May 15, 2024

I have recently returned to reading the books of one of my favorite authors, Robertson Davies. His interconnected and intertwined novels offer satire and humor, religion and myth, and wonderfully relatable human – very human – characters. Near the end of The Rebel Angels, one of the main narrators, the Anglican priest Simon Darcourt, is reviewing the state of his life. He recognizes how he has focused on petty considerations, being caught up in unimportant desires. He asks the question of himself, “Do you truly set such pursy vulgarities before the completion of your soul?”

I looked up the word pursy only to discover that it is a Pentecost word… and that Darcourt’s question, in which it is found, is a very fitting question for the season of Pentecost. Pursy means “shortness of or shortened breath.” How did I make this connection? We often talk about the Holy Spirit as the breath of God. We are God-breathed creatures. [Genesis 2:7] In John’s account of the “Pentecost” moment whereby the Spirit enters us, Jesus “breathes” the Spirit into his disciples. We are, in effect, doubly divine-breathed! Once at creation, again through Christ Jesus.

In this light, Darcourt’s question, “Do you truly set such pursy vulgarities before the completion of your soul?” becomes a test of breathing. Are we breathing into the Spirit completely? Are we allowing the Spirit to fill us completely? Are we fully aware of what it means to be God and Christ-breathed? Do we act accordingly? And finally, what completes our soul?

Rev. Eric