The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church

We begin every holy sacrifice of the Mass, which commemorates the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ as celebrated at the Last Supper the night before He died for our sins, with a citation from St. Paul's second letter to the Corinthians 13: 14, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of  God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all."  The central mystery of the Catholic faith is that God is a Trinity, three divine persons in one God (one substance or essence).  The second ecumenical council at Constantinople in 381 A.D. confessed the faith of the Apostles when they said, "We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father."  The great fourth century Doctor of the Church, St. Athanasius, expressed it this way in his creed, "Now this is the Catholic faith:  We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son's is another, the Holy Spirit's another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal their majesty coeternal."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that, "The whole divine economy [God's plan for mankind] is the common work of the three divine persons.  For as the Trinity has only one and the same natures so too does it have only one and the same operation."  The Holy Spirit is present throughout salvation history from Genesis to Revelation. Thus, the Holy Spirit is said to be amongst Moses and Israel when they crossed the Red Sea and when the Angel Gabriel came to our Blessed Mother, he said, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, hence the Holy offspring to be born will be called Son of God.  "When Mary followed the direction of the Spirit and visited her cousin Elizabeth, St. Luke tells us, "When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting the baby leapt in her womb. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. . ." St. Peter confessed in Mt 16:16, when Jesus asked him who he was, "You are the Christ the Son of the Living God" and Jesus assured him these words came from the Father,  undoubtedly by the Holy Spirit.  The Catechism also notes, "Everyone who glorifies the Father does so through the Son in the Holy Spirit; everyone who follows Christ does so because the Father draws him and the Spirit moves him" (see John 6: 44; Rom 8: 14).  St. John writes us "that God is love and that he who abides in love abides in God.  God can be likened to an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who has destined the Body of Christ to share in that exchange.

In His last discourse with His disciples, given in the 14th chapter of John, Jesus says, "Anything you ask in my name I will do.  If you love me and obey the commands I give you, I will ask the Father and He will give you another Paraclete [Advocate, like Jesus] to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, since it neither sees Him nor recognizes Him; but you can recognize Him because He remains with you."  He goes on to say that "the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name will instruct you in everything."  Nothing of what Jesus taught would be lost.  It would be preserved first in sacred, oral Tradition and then much of it written down in the New Testament, which is a part with the Old Testament, of sacred writing.  Together, flowing from "the same divine well spring" they form the deposit of faith, which with the help of the Holy Spirit, has been preserved in the Catholic Church since the time of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is the sanctifier, who was sent by the Father and Son to complete the work of the Son.  He makes "holy."  As Pope John Paul II has written, "Having accomplished the work that the Father had entrusted to the Son on earth (John 17:4), on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was sent to sanctify the Church for ever, so that believers might have access to the Father through Christ in one Spirit" (Eph 2: 18).  The Church has always taught that we receive the Holy Spirit through the sacrament (a sharing in the life of God; an outward sign that produces grace in us) of Baptism.  The waters of Baptism signify the cleansing of our soul of original sin [which all humans inherit from Adam and Eve, our first parents].  St. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, tells us that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit in our baptism. This reality is signified by the holy oil which is traced on the forehead of the person being baptized in the form of a cross.  The sacrament imparts an indelible character.  God's life comes to us and makes us "children of God" and "heirs with Christ."  St. Peter makes the comparison to the waters which saved Noah from physical death, proclaiming that in the spiritual realm of our soul, "baptism now saves you" (1 Peter 3:21).  The Spirit also imparts the gifts of faith, hope and charity, enabling us to grow in our relationship with God and with one another.

The Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist

The Holy Spirit is active in the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist. When he appeared to the Apostles on the evening of Easter, Jesus breathed upon them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’ (John 20:22-23). Our Holy Father has written that the outpouring of the Spirit was the great gift of the Risen Lord to his disciples on Easter Sunday.  As the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us, "The Church is the Body of Christ. Through the Spirit and his action in the sacraments, above all the Eucharist, Christ, who once was dead and is now risen, establishes the community of believers as his own Body."  The priest at every Mass prays the Epiclesis in which he begs the Father to send the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, to transubstantiate [changing the substance without affecting the accidents, namely the physical appearances of bread and wine] the bread and wine offering into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ. St. John Damascene writing in the eight century, "You ask how the bread becomes the Body of Christ, and the wine . . . the Blood of Christ I shall tell you: the Holy Spirit comes upon them and accomplishes what surpasses every word and thought . . . Let it be enough for you to understand that it is by the Holy Spirit, just as it was of the Holy Virgin and by the Holy Spirit that the Lord, through and in himself, took flesh."