Corporis et Sanguinis Christi and Buddhist Teaching of Alobha

Following the Trinity Sunday, which comes after the Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi. In fact, we celebrate not only Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ) but also Sanguinis Christi (the Blood of Christ – Corporis et Sanguinis Christi.

Corpus Christi Sunday really focuses on the Sacrament of the Eucharist, as Eucharistic adoration marks an important part of this celebration.

For Cycle B year, the Liturgy of the Word for Corpus Christi Sunday takes us back to the Last Supper, as the Gospel reading (Mark 14:12-16, 22-26) describes Jesus instituting the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

 Though the Sacrament of the Eucharist was instituted by Jesus during the Last Supper, which is remembered on Holy Thursday, the Gospel reading (John 13:1-15 for Cycles A,B,C) for Holy Thursday is about Jesus washing the disciple’s feet.  There is no mentioning about the bread and the wine Jesus shared with the disciples in this Gospel narrative from John.

John’s Gospel does not describe how Jesus and the disciples ate the supper, while the Synoptic Gospels  (Matthew, Mark, Luke) do not describe feet washing and Jesus’ discourse. In fact, John’s Gospel does not even connect the Last Supper to Passover, while the Synoptic Gospels do, because the death of Jesus on Friday took place before the Passover sundown.  In contrast, the Synaptic Gospel narratives describe the Last Supper as Passover Seder dinner, and Jesus died after Passover, as the Feast of the Unleavened Bread already started.

This difference resulted from the different focuses of John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels in regard to the Last Supper and the death of Jesus.  John’s Gospel treats the death of Jesus as the Passover sacrifice lamb and emphasized on Jesus washing the disciples feet and giving the lengthy discourse to the disciples.  The Last Supper discourse of Jesus includes Mandatum Novum (the New Commandment) to love one another (i.e. John 13:34). On the other hand,  the Synoptic Gospels solely focus on how Jesus broke the bread, described it as his body, and commanded to eat in his memory – then, how Jesus pass the chalice of wine, identified the wine as his blood of the new covenant and asked the disciples to drink it in his memory.  Both Matthew’s Gospel and Mark’s Gospel describe that Jesus asked the disciples to eat the bread as his body and drink the wine from the chalice as his blood in his memory until the eschatological time of his reunion with them in the new Kingdom (Matthew 26:29,Mark 14:25).

My thought is that Corpus Christi Sunday Gospel reading for Cycle B (Mark 14:12-16, 22-26) compliments the Gospel reading for Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday) (John 13:1-15).  Because  the Gospel reading for Corpus Christi Sunday is taken from Jesus’ bread discourse in John 6 (John 6:51-58) for Cycle A and from Luke’s narrative of Jesus feeding hungry five thousand (Luke 9:11-17) for Cycle C, these Gospel narratives further compliment the Gospel reading for Holy Thursday and Cycle B’s Corpus Christi Gospel reading on the institution of the Eucharist.

If you read the Gospel reading for Corpus Christi Sunday for Cycle B (Mark 14:12-16, 22-26), together with Corpus Christi Sunday Gospel readings for Cycle A (John 6:51-58) and for Cycle C (Luke 9:10-17), as well as the Gospel reading for Holy Thursday (John 13:1-15), you  can have a more comprehensive view on Corpus Christi – only  the Gospel readings for Cycle B (Mark 14:12-16, 22-26)  and for Cycle A (John 6:51-58) mention Sanguinis Christi . Only Cycle B Gospel reading for Corpus Christi Sunday (Mark 14:12-16, 22-26) reflects the Last Supper.

In fact, the Corpus Christi Sunday Gospel reading for Cycle A (John 6:51-58) alludes to Jesus’ institution of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, as read in the Gospel reading for Corpus Christi Sunday in Cycle B (Mark 14:12-16, 22-26).

It is also helpful and interesting to note that Jesus’ bread discourse (John 6:25-59), which includes the Cycle A Corpus Christi Sunday Gospel reading (John 6:51-58), took place shortly after feeding the hungry five thousand on the other side of the Sea of Galilee (John 6:1-15). Not to mention, Luke’s description of the same event (Luke 9:10-17) is used for the Gospel reading for Cycle C Corpus Christi Sunday.  So, it is important to connect Jesus’ miraculous feeding of hungry five thousand men (Luke 10:10-17; John 6:1-15; Matthew 14:31-21 (cf. Matthew 15:32-38); Mark 6:32-44) to the Last Supper (Mark 14:12-26; Matthew 26:17-30; Luke 22:7-23; John 13:1-17:26) and Jesus’ bread of life discourse (John 6:25-59).

First, Jesus miraculously fed the hungry five thousand men out of five loaves of bread and two fish out of his compassion.  The bread and fish were offered to Jesus to do this miraculous act of compassion.  This echoes the offering of bread and wine for consecration at the altar during the Liturgy of the Eucharist at Mass.  Furthermore, the fact that Jesus looked up to heaven, gave thanks and broke the bread to distribute it to the five thousand men parallels how Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, and broke it to distribute to the disciples at the Last Supper, is reflected on  the way the presiding priest takes the offered bread at the altar, raises it as he looks up, and gives thanks in proclaiming as Jesus did, “Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body, which is given up for you”, during the Eucharistic prayer at Mass.  In the Liturgy of the Eucharist, following the epiclesis, the offered bread on the altar has become transubstantiated through epiclesis by the time the priest fishes citing Jesus’ words of proclaiming it as his body.  This is ex opere operato for the bread and the wine to become the Body and the Blood of Christ, as the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

When Jesus miraculously fed the hungry five thousand, there was no indication to connect the bread to his body. The crowd had no idea what their miraculous experience with Jesus would entail to. But, they thought Jesus was a prophet to have demonstrated such a miraculous sign as feeding the five thousand out of only five loaves of bread and two fish. Furthermore, they were thinking to force Jesus to become their king, and Jesus had to withdraw himself from them because of this situation with the crowd he fed (John 6:15).

Later that evening, the disciple got on a boat, while Jesus was still on the mountain, where he withdraw from the crowd, and began to cross the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum. It was when the weather became stormy and terrified the disciples. Then, they saw Jesus walking on the water toward their boat. Next day, the crowds fed by Jesus chased him all the way to Capernaum and found him.

It was to this crowd, who kept chasing Jesus upon being miraculously fed, that Jesus addressed the bread of life discourse and began it with these words:

I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval (John 6:26-27).

Through his bread of life discourse (John 6:25-59), Jesus wanted the crowds to focus on the spiritual aspects of the bread given by him, rather than its material quality. As this opening statement of Jesus’ bread of life discourse shows, Jesus had to teach, what is understood as the spiritual discipline of detachment in Buddhism, to this crowds, who seemed obsessed with Jesus, who feeds miraculously.

Jesus knew that the crowds would go through vicious cycle of hunger, if their focus remains on physical or material aspects of the bread. Clearly, Jesus’ messianic and salvific mission on earth is not to keep feeding the hungry in this vicious cycle of hunger. In fact, his mission is to liberate us all from this vicious cycle of hunger, as well as the cycle of thirst, which is due to our attachment to material or physical aspect of the source of our sustenance.  The bread and the wine, consecrated and transubstantiated as Corporis et Sanguinis Christi and as the Sacrament of the Eucharist, are Jesus’ way to help us fee ourselves from our tendency to sustain ourselves only materialistically and earthly. This way, we can break free from the vicious cycle of hunger by attaining non-attachment to material and earthly matters.

So, here, we can see a common thread between Jesus’ teaching of focusing on spiritual factors and Shakamuni’s teaching of alobha (無貧) in terms of detachment from the material and physical matter.

As Jesus and the crowd moved from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other side, to Capernaum, after being miraculously fed, there is a shift on focus: from material and earthy matters to a spiritual aspect, in order to guide us to the concept of the Eucharist and its institution by Jesus at the Last Supper. In this regard, the crossing the Sea of Galilee can be symbolically understood as a threshold to move from the realm of solely materialistic and earthly realm toward the more spiritual realm, where alobha-like non-attachment is practiced.

What Jesus meant by “miraculous signs” (John 6:25) in the above opening statement of his living bread discourse is the divine spiritual power that enabled scant amount of bread of fish to satisfy five thousand hungry men.

The miraculous sign of feeding the five thousands in Galilee is the divine spiritual power prototypical for the transubstantiation that turns the bread and the wine into Corporis et Sanguinis Christi. Unless we understand this, we sure do not understand why Jesus said, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me”(Luke 22:19, cf. Mark 14:22; Matthew 26:26), holding the broken bread, why he said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” ( Mark 14:24, cf. Matthew 26:28; Luke 22:20), holding the challis filled with wine, during the Last Supper .

Unless we truly understand what Jesus meant by the “miraculous signs”(John 6:26), we really cannot understand what Jesus meant by saying,  “I am the bread that came down from heaven”(John 6:41), “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world”(John 6:51), “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him”(John 6:53-56), in his living bread discourse in Capernaum.  Unless we really understand this, we remain unable to see the consecrated bread and wine at Mass being transubstantiated into true Corporis et Sanguinis Christi.  Also, unless our heart is in the state of grace, because of our inability to the alobha-like non-attachment to the material and earthly matters, we remain too ignorant to see the consecrated bread and wine as true Corporis et Sanguinis Christi in our eyes of the heart.

This aspect of Jesus’ bread of life discourse is similar to what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman by the Jacob’s well (John 4:4-26) and Jesus’ teaching on heavenly treasure vs. earthly treasure from his sermon on the mount (Matthew 6:19-24).  Interestingly, what follows Jesus’ teaching on non-attachment to earthly treasure (Matthew 9:19-24) leads to his teaching on overcoming anxiety (Matthew 6:25-34). In fact, this echoes Buddhism’s teaching on anxiety and attachment to material matter, as Buddhism teaches that anxiety is rooted in our attachment.  What Jesus wanted the hungry crowds to understand that the very purpose of his feeding miracle on the other side of the Sea of Galilee was not simply to feed the hungry but to teach them to overcome their anxiety from hunger by practicing non-attachment or alobha. 

In both Christianity and Buddhism, we are encouraged to detach ourselves from worldly and earthly objects. It is not only because these objects come and go but really because such earthly impermanent objects often mislead us into greed and addictive attachment. One form of this psychospiritual problem is idolatry. As repeatedly reminded throughout the Old Testament, idolatry has deadly consequences, for it is a reflection of our impure heart.

In Theravada Buddhism, to counter impure heart, which leads to addictive attachment and idolatry, the spiritual principle of alobha is addressed in Visuddhimagga (清浄道論), which means the path of purification. Thus, non-attachment, alobha, in Buddhist sense, means to attain pure heart, free from kleshas (煩悩), defilements.  The spiritual teaching of alobha in Visuddhimagga is certainly echoes in Jesus’ spiritual teaching that underlines Corporis et Sanguinis Christi, reflected in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the Living Bread Discourse, and the Last Supper Discourse.

Let us understand that we must have the alobha-like non-attachment in order for us to receive the consecrated bread and wine as Corporis et Sanguinis Christi in the form of the Sacrament of the Eucharist.  This is why we must be in the state of sanctifying grace to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist (CCC *1415).

In Buddhism these are understood in terms of impermanence (無常). In Christianity, out of these impermanent worldly reality, God the Elohim, whom Jesus has called “Abba” (Mark 14:36), delivers us into the new transcendent reality, like what Jean Piaget’s psychological development concept calls “object permanence” , with Him by the Ascension of Christ (Luke 24:50-53; Mark 16:19-20), upon making Logos , who is God, flesh to dwell among us (John 1:1-14). For the Ascension to take place, the  Death and the Resurrection of Jesus had to take place.

The disciples had thought that the physical presence of Jesus was gone with his death and burial, because they did not understand the Resurrection (John 20:9), though Jesus had already taught about it (i.e. John 2:18-22, 10:17-18; Matthew 16:21, 27:62-63). So, they were quite anxious in encountering the Resurrection.  So, the risen Jesus helped the disciples understand all of his teaching in retrospect, and they came to terms with the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Unbeknownst to them, however, Jesus’ repeated appearances to help the disciples better understand his teaching after his resurrection was to prepare them psychologically and spiritually for his departure, Ascension, and for them to receive the Holy Spirit, so that they can be commissioned to go and proclaim the Good News in building the Kingdom of God on earth.

It was his Ascension and Pentecost that remind us that even the physical presence of Jesus, the Son, in this world is impermanent. However, what is important in Christianity is that the presence of Christ, the Son, is permanent, as the Triune God is the permanent being.  That is why that Christ always remains with us through the Holy Spirit (cf. Matthew 28:20, John 14:26). Thus, the Triune God – One God in Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is the permanent being, while everything else in the universe is impermanent. Because the reciprocity of God and the Word (Logos) (John 1:1), the Word of God through Jesus, especially in his kerygma , is permanent (Matthew 24:34-35). This permanence of God is very important to appreciate “object permanence” in our mature spiritual object relation with the Triune God so that we can truly appreciate transubstantiation from the bread of life into the Corpus Christi and from the chalice of wine into the chalice of Christ’s saving blood – the Sanguis Christi.

As reflected in the bread of life discourse (John  6:25-59), Jesus wanted us to really understand the spiritual aspect of his body and blood, so that we can overcome our tendency for attachment to their material aspects.  That was a problem that these five thousand people, who were miraculously fed, had, as they kept chasing Jesus and as they became hungry again. They could not overcome hunger because they did not see the bread Jesus gave was his body yet and did not yet approach the bread with the heart of alobha.

This spiritual teaching in the bread of life discourse (John 6:25-59) on non-attachment or alobha is also found in the last supper discourse (John 14:1-16:33), as the latter discourse of Jesus is essentially to prepare the disciples for non-attachment or alobha to the physical aspect of himself – to prepare them for his Ascension and for them to fully appreciate the coming of Parakletos on Pentecost. For this, Jesus said:

“Unless I go away, Parakletos will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him (Parakletos) to you…..I am going to the Father where you can see me no  longer…….I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth (Parakletos) comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take what is mine and make it known to you”(John 16:7, 10, 12-15 ). 

“In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me”(John 16:16).

“Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more and then after a little while you will see me’? I will tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoiced. You will grieve but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete”(John 16:19-24).

“Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving he world and going back to the Father” (John 16:25-29).

Now,  juxtapose the above words of Jesus from his Last Supper Discourse in John’s Gospel to the below narrative of Luke  on Jesus  instituting the Sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper:

“I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.  For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God. Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 2In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:14-20).

You notice that the Institution of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, transubstantiating the bread and the wine into Corporis et Sanguinis Christi by the power of the Holy Spirit, as reflected in this Last Supper scene (Luke 22:14-20) and the aforementioned excerpt from Jesus’ Last Supper Discourse (John 16:7-20), as well as Jesus’ Bread of Life Discourse (John 6:25-59), is relevant to the departure of Jesus from this world, the Ascension. Because of the Ascension is the necessary condition for the Pentecostal Holy Spirit to be poured upon us and to the bread and the wine offered to the alter of God at Mass, we truly need to be in alobha , which enables us to appreciate our transcendental permanent object relationship with the Triune God, as in what Jean Piaget argues as “object permanence”.  Otherwise, we would have difficulty with the Sacrament of the Eucharist, as some of those who heard Jesus’ Bread of Life Discourse deserted Jesus (John 6:60-66), because of their inability to appreciate the bread of life as the body of Christ and the wine as the saving blood of Christ.

After all, Chinese and Japanese Buddhists describe alobha as “無貧“, which suggests “no poverty”. It indicates that the Chinese and the Japanese Buddhists view the concept of alobha, non-attachment, as a way to overcome poverty. Of course, poverty here is not about material poverty, but spiritual poverty. This echoes Jesus’ teaching: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3), Jesus’ teaching on humility as the first and foremost factor for the beatitudes (blessedness, rather than “happiness”).  In following this statement in his Sermon on the Mount, it is clear that Jesus, like Shakamuni, teaches us that alobha is indispensable to live a blessed life, transcending anxieties and fear. 

This is what we must reflect and ponder every time we bring ourselves to the alter to receive Corporis et Sanguinis Christi. Amen.

*CCC - Catechism of the Catholic Church

Trinity as God’s Self-Revelation in Salvation Process toward Revelation 22, New Eden, New Jerusalem

Many people explain Trinity as the Father the Creator, the Son the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier, as this way of explaining Trinity reflects the three personalities in one God. In Trinity, “creator”, “redeemer”, and “sanctifier” are the three characteristics in union or the three hypostatic unity of one God.

Some people use the three hypostases of Trinity with a metaphor of the three states of water: vapor (gas), water (liquid) and ice (solid).  But, I prefer to use a metaphor of light: one white light showing three distinctive rays of color as it passes through a prism.  All these three rays can be put back into the same white light with another prism.  In fact, light was created by God the Father, the Creator, on the very first day of Creation , when the earth was still dark and not fully formulated (Genesis 1:3). In fact, God is light, as there is no darkness in God (1 John 1:5). Thus, using one light that comes with three rays of colored lights as a metaphor for Triune God – one God of three hypostases – is more appropriate.

Our Triune God reveals Godself and God’s three hypostases gradually through the Bible, from the beginning of the Book of Genesis on, all the way to the end of the Book of Revelation. The way I see this gradual self-revelation of God of three hypostases is based on the Creation and God’s responses to the defilements of the Creation caused by our sins.  Revelation of the three divine hypostases (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) of one God reflects God’s desire to keep the Creation good, as it was good when it was made by the Father the Creator (Genesis 1:31). That is why God revealed Godself as the Son to redeem the original goodness of God’s Creation, including the original goodness of us, God’s beloved (1 Thessalonians 1:4; James 2:5), as we are being created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26).  As God the Redeemer restores the goodness in us through reconciliation with God’s mercy and enlightening with God’s wisdom and logos, we are being prepared to be entrusted again by God the Father the Creator not only for the fiduciary stewardship of His Creation but also to build His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, because this is to carry on the mission of God the Son the Redeemer.  For us to be commissioned, God the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier comes from God the Father the Creator to us, as on Pentecost.  This Trinitarian revelation of one God continues on and remains with us all the way until the end of time, until seeing God finally face to face (Revelation 22:4).

God’s self- revelatory  evolves from Genesis 3 all the way to Revelation 22, following the Creation and a brief period of harmony among God and His Creation, including the humans (Genesis 1-2).

In Genesis 1, God, as Elohim, which is a masculine Hebrew word, reveals Himself as the Creator.  It was when the Holy Spirit was present as blowing winds (ruah , which is feminine).  As Elohim creates a human with clay, he put his breath (neshmah, which is feminine) to give life and animate the human (Genesis 2:7).  At that time, only the God is revealed as Elohim (masculine) the Creator and Ruah and Neshmah (feminine), the two hypostases. This two-out-of-the-three self-revelation of Triune God continues throughout the Old Testament, though God in the Old Testament is also called Adonai (master), El Shaddai (almighty God), El Elyon (God most high),  Yahweh / Jehovah (“I am”),  El Oram (everlasting God), El Roi (seer God), El Gibbor (God of strength), and El chay (living God) while all of these names of God come with masculine impression, the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, Ruah and Neshmah,  are feminine.

While these feminine Hebrew words for the Holy Spirit, Ruah and Neshmah, precedes the neutoral Greek word on the Holy Spirit, Pneuma, and the masculine Greek word, Parakletos, God as Elohim in the Old Testament precedes God the Father in the New Testament, as the Hebrew word, Abbha, is used by Jesus in calling God in heaven – El Elyon.  It was when Jesus was going through psychologically and spiritually agonizing time in Gethsemane on the night before his death (Mark 14:36).

In John’s Gospel, Jesus reveals Holy Spirit as Parakletos in his Last Supper discourse, signaling to the disciples that the Holy Spirit is not just pneuma, because, by naming pneuma as parakletos, it will stay with them as their guide, counselor, advocate, and comforter, just as he, the Son, has (John 14:16, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7).

By the time Jesus, the Son, died, all the three hypostases of Triune God, the Father (Elohim, Abbha), the Son (Jesus the Christ), and the Holy Spirit (ruah, neshmah, pneuma, parakletos) were revealed in the Bible, to mark the climax of God’s evolving salvation process, moving from Genesis 3 into Revelation.

It is also important to note that the revelation of the Son is in response to our persistent defilement by our sins, which corrupted priests and defied judges and prophets throughout the time of the Old Testament, as metaphorically juxtaposed in Jesus’ parable of the defilement of the vineyard (Matthew 21:33-44).

With the above background in mind, I must begin with God’s Creation, as the Father is the Creator. But, God’s Creation was defiled by our sins. So, the Father the Creator has sent the Son the Redeemer to restore the goodness of His Creation. Through the death and the resurrection of the Son the Redeemer, we rectify our relationship with the Father through the Son. Then, the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier is poured upon us not only to sanctify our faith, making us the sacramental beings, and to commission us to carry on the salvific work of the Son the Redeemer, as it is the Will of the Father, who initiated this process and has sent the Son the Redeemer and the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier.

Now, let’s put this view of Trinity through the creation and salvation history from Genesis on.

                                                                           ******

One way to approach Trinity is to view it as an evolving way of God’s self-revelation through His salvific process, which started in response to the Original Sin committed by Adam and Eve, all the way into the restoration of the beauty of the Garden of Eden into the New Jerusalem in Revelation 22.

First, God the Elohim revealed Himself as the Creator.  As Genesis 1:1 says, God created heavens and the earth.  Then, Genesis 1:2 describes that the earth was not fully formed yet, it was still empty and dark. However, waters and the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, as ruah, were already present on earth. The presence of the Holy Spirit before the earth took its form and all the creatures on it were formed indicates that the Holy Spirit is of critical importance when something is formed with God’s will. In this context, the Hebrew word used for the Holy Spirit is ruah, which is feminine and literally means winds, movements of air.

When God formed a human and gave life to it, he put his breath into its nasal cavity (Genesis 2:7). In Hebrew, another feminine Hebrew  word, neshmah, is used both for the breath of God (Genesis 2:7), which turned a molded clay into a living human, Adam.  

There is a juxtaposition between ruah (Genesis 1:2) and neshmah  (Genesis 2:7), as ruah was necessary for God the Elohim filled the void of the earth, making the earth a living place in God’s whole Creation, while neshmah of God the Elohim was necessary to create and give life to the humans. The common denominator between ruah and neshmah  is life, as the former is to give life to the earth and the latter is to give life to the humans. Also, given the fact that neshmah is also a movement of air, but it is coming out of a living being, in this case, it is coming out of El chay (living God, i.e. Psalm 84:2) as His breath.

Later in the New Testament, Jesus the Son indicates his breath as the Holy Spirit to his disciples, on the evening of his resurrection (John 20:22), suggesting that ruah and neshmah can become essentially the same as the Greek neutral word, pneuma, as the Holy Spirit, whether it comes as a form of wind or breath.  In Trinity, the breath of the Son  (John 20:22) is a new form of the breath of the Father (Genesis 2:7). It is when the Son has proven that his life is everlasting, as it has overcome death.  Thus, the Son, in his essence, is El chay (living God) and El olam (everlasting God), as it is what the Father is.

The Holy Spirit was also necessary to bring forth the Son, as it was the Holy Spirit that made Mary pregnant with Jesus (Matthew 1:20), making the Word become flesh to dwell among us (John 1:14). In making Godself appear in a tangible human form, as Jesus, as the Son, there is a parallel between the Holy Spirit (pneuma) and the Word (logos).  Furthermore, the Word was at the beginning, as it was with God and is God  (John 1:1). Thus, the Word and the Holy Spirit are reciprocal in Trinitarian sense, as both of these relate to the Son in the same way.  God the Holy Spirit was made flesh as God the Son (Matthew 1:20), the Word, which is God (John 1:1), was made flesh as the Son to dwell among us (John 1:14).

One interesting aspect of this parallel between the Holy Spirit and the Word in regard to the Son, Jesus, God incarnate, is that God’s intent to put an order in the World has become evident with bringing the Son to the World. Revelation of God through the Son was to bring order to the World, and it is a very critical step in God’s unfolding salvation plan.

When God created the earth and filled it with everything, including all living beings, it was good (Genesis 1:25). Then, God created a man in His image, making both male and female (Genesis 1:27) and entrusted them to manage the earth (Genesis 1:28). Namely, the earth is the World. At that time, both the World and the humans were very good (Genesis 1:31). So, the humans, Adam and Eve, were living in the Garden of Eden, which means paradise in Hebrew, as they were entrusted and commissioned to take care of it (Genesis 2:15).

The goodness of God’s creation, including  the goodness of the World, began to be stained with human defilements upon the Original Sin, as described in Genesis 3 and on.  The Original Sin marks  the beginning of the ongoing corruption of the World, continuing as the deuteronoic cycle of sin, as one sin bled into another and more, in spite of being punished and having repented.

First, God’s judgement was to evict Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, making human life mortal and subject to suffering (Genesis 3:15-19).  By kicking Adam and Eve out of Eden, God was no longer able to entrust the humans the tree of life (Genesis 3:24).  In spite of this judgement, the humans did not take a lesson well, as their sin escalated into murder out of jealously, resulting in further judgement (Genesis 4:1-16). This cycle of sin continues on to a boiling point for God to send the Flood (Genesis 6).

Though He ensures that we know due consequences of our sinful acts through His judgement, God also wanted us to repent and improve ourselves so that He would not have to punish. This reminds us that God cares. For this reason, God sent prophets to warn us when we are slipping into sins and heading toward the danger of receiving due judgement.  However, as the deuteronomic cycle throughout the Old Testament shows, we beat and killed the prophets, rather than respecting and following God’s will through their messages. In spite of our such a despicable sinfulness, God’s mercy prompted Him to send Himself as the Son to us in the World, hoping that we would really learn this time and break the cycle of sins.  This was when the Son came into the picture. However, did we respect the Son and listened to him?　In other words, did we repent the sins we had committed – repent for offending God and for failing to be good stewards of His Creation?

No. We betrayed him, mocked him, and killed him. To some, the ignorant, it was out of anger (Mark 14:63; John 5:16), as the jeering crowd, shouted to crucify him. To others, the narcissists, it was out of jealousy (Mark 15:10), as his presence disturbed their deep insecurity.

In fact, the way we have let our sins offend God the Father the Creator and killed God the Son the Redeemer reflects Jesus’ parable of the tenant workers of the vineyard (Matthew 21:33-44), which is related to the Vineyard Song in Isaiah 5. In this parable, God the Father the Creator is the landowner, who created the vineyard and entrusted the tenant workers to manage the vineyard. This parallels the fact that God the Father the Creator gave us the humans the fiduciary stewardship of His Creation – the World or the earth, as it is like the vineyard of the parable.

In this parable, Jesus meant the vineyard for the Kingdom of Israel or the Northern Kingdom, which perished in 722 BC, because of their persistently unrepentant sins.  Many prophets, who are the servants of the landowner in the parable, warned the Israelites to repent and return to God. But, they refused and continued to sin and offend God. So, God finally took the ultimatum action.

The parable tells that the landowner took the vineyard from unfaithful tenant workers and gave it to others, after the original tenant workers murdered the son of the landowner, upon killing all of his servants.  This suggests that God the Father the Creator, who created the earth, metaphorically referenced to the vineyard, gives His Creation to those who are faithful to Him. But, the World has to be redeemed and the goodness of the people also need to be redeemed for them to be faithful. For this, God the Son the Redeemer, died, as the son of the landowner died, and was raised from the dead by the power of God the Father the Creator through God the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier.

Because the Son was raised from the dead, God has proven that our sins cannot defeat the power of God , even though our sins once killed the Son. 

Just as the Holy Spirit left the body of the Son with his last breath on the Cross, the World turned dark, echoing God banishing from Eden, as Adam and Eve were evicted. But, it did not mean that God abandoned the World and us, as He sure did not abandoned the Son. So, God the Father raised (John 5:21) God the Son through God the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11) on the third day, in order to continue on His salvation process further unfold. Thus, the risen Son reached out to the disciples, who abandoned, and restore their faith in him by sending pouring his breath and commanding them to receive the Holy Spirit (John 20: 19-23).  The Holy Spirit was back in the World upon the Resurrection of the Son. Because of the Holy Spirit in the post-resurrection world, our history has been moving forward on to redeeming the lost Eden – to redeem the defiled and lost vineyard, until the end of time.

As the Eastertide Sunday Gospel narratives describe, and as the risen Christ taught the two disciples about his teaching on their way to Emmaus, the risen God the Son the Redeemer refreshed his teaching for us as he prepares us to become true fiduciary stewards of God’s vineyard – God’s creation and to join God the Son the Redeemer’s unfolding work of building the Kingdom on earth.

The establishment of the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven is the purpose of God the Son the Redeemer to be sent to this world through God the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier impregnating Immaculate Mary and to send God the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier directly to us on Pentecost after the Son returns to the Father.

The Kingdom completes in Revelation 22, which is the very last book of the Bible.

By Pentecost, Triune God makes all three hypostases known to us: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Son explains all these three to us the disciples of this day before his Ascension so that he can send the Holy Spirit upon us to enable and empower us to carry on his mission as our mission to continue building the Kingdom. Thus, with grace of our Triune God, especially with the gifts of God the  Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4-11), we become more able to build the Kingdom as our mission, as the trusted co-workers of God’s new post-resurrection and post-pentecost vineyard.

Today, we live in the time of an extension of the Acts of the Apostles, past the Old Testament and the Gospels.  The old defiled vineyard is replaced with the new vineyard through the death and the resurrection of the Son by the love of the Father.  The loving Father has given us a new chance to be His fiduciary stewards and His Son’s friends (John 15:15).   This continues all the way into the time of the Book of Revelation.

Until we see the Father, we continue to work diligently and faithfully, utilizing the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But, for this, we first must encounter the Son – not only through the Holy Spirit, which is omnipresent, but also through the Word and through the Sacrament of the Eucharist as it is Corporis et Sanguinis Christi, instituted by the Son during the Last Supper.

No wonder that Trinity Sunday, which follows Pentecost Sunday, is followed by Corpus Christi Sunday.

Now, we are much more familiar with how all three hypostases of one God – the Father the Creator, the Son the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier, are related not only to each other but also to us – to our purpose as God’s fiduciary stewards, servants, beneficiaries, children, and friends.

By the adoptive nature of the Holy Spirit, we are in Triune God’s family (Romans 8:14-17, the Second Reading for Trinity Sunday B), as God’s beloved children and the Son’s friends, as well.  In this way, with the full revelation of all three divine hypostases of Trinity during Eastertide, we celebrate Trinity Sunday and acknowledge our existence drawn into the divine space of Trinity, as we continue to journey into the establishment of the Kingdom and the realization of the New Eden, the New Jerusalem, as imaged in Revelation 22.

Blessed are we to be called the Father’s beloved Children, just like the Son, and the Son’s friends, as advocated, counseled, comforted, and guided by the Holy Spirit!

We encounter these hypostases of our Triune God in everything, as reflected in the Spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola, as everything in the Universe is created by God the Elohim, who is also El chay , who breathes and give neshmah – making us living beings to practice fiduciary stewardship of Elohim’s Creation.  Let us keep the Creation undefiled, while keeping our soul clean, as we continue to strive on the salvific mission of the Son.

Just  as the quality of a prism or the way it is set determines what rays of color come out of white light, what hypostases we encounter depends on the situation and time between God’s Creation and the realization of the New Eden (New Jerusalem) as we continue to journey on eschatologically.