You know, the... I saw all the number of guests, you know. Especially of the sisters. I said, my, here, and there we sing. I don't want to leave you orphans. And I have a little the feeling maybe we leave you orphans to a certain extent, you know. And I have the feeling you feel that. But today, you know, and with Pentecost, my, it should be a day of fullness, you know. But fullness, there is no fullness without personal encounter. You know, one has to see into one another's eyes. One has to greet So I welcome you in the name of the Holy Spirit in this beautiful weekend. I'm glad that you came to celebrate it with us, the Feast of the Spirit, that your joy may be full.

[01:09]

Hallelujah. Now if we try maybe to, I don't want to, you realize of course that tomorrow we have the mass and Father Martin will celebrate the mass and he has prepared sermons so I don't want to enter into that domain of the mass tomorrow. I thought it might be good, first of all, if just I would share with you a few thoughts concerning the spirit. I mean, in its, to say, in its symbolic background, let's say, you know, the spirit, you know, its wind, you know, is the basic meaning of it, you know, pneumo, is wind and breath. So it's one, it's the air, it's one of the elements.

[02:11]

There's the fire and there's the earth and there's the water and there's the spirit. The fire is an element which is aggressive, which consumes, which transforms. That in that way is a picture of that transforming power of God. The way in which God takes, let's say, our material being and through this, his power, lifts it up so that we ascend in clouds, you know, to the upper regions. Then there is the earth, and the earth is an element of stability.

[03:14]

And the earth is something that has dimensions, it's solid, and of course what man does is takes a portion here, and takes it into his regime, and takes a portion there, and takes a portion there. The earth, that means one part and one, let us say, body next to the other. And the earth is in that element out of which, for example, nourishment sprouts, you know, that we then eat. And our eating, you see, of course, we last analysis, we live on the earth as far as our food is concerned. And that builds up our own body. And you know very well that there are limits to eating.

[04:17]

See, you eat so much. Sometimes you eat too much. When you eat too much, you kind of feel it. You have problems of digestion. Why? Because things are too, you know, compact. One, you know, doesn't get together with the other. There's an element of division there. Now if you come to the air, to the wind, you know, then you get into a completely different dimension. That's what I would like, you know, that you would see that. There are two aspects, if you want, to the wind, the air. It can be, for example, like a day-to-day. It can be very quiet. You move in the air without feeling any kind of obstacle.

[05:23]

There are no walls. You know, your head is all right, even if it, you know, I mean, if you bump against the wall, it's fatal. But I mean, in the air, the air gives in. See, the air is in some way, the air is an element which is there. In some way, one can say, not being there. See what I mean? See, it is not something, food you take into your hand, you grab it, here I have, The AI is different. It is the most penetrating element. It is common to all of us. It's common. And it is, at the same time, it is something which exists as if it didn't exist. It animates. We live from it. For a moment, if AI is taken away, we would collapse.

[06:23]

But when it is there, we don't realize it. I would say that in that way the air, you know, is the most, I would say, modest, you know, the most humble of all elements. It's an element which completely gives itself without starting any fight, you know, to kind of keep its own space, keep its own dimensions, something like that. It's just a gift. That's what one calls the spirit, the gift. It's only a gift. But at the same time, why, you know, when it is quiet, the air is still, It is this, you have this tremendous inner feeling of peace, just walk around today, this marvelous day. Or you have the feeling of a light breeze, you know, which just kind of, you know, gives you coolness and so on.

[07:33]

It kind of, it kind of, yeah, it's a tender element. And it is an absolutely selfless element, completely selfless. But at the same time, too, air can develop power. It can take the form of storm, and then it can break the trees. It can lift up houses, we know that, tornadoes and so on, terrific things may happen. So with all this, you know, stillness and this kind of selflessness that the air has, it's by no means without strength and without direction. If it is, when it is, let us say, gathered together, it can develop a tremendous impact.

[08:37]

It's very, you know, the element that is closest to air is water. These two elements in all the scripture, in the Old Testament especially, those two elements are related. They are akin to one another. Because the water is the same thing. It's one of those elements that exists as if it didn't exist. It carries you and you don't know how. You can dive into it and it gives room. You can use it on plants. You can drink it. And a drink, as we said this afternoon, from the water at the wayside, you know, may revivify us completely. But how? It, just like the air, it gives itself.

[09:40]

If you water, if you channel the water through little channels and irrigation channels, yeah, the water gives itself completely. And by giving itself, it makes things sprout up. It gives this tremendous effect of abundance that we see right now. A cool May is always a marvelous time for the farmers, provided they have planted the things in time. But the grass is always there, thank God. And then, you see, therefore the water is an element in which one can move, you know, with complete freedom. I emphasize that so much because it seems to me that the essence of the spirit, for example just now in the state in which I am, you know,

[10:51]

with a heart and so on. People say, oh, don't run. Don't jump. Don't talk. Don't read. Don't write. Don't think. Everything tires you out. And it's true. But thank God there's one element left. And that's the spirit. And there you can be in bed, you know, and lie there. And the spirit is there. In other words, he doesn't leave us orphans. And so this thing, you know, to my mind, what is already in the symbolic form of the spirit, you know, spiritus means that, you know, the air. And that can have this tenderness and it can have this strength.

[11:55]

And the strange thing is, you know, that it has the two things. But it always gives itself. It makes no great noise about its existence. It never tells you, you should be grateful that you are able to breathe me in, you see. This is simply gift, you know. Then we take it, we breathe it in, that is then breath, and that's the other, see that's the other meaning of the spirit, it's breath. This breath, you take a deep breath. As the Chinese say, some people breathe from the depth. Other people just breathe up in their throats. The people who breathe in their throats, they are the superficial people. Their breath is soon at an end. The people who breathe from, let us say, out of their depth, they are firm.

[13:04]

They have something. They have quiet. They don't have to shout. But they are. They are. That's the beauty of the Spirit. And that is the wonderful consolation. Now, I just wanted to call your attention to this, you know, so that you realize, you know, when we now quote a few things, and that's what I wanted to like to do, just to quote you a few things about the Spirit in the Old Testament. So that you see, maybe one could put it this way, the Spirit in its symbolic form, let us say, air, represents a dimension to my mind, the decisive dimension of hope. And of course we say very often, you see, if we are in a room and there isn't enough air that can get in, we say it's stifling.

[14:08]

Open the windows. Famous John XXIII in his spiritual naivete, you know. And it's quiet, you know, kind of sureness opens the windows. Now, then you can take a deep breath and then kind of again you live. You are able to take in this gift which permeates you completely, which absolutely completely adapts itself to you. Air doesn't have to be digested. Flesh, yes. Flesh has to be digested. But of course the whole thing is, you know, that the meaning of the New Testament of the coming of Christ is that the spirit and flesh find one another. That's the important thing. But that's what I wanted to tell you. You see, the spirit represents, it seems to me, already in its symbolic significance, a new dimension.

[15:13]

just as if a man could fly on news wings, and very often in our dreams we do that. My, what a tremendous liberty it is, and what a feeling it gives us of victory. But why? What is the reason, you know? It's simply this, that air is, I would say, a basic element of freedom. But why is it a basic element of freedom? Because it is nothing but giving itself. So it makes no claims in that way on us. It only gives. And that is, to my mind, our only hope for the future. That we have to get, especially in the West, and especially in this present situation, we have to get out, you know, of this kind of Let us call it the earthly sphere, what Holy Scripture calls the flesh, where one part is against the other.

[16:20]

Here is one with his convictions. I can't get through him. It's like a rock. See, there he is. And then he is, at the same time, eager to get over or attack the others. Always this division. Instead of that, we should go beyond, beyond. To me, the earth, the air, the spirit, represents already in its symbolic aspect a dimension in which this thing, where the things, you know, kind of push one another in space. Oh, let us say, we as human beings, you know, try to get our place on the sun, you know, and so on, and to establish our dominion, or to establish our conviction, see, and to live in our castles, you know, and build up these walls, so on.

[17:24]

And in that way, you see, cause then war. cause all this kind of struggle for survival, all this, how do you say, also the hatred that goes with it, you know. This impenetrability causes frustration, causes hatred, causes division, causes war. And the spirit is completely above it, you know. Completely, just like the sun shines over the just and the unjust. And how does the spirit do it? We all move in it. Why can we move in it? Because the spirit immediately gives room. It's not this kind of thing, of course. Over stones and through stones, one could be stoned to death. But the air is different. It creates a common atmosphere. And this common atmosphere is something that does not take away any liberty, but at the same time gives, let us say, this marvelous example of an existence.

[18:36]

Now sometimes today we try to point it out by saying non-resistance, or we try to say non-violence. All these are concepts and ideas by which we can try to approach the future and a future which would be in peace. As this beautiful word of Zachary, just to mention it right away, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit. says the Lord of Hosts. You see, there you see right away that the Spirit gives you, if you think, for example, sometimes we say, oh God is a spiritual being, or God is pure Spirit. I would really like to know what people have in their mind when they say that, that God is pure Spirit.

[19:41]

That means that God is, one can say, completely and totally gift. That is why in the Holy Trinity, I mean, this whole thing, if we have it today, you know, there's the Father and there's the Son, and for heaven's sake, let us not forget, the Son is God, just as the Father is God. But the father, by being father, doesn't cease to be God. Nor does the son cease to be son by being God. See? So you realize what there is a difference. For example, we speak about generation gap. In every family, We have the parents and then comes the time where the revolution comes. Reaching 13, 14, 15 comes the revolution. Maybe today already before that, I don't know.

[20:43]

But then, you see, things come up. And then being a son seems to be against independence. And of course, as you know, in the history of dogma, many people, the Aryans, always thought, yeah, if you call a person the second person in the Trinity, the second person can never be God. God can only be the first person, absolutely exclusively. If you call somebody a son, he must be a creature. He cannot be God. You see, that is, to my mind, political thinking. And it's typical human thinking. Typical human thinking. The greatness of Christianity is that the second person can be son and fully God. So that when he becomes man, you see, and just because he's the second person,

[21:51]

He becomes man. He can say to us, my teaching is not my teaching, but the teaching of the one who sent me. And by that he doesn't lose a thing, not an inch, so to speak, of his divine statue. But you see, that is another dimension. We don't think of that. We think always in competition. And that's for example Islam, you know. Islam is such a typical and never a projection, it seems to me, I say that tentatively, of power thinking, you know, in an absolute superlative on the one God. God is God, Allah is Allah. And there's nobody behind. So he is an absolute Lord. And therefore he is leader in the war, you know, the holy war, all this kind of thing.

[22:56]

And of course all the Pashas and the Sikhs, you know, in the whole world are the images of this God. And that has its influence also on us. We still are struggling with these things. But for example to celebrate Pentecost, to my mind, One practical aspect of it is, for heaven's sake, get out of the dimension, let us say, of the earth, of the flesh, and go into the dimension of the spirit, where you can take this deep breath, and you can live on this deep breath. Why? Because he gives himself totally to you, without measure. and without saying that he is there. Now as for example in Ezekiel, did you understand this thing what I was kind of driving at?

[23:58]

Because I think the future is in a higher dimension. It can only be a synthesis. It cannot be today the church is torn to pieces by Not by the spirit, but some people say, I want my Latin in my mass. I want to say my prayers in mass. And then boom, there you are. Too much talking, too much noise or what. Now in some way, it's true there's also a function of silence in the realm of the spirit. Absolutely true, and I think we all realize that. But if people, the people of God is together as people of God, then of course the medium is of communication is the word. The word is the way in which the spirit communicates itself. We can't again, you know, it's the air which carries the word.

[25:02]

Now here, for example, if you listen to this, I'll just quote Ezekiel 36. Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. What is an idol? An idol is only the me absolutized, you know. That's an idol. And that is, of course, the opposite of the spirit. The opposite of the spirit is the me that absolutizes itself, where we become a stone. And therefore one says, a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within. So the flesh and spirit are in themselves, not opposed to one another.

[26:08]

They can get together, provided that there is a new heart, and that this new heart is not of stone, not this earthly thing, not this spatial thing, not this impenetrability, not this rigidity. That is what has to go. and in that way then the new heart is now for example I can I read another little quotation to you and you can see it there right away for example that in the old testament of course this element of the spirit is and stands and rests upon the messiah behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delights." That is a real personal inner relation, father and son.

[27:11]

I have put my spirit upon him, that's the equality. He shall show judgment to the Gentiles, that means the judgment of God, that means the agape which covers many things, which dies for the sinner, that's the judgment. Should never forget that, you know. He shall not, you see then, in this spirit, the servant, shall not strive, that means be an agitator. He shall not cry. He shall not lift up his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. See, that's the agitator. But, now see what the spirit does. A bruised reed shall he not break. And the smoking flasks shall he not quench. You see, that is the spirit. The spirit is the element which lets, brings, let us say, weakness to life.

[28:15]

That's the new dimension. If there is something in a miserable little being that struggles for life, the Spirit is there to console it. The Consoler. The Spirit is the Consoler. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach, what? What does the Spirit do? Good tidings to the meek. Not a crusade in that way. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted. You see that element of complete giving and of synthesis. To proclaim liberty to the captives, an opening of the prison to those who are bound. See, that's the new element of the spirit. And what imprisons us, it's the rocks, the stones, it's the rigidity of this earth. to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God.

[29:23]

But what is this vengeance of the God? It's the death of his son for our sins. To comfort all that mourn. See, to comfort all that mourn. The consoler, the comforter. To turn to them that mourn in Zion. To give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning. The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. What is the spirit of heaviness? That's listlessness. Heaviness is the opposite. It's that spirit which makes you earth, which weighs upon you, weighs you down, takes away your possibility to lift up your heart. That is the essence of the spirit. that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

[30:24]

And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and you shall be named priests of the Lord. Man shall call you servants of our God. Ministers of our God. That's the spirit. That is ministry. See, all that. It's all this element which gives rule. And in that way gives freedom. And that, you know, if you understand that. If God wants to communicate himself to us, if God will never has anybody, nobody has seen God. But if God wants to appear among us and he does it, becoming man, becoming flesh, the word becoming flesh, it's absolutely clear that you cannot

[31:28]

Consider this, what comes into the world with this incarnation. You can't think that's just like another table, another chair, waiting for somebody, and they're moving around in the room. It's not another tool. It's out of the question. It isn't in that way not another human being that you simply take in, let us say, by absorbing him, you know, into psychologically, into your community. If the God-man enters this human society, the God-man has to come with his kingdom. His kingdom is a sphere. One can say it's an atmosphere. It's an air that we breathe. It's not a chain with which he gets us together and takes away our liberty or anything like that. It's impossible. That would be devilish. That would be a dictator.

[32:30]

But where God becomes man, his realm, so to speak, in which he communicates himself, that's the spirit. But then think about it, the spirit, what the spirit is, that the spirit is this element from which we all live without knowing that it is there. You understand what I mean? Thank you.

[33:05]

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