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Fruits of Pentecost: the Christian gardener
Christian Century, July 3, 1996 by Vigen Guroian
IN SPRING Christ brings a new dispensation of hope out of the winter of our disobedience. The divine Word who became flesh renews the whole creation. Christ waters us with the blood that spilled from his pierced body. Now our lives are "like a watered garden" and we "shall never languish again" (Jer. 31: 12). The garden in which the Lord of Life was buried grows sweet basil and fragrant lilies. "My beloved has gone to his garden, to the beds of spices/to pasture his flock and to gather lilies. / . . . He pastures his flock among the lilies" (Song of Sol. 6: 2-3).
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I was born in May, and as a child I liked that fact. It seemed that everything that was dead in winter came to life then. I knew my birthday was near from the size of the buds on the maple tree that I climbed. I stretched out among the lilies of the valley that grew wild in our yard, their snow-white bells announcing spring. This was also when my father's gardening began in earnest. Into the raked and leveled soil went the tomato and pepper plants and the eggplants, the squash and cucumber seed and the beans. The garden plot was being transformed, and I could already steal a taste of its first fruits--round red radishes and crisp lettuce leaves; I dipped tender new rhubarb shoots in a big bowl of sugar.
Pentecost often comes in May. On Pentecost Orthodox Christians decorate churches and homes with greens and- flowers. In the Old Testament Pentecost was a feast of the first harvest of grain. The Christian Pentecost, however, commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles who were gathered in the upper room. The church was planted in the spring of the year, says Ephrem the Syrian. "God planted the fair Garden, He built the pure Church . . . / In the Church he implanted the Word. . . . / The assembly of saints bears resemblance to Paradise: / in it each day is plucked the fruit of Him who gives life to all" Hymns on Paradise 6:7, 8). At Pentecost the Spirit was showered upon the church and "living waters flowed in Jerusalem" (Armenian Mid-day Hymn for Pentecost). Every living soul upon whom the Spirit rains becomes a fruitful garden like Paradise.
In truth there have been many Pentecosts. The church's Pentecost was foreshadowed at the foundation of the world when "the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" and life began. Pentecost itself anticipates the last day when all things will be made new by the Holy Spirit. The personal Pentecost of every Christian at his or her baptism and chrismation was foreshadowed when the Holy Spirit visited Mary and also when the Spirit in the form of a dove descended upon Jesus in the Jordan river. All of these Pentecosts promise immortal life in Paradise. A hymn to the Holy Spirit in the Armenian rite of baptism proclaims:
The Dove that was sent
came down from high
with great sound and like the flashing
of light
he armed the disciples with fire
while they were seated in the upper
room.
The Dove [who is] immaterial, unsearchable,
searchable,
. . . searches the deep counsels of
God
and taking the same from the Father
tells of the awful second coming.
Henry Mitchell, in his book One Man's Garden, observes that "it is not important for a garden to be beautiful" in everyone's eyes. But "it is extremely important for the gardener to think it is a fair substitute for Eden." Perhaps this is an overstatement, or perhaps it is a theological truth. It is important for the Christian gardener to see beauty in the garden of his own self. The particular aspect of that beauty might depend upon what sort of garden a person is to be. But the model of our perfection is Beauty and Goodness itself. The fire is one, while it has many tongues of flame. St. Gregory of Nyssa says the "Dove" is the "archetypal Beauty."
At my baptism I turned my back on the serpent in the first garden, and at my chrismation and every Pentecost thereafter I look upon and listen to the song of that beautiful bird of Paradise whose goodness is a gift to anyone whose eyes see, ears hear and heart is open.
Adam and Eve were cast out from Paradise, but the memory of Paradise remains. So gardeners try to recreate Paradise in their own yards. The Christian gardener believes that on Easter the curse and the prohibition imposed on the first couple were removed. At mid-spring Pentecost the azalea and irises flame the earth in red, blue and gold. The Christian gardener stands in the midst of Paradise as fiery tongues invite "earth to heaven" and lilacs send up sweet incense with the mind.
At this time in nature's cycle, God grants every Christian gardener the chance to experience the sacrament in the physical garden. The Armenian Melody for Pentecost celebrates the earth transfigured in floral colors, connoting virtue and immortal life: "Give thanks to the Holy Spirit who descended this day upon the Apostles. / He armed them by miracle with fire and they spake with divers tongues. / By his holy coming the earth blossomed anew, / With fragrant rose and violet and saffron." In his commentary on the Song of Solomon, St. Gregory of Nyssa exclaims:
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