Spirit of God

"The Holy Spirit plays a critical role in man’s salvation."

Tomorrow is Pentecost Sunday. Traditionally, it is known as the birthday of the Catholic Church. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Jesus after his ascension to heaven. The Holy Spirit, sometimes called the Holy Ghost or the Paraclete, takes the form of a dove in literature is the least known and most misunderstood person of the Holy Trinity. Sometimes He is referred as the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Son, the Spirit of Jesus. These terms imply a relation of the Spirit to the Son, which can only be a relation of origin.

Catholic dogma teaches us that the Holy Spirit though really distinct as a Person, from the Father and the Son, He is consubstantial with Them; being God like Them, He possesses with Them one and the same Divine Essence or Nature. As Saint Athanasius stated expressly that “the Holy Ghost comes from the Father and from the Son not made, not created, not generated, but proceeding. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit, ever since the birth of Christianity, is one principle of faith that have been the subject of much heresy. Thus, for instance the Monarchians held that the same Divine Person, according to His different operations or manifestations, is in turn called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; so they recognized a purely nominal Trinity. The Arians and their numerous heretical offspring while admitting the triple personality, denied consubstantiality.

The New Testament makes a few reference of the Holy Spirit. We read in John “And I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with, you for ever. The spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive”; and in John 15:26: “But when the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall give testimony of me.” St. Peter addresses his first epistle, “to the strangers dispersed . . . elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, unto the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” The Spirit of consolation and of truth is also clearly distinguished in the Gospel of John, from the Son, from Whom He receives all He is to teach the Apostles, and from the Father, who has nothing that the Son also does not possess. Both send Him, but He is not separated from Them, for the Father and the Son come with Him when He descends into our souls.

The Holy Spirit plays a critical role in man’s salvation. While the Father is the creator, the Son the redeemer the Holy Spirit is the sanctifier. According to a noted theologian Herman Bavinck, the Holy Spirit “awakens in man that deeply hidden awareness of guilt. He convinces man of sin, even where previously no consciousness of sin was apparently present. The Holy Spirit uses the word of the preacher and touches the heart of the hearer, making it accessible to the word.” When the Holy Spirit convinces people of their sin, of Jesus’ righteousness, and of certain judgment, He awakens the human heart to hear and see truth in a new way. Upon seeing and perceiving, the human heart cries out for God. As sanctifier, He bestows gifts to the soul namely: wisdom which illumines the mind and instills an attraction to the divine; Understanding or the ability to grasp the truths of faith; Counsel which enables a person to judge promptly and rightly, especially in difficult situations; Fortitude or courage, Knowledge which allows a person to see things from the perspective of God; Piety or reverence and Fear of the Lord.

When the Spirit of God came down to the disciples on the day of the Pentecost, the disciples, who hitherto were cowering in fear because they though their Master had left, became infused with the Spirit of God and with full of courage and wisdom began to proclaim the gospel of the risen Lord. Since then Christianity began to spread like wildfire among the Jews and later among the gentiles.

In one of his reflections, Pope Francis identified the Holy Spirit as the fire of love burning in the Church and in our hearts, even though we often cover him with the ash of our sins.

We reiterate the prayer of the Holy Father for the Holy Spirit to grant us the spirit of forgiveness in the midst of intolerance, hasty judgment, discrimination and rejection; for the spirit of unity in the midst of discord and violence; and the spirit of conversion in the midst of sinfulness. Today more than ever, we must seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to enable each and every one of us, including our domestic institutions and the governments throughout the world, to always think and act according to His will. And so on Pentecost Sunday, to celebrate, lets all sing this familiar song:

“Spirit of God in the clear running water/Blowing to greatness the trees on the hill. Spirit of God in the finger of morning: Fill the earth, bring it to birth, and blow where you will. Blow, blow, blow till I be but the breath of the Spirit blowing in me.

Down in the meadow the willows are moaning, sheep in the pastureland cannot lie still. Spirit of God, creation is groaning: Fill the earth, bring it to birth, and blow where you will. Blow, blow, blow till I be, but the breath of the Spirit blowing in me.

I saw the scar of a year that lie dying heard the lament of a lone whip-poor-will. Spirit of God, see the clouds that are crying: Fill the earth, bring it to birth, and blow where you will. Blow, blow, blow till I be, but the breath of the Spirit blowing in me.

Spirit of God everyone’s heart is lonely, watching and waiting and hungry until,

Spirit of God, we long that you only fill the earth, bring it to birth, and blow where you will. Blow, blow, blow till I be, but the breath of the Spirit blowing in me.” 

Facebook Page: Professor Tony La Viña