“the Spirit of truth”
“From Advent until today, the Church has had us consider the magnificent manifestations of God’s mercy toward men: the Incarnation, the Redemption, Pentecost. Now she directs our attention to the source of these gifts, the most Holy Trinity, from whom everything proceeds.”[i]
Many times when we think of the Holy Trinity we can sometimes think of the Holy Spirit as an after thought. We see God the Father as the head; someone who is great and almighty, which He is. We see Jesus as the Son of God. Our perception of Jesus is a bit easier because Jesus dwelt among us; He was flesh and bone. However, the Holy Spirit is not physically seen as the Son, but is just as powerful as the Son. The Holy Spirit is vitally important to everything we do and everything we are. “…In our relations with others, in the performance of our daily duties, in our professional activity, as well as in our apostolic work, we should let ourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit. He should direct all our actions. In order that He may do so, we must first of all maintain a continual contact with Him, even in the midst of activity.”[ii]
“An interior soul gradually arrives at the point where its whole life – prayer as well as activities – is under the direction of the Holy Spirit.”[iii] It was Jesus on the cross that cried out to the Father, “into your hands I commend my Spirit”[iv] It is this same Spirit, His Holy Spirit that we receive from the Father and the Son on Pentecost. To be under the direction of the Holy Spirit is to be under the direction of the Father and the Son, thus we are under the direction of the Blessed Trinity, the very dwelling of God within us.
“St. Thomas teaches that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to us as a help to the virtues…This is a very meaningful expression: note that we receive the gifts to help the virtues, not to substitute for them. If the soul does its best, seriously applying itself to the practice of the virtues, the Holy Spirit, by means of the gifts, will complete the soul’s work.”[v]
Who is the Holy Spirit? “The third person of the Holy Trinity, who is distinct from the Father and the Son but one in being, coequal, and coeternal with them, because, like them, he is in the fullest sense God. The Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father but also from the Son as from a single principle, through what is called a single spiration. He is the personal infinite term of the eternal act of mutual love of the Father and the Son; hence his name of Spirit, as the issue or term of God’s eternal love or act of will. He is also called the Spirit of Truth, the Creator Spirit, the Sanctifier, as the gifts of revelation, of creation (and re-creation), and of sanctification are the outpourings of God’s love, and therefore appropriated to the Spirit of Love, though whatever God does outside the Trinity (in the world of creatures) belongs to the common or united action of the three divine persons. He is called Dove, because it was in this form that he descended visibly upon Christ in the Jordan (Mark 1:10).”[vi]
How will the Holy Spirit convince the world of sin, justice, and judgment? The Holy Spirit was another advocate that helps bring all truth. If Jesus is the truth then He is God. If the Holy Spirit is truth then He is God; not a different God, but one in the same. The Holy Spirit came to help us understand the fullness of truth. By fulfilling the truth, the Holy Spirit comes to cast light on darkness and sin. “He will convince the world, that is, the Jews and Gentiles, of sin, by showing them through the preaching, the sanctity and the miracles of the apostles, as well as by gradual inward enlightenment, the grievous sins which they have committed by their infidelity and their vices; of justice, by unveiling their error, and showing them that Christ whom they unjustly rejected, is the fountain of justice; of judgment, by showing them their condemnation in their prince and head, the devil, whom they served. This prince is now driven from idols and from the bodies of men, and his kingdom is destroyed in the name of Jesus by the apostles”[vii]
Why didn’t Jesus tell His apostles everything that he had to tell them? “Because they could not yet comprehend and keep it in their memory; because they were still too weak, and too much attached to Jewish customs, and also because they were depressed; He therefore promised them the Holy Ghost, who would fit them for it by His enlightenment, and would teach them all truth.”[viii] Jesus loved His apostles to the end. He knew He could only give what they could handle at the time. When we were growing up, if our parents and teachers would have given us college level algebra when we were just six or seven we would not understand, and probably get upset with ourselves. We start simple and grow and push ourselves, but not to the point of breaking us. God loves us very much. He reveals Himself more and more as we grow in maturity with Him. Just like the apostles, we too are not told everything all at once. God helps us grow, and just fall more and more in love with Him. In the story of the road to Emmaus, the disciples who walked with Jesus were still under a veil, they did not see yet. The Christian who walks with Jesus is under a veil many times regarding the truths of liturgy, prayer, doctrine, and morals. They may still be ignorant to many of the truths, which are too be revealed as they continue to walk with Jesus and embrace the sacramental life. Many others will know, believe, and assent to the truths revealed by Christ and His Church but will be yet to fully understand. The dispelling of ignorance and understanding is the great work of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth.
How does the Holy Spirit teach all truth? “By guiding the Church, that is, its infallible administration, by His light to the knowledge of the truth necessary for the salvation of souls, preserving it from error; and by advancing those members of the Church who seek His light and place no obstacle in its way, in the necessary knowledge of truth.”[ix] We have to remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit in His very essence is truth. The Holy Spirit always was, is, and ever shall be. We are reminded of one God in three persons each time we pray the Glory Be. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is not, and every shall be. Each person was in the beginning, each person in, and each person every shall be.
What does Jesus mean when he says, “He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears”? If we break this question down: who is He hearing? The Father and Son. What is He hearing? Truth Why does He speak not of his own? Because the Holy Spirit is God. Jesus always said He spoke only of His father’s truth. He never spoke on His own. Likewise, the Spirit does not speak on His own, but the truth He hears and is. “That the Holy Ghost will teach us only that which He has heard from all eternity from the Father and Son; His teaching will, therefore, perfectly agree with Christ’s teachings, for the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and Son and is equal God to them, and that which He teaches is also their doctrine, which is expressed in the words: He shall receive of mine.” If there is ever a person that claims to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, yet that inspiration differs from truth that Jesus preaches in the Gospel, then the inspiration is false. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit in our life cannot contract the truth of Jesus in the Gospel. For the inspiration and the truth are one, just as the Holy Spirit and Jesus are one.
What does Jesus reveal about the Holy Spirit in today’s Gospel? First, He reveals the Holy Spirit is God. “Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of ‘another Paraclete’ (Advocate), the Holy Spirit. At work since creation, having previously ‘spoken through the prophets,’ the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and guide them ‘into all the truth.’ The Holy Spirit is thus revealed as another divine person with Jesus and the Father.”[x] Secondly, by revealing the mystery of the Holy Spirit, Jesus reveals more of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. “He teaches that the three divine Persons have the same nature when he says that everything that the Father has belongs to the Son, and everything the Son has belongs to the Father (cf. Jn. 17:10) and that the Spirit also has what is common to the Father and the Son, that is, the divine essence. The activity specific to the Holy Spirit is that of glorifying Christ, reminding and clarifying for the disciples everything the Master taught them (Jn. 16:13). On being inspired by the Holy Spirit to recognize the Father through the Son, men render glory to Christ; and glorifying Christ is the same as giving glory to God (cf. Jn. 17:1, 3-5, 10).”[xi]
Finally, Jesus shows that just as the Father and the Son are one, so too is the Son and the Spirit one. The Father is one with the Son. The Son is one with the Holy Spirit. Therefore the Holy Spirit is one with the Father. As we state in the Nicene Creed, the Son is consubstantial with the Father. The Son is not a new creation, nor is He like or similar to the Father, the Son is of the same substance, begotten not made. The Holy Spirit is not a new creation, nor is He like or similar to the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is of the same substance, and proceeds from the Father and the Son. “In the indivisible Trinity, the Son and the Spirit are distinct but inseparable. From the very beginning until the end of time, when the Father sends his Son he also sends his Spirit who unites us to Christ in faith so that as adopted sons we can call God ‘Father’ (Romans 8:15). The Spirit is invisible but we know him through his actions, when he reveals the Word to us and when he acts in the Church.”[xii] The Holy Spirit has been compared in analogy to the wind. We cannot see the wind, but we can see the effects of the wind. The effects of the wind can be fierce and raging as in a storm when limbs are broken from trees or the wind can be subtle and gentle as in a gentle breeze that causes branches to sway to and fro. What the wind does for the branches of a tree, the Holy Spirit does for the Christian. A branch must have movement, a gentle, sway to stay alive. Wind affects growth, form, and very survival of trees. It is also the wind that breaks off dead branches from the tree. The Holy Spirit is necessary for our soul to grow, form, survive, as well as convict us when we are dead in sin and thus broken off from Christ and His Church. The Holy Spirit’s inspiration on the Christian soul can be subtle and gentle, maybe even unnoticed at times, but it can also be fierce and raging as to get our attention.
Search: Fruits of the Holy Spirit
How does the Holy Spirit still enlighten the Church? The Church clearly teaches that it is lead by the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit did not run the Church, then she would not have survived for over 2,000 years. Jesus is the head of the Church and the Spirit enlightens and moves her to glory. Every aspect of the Church is infused with the Holy Spirit: from the teachings on faith and morals, the Sacred Scriptures, Sacred Tradition, the Sacraments, prayer, and the pinnacle of our faith at Mass. The Catechism teaches us, “The very closest cooperation is at work in the liturgy between the Holy Spirit and the Church. The Holy Spirit prepares the Church to encounter her Lord. He recalls and manifests Christ to the faith of the assembly. He makes the mystery of Christ really present. He unites the Church to the life and mission of Christ and makes the gift of communion bear fruit in the Church.”[xiii]
[i] Father Gabriel, Divine Intimacy pg. 585
[ii] Father Gabriel, Divine Intimacy pg. 590
[iii] Father Gabriel, Divine Intimacy pg. 590
[iv] Luke 23:46
[v] Father Gabriel, Divine Intimacy pg. 588
[vi] Hardon, Modern Catholic Dictionary, 255
[vii] Goffines, The Church’s Year, pg. 281
[viii] Goffines, The Church’s Year, pg. 281
[ix] Goffines, The Church’s Year, pg. 281
[x] CCC 243
[xi] Navarre Bible Jn. 16:14-15
[xii] Compendium Catechism of the Catholic Church, 41
[xiii] Compendium Catechism of the Catholic Church, 223