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LETTER FROM THE PARISH PRIEST
The Acts of the Apostles begins with the promise made by our Lord to send the Holy Spirit. In some ways this was contrary to their expectations and maybe ours as well. They expected a dramatic intervention by God to restore the Davidic monarchy and usher in the Messianic reign. Instead they were warned off any programme involving knowledge of the rise and fall of empires and regimes and told instead that they would be “given power from above.” This happened a few days later in Jerusalem when the little body of disciples were gathered in one house on the Jewish feast of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit appeared to them in the form of fiery tongues and the sound of a great wind. They were then filled with the Spirit and were able to speak eloquently and in many different languages about Christ to crowds of devout pilgrims in Jerusalem. They were able to speak because the Holy Spirit is, as we say in the Creed, He who spoke through the Prophets, that is, those people whose words are recorded in the Old Testament who were able to speak messages from God. The Prophets did not speak their own ideas but knew that they had received a message from God. Usually they encountered opposition from their own people but after their deaths, which were often violent, their words were recognised as coming from God, that is inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit did not only speak through the apostles and disciples but enabled them to do miracles of healing, like Christ himself did. The difference that the Holy Spirit made can be seen when you compare Peter’s behaviour at the time of Our Lord’s Passion as recorded in the Gospels and his behaviour after Pentecost. In the former time he had denied Our Lord simply thorough fear of a few servants in the High Priest’s palace. But after He had been filled with power he could boldly confront the High Priest and all the adversaries, telling them they had committed a crime and that Jesus is the only Son of God, the only Name by which we must be saved. The Holy Spirit enabled the apostles to organise and found churches, beginning in Jerusalem and quickly spreading throughout the whole Roman Empire. A key moment was when a leading Pharisee and enemy of the Christians was suddenly converted when Christ Himself appeared to him in a blaze of Uncreated Light on the road to Damascus, where he was going to arrest and imprison Christians. This was the conversion of St Paul who became one of the greatest of the Apostles, equal to St Peter. In both these apostles the Holy Spirit directed them and guided them in their decisions, the most important of which was to ensure that non-Jews who became Christians were welcome to enter the Church without having to adopt the Jewish ritual of circumcision and the details of the Law. Christ spoke of Him as “Another Helper (Greek - Paraklete)” because the Holy Spirit would be for them what Christ was for them, defending them from their enemies, teaching them, giving them strength to make disciples and suffer for Christ. The Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, distinct from the Father and the Son and yet, like them, divine, of one nature, insofar as the word “nature” can be used of God. He is the 3rd Person of the Holy Trinity. All the external works of God – Creation, Redemption, Salvation – are the works of all Three Persons, so the Son and the Holy Spirit do whatever we say is done by God the Father. But, following the example of Christ himself, we ascribe to the Holy Spirit those works which specially have to do with making us holy, sanctifying mankind. So, in the Creed, we say that the Holy Spirit is “the Lord, the Giver of Life”, meaning by Life the supernatural life that Christ talked about and showed to be the only true life, the life which never ends. All Three Persons of the Trinity are this, but we ascribe to the Holy Spirit the originating of life. Thus in the first words of Scripture we see the Holy Spirit as hovering over the waters of the Abyss and order come out of them. Even natural life originates from the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit is in the most important way the Giver of Supernatural Life.
It was the same Holy Spirit that overshadowed the Blessed Virgin so that, even while remaining a Virgin, she became the fruitful mother and was able to give birth to Jesus. Also to the work of the Holy Spirit are ascribed all the preaching of the Church, the giving of the sacraments, the good works of the Saints. To Him must also be ascribed the work of God in your own soul, enlightening your mind and strengthening your will to seek God. This is why in our prayers we always invoke the aid of the Holy Spirit. You see that all these works of the Holy Spirit are not what is usually thought of as “charismatic”. Charismatic is derived from the Greek word meaning a spiritual gift. It is usually thought of as something spectacular. But these are not the main gifts of the Spirit. In fact, these extraordianry effects that you hear about are the result of the defects within our own human nature which cause sensational spiritual experiences. The real work of the Spirit is that which goes on in the Sacraments and in our pursuit of holiness. Another misunderstanding is to connect the word Supernatural with something uncanny, sinister and spooky. In old English the Holy Spirit is called the Holy Ghost. The response to Dominus vobiscum is Et cum Spiritu tuo. This response might be translated other than it is at the moment, but I do not think anyone would want to translate it as “and with your ghost.” Whereas ghosts, if they exist, are preternatural, the Holy Spirit is supernatural, meaning action of God which surpasses what ordinary nature can do. Thus, our Lord’s miracles were evidence that He himself was supernatural and came into the world to give to us this supernatural life, but he was accused by his enemies of being possessed by a bad spirit In Scripture the contrast is between “the flesh”, which means human and natural, and “spirit” which means something divine and supernatural. |