Of all the images used for the Holy Spirit, the most profound image for me is that of the “breath of God.” Ruah is the Hebraic word for the breath of God. In the very beginning, God breathed upon the waters of the abyss, and life came forth. In Ezekial 37, the prophet sees a valley filled with the dead bones of an army. God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones. As the prophet does so, the bones reconnect and sinew, muscle, and flesh form on the bones. Then God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath, as the prophet does so, the breath of God present in the four winds descends upon the valley and reanimates the dead bodies of the army. God’s breath flows through all of creation animating the life in all living creatures, plants, in our soil, our water, our air, and has left its imprint on the mighty geography of our planet.
We like to compartmentalize our lives into “church/religion” on Sunday, and then the rest of our time outside of church away from God. When we reimage the Holy Spirit as God’s breath we cannot separate ourselves from God, for God is present in the very air around us which we breathe into our lungs. There is no away time from God for God is everywhere. We exist because God wills it, and our very existence is within in God. To try to exist outside of God would bring about instantaneous physical and spiritual death. Present-day humanity that prides itself on being self-reliant, self-made and beholding to nobody but itself does not want to hear this truth. Without God’s breath, our bodies are nothing but a heap of dead, dry bones. We are totally and completely reliant on God.
On Pentecost, the mighty wind of God’s breath blew through the city of Jerusalem into the people of that Upper Room. They went forth from that room and with the power of that Divine Breath, utterly changed humanity. All of humanity’s wisdom and knowledge, scientific breakthroughs, art, music, poetry, literature, all things good come to us in the Holy Spirit, the Divine Breath of God. On this Solemnity of the Pentecost, may the Holy Spirit, the Divine Breath of God, stir within our bodies, minds, and souls an equal zeal to go forth and change the world.
