The Holy Spirit

In the scriptural story of Creation a picture is painted of God bringing the world into being.  “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  And God said, Let there be light:  and there was light.”  When the Hebrew people were carried away into Babylon, Ezekiel tells how the “Spirit lifted me up,” and he met them on the bank of the river Chebar to instruct them.  When Jesus came to St. John the Baptist we read, “And, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him.  When the Apostles were gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem, a compelling impulse stirred them.  They described it like a “rushing might wind” and like “cloven tongues like as of fire.”  When St. John described how the Revelation came to him he says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.”

These references to the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost are too numerous to tabulate.  They imply a divine persona Force acting upon God’s creation.  Sometimes, as in the Creation story, it is God active in nature.  Sometimes it is God inspiring or guiding men and women, as in the cases of the prophets and other great leaders who were human instruments in the hands of God.  The Church, as the Representative of Christ on earth, was taught and led by the Holy Spirit and conveyed the Spirit of God to its members through the sacramental channels provided.  Those who wrote the Christian record did so “in the Spirit,” and thus gave us what we call the “inspired” Scriptures.

The Holy Spirit means God in action.  We distinguish Him in the Trinitarian language of Three Persons in One God – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – which is admittedly inadequate because God is so much greater than any human language.  God is one and works as one.  No single Person of the Holy Trinity works apart from the others but there are diversities of operations which may be more or less segregated.  In the Heavenly Father we see God governing and directing His universe – while in the Holy Spirit we see God moving intimately in the lives of men and women to supply spiritual needs and stimulate spiritual motives.  They are not two Gods at work but two personal activities of the One God.  The Church is the particular sphere of the Holy Spirit and the Sacraments are His particular means of operation.

Just as we have said Jesus existed as the Son of God before His Incarnation, the Holy Spirit has always been operative.  His presence was particularly concentrated in the Church in order to meet our human needs.  Our Lord said to the Apostles, “ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”  And on the day of Pentecost “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.”  When we speak of the Christian era as “the dispensation of the Spirit” we do not deny his presence before.  We recognize that His presence has possessed peculiar characteristics since the Pentecost

The night before His crucifixion our Lord told the Apostles about the Holy Spirit.  “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever;  even the Spirit of truth.”  We translated the Greek word “Paraclete” to “Comforter” meaning an advocate or helper.  At the time of the translation, Comforter had a much stronger significance that the gentle, soothing effect we associate with it today.  It meant the Strengthener, the Inspirer, the Helper and the Instructor.

Our Lord said, “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.  Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth.”  In the long history of the Church many unforeseen problems would arise to which Jesus principles would have to be applied.  For these situations the guidance of God would be necessary and it would be supplied by the Holy Spirit who, through the Church, would progressively interpret Christ in a changing world.  Even though the Lord had to return to the Father, His followers were not being abandoned to flounder in a sea of uncertainty.  The need would be met by the special gift of the Holy Spirit who would do for them what our Lord himself had been doing.

Jesus said, “It is expedient for you that I go away:  for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you;  but if I depart, I well send Him unto you.”  We realize the Holy Spirit offers support and guidance to the faithful.  Jesus also said, He would “reprove (or convince) the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”  In other words, The Holy Spirit will convince the world of its sinful state.  He would show the world what righteousness means as exemplified in the finished work of Christ, and He would demonstrate that the judgment and conquest of evil is to be found in Christ.

Remember the one unforgivable sin?  “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men:  but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.”  The forgiveness of God is always available to those who recognize, confess, and repent of their sins.  Naturally God’s forgiveness is blocked if repentance is absent – He cannot forgive us in spite of ourselves.  But repentance is due to the prompting of the Ho0ly Spirit working within us.  Therefore the denial of the Holy Spirit automatically places us outside the realm of God’s forgiveness.  “Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is continual, willful refusal of God, and of course, it is unforgivable just as the refusal to eat is bound to result in starvation.

The Holy Spirit is the agent of God’s grace in all the Sacraments but He has always been particularly identified with the Laying on of Hands, or Confirmation.  The prayer of Invocation in the Confirmation service we ask for the seven-fold gift of the Spirit for those being confirmed.

1. Wisdom, to aid us in our search for God.
2. Understanding, to lead us to the knowledge of the truth.
3. Counsel, to help us discern right from wrong.
4. Ghostly strength, to support us in doing right.
5. Knowledge, to teach us the will of God.
6. True Godliness, to help us lead good lives.
7. Holy Fear, or respect and reverence for God.

From these spiritual gifts arise the “fruits of the Spirit.”  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.”

That sounds very mystical, but it is really pretty simple.  The Holy Spirit is God in action – God sustaining the world which He has created and energizing human lives to whom He offers redemption through Jesus Christ.  Our biggest mistake is thinking that we can make ourselves what we ought to be.  We tend to pick Christ as and example of a wholesome life and resolve to emulate Him.  We try to improve according to the standard which He has set for us.  But if there is one thing we should have learned by now, it is that we cannot depend upon ourselves.  We are always breaking down under pressure, our good intentions desert us, our firm resolutions prove to be as unstable as water.  We simply can’t do it on our own power and sooner or later, we are bound to face that honest fact.

History is full of people who have ridden rough-shod over their contemporary world, imposing their wills on submissive subjects and remolding life to suit their own fancies.  Some have risen to dazzling heights if only for a while.  Invariable they left a legacy of hardship, misery, loss and destruction for which their successors had to suffer.  On the other hand, there is a long list of saints of God who became strong for Him in the recognition of their own weaknesses.  For them, ambition was turned to aspiration.  They sought nothing for themselves but everything for God.  They wanted to bring the world into subjection to God, not to themselves.  Because of them our world today is better, happier, somewhat cleaner, a little more wholesome, and a step or two nearer to what God intends it to be.