St. Paul American Coptic Orthodox Church Podcast - Sermon
May 31, 2026 · 11 min · 3 segments
Fr. Kyrillos Ibrahim - Homily for the Feast of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit glorifies Christ by reproducing Christ in the soul of the believer. A reflection on the verse "He will take of Mine and…
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"He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you.
All things that the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you." If we think about the goal of everything that we have been celebrating, the annual cycle of the Church, from the, uh, incarnation and the Paschal cycle of the death and the resurrection of Christ, when we come to the Feast of Pentecost, we realize that all of these things were done for the sole purpose that God may fill the world and every human person with His Holy Spirit.
So in fact, everything that Christ accomplished for us through His coming to Earth, through His teaching, through His passion, through His resurrection, had the sole purpose so that on today, on this Feast of Pentecost, He may pour out His Spirit on all flesh.
And we know as we read in the Book of Acts today, that the apostles were gathered in the upper room.
The upper room, of course, we have the icon, uh, all the way to my left at the front of the church, St. Mary with the apostles gathered around her, waiting in anticipation for the promise of the, of, of her son, of our Lord Jesus Christ, from the period of the Ascension until the period of the Pentecost.
And so we remember that there was, was two great mysteries that happened in the upper room: the Eucharist and the Holy Spirit.
And so these are the abiding means that the Lord has given to the Church to be present with us.
He's present to us by His body and His blood, which we celebrate on the altars, and He's present to us through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit, which is poured out on the Church and to all who are baptized in Him.
So if we think about what we just celebrated last week, which is the Ascension, we can say that Christ, in His Ascension, He exalted the Church and He exalted human nature by sitting, seating it at the right hand of the Father.
And today, He empowers the Church and He empowers every human soul with the power of the Holy Spirit.
So if the Ascension took away our shame from the Fall by raising us to dignity, to stand, to be seated at the right hand of the Father, today, Christ declares that He has empowered us with His own Spirit to live according to the grace of what He accomplished for us in His death and resurrection.
The Church exists only for the one essential and definitive truth that our destiny is eternal and supernatural.
The Church is a supernatural organism that has the sole purpose of lifting us up to our eternal destiny and to remind us of our supernatural calling.
So as I read in the, the verse today, "He will glorify me," that is Christ saying, "The Holy Spirit will glorify me, for He will take of what is mine and declare it to you.
He will take from what is mine and declare it to you." How does the Holy Spirit glorify Christ? Well, let's think about how does Christ glorify the Father.
Christ glorifies the Father through His incarnation, His death and resurrection, by manifesting the love of the Father.
So the Father wants to pour out His love on the world, and so He sends His Son into the world, and Christ accomplishes everything in order to glorify the purpose of the Father sending Him into the world, which is to make known His love, to make known His love and to, uh, uh, to establish the certainty of His love for mankind.
And the Spirit then glorifies Christ by empowering the disciples and by extension, by empowering all of us to live this reality, to live the reality of receiving the love of God and returning that love to Him by the power of Christ's death and resurrection, so that being incorporated into Him, into Christ, we may also glorify the Father through our own lives, manifesting God's love for us in our lives and to those around us.
So how else does the Spirit glorify the Son? By reproducing the Son in each one of us.
The sole purpose of the Spirit in, given to us in baptism is that He might be our guide, our indwelling presence, our divine guest throughout our lives, so that He may create in us the image of the Son again, recreate in us the image of the Son, reproduce in us all that Christ is, in His humility, in His, uh, love, and in His sacrifice.
"He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you.
All things that the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you." If we think about the goal of everything that we have been celebrating, the annual cycle of the Church, from the, uh, incarnation and the Paschal cycle of the death and the resurrection of Christ, when we come to the Feast of Pentecost, we realize that all of these things were done for the sole purpose that God may fill the world and every human person with His Holy Spirit.
So in fact, everything that Christ accomplished for us through His coming to Earth, through His teaching, through His passion, through His resurrection, had the sole purpose so that on today, on this Feast of Pentecost, He may pour out His Spirit on all flesh.
And we know as we read in the Book of Acts today, that the apostles were gathered in the upper room.
The upper room, of course, we have the icon, uh, all the way to my left at the front of the church, St. Mary with the apostles gathered around her, waiting in anticipation for the promise of the, of, of her son, of our Lord Jesus Christ, from the period of the Ascension until the period of the Pentecost.
And so we remember that there was, was two great mysteries that happened in the upper room: the Eucharist and the Holy Spirit.
And so these are the abiding means that the Lord has given to the Church to be present with us.
He's present to us by His body and His blood, which we celebrate on the altars, and He's present to us through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit, which is poured out on the Church and to all who are baptized in Him.
So if we think about what we just celebrated last week, which is the Ascension, we can say that Christ, in His Ascension, He exalted the Church and He exalted human nature by sitting, seating it at the right hand of the Father.
And today, He empowers the Church and He empowers every human soul with the power of the Holy Spirit.
So if the Ascension took away our shame from the Fall by raising us to dignity, to stand, to be seated at the right hand of the Father, today, Christ declares that He has empowered us with His own Spirit to live according to the grace of what He accomplished for us in His death and resurrection.
The Church exists only for the one essential and definitive truth that our destiny is eternal and supernatural.
The Church is a supernatural organism that has the sole purpose of lifting us up to our eternal destiny and to remind us of our supernatural calling.
So as I read in the, the verse today, "He will glorify me," that is Christ saying, "The Holy Spirit will glorify me, for He will take of what is mine and declare it to you.
He will take from what is mine and declare it to you." How does the Holy Spirit glorify Christ? Well, let's think about how does Christ glorify the Father.
Christ glorifies the Father through His incarnation, His death and resurrection, by manifesting the love of the Father.
So the Father wants to pour out His love on the world, and so He sends His Son into the world, and Christ accomplishes everything in order to glorify the purpose of the Father sending Him into the world, which is to make known His love, to make known His love and to, uh, uh, to establish the certainty of His love for mankind.
And the Spirit then glorifies Christ by empowering the disciples and by extension, by empowering all of us to live this reality, to live the reality of receiving the love of God and returning that love to Him by the power of Christ's death and resurrection, so that being incorporated into Him, into Christ, we may also glorify the Father through our own lives, manifesting God's love for us in our lives and to those around us.
So how else does the Spirit glorify the Son? By reproducing the Son in each one of us.
The sole purpose of the Spirit in, given to us in baptism is that He might be our guide, our indwelling presence, our divine guest throughout our lives, so that He may create in us the image of the Son again, recreate in us the image of the Son, reproduce in us all that Christ is, in His humility, in His, uh, love, and in His sacrifice.
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