic is being introduced. The newspaper gives examples, how in the primary school where we learn how to read and write, the ABCs and so forth, there is also a guide book which initiates children into magic. Did you hear that? There is a saying that nature abhors a vacuum. Now apply it to this: the moment we expel Christ from our lives, it is quite natural for the devil to take His place, and the patron saint of magic is the devil. Did you hear? I will challenge all of you, parents and grandmothers and grandfathers, if you see this case becoming common, to march in protest to save our children.)

The Holy Spirit, however, is the anointing of Truth. The Evangelist John writes in his first epistle:

…the anointing you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you… (1 Jn. 2:27a)

You don’t need anyone to teach you because you are God-taught,

…but as this same anointing teaches you about all things… (1 Jn. 2:27b)

The Holy Spirit teaches us about all things. There is a separate Sacrament after our baptism where we are anointed with the Holy Chrism. Baptism is one thing, Chrismation another. Chrismation is to receive, through material means, with this Myrrh, the Holy Spirit – through material means – I say again, because the Holy Spirit is seated in this sanctified oil. This is how we take the Chrism, this second Sacrament, through which will be given to us whatever good God wants to give to us. The Holy Chrism is in fact our dowry, and this Chrism teaches us about all things.

…and it is true, and is not a lie; just as it has taught you, abide in Him. (1 Jn. 2:27c)

With the Holy Spirit, my beloved, we have a clear distinction of truth from falsehood, the earthly and transitory from the heavenly and permanent, the advantageous from the disadvantageous, the legitimate from the illegitimate. We are able to discriminate. This is spiritual discernment, which is different than physical discernment. Physical discernment is to discern with your eyes that this is darkness and that is light, a physical distinction. This is cloth and that is water, a physical distinction. The distinction of these other elements I mentioned constitute what is called spiritual discernment.

A third point. Isaiah says that we have a Spirit of fear of God (11:3). The Holy Spirit also gives us the fear of God. The fear of God, therefore, is not undesirable, but desirable. Yes, it is to be desired. And lack of fear? Lack of fear, my beloved, loses what is acquired. It will help me to not fear the devil, but God I will fear, because lack of fear, I repeat, loses what is acquired. This is why the Apostle Paul says “with fear and trembling (which is the intensification of fear) work out your salvation” (Phil 2:12).

If I lose my salvation, what happens? Lack of fear cast out the first-formed man and woman from Paradise, whereas fear of God admitted the robber into Paradise. Fear of God admitted the robber when he said to the other robber, his partner, ”Do you not fear God?” (Lk. 23:40) Because at first, both of them blasphemed Christ. Later, he came to his senses. The fear of God got into him! He was terrified! and when the other continued to blaspheme, he said to him, “Do you not fear God?”

For the one who does not have fear of God, which attracts the the Holy Spirit, everything is allowed, as Dostoyevsky says, what is lawful and what is unlawful, and to kill and to steal and to do evil. Everything is allowed since I do not have the fear of God. This is why our people say, “He is not God-fearing”, he has no fear of God, unlike the Christians in ancient times who were called “those who fear the Lord”.

Fourthly, and this point is the most important, the Holy Spirit becomes for us a Spirit of freedom. St. Paul writes,

“and the Lord is the Spirit (the Holy Spirit), and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.” (2 Cor 3:17)

Do you see? Where the Holy Spirit is, there is freedom. A deep thought, and a key one indeed.

There are many today who do not have the Holy Spirit, and consequently they do not have a correct understanding of freedom. Freedom is the most abused thing. They view freedom as indecency (cf. Gal 5:13), and this is an element of self-destruction. Again, as the word of God says, the people who call for freedom are slaves of corruption (2 Pet. 2:19). These are phrases in the New Testament. The anarchy and the immorality are signs that the Holy Spirit who gives the correct understanding of freedom is absent.

Another, a fifth point, if you like. The Psalmist says that we receive a governing Spirit. It is in the 50^th Psalm: ”and establish me with a governing spirit” (50:14). It is the governing mind [νους], that which is established by the Holy Spirit. So the mind governs, not the feet, not the heels, not any other part. The mind governs. This is why David is frightened and says: ”Do not take Your holy Spirit from me” (50:13). Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me because of my sins, because I lost my way.

And one last point for now, because we could go on about the many, many gifts the Holy Spirit brings us. He gives us the Spirit of adoption. The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans says,

“but you have received the Spirit of adoption, by which we cry ‘Abba, Father!’” (8:15)

By this Spirit we call God “Father”. Tell someone to call God “Father” when they don’t get along with God. Impossible. He does not call God “Father”. Know that the Holy Spirit inspires us to call God “Father”, and when we say “Our Father”, this “Our Father” is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, and from adoption the sense of security is born.

So, my beloved, when I have the support, the shelter of the Father, I feel secure. Do you know when a man does not feel secure? When he does not have God as Father. This is why we have many many bad situations today. That is to say, to call God “Father”, with all consistency, has enormous psychological significance.

Since we have so many privileges, beloved, from the Holy Spirit – and of course many more than we have enumerated – I say to you: WHO WOULD EVER BELIEVE THAT THE CHRISTIANS WHO HAVE RECEIVED THE ANOINTING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WOULD THINK ABOUT RETURNING TO COMPLETE THE TOWER OF BABEL?

What do you all say? “Who would ever imagine this? Are the Christians going to return again to build the Tower of Babel?” My beloved, this “building up again of the Tower of Babel” is the rejection of Pentecost, which is called “globalization”. Did you hear that? The rejection of Pentecost is called globalization.

God made borders for the nations. If you want to read more about this, it is in Deuteronomy (3:14-17); it is also mentioned by the Apostle Paul from the Pnyx in Athens (Acts 17:26), and in other places in Holy Scripture. God wants borders, just as he wants curtains in the home of each and every family.

Do you know what happened some time back in Russia, with the [Communist] experiment. Someone says, “What will he call family? Everything is in common.” They quickly realized that this thing would not stand. Is this thing [Communism] standing? 2 This is also happening with the nations, and not simply because we have a cultural leveling; believe me, that’s the least of it. We are seeking the union of people through globalization in social unity, in commercial unity, in cultural unity, and above all, in religious unity. This is precisely what we call “ecumenism”. We throw all the religions into the melting-pot to produce that which we call “ecumenism”.

We therefore put God out of the way, the God who stopped the tower building and then gave us Pentecost. We get rid of God. We don’t need God. This kind of unity is utterly, utterly demonic, and with this unity – pay attention – the world will end. It’s not coming back. God is through. This is the course: Tower of Babel – Pentecost – we return to the Tower of Babel. There the world will end, and its end will be tragic. The end of the world will be inspired by the devil, the antichrist and the false prophet, this unholy trinity.

The Lord posed the question: ”When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on earth?” (Lk 18:8) My beloved, He will find faith on earth, but only in a few, the remnant (στο λεῖμμα) as the Apostle Paul says (Rom 9:27), in a small portion who are left.

And so, beloved, today we celebrate Holy Pentecost. Do we realize its great significance? and how the Holy Spirit has graced us? Without the Holy Spirit we have no reason to exist, just like the people before the flood.

Disdain the proclamations of various globalists, but above all in the religious sphere, ecumenism. Close your ears and hold on tightly (Rev. 3:11) to the Orthodox Faith inside your heart. We have entered the land of the last days. Everything points to this. We who have the Holy Spirit are becoming more and more sanctified, awaiting the Lord Jesus who assures us, “I am coming quickly” (Rev 3:11).

“And the Spirit and the Bride (the Holy Spirit and the Church) say (with one voice), “Come!” (Rev. 22:17) “I am coming quickly.” (Rev. 22:20) “Come, come, O Lord!” And whoever hears within the story, I say, let him say, COME! (Rev. 22:21) Amen.

THE END – TO GOD BE THE GLORY

1. St Isaac the Syrian: “He brought [punishments] upon them in order to show that He hated sin. Why then were the generations of the days of Noah drowned in the Deluge? Was it not on account of the vileness of lasciviousness, because they had violated the beauty of the daughters of Kain? In that time there was no love of money nor adoration of idols, nor sorcery, nor wars waged [by men] against one another.” (Mystic Treatises, 78, tr. Wensinck, A.J., slightly edited)
2. Fr. Seraphim Rose says a few words about Communism here. -tr

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