The Very Reverend Michael
J. Pitts
Greetings from the Dean,
Welcome to Christ Church Cathedral’s web site. Whether you are a visitor
to Montreal, looking for information, or a member of the Cathedral Parish,
seeking the latest news, or whether you have found us while surfing the net,
I hope you will find something useful and of interest here. I always enjoy
trying to answer the messages I receive, or passing them on to the appropriate
member of our staff.
Today, we live in a period of ambivalent culture and ethos. On the one hand
we have striven to build for ourselves a highly secular society, where the
creation and consumption of material goods and pleasures is the driving force
of life. This has been caused by, and, at the same time, given rise to a
scientific world-view in which existence is defined by what is physical and
material. On the other hand, as we see from business seminars, books, newspapers
and magazines, we live in a society which cries out for spirituality.
This season of Pentecost proclaims loudly and clearly that the universe we
live in has a spiritual dimension. The spirit of which we speak is not merely
within ourselves. The book Genesis tells us that at the very roots of creation:
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"…when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless
void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept
over the face of the waters…" (Genesis 1:1-2)
In Hebrew wind and spirit are the same word. Spirit is the creative force
of God at the source of all existence. Throughout Hebrew Scripture, Spirit,
Word Wisdom, together with more concrete manifestations such as Angels and
Spiritual beings, bring the presence of the unknowable, invisible God into
the real experience of human beings. The presence of God is known in his
Law given on Sinai, in his Word spoken through the prophets, but also in
the things of nature, volcanoes, earthquakes and burning bushes, even in
one delightful story, through a talking donkey. Christian Scriptures inherit
all this, and in addition speak of spiritual gifts such as
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"love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23)
St Paul says:
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Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties
of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but
it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given
the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through
the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge
according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another
gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to
another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various
kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are
activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually
just as the Spirit chooses. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)
In short, according to our scriptures, we live in a world with a spiritual
dimension, which is around us, among us and within us. For the communities
among whom the scriptures took shape, the experience of Spirit was a real
experience. The aim of our spirituality is to partake in that experience
in our own times and spaces, to understand the experience within our own
world views, and to communicate it with others.
It would, however, be untrue to the scriptural tradition to present the spiritual
as something unambiguously good. We only have to think of Jesus constant
confrontations with evil spirits and daemons, or to look at the book of
Revelation, to realize that the spiritual world is created, and that all
that is created is fallen, and in need of redemption. The spiritual realities
are only good in so far as they have been redeemed by Christ and sanctified
by the Holy Spirit. As what is good confronts what is unredeemed, it is not
just the case that spirit is around us, among us and within us. Spiritual
conflict also is around us, among us and within us.
It should not therefore surprise us to find conflict in the world, in society,
in institutions, in the church, and in ourselves. Nor should it surprise
us to find a spiritual dimension to that conflict.
As the writer of the Letter to the Ephesians said:
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"Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole
armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the
rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present
darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."
(Ephesians 6:10-12)
Because the conflict is within ourselves also, it should, in addition, not
surprise us that there is ambiguity in all conflict. There are never simple
rights on one side and wrongs on the other. The dualism between The Force
(which is good) and The Empire (which is evil) springs from a source other
than Christian spirituality. We live out in our lives, both inner and outer,
a constant struggle between Holy Spirit redeeming and sanctifying, and darker
fallen forces, pulling us in other directions.
Christian spirituality is not at all about an escape from the world and its
conflicts. It is not a search for an inner peace which ignores what goes
on around us. It is not a means for feeling good about ourselves or within
ourselves. It is call to take up the spiritual armor of God and to engage
in the conflicts of our society, our churches, our world, and, of course,
in the conflicts deep within ourselves.
The fourth Eucharistic prayer of the Book of Alternative services (on page
201), at the beginning, set us in the context of the context of creation.
Then it ends in prayer for the sending of the Holy Spirit
"Gracious God,
we recall the death of your Son Jesus Christ,
we proclaim his resurrection and ascension,
and we look with expectation for his coming
as Lord of all the nations.
We who have been redeemed by him,
And made a new people by water and the Spirit,
Now bring you these gifts.
Send your Holy Spirit upon us
And upon this offering of your church,
That we who eat and drink at this holy table
May share the divine life of Christ our Lord.
Thus we pray that through the spiritual mysteries of Baptism and Eucharist,
our lives and the life of the church, may be sanctified by Holy Spirit, and
share in the life giving force of God.
The prayer then continues:
Pour out your Spirit upon the whole earth
And make it your new creation.
Gather your church together
From the ends of the earth into your kingdom,
Where peace and justice are revealed,
that we, with al your people,
of every language, race and nation,
may share the banquet you have promised."
The Spirit is not a private personal gift, but power for the renewal of the
whole universe. We pray that all that is fallen, both material and spiritual,
may be brought back into the re-integration of the Kingdom of God, symbolized
by the eschatological banquet, of which the Eucharist is, itself, a symbol.
As always, our vocation, though the gift of the Holy Spirit which we celebrate
at in the Pentecost season, is to make ourselves available for the realization
of that for which we pray.
I hope you enjoy a good summer, with time for rest and recreation,
Greetings,
Michael J. Pitts |
