Fire of the Holy Spirit: interfaith dialog in cyberspace

"You must be Stephanie's friend," Angela introduced herself to me after the Easter Sunday church service. "It's great to meet you. Welcome. Do you have questions about the church or anything else?"

"As a matter of fact," I replied, "I was wondering what meanings and messages the stained-glass window images convey." Not missing a beat, Angela answered, image by image. And so ended our encounter . . . we thought.

The next day, she sent me a thoughtful note and clarification about the stained-glass window via e-mail to Stephanie (shown here in her Easter Sunday finery at church).

And so began Angela's and my two-person, two faiths online interfaith dialog! We have been learning about both faith traditions in a stream-of-consciousness-like Q&A format as we check facts, histories, meanings, rituals, and more of our traditions to ensure accurate answers. Often, it can be weeks before we send an answer.

I always like when people ask me questions about our faith. — Angela

From: Angela
Date: 2007/04/08
Subject: Fire of the Holy Spirit

Stephanie! It was so nice to meet your friend Tamar at Mass today. I know from your blog that she has a real interest in understanding her Christian brothers and sisters, so I want to give good info.

I always like when people ask me questions about our faith because it causes me to think more deeply and do a little studying. I had never actually pondered the symbolism of the window — it has been a "given" for me for quite some time (I think the window was installed when I was a child).

Symbols of the Holy Spirit
As we were coming home and I thought more about it, I realized that I misinterpreted part of my answer about the symbols of the Holy Spirit, and in realizing this, the meaning of the whole window (the Blessed Trinity) became clear to me for the first time. I hope you will share this clarification with Tamar and thank her for inspiring me to think about it.

All Christians, and we as Catholics, believe in a triune God — one holy, almighty and ever-living God who is experienced in a Trinity of three divine beings or persons, God the Father, Jesus Christ (God the Son) and the Holy Spirit (God the Spirit).

Alpha and Omega
Of course God the Father, Yahweh, the I AM, is represented in the window as the Alpha and the Omega (shown on the right), Greek letters for the beginning and the end. I'm sure you both know that belief in God the Father is common to Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths - we all believe in the same GOD.

Cross and Holy Eucharist
Jesus Christ (God the Son) is represented naturally by the cross and by the Holy Eucharist . . .













Dogwood blossom
. . . and the resurrection is depicted in the dogwood blossoms.





Dove
The dove represents the Holy Spirit as described in Matthew 3:16, where the dove descends on Jesus after His baptism and God speaks from heaven, marking the beginning of Christ's public ministry.

TAMAR REPLIES: I love that the dove is a symbol with multiple meanings in the Hebrew Scriptures, starting in Genesis 8:8, where Noah released the dove to find land. Yet the dove returned to the ark, lacking dry land to alight on. Twice again, Noah released the dove; first, it returned with a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak (Genesis 8:11): the water had receded. The third time Noah released the dove; it did not return (Genesis 8:12). The flood's ending was a sign that God's war with humankind was over. And so, the dove — alone or with an olive branch, represents peace.

Yet the dove is also a symbol of war. From Jeremiah 50:16 (Hebrew follows English): ". . . for fear of the [oppressing] sword of the dove everyone will return to his people, and . . . flee to his land." מִפְּנֵי, חֶרֶב הַיּוֹנָה, אִישׁ אֶל-עַמּוֹ יִפְנוּ, וְאִישׁ לְאַרְצוֹ יָנֻסוּ And, when my Hebrew literature class in Tel Aviv studied Meir Shalev's "A Pigeon and a Boy" (not yet in English translation), in which carrier pigeons in wartime are central "characters," clearly the dove is not exclusively the symbol of peace — or of war.

Fire
So here is where I got mixed up: the fire is a representation of the Holy Spirit as it descended in the form of tongues of fire on our Holy Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Simon Peter and all of the Apostles at the Pentecost, following Jesus' ascension into heaven in Acts 2:3. This is when the Apostles were commissioned in their ministries. Our Catholic priests and bishops are direct successors of this commission in a two-thousand-year-old unbroken chain of succession. (And the Pope is a direct successor of Peter - the Rock, Matthew 16:18.) They are the only ones with a true commission directly from Christ to consecrate the Eucharist, and perform the other sacraments.

My mistake was in referring to the Burning Bush, which was, of course, a manifestation of God the Father, when he spoke to Moses in Exodus 3:2 many, many moons before the Holy Spirit came to guide us. They are the same in that they are all ONE GOD, but the reference was to the wrong DIVINE PERSON. The Burning Bush is God the Father, not the Holy Spirit.

TAMAR REPLIES: When you visit the Negev desert region of southern Israel, you might see burning bushes (common in a scorching dry environment). A wonderful teaching I heard: The real miracle of the burning bush was Moses' exquisite attention and focus on humble vegetation (the bush) and an ordinary phenomenon (burning), which proved him trustworthy of shepherding a people. He noticed the bush ("insignificant" to others who seek "sparkles") as a devoted shepherd who notices every sheep — none of which is too small or unimportant.

Sorry for the mix-up. It is good to have a reference Bible. ;)

TAMAR REPLIES: Yes! And good to read in the original because every translation is an editorial;-) I have been a student of the Hebrew Bible since I started to read, and to this day pore over source text and the multiple commentaries on its meanings, relevance, and more. I will never know enough Hebrew or related disciplines (archeology, history, geography, Biblical era religions, laws, and languages, among others) to understand the text properly. Though I keep trying and with help such as yours, I can inch along . . .


And the conversation continues . . .

Angela with her family
Hubby is Greg, Big Bro is Christopher
and the little one is Daniel.
My sweet boys – not quite three years apart.