The encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem was issued on May 18, 1986 by John Paul II, and it contains a lengthy section that treats of the devil:
START
QUOTE “Convincing about sin and righteousness has as its purpose the salvation
of the world, the salvation of men. Precisely this truth seems to be emphasized
by the assertion that "judgment" concerns only the prince of this
world," Satan, the one who from the beginning has been exploiting the work
of creation against salvation, against the covenant and the union of man with
God: he is "already judged" from the start. If the Spirit-Counselor
is to convince the world precisely concerning judgment, it is in order to
continue in the world the salvific work of Christ. …And this salvific economy
of God in a certain sense removes man from "judgment," that is from
the damnation which has been inflicted on the Sill or Satan, "the prince
of this world," the one who because of his sin has become "the ruler
of this world of darkness."(106) And here we see that, through this
reference to "judgment," vast horizons open up for understanding
"sin" and also "righteousness." The Holy Spirit, by showing
sin against the background of Christ's Cross in the economy of salvation (one
could say "sin saved"), enables us to understand how his mission is
also "to convince" of the sin that has already been definitively
judged ("sin condemned").
"For
in spite of all the witness of creation and of the salvific economy inherent in
it, the spirit of darkness (Eph. 6:12; Lk. 22:53) is capable of showing God as
an enemy of his own creature, and in the first place as an enemy of man, as a
source of danger and threat to man. In this way Satan manages to sow in man's
soul the seed of opposition to the one who 'from the beginning' would be
considered as man's enemy - and not as Father. Man is challenged to become the
adversary of God! "The analysis of sin in its original dimension indicates
that, through the influence of the 'father of lies,' throughout the history of
humanity there will be a constant pressure on man to reject God, even to the
point of hating him: `Love of self to the point of contempt for God,' as St.
Augustine puts it (cf. De civitate Dei, XIV, 28). Man will be inclined to see
in God primarily a limitation of himself, and not the source of his own freedom
and the fullness of good. We see this confirmed in the modern age, when
atheistic ideologies seek to root out religion on the grounds that religion
causes the radical `alienation' of man, as if man were dispossessed of his own
humanity when, accepting the idea of God, he attributes to God what belongs to
man, and exclusively to man! Hence a process of thought and
historico-sociological practice in which the rejection of God has reached the
point of declaring his 'death.' An absurdity, both in concept and expression!
But the ideology of the 'death of God' is more a threat to man, as the Second
Vatican Council indicates when it analyzes the question of the 'independence of
earthly affairs' and writes: 'For without the Creator the creature would
disappear. . . . When God is forgotten the creature itself grows
unintelligible' (GS, 36). The ideology of the `death of God' easily
demonstrates in its effects that on the `theoretical and practical' levels it
is the ideology of the 'death of man' " (L'Osservatore Romano, June 9,
1986).” END QUOTE
ENCYCLICAL LETTER
DOMINUM ET VIVIFICANTEM
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
JOHN PAUL II
ON THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE LIFE
OF THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD
Venerable
Brothers, Beloved Sons and Daughters,
Health
and the Apostolic Blessing!
INTRODUCTION
1.
The Church professes her faith in the Holy Spirit as "the Lord, the giver
of life." She professes this in the Creed which is called Nicene-
Constantinopolitan from the name of the two Councils-of Nicaea (A.D. 325) and
Constantinople (A.D. 381)-at which it was formulated or promulgated. It also
contains the statement that the Holy Spirit "has spoken through the
Prophets."
These
are words which the Church receives from the very source of her faith, Jesus
Christ. In fact, according to the Gospel of John, the Holy Spirit is given to
us with the new life, as Jesus foretells and promises on the great day of the
Feast of Tabernacles: "If any one thirst let him come to me and drink. He
who believeth in me as the scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow
rivers of living water.'"(1) And the Evangelist explains: "This he
said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to
receive."(2) It is the same simile of water which Jesus uses in his
conversation with the Samaritan woman, when he speaks of "a spring of
water welling up to eternal life,"(3) and in his conversation with
Nicodemus when he speaks of the need for a new birth "of water and the
Holy Spirit" in order to "enter the kingdom of God."(4)
The
Church, therefore, instructed by the words of Christ, and drawing on the
experience of Pentecost and her own apostolic history, has proclaimed since the
earliest centuries her faith in the Holy Spirit, as the giver of life, the one
in whom the inscrutable Triune God communicates himself to human beings,
constituting in them the source of eternal life.
2.
This faith, uninterruptedly professed by the Church, needs to be constantly
reawakened and deepened in the consciousness of the People of God. In the
course of the last hundred years this has been done several times: by Leo XIII,
who published the Encyclical Epistle Divinum Illud Munus (1897) entirely
devoted to the Holy Spirit; by Pius XII, who in the Encyclical Letter Mystici
Corporis (1943) spoke of the Holy Spirit as the vital principle of the Church,
in which he works in union with the Head of the Mystical Body, Christ(5); at the
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council which brought out the need for a new study of
the doctrine on the Holy Spirit, as Paul VI emphasized: "The Christology
and particularly the ecclesiology of the Council must be succeeded by a new
study of and devotion to the Holy Spirit, precisely as the indispensable
complement to the teaching of the Council."(6)
In
our own age, then, we are called anew by the ever ancient and ever new faith of
the Church, to draw near to the Holy Spirit as the giver of life. In this we are
helped and stimulated also by the heritage we share with the Oriental Churches,
which have jealously guarded the extraordinary riches of the teachings of the
Fathers on the Holy Spirit. For this reason too we can say that one of the most
important ecclesial events of recent years has been the Sixteenth Centenary of
the First Council of Constantinople, celebrated simultaneously in
Constantinople and Rome on the Solemnity of Pentecost in 1981. The Holy Spirit
was then better seen, through a meditation on the mystery of the Church, as the
one who points out the ways leading to the union of Christians, indeed as the
supreme source of this unity, which comes from God himself and to which St.
Paul gave a particular expression in the words which are frequently used to
begin the Eucharistic liturgy: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the
love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all."(7)
In
a certain sense, my previous Encyclicals Redemptor Hominis and Dives in
Misericordia took their origin and inspiration from this exhortation,
celebrating as they do the event of our salvation accomplished in the Son, sent
by the Father into the world "that the world might be saved through
him"(8) and "every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father."(9) From this exhortation now comes the present
Encyclical on the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; with
the Father and the Son he is adored and glorified: a divine Person, he is at
the center of the Christian faith and is the source and dynamic power of the
Church's renewal.(10) The Encyclical has been drawn from the heart of the
heritage of the Council. For the Conciliar texts, thanks to their teaching on
the Church in herself and the Church in the world, move us to penetrate ever
deeper into the Trinitarian mystery of God himself, through the Gospels, the
Fathers and the liturgy: to the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit.
In
this way the Church is also responding to certain deep desires which she
believes she can discern in people's hearts today: a fresh discovery of God in
his transcendent reality as the infinite Spirit, just as Jesus presents him to
the Samaritan woman; the need to adore him "in spirit and truth"(11);
the hope of finding in him the secret of love and the power of a "new
creation"(12): yes, precisely the giver of life.
The
Church feels herself called to this mission of proclaiming the Spirit, while
together with the human family she approaches the end of the second Millennium
after Christ. Against the background of a heaven and earth which will
"pass away," she knows well that "the words which will not pass
away"(13) acquire a particular eloquence. They are the words of Christ
about the Holy Spirit, the inexhaustible source of the "water welling up
to eternal life,"(14) as truth and saving grace. Upon these words she
wishes to reflect, to these words she wishes to call the attention of believers
and of all people, as she prepares to celebrate- as will be said later on-the
great Jubilee which will mark the passage from the second to the third
Christian Millennium.
Naturally,
the considerations that follow do not aim to explore exhaustively the extremely
rich doctrine on the Holy Spirit, nor to favor any particular solution of questions
which are still open. Their main purpose is to develop in the Church the
awareness that "she is compelled by the Holy Spirit to do her part towards
the full realization of the will of God, who has established Christ as the
source of salvation for the whole world."(15)
PART
I
THE
SPIRIT OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON, GIVEN TO THE CHURCH
1.
Jesus' Promise and Revelation at the Last Supper
3.
When the time for Jesus to leave this world had almost come, he told the
Apostles of "another Counselor."(16) The evangelist John, who was
present, writes that, during the Last Supper before the day of his Passion and
Death, Jesus addressed the Apostles with these words: "Whatever you ask in
my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.... I will
pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you
forever, even the Spirit of truth."(17)
It
is precisely this Spirit of truth whom Jesus calls the Paraclete-and parakletos
means "counselor," and also "intercessor," or "advocate."
And he says that the Paraclete is "another" Counselor, the second
one, since he, Jesus himself, is the first Counselor,(18) being the first
bearer and giver of the Good News. The Holy Spirit comes after him and because
of him, in order to continue in the world, through the Church, the work of the
Good News of salvation. Concerning this continuation of his own work by the
Holy Spirit Jesus speaks more than once during the same farewell discourse,
preparing the Apostles gathered in the Upper Room for his departure, namely for
his Passion and Death on the Cross.
The
words to which we will make reference here are found in the Gospel of John.
Each one adds a new element to that prediction and promise. And at the same
time they are intimately interwoven, not only from the viewpoint of the events
themselves but also from the viewpoint of the mystery of the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, which perhaps in no passage of Sacred Scripture finds so emphatic
an expression as here.
4.
A little while after the prediction just mentioned Jesus adds: "But the
Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach
you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to
you."(19) The Holy Spirit will be the Counselor of the Apostles and the
Church, always present in their midst-even though invisible-as the teacher of
the same Good News that Christ proclaimed. The words "he will teach"
and "bring to remembrance" mean not only that he, in his own
particular way, will continue to inspire the spreading of the Gospel of
salvation but also that he will help people to understand the correct meaning
of the content of Christ's message; they mean that he will ensure continuity
and identity of understanding in the midst of changing conditions and
circumstances. The Holy Spirit, then, will ensure that in the Church there will
always continue the same truth which the Apostles heard from their Master.
5.
In transmitting the Good News, the Apostles will be in a special way associated
with the Holy Spirit. This is how Jesus goes on: "When the Counselor
comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who
proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me; and you also are
witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning."(20)
Apostles
were the direct eyewitnesses. They "have heard" and "have seen
with their own eyes," "have looked upon" and even "touched
with their hands" Christ, as the evangelist John says in another
passage.(21) This human, first-hand and "historical" witness to
Christ is linked to the witness of the Holy Spirit: "He will bear witness
to me." In the witness of the Spirit of truth, the human testimony of the
Apostles will find its strongest support. And subsequently it will also find
therein the hidden foundation of its continuation among the generations of
Christ's disciples and believers who succeed one another down through the ages.
The
supreme and most complete revelation of God to humanity is Jesus Christ
himself, and the witness of the Spirit inspires, guarantees and convalidates
the faithful transmission of this revelation in the preaching and writing of
the Apostles,(22) while the witness of the Apostles ensures its human
expression in the Church and in the history of humanity.
6.
This is also seen from the strict correlation of content and intention with the
just-mentioned prediction and promise, a correlation found in the next words of
the text of John: "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot
bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the
truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he
will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come."(23)
In
his previous words Jesus presents the; Counselor, the Spirit of truth, as the
one who "will teach" and "bring to remembrance," as the one
who "will bear witness" to him. Now he says: "He will guide you
into all the truth." This "guiding into all the truth,"
referring to what the Apostles "cannot bear now," is necessarily
connected with Christ's self-emptying through his Passion and Death on the
Cross, which, when he spoke these words, was just about to happen.
Later
however it becomes clear that this "guiding into all the truth" is
connected not only with the scandal of the Cross, but also with everything that
Christ "did and taught."(24) For the mystery of Christ taken as a
whole demands faith, since it is faith that adequately introduces man into the
reality of the revealed mystery. The guiding into all the truth" is
therefore achieved in faith and through faith: and this is the work of the
Spirit of truth and the result of his action in man. Here the Holy Spirit is to
be man's supreme guide and the light of the human spirit. This holds true for the
Apostles, the eyewitnesses, who must now bring to all people the proclamation
of what Christ did and taught, and especially the proclamation of his Cross and
Resurrection. Taking a longer view, this also holds true for all the
generations of disciples and confessors of the Master. Since they will have to
accept with faith and confess with candor the mystery of God at work in human
history, the revealed mystery which explains the definitive meaning of that
history.
7.
Between the Holy Spirit and Christ there thus subsists, in the economy of
salvation, an intimate bond, whereby the Spirit works in human history as
"another Counselor," permanently ensuring the transmission and
spreading of the Good News revealed by Jesus of Nazareth. Thus, in the Holy
Spirit-Paraclete, who in the mystery and action of the Church unceasingly
continues the historical presence on earth of the Redeemer and his saving work,
the glory of Christ shines forth, as the following words of John attest:
"He [the Spirit of truth] will glorify me, for he will take what is mine
and declare it to you."(25) By these words all the preceding statements
are once again confirmed: "He will teach..., will bring to your
remembrance..., will bear witness." The supreme and complete self-revelation
of God, accomplished in Christ and witnessed to by the preaching of the
Apostles, continues to be manifested in the Church through the mission of the
invisible Counselor, the Spirit of truth. How intimately this mission is linked
with the mission of Christ, how fully it draws from this mission of Christ,
consolidating and developing in history its salvific results, is expressed by
the verb "take": "He will take what is mine and declare it to
you." As if to explain the words "he will take" by clearly
expressing the divine and Trinitarian unity of the source, Jesus adds:
"All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what
is mine and declare it to you."(26) By the very fact of taking what is
"mine," he will draw from "what is the Father's."
In
the light of these words "he will take," one can therefore also
explain the other significant words about the Holy Spirit spoken by Jesus in
the Upper Room before the Passover: "It is to your advantage that I go
away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go,
I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convince the world
concerning sin and righteousness and judgment."(27) It will be necessary
to return to these words in a separate reflection.
2.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
8.
It is a characteristic of the text of John that the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit are clearly called Persons, the first distinct from the second and
the third, and each of them from one another. Jesus speaks of the Spirit-Counselor,
using several times the personal pronoun "he"; and at the same time,
throughout the farewell discourse, he reveals the bonds which unite the Father,
the Son and the Paraclete to one another. Thus "the Holy Spirit . . .proceeds
from the Father"(28) and the Father "gives" the Spirit.(29) The
Father "sends" the Spirit in the name of the Son,(30) the Spirit
"bears witness" to the Son.(31) The Son asks the Father to send the
Spirit-Counselor,(32) but likewise affirms and promises, in relation to his own
"departure" through the Cross: "If I go, I will send him to
you,"(33) Thus, the Father sends the Holy Spirit in the power of his
Fatherhood, as he has sent the Son(34); but at the same time he sends him in
the power of the Redemption accomplished by Christ-and in this sense Holy
Spirit is sent also by the Son: "I will send him to you."
Here
it should be noted that, while all the other promises made in the Upper Room
foretold the coming of the Holy Spirit after Christ's departure, the one
contained in the text of John 16:7f. also includes and clearly emphasizes the
relationship of interdependence which could be called causal between the
manifestation of each: "If I go, I will send him to you." The Holy
Spirit will come insofar as Christ will depart through the Cross: he will come
not only afterwards, but because of the Redemption accomplished by Christ,
through the will and action of the Father.
9.
Thus in the farewell discourse at the Last Supper, we can say that the highest
point of the revelation of the Trinity is reached At the same time, we are on
the threshold of definitive events and final words which in the end will be
translated into the great missionary mandate addressed to the Apostles and
through them to the Church: "Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations," a mandate which contains, in a certain sense, the Trinitarian
formula of baptism: "baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit."(35) The formula reflects the intimate mystery
of God, of the divine life, which is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
the divine unity of the Trinity. The farewell discourse can be read as a
special preparation for this Trinitarian formula, in which is expressed the
life-giving power of the Sacrament which brings about sharing in the life of
the Triune God, for it gives sanctifying grace as a supernatural gift to man.
Through grace, man is called and made "capable" of sharing in the
inscrutable life of God.
10.
In his intimate life, God "is love,"(36) the essential love shared by
the three divine Persons: personal love is the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of the
Father and the Son. Therefore he "searches even the depths of
God,"(37) as uncreated Love-Gift. It can be said that in the Holy Spirit
the intimate life of the Triune God becomes totally gift, an exchange of mutual
love between the divine Persons and that through the Holy Spirit God exists in
the mode of gift. It is the Holy Spirit who is the personal expression of this
self-giving, of this being-love.(38) He is Person- Love. He is Person-Gift Here
we have an inexhaustible treasure of the reality and an inexpressible deepening
of the concept of person in God, which only divine Revelation makes known to
us.
At
the same time, the Holy Spirit, being consubstantial with the Father and the
Son in divinity, is love and uncreated gift from which derives as from its
source (fons vivus) all giving of gifts vis-a-vis creatures (created gift): the
gift of existence to all things through creation; the gift of grace to human
beings through the whole economy of salvation. As the Apostle Paul writes:
"God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which
has been given to US."(39)
3.
The Salvific Self-Giving of God in the Holy Spirit
11.
Christ's farewell discourse at the Last Supper stands in particular reference
to this "giving" and "self-giving" of the Holy Spirit. In
John's Gospel we have as it were the revelation of the most profound
"logic" of the saving mystery contained in God's eternal plan, as an
extension of the ineffable communion of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This
is the divine "logic" which from the mystery of the Trinity leads to
the mystery of the Redemption of the world in Jesus Christ. The Redemption
accomplished by the Son in the dimensions of the earthly history of humanity-
accomplished in his "departure" through the Cross and Resurrection-is
at the same time, in its entire salvific power, transmitted to the Holy Spirit:
the one who "will take what is mine."(40) The words of the text of
John indicate that, according to the divine plan, Christ's
"departure" is an indispensable condition for the "sending"
and the coming of the Holy Spirit, but these words also say that what begins
now is the new salvific self-giving of God, in the Holy Spirit.
12.
It is a new beginning in relation to the first, original beginning of God's
salvific self-giving, which is identified with the mystery of creation itself.
Here is what we read in the very first words of the Book of Genesis: "In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth..., and the Spirit of God
(ruah Elohim) was moving over the face of the waters."(41) This biblical
concept of creation includes not only the call to existence of the very being
of the cosmos, that is to say the giving of existence, but also the presence of
the Spirit of God in creation, that is to say the beginning of God's salvific
self-communication to the things he creates. This is true first of all
concerning man, who has been created in the image and likeness of God:
"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."(42) "Let us
make": can one hold that the plural which the Creator uses here in
speaking of himself already in some way suggests the Trinitarian mystery, the
presence of the Trinity in the work of the creation of man? The Christian
reader, who already knows the revelation of this mystery, can discern a
reflection of it also in these words. At any rate, the context of the Book of
Genesis enables us to see in the creation of man the first beginning of God's
salvific self-giving commensurate with the "image and likeness" of
himself which he has granted to man.
13.
It seems then that even the words spoken by Jesus in the farewell discourse
should be read again in the light of that "beginning," so long ago
yet fundamental, which we know from Genesis. "If I do not go away, the
Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you."
Describing his "departure" as a condition for the "coming"
of the Counselor, Christ links the new beginning of God's salvific
self-communication in the Holy Spirit with the mystery of the Redemption. It is
a new beginning, first of all because between the first beginning and the whole
of human history-from the original fall onwards-sin has intervened, sin which is
in contradiction to the presence of the Spirit of God in creation, and which is
above all in contradiction to God's salvific self- communication to man. St.
Paul writes that, precisely because of sin, "creation...was subjected to
futility..., has been groaning in travail together until now" and
"waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God."a
14.
Therefore Jesus Christ says in the Upper Room "It is to your advantage I
go away; ...if I go, I will send him to you."(44) The
"departure" of Christ through the Cross has the power of the
Redemption-and this also means a new presence of the Spirit of God in creation:
the new beginning of God's self-communication to man in the Holy Spirit.
"And that you are children is proven by the fact that God has sent into
our hearts the Spirit of his Son who cries: Abba, Father!" As the Apostle
Paul writes in the Letter to the Galatians.(45) The Holy Spirit is the Spirit
of the Father, as the words of the farewell discourse in the Upper Room bear
witness. At the same time he is the Spirit of the Son: he is the Spirit of
Jesus Christ, as the Apostles and particularly Paul of Tarsus will testify.(46)
With the sending of this Spirit "into our hearts," there begins the
fulfillment of that for which "creation waits with eager longing," as
we read in the Letter to the Romans.
The
Holy Spirit comes at the price of Christ's "departure." While this
"departure" caused the Apostles to be sorrowful,(47) and this sorrow
was to reach its culmination in the Passion and Death on Good Friday,
"this sorrow will turn into joy."(48) For Christ will add to this
redemptive "departure" the glory of his Resurrection and Ascension to
the Father. Thus the sorrow with its underlying joy is, for the Apostles in the
context of their Master's "departure," an "advantageous"
departure, for thanks to it another "Counselor" will come.(49) At the
price of the Cross which brings about the Redemption, in the power of the whole
Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes in order to remain from
the day of Pentecost onwards with the Apostles, to remain with the Church and
in the Church, and through her in the world.
In
this way there is definitively brought about that new beginning of the
self-communication of the Triune God in the Holy Spirit through the work of
Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of man and of the world.
4.
The Messiah, Anointed with the Holy Spirit
15.
There is also accomplished in its entirety the mission of the Messiah, that is
to say of the One who has received the fullness of the Holy Spirit for the
Chosen People of God and for the whole of humanity. "Messiah"
literally means "Christ," that is, "Anointed One," and in
the history of salvation it means "the one anointed with the Holy Spirit."
This was the prophetic tradition of the Old Testament. Following this
tradition, Simon Peter will say in the house of Cornelius: "You must have
heard about the recent happenings in Judea...after the baptism which John
preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with
power."(50)
From
these words of Peter and from many similar ones,(51) one must first go back to
the prophecy of Isaiah, sometimes called "the Fifth Gospel" or
"the Gospel of the Old Testament." Alluding to the coming of a
mysterious personage, which the New Testament revelation will identify with
Jesus, Isaiah connects his person and mission with a particular action of the
Spirit of God-the Spirit of the Lord. These are the words of the Prophet:
"There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch
shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the
spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be the fear
of the Lord."(52)
This
text is important for the whole pneumatology of the Old Testament, because it
constitutes a kind of bridge between the ancient biblical concept of
"spirit," understood primarily as a "charismatic breath of
wind," and the "Spirit" as a person and as a gift, a gift for
the person. The Messiah of the lineage of David ("from the stump of
Jesse") is precisely that person upon whom the Spirit of the Lord
"shall rest." It is obvious that in this case one cannot yet speak of
a revelation of the Paraclete. However, with this veiled reference to the
figure of the future Messiah there begins, so to speak, the path towards the
full revelation of the Holy Spirit in the unity of the Trinitarian mystery, a
mystery which will finally be manifested in the New Covenant.
16.
It is precisely the Messiah himself who is this path. In the Old Covenant,
anointing had become the external symbol of the gift of the Spirit. The Messiah
(more than any other anointed personage in the Old Covenant) is that single
great personage anointed by God himself He is the Anointed One in the sense
that he possesses the fullness of the Spirit of God. He himself will also be
the mediator in granting this Spirit to the whole People. Here in fact are
other words of the Prophet: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has
sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives, and
the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the
Lord's favor."(53)
The
Anointed One is also sent "with the Spirit of the Lord ": "Now
the Lord God has sent me and his Spirit."(54)
According
to the Book of Isaiah, the Anointed One and the One sent together with the
Spirit of the Lord is also the chosen Servant of the Lord upon whom the Spirit
of God comes down: "Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom
my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him."(55)
We
know that the Servant of the Lord is revealed in the Book of Isaiah as the true
Man of Sorrows: the Messiah who suffers for the sins of the world.(56) And at
the same time it is precisely he whose mission will bear for all humanity the
true fruits of salvation:
"He
will bring forth justice to the nations..."(57); and he will become
"a covenant to the people, a light to the nations..."(58); "that
my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."(59)
For:
"My spirit which is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth,
shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your children's
children, says the Lord, from this time forth and for evermore."(60)
The
prophetic texts quoted here are to be read in the light of the Gospel- just as,
in its turn, the New Testament draws a particular clarification from the
marvelous light contained in these Old Testament texts. The Prophet presents
the Messiah as the one who comes in the Holy Spirit, the one who possesses the
fullness of this Spirit in himself and at the same time for others, for Israel,
for all the nations, for all humanity. The fullness of the Spirit of God is
accompanied by many different gifts, the treasures of salvation, destined in a
particular way for the poor and suffering, for all those who open their hearts
to these gifts-sometimes through the painful experience of their own
existence-but first of all through that interior availability which comes from
faith. The aged Simeon, the "righteous and devout man" upon whom
"rested the Holy Spirit," sensed this at the moment of Jesus'
presentation in the Temple, when he perceived in him the
"salvation...prepared in the presence of all peoples" at the price of
the great suffering-the Cross- which he would have to embrace together with his
Mother.(61) The Virgin Mary, who "had conceived by the Holy
Spirit,"(62) sensed this even more clearly, when she pondered in her heart
the "mysteries" of the Messiah, with whom she was associated.(63)
17.
Here it must be emphasized that clearly the "spirit of the Lord" who
rests upon the future Messiah is above all a gift of God for the person of that
Servant of the Lord. But the latter is not an isolated and independent person,
because he acts in accordance with the will of the Lord, by virtue of the
Lord's decision or choice. Even though in the light of the texts of Isaiah the
salvific work of the Messiah, the Servant of the Lord, includes the action of
the Spirit which is carried out through himself, nevertheless in the Old
Testament context there is no suggestion of a distinction of subjects, or of
the Divine Persons as they subsist in the mystery of the Trinity, and as they
are later revealed in the New Testament. Both in Isaiah and in the whole of the
Old Testament the personality of the Holy Spirit is completely hidden: in the
revelation of the one God, as also in the foretelling of the future Messiah.
18.
Jesus Christ will make reference to this prediction contained in the words of
Isaiah at the beginning of his messianic activity. This will happen in the same
Nazareth where he had lived for thirty years in the house of Joseph the
carpenter, with Mary, his Virgin Mother. When he had occasion to speak in the
Synagogue, he opened the Book of Isaiah and found the passage where it was
written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me";
and having read this passage he said to those present: "Today this
scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."(64) In this way he
confessed and proclaimed that he was the Messiah, the one in whom the Holy
Spirit dwells as the gift of God himself, the one who possesses the fullness of
this Spirit, the one who marks the "new beginning" of the gift which
God makes to humanity in the Spirit.
5.
Jesus of Nazareth, "Exalted" in the Holy Spirit
19.
Even though in his hometown of Nazareth Jesus is not accepted as the Messiah,
nonetheless, at the beginning of his public activity, his messianic mission in
the Holy Spirit is revealed to the people by John the Baptist. The latter, the
son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, foretells at the Jordan the coming of the
Messiah and administers the baptism of repentance. He says: "I baptize you
with water; he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I
am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with
fire."(65) John the Baptist foretells the Messiah-Christ not only as the
one who "is coming" in the Holy Spirit but also as the one who
"brings" the Holy Spirit, as Jesus will reveal more clearly in the
Upper Room. Here John faithfully echoes the words of Isaiah, words which in the
ancient Prophet concerned the future, while in John's teaching on the banks of
the Jordan they are the immediate introduction to the new messianic reality.
John is not only a prophet but also a messenger: he is the precursor of Christ.
What he foretells is accomplished before the eyes of all. Jesus of Nazareth too
comes to the Jordan to receive the baptism of repentance. At the sight of him
arriving, John proclaims: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin
of the world."(66) He says this through the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit,(67) bearing witness to the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah. At
the same time he confesses his faith in the redeeming mission of Jesus of
Nazareth. On the lips of John the Baptist, "Lamb of God" is an
expression of truth about the Redeemer no less significant than the one used by
Isaiah: "Servant of the Lord."
Thus,
by the testimony of John at the Jordan, Jesus of Nazareth, rejected by his own
fellow-citizens, is exalted before the eyes of Israel as the Messiah, that is
to say the "One Anointed" with the Holy Spirit. And this testimony is
corroborated by another testimony of a higher order, mentioned by the three
Synoptics. For when all the people were baptized and as Jesus, having received
baptism, was praying, "the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit
descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove"(68) and at the same time
"a voice from heaven said 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well
pleased.'"(69)
This
is a Trinitarian theophany which bears witness to the exaltation of Christ on
the occasion of his baptism in the Jordan. It not only confirms the testimony
of John the Baptist but also reveals another more profound dimension of the
truth about Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah. It is this: the Messiah is the
beloved Son of the Father. His solemn exaltation cannot be reduced to the
messianic mission of the "Servant of the Lord." In the light of the
theophany at the Jordan, this exaltation touches the mystery of the very person
of the Messiah. He has been raised up because he is the beloved Son in whom God
is well pleased. The voice from on high says: "my Son."
20.
The theophany at the Jordan clarifies only in a fleeting way the mystery of
Jesus of Nazareth, whose entire activity will be carried out in the active presence
of the Holy Spirit.(70) This mystery would be gradually revealed and confirmed
by Jesus himself by means of everything that he "did and taught."(71)
In the course of this teaching and of the messianic signs which Jesus performed
before he came to the farewell discourse in the Upper Room, we find events and
words which constitute particularly important stages of this progressive
revelation. Thus the evangelist Luke, who has already presented Jesus as
"full of the Holy Spirit" and "led by the Spirit...in the
wilderness,"(72) tells us that, after the return of the seventy-two
disciples from the mission entrusted to them by the Master,(73) while they were
joyfully recounting the fruits of their labors, "in that same hour [Jesus
rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said: 'I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and
revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was your gracious
will.'"(74) Jesus rejoices at the fatherhood of God: he rejoices because
it has been given to him to reveal this fatherhood; he rejoices, finally, as at
a particular outpouring of this divine fatherhood on the "little
ones." And the evangelist describes all this as "rejoicing in the
Holy Spirit."
This
"rejoicing" in a certain sense prompts Jesus to say still more. We
hear: "All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows
who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and any
one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."(75)
21.
That which during the theophany at the Jordan came so to speak "from
outside," from on high, here comes "from within," that is to say
from the depths of who Jesus is. It is another revelation of the Father and the
Son, united in the Holy Spirit. Jesus speaks only of the fatherhood of God and
of his own sonship-he does not speak directly of the Spirit, who is Love and
thereby the union of the Father and the Son. Nonetheless what he says of the
Father and of himself-the Son-flows from that fullness of the Spirit which is
in him, which fills his heart, pervades his own "I," inspires and
enlivens his action from the depths. Hence that "rejoicing in the Holy
Spirit." The union of Christ with the Holy Spirit, a union of which he is
perfectly aware, is expressed in that "rejoicing," which in a certain
way renders "perceptible" its hidden source. Thus there is a
particular manifestation and rejoicing which is proper to the Son of Man, the
Christ-Messiah, whose humanity belongs to the person of the Son of God, substantially
one with the Holy Spirit in divinity.
In
the magnificent confession of the fatherhood of God, Jesus of Nazareth also
manifests himself, his divine "I"- for he is the Son "of the
same substance," and therefore "no one knows who the Son is except
the Father, or who the Father is except the Son," that Son who "for
us and for our salvation" became man by the power of the Holy Spirit and
was born of a virgin whose name was Mary.
6.
The Risen Christ Says: "Receive the Holy Spirit"
22.
It is thanks to Luke's narrative that we are brought closest to the truth
contained in the discourse in the Upper Room. Jesus of Nazareth, "raised
up" in the Holy Spirit, during this discourse and conversation presents
himself as the one who brings the Spirit, as the one who is to bring him and
"give" him to the Apostles and to the Church at the price of his own
"departure" through the Cross.
The
verb "bring" is here used to mean first of all "reveal." In
the Old Testament, from the Book of Genesis onwards, the Spirit of God was in
some way made known, in the first place as a "breath" of God which
gives life, as a supernatural "living breath." In the Book of Isaiah,
he is presented as a "gift" for the person of the Messiah, as the one
who comes down and rests upon him, in order to guide from within all the
salvific activity of the "Anointed One." At the Jordan, Isaiah's
proclamation is given a concrete form: Jesus of Nazareth is the one who comes
in the Holy Spirit and who brings the Spirit as the gift proper to his own
Person, in order to distribute that gift by means of this humanity: "He
will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."(76) In the Gospel of Luke, this
revelation of the Holy Spirit is confirmed and added to, as the intimate source
of the life and messianic activity of Jesus Christ. In the light of what Jesus
says in the farewell discourse in the Upper Room, the Holy Spirit is revealed
in a new and fuller way. He is not only the gift to the person (the person of
the Messiah), but is a Person-gift. Jesus foretells his coming as that of
"another Counselor" who, being the Spirit of truth, will lead the
Apostles and the Church "into all the truth."(77) This will be
accomplished by reason of the particular communion between the Holy Spirit and Christ:
"He will take what is mine and declare it to you."(78) This communion
has its original source in the Father: "All that the Father has is mine;
therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to
you."(79) Coming from the Father the Holy Spirit is sent by the
Father.(80) The Holy Spirit is first sent as a gift for the Son who was made
man, in order to fulfill the messianic prophecies. After the
"departure" of Christ the Son, the Johannine text says that the Holy
Spirit "will come" directly (it is his new mission), to complete the
work of the Son. Thus it will be he who brings to fulfillment the new era of
the history of salvation.
23.
We find ourselves on the threshold of the Paschal events. The new, definitive
revelation of the Holy Spirit as a Person who is the gift is accomplished at
this precise moment. The Paschal events-the Passion, Death and Resurrection- of
Christ-are also the time of the new coming of the Holy Spirit, as the Paraclete
and the Spirit of truth. They are the time of the "new beginning" of
the self- communication of the Triune God to humanity in the Holy Spirit
through the work of Christ the Redeemer. This new beginning is the Redemption
of the world: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son."(81)
Already the "giving" of the Son, the gift of the Son, expresses the
most profound essence of God who, as Love, is the inexhaustible source of the
giving of gifts. The gift made by the Son completes the revelation and giving
of the eternal love: the Holy Spirit, who in the inscrutable depths of the
divinity is a Person-Gift, through the work of the Son, that is to say by means
of the Paschal Mystery, is given to the Apostles and to the Church in a new
way, and through them is given to humanity and the whole world.
24.
The definitive expression of this mystery is had on the day of the
Resurrection. On this day Jesus of Nazareth "descended from David
according to the flesh," as the Apostle Paul writes, is "designated
Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection
from the dead."(82) It can be said therefore that the messianic
"raising up" of Christ in the Holy Spirit reaches its zenith in the
Resurrection, in which he reveals himself also as the Son of God, "full of
power." And this power, the sources of which gush forth in the inscrutable
Trinitarian communion, is manifested, first of all, in the fact that the Risen
Christ does two things: on the one hand he fulfills God's promise already
expressed through the Prophet's words: "A new heart I will give you, and a
new spirit I will put within you,...my spirit"(83); and on the other hand
he fulfills his own promise made to the Apostles with the words: "If I go,
I will send him to you."(84) It is he: the Spirit of truth, the Paraclete
sent by the Risen Christ to transform us into his own risen image.(85)
"On
the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where
the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and
said to them, 'Peace be with you.' When he had said this, he showed them his
hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus
said to them again, 'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I
send you.' And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, 'Receive
the Holy Spirit.'"(86)
All
the details of this key-text of John's Gospel have their own eloquence,
especially if we read them in reference to the words spoken in the same Upper
Room at the beginning of the Paschal event. And now these events-the Triduum
Sacrum of Jesus whom the Father consecrated with the anointing and sent into
the world-reach their fulfillment. Christ, who "gave up his spirit"
on the Cross(87) as the Son of Man and the Lamb of God, once risen goes to the
Apostles 'to breathe on them" with that power spoken of in the Letter to
the Romans.(88) The Lord's coming fills those present with joy: "Your
sorrow will turn into joy,"(89) as he had already promised them before his
Passion. And above all there is fulfilled the principal prediction of the
farewell discourse: the Risen Christ, as it were beginning a new creation,
"brings" to the Apostles the Holy Spirit. He brings him at the price
of his own "departure": he gives them this Spirit as it were through
the wounds of his crucifixion: "He showed them his hands and his
side." It is in the power of this crucifixion that he says to them:
"Receive the Holy Spirit."
Thus
there is established a close link between the sending of the Son and the
sending of the Holy Spirit. There is no sending of the Holy Spirit (after
original sin) without the Cross and the Resurrection: "If I do not go
away, the Counselor will not come to you."(90) There is also established a
close link between the mission of the Holy Spirit and that of the Son in the
Redemption. The mission of the Son, in a certain sense, finds its
"fulfillment" in the Redemption. The mission of the Holy Spirit
"draws from" the Redemption: "He will take what is mine and
declare it to you."(91) The Redemption is totally carried out by the Son
as the Anointed One, who came and acted in the power of the Holy Spirit,
offering himself finally in sacrifice on the wood of the Cross. And this
Redemption is, at the same time, constantly carried out in human hearts and
minds-in the history of the world-by the Holy Spirit, who is the "other
Counselor. "
7.
The Holy Spirit and the Era of the Church
25.
"Having accomplished the work that the Father had entrusted to the Son on
earth (cf. Jn 17:4), on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was sent to sanctify
the Church forever, so that believers might have access to the Father through
Christ in one Spirit (cf. Eph 2:18). He is the Spirit of life, the fountain of
water springing up to eternal life (cf. Jn 4:14; 7:38ff.), the One through whom
the Father restores life to those who are dead through sin, until one day he
will raise in Christ their mortal bodies" (cf. Rom 8:10f.).92
In
this way the Second Vatican Council speaks of the Church's birth on the day of
Pentecost. This event constitutes the definitive manifestation of what had
already been accomplished in the same Upper Room on Easter Sunday. The Risen
Christ came and "brought" to the Apostles the Holy Spirit. He gave
him to them, saying "Receive the Holy Spirit." What had then taken
place inside the Upper Room, "the doors being shut," later, on the
day of Pentecost is manifested also outside, in public. The doors of the Upper
Room are opened and the Apostles go to the inhabitants and the pilgrims who had
gathered in Jerusalem on the occasion of the feast, in order to bear witness to
Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. In this way the prediction is
fulfilled: "He will bear witness to me: and you also are witnesses,
because you have been with me from the beginning."(93)
We
read in another document of the Second Vatican Council: "Doubtless, the
Holy Spirit was already at work in the world before Christ was glorified. Yet
on the day of Pentecost, he came down upon the disciples to remain with them
for ever. On that day the Church was publicly revealed to the multitude, and
the Gospel began to spread among the nations by means of preaching."(94)
The
era of the Church began with the "coming," that is to say with the
descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles gathered in the Upper Room in
Jerusalem, together with Mary, the Lord's Mother.(95) The time of the Church
began at the moment when the promises and predictions that so explicitly
referred to the Counselor, the Spirit of truth, began to be fulfilled in
complete power and clarity upon the Apostles, thus determining the birth of the
Church. The Acts of the Apostles speak of this at length and in many passages,
which state that in the mind of the first community, whose convictions Luke
expresses, the Holy Spirit assumed the invisible-but in a certain way
"perceptible"-guidance of those who after the departure of the Lord
Jesus felt profoundly that they had been left orphans. With the coming of the
Spirit they felt capable of fulfilling the mission entrusted to them. They felt
full of strength. It is precisely this that the Holy Spirit worked in them and
this is continually at work in the Church, through their successors. For the
grace of the Holy Spirit which the Apostles gave to their collaborators through
the imposition of hands continues to be transmitted in Episcopal Ordination.
The bishops in turn by the Sacrament of Orders render the sacred ministers
sharers in this spiritual gift and, through the Sacrament of Confirmation,
ensure that all who are reborn of water and the Holy Spirit are strengthened by
this gift. And thus, in a certain way, the grace of Pentecost is perpetuated in
the Church.
As
the Council writes, "the Spirit dwells in the Church and in the hearts of
the faithful as in a temple (cf. 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19). In them he prays and bears
witness to the fact that they are adopted sons (cf. Gal 4:6; Rom 8:15-16:26).
The Spirit guides the Church into the fullness of truth (cf. Jn 16:13) and
gives her a unity of fellowship and service. He furnishes and directs her with various
gifts, both hierarchical and charismatic, and adorns her with the fruits of his
grace (cf Eph 4:11-12; 1 Cor 12:4; Gal 5:22). By the power of the Gospel he
makes the Church grow, perpetually renews her and leads her to perfect union
with her Spouse."(96)
26.
These passages quoted from the Conciliar Constitution Lumen Gentium tell us
that the era of the Church began with the coming of the Holy Spirit. They also
tell us that this era, the era of the Church, continues. It continues down the
centuries and generations. In our own century, when humanity is already close
to the end of the second Millennium after Christ, this era of the Church
expressed itself in a special way through the Second Vatican Council, as the
Council of our century. For we know that it was in a special way an
"ecclesiological" Council: a Council on the theme of the Church. At
the same time, the teaching of this Council is essentially
"pneumatological": it is permeated by the truth about the Holy
Spirit, as the soul of the Church. We can say that in its rich variety of
teaching the Second Vatican Council contains precisely all that "the
Spirit says to the Churches"(97) with regard to the present phase of the
history of salvation.
Following
the guidance of the Spirit of truth and bearing witness together with him, the
Council has given a special confirmation of the presence of the Holy Spirit-the
Counselor. In a certain sense, the Council has made the Spirit newly
"present" in our difficult age. In the light of this conviction one
grasps more clearly the great importance of all the initiatives aimed at
implementing the Second Vatican Council, its teaching and its pastoral and
ecumenical thrust. In this sense also the subsequent Assemblies of the Synod of
Bishops are to be carefully studied and evaluated, aiming as they do to ensure
that the fruits of truth and love-the authentic fruits of the Holy
Spirit-become a lasting treasure for the People of God in its earthly
pilgrimage down the centuries. This work being done by the Church for the
testing and bringing together of the salvific fruits of the Spirit bestowed in
the Council is something indispensable. For this purpose one must learn how to
"discern" them carefully from everything that may instead come
originally from the "prince of this world."(98) This discernment in
implementing the Council's work is especially necessary in view of the fact
that the Council opened itself widely to the contemporary world, as is clearly
seen from the important Conciliar Constitutions Gaudium et Spes and Lumen
Gentium.
We
read in the Pastoral Constitution: "For theirs (i.e., of the disciples of
Christ) is a community composed of men. United in Christ, they are led by the
Holy Spirit in their journey to the kingdom of their Father and they have
welcomed the news of salvation which is meant for every man. That is why this
community realizes that it is truly and intimately linked with mankind and its
history."(99) "The Church truly knows that only God, whom she serves,
meets the deepest longings of the human heart, which is never fully satisfied
by what the world has to offer."(100) "God 's Spirit. . . with a
marvelous providence directs the unfolding of time and renews the face of the
earth."(101)
PART
II
THE
SPIRIT WHO CONVINCES THE WORLD CONCERNING SIN
1.
Sin, Righteousness and Judgment
27.
When Jesus during the discourse in the Upper Room foretells the coming of the
Holy Spirit "at the price of" his own departure, and promises "I
will send him to you," in the very same context he adds: "And when he
comes, he will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and
judgment."(102) The same Counselor and Spirit of truth who has been
promised as the one who "will teach" and "bring to remembrance,
" who "will bear witness," and "guide into all the
truth," in the words just quoted is foretold as the one who "will
convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement."
The
context too seems significant. Jesus links this foretelling of the Holy Spirit
to the words indicating his "departure" through the Cross, and indeed
emphasizes the need for this departure: "It is to your advantage that I go
away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you."(103)
But
what counts more is the explanation that Jesus himself adds to these three
words: sin, righteousness, judgment. For he says this: "He Will convince
the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin,
because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to
the Father, and you will see me no more; concerning judgment, because the ruler
of the world is judged."(104) In the mind of Jesus, sin, righteousness and
judgment have a very precise meaning, different from the meaning that one might
be inclined to attribute to these words independently of the speaker's
explanation. This explanation also indicates how one is to understand the
"convincing the world" which is proper to the action of the Holy
Spirit. Both the meaning of the individual words and the fact that Jesus linked
them together in the same phrase are important here.
"Sin,"
in this passage, means the incredulity that Jesus encountered among "his
own," beginning with the people of his own town of Nazareth. Sin means the
rejection of his mission, a rejection that will cause people to condemn him to
death. When he speaks next of "righteousness," Jesus seems to have in
mind that definitive justice, which the Father will restore to him when he
grants him the glory of the Resurrection and Ascension into heaven: "I go
to the Father." In its turn, and in the context of "sin" and
"righteousness" thus understood, "judgment" means that the
Spirit of truth will show the guilt cf the "world" in condemning
Jesus to death on the Cross. Nevertheless, Christ did not come into the world
only to judge it and condemn it: he came to save it.(105) Convincing about sin
and righteousness has as its purpose the salvation of the world, the salvation
of men. Precisely this truth seems to be emphasized by the assertion that
"judgment" concerns only the prince of this world," Satan, the
one who from the beginning has been exploiting the work of creation against
salvation, against the covenant and the union of man with God: he is
"already judged" from the start. If the Spirit-Counselor is to convince
the world precisely concerning judgment, it is in order to continue in the
world the salvific work of Christ.
28.
Here we wish to concentrate our attention principally on this mission of the
Holy Spirit, which is "to convince the world concerning sin," but at
the same time respecting the general context of Jesus' words in the Upper Room.
The Holy Spirit, who takes from the Son the work of the Redemption of the
world, by this very fact takes the task of the salvific "convincing of
sin." This convincing is in permanent reference to
"righteousness": that is to say to definitive salvation in God, to
the fulfillment of the economy that has as its center the crucified and
glorified Christ. And this salvific economy of God in a certain sense removes
man from "judgment," that is from the damnation which has been
inflicted on the Sill or Satan, "the prince of this world," the one
who because of his sin has become "the ruler of this world of
darkness."(106) And here we see that, through this reference to
"judgment," vast horizons open up for understanding "sin"
and also "righteousness." The Holy Spirit, by showing sin against the
background of Christ's Cross in the economy of salvation (one could say
"sin saved"), enables us to understand how his mission is also
"to convince" of the sin that has already been definitively judged
("sin condemned").
29.
All the words uttered by the Redeemer in the Upper Room on the eve of his
Passion become part of the era of the Church: first of all, the words about the
Holy Spirit as the Paraclete and Spirit of truth. The words become part of it
in an ever new way, in every generation, in every age. This is confirmed, as
far as our own age is concerned, by the teaching of the Second Vatican Council
as a whole, and especially in the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes. Many
passages of this document indicate clearly that the Council, by opening itself
to the light of the Spirit of truth, is seen to be the authentic depositary of
the predictions and promises made by Christ to the Apostles and to the Church
in the farewell discourse: in a particular way as the depositary of the
predictions that the Holy Spirit would "convince the world concerning sin
and righteousness and judgment."
This
is already indicated by the text in which the Council explains how it
understands the "world": "The Council focuses its attention on
the world of men, the whole human family along with the sum of those realities
in the midst of which that family lives. It gazes upon the world which is the theater
of man's history, and carries the marks of his energies, his tragedies, and his
triumphs; that world which the Christian sees as created and sustained by its
Maker's love, fallen indeed into the bondage of sin, yet emancipated now by
Christ. He was crucified and rose again to break the stranglehold of
personified Evil, so that this world might be fashioned anew according to God's
design and reach its fulfillment."(107) This very rich text needs to be
read in conjunction with the other passages in the Constitution that seek to
show with all the realism of faith the situation of sin in the contemporary
world and that also seek to explain its essence, beginning from different
points of view.(108)
When
on the eve of the Passover Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as the one who
"will convince the world concerning sin," on the one hand this
statement must be given the widest possible meaning, insofar as it includes all
the sin in the history of humanity. But on the other hand, when Jesus explains
that this sin consists in the fact that "they do not believe in him,"
this meaning seems to apply only to those who rejected the messianic mission of
the Son of Man and condemned him to death on the Cross. But one can hardly fail
to notice that this more "limited" and historically specified meaning
of sin expands, until it assumes a universal dimension by reason of the
universality of the Redemption, accomplished through the Cross. The revelation
of the mystery of the Redemption opens the way to an understanding in which
every sin wherever and whenever committed has a reference to the Cross of
Christ-and therefore indirectly also to the sin of those who "have not
believed in him," and who condemned Jesus Christ to death on the Cross.
From
this point of view we must return to the event of Pentecost.
2.
The Testimony of the Day of Pentecost
30.
Christ's prophecies in the farewell discourse found their most exact and direct
confirmation on the day of Pentecost, in particular the prediction which we are
dealing with: "The Counselor...will convince the world concerning
sin." On that day, the promised Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles
gathered in prayer together with Mary the Mother of Jesus, in the same Upper
Room, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: "And they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave
them utterance,"(109) "thus bringing back to unity the scattered
races and offering to the Father the first-fruits of all the
nations."(110)
The
connection between Christ's prediction and this event is clear. We perceive
here the first and fundamental fulfillment of the promise of the Paraclete. He
comes, sent by the Father, "after" the departure of Christ, "at
the price of" that departure. This is first a departure through the Cross,
and later, forty days after the Resurrection, through his Ascension into
heaven. Once more, at the moment of the Ascension, Jesus orders the Apostles
"not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father";
"but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit";
"but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and
you shall be witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end
of the earth."(111)
These
last words contain an echo or reminder of the prediction made in the Upper
Room. And on the day of Pentecost this prediction is fulfilled with total
accuracy. Acting under the influence of the Holy Spirit, who had been received
by the Apostles while they were praying in the Upper Room, Peter comes forward
and speaks before a multitude of people of different languages, gathered for
the feast. He proclaims what he certainly would not have had the courage to say
before: Men of Israel,...Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with
mighty works and wonders and signs which God did through him in your
midst...this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and
foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. But
God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not
possible for him to be held by it."(112)
Jesus
had foretold and promised: "He will bear witness to me,...and you also are
my witnesses." In the first discourse of Peter in Jerusalem this
"witness" finds its clear beginning: it is the witness to Christ
crucified and risen. The witness of the Spirit- Paraclete and of the Apostles.
And in the very content of that first witness, the Spirit of truth, through the
lips of Peter, "convinces the world concerning sin": first of all,
concerning the sin which is the rejection of Christ even to his condemnation to
death, to death on the Cross on Golgotha. Similar proclamations will be
repeated, according to the text of the Acts of the Apostles, on other occasions
and in various places.(113)
31.
Beginning from this initial witness at Pentecost and for all future time the
action of the Spirit of truth who "convinces the world concerning the
sin" of the rejection of Christ is linked inseparably with the witness to
be borne to the Paschal Mystery: the mystery of the Crucified and Risen One.
And in this link the same "convincing concerning sin" reveals its own
salvific dimension. For it is a "convincing" that has as its purpose
not merely the accusation of the world and still less its condemnation. Jesus
Christ did not come into the world to judge it and condemn it but to save
it.(114) This is emphasized in this first discourse, when Peter exclaims:
"Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him
both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."(115) And then, when
those present ask Peter and the Apostles: "Brethren, what shall we
do?" this is Peter's answer: "Repent, and be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."(116)
In
this way "convincing concerning sin" becomes at the same time a
convincing concerning the remission of sins, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Peter in his discourse in Jerusalem calls people to conversion, as Jesus called
his listeners to conversion at the beginning of his messianic activity.(117)
Conversion requires convincing of sin; it includes the interior judgment of the
conscience, and this, being a proof of the action of the Spirit of truth in
man's inmost being, becomes at the same time a new beginning of the bestowal of
grace and love: "Receive the Holy Spirit."(118) Thus in this
"convincing concerning sin" we discover a double gift: the gift of
the truth of conscience and the gift of the certainty of redemption. The Spirit
of truth is the Counselor.
The
convincing concerning sin, through the ministry of the apostolic kerygma in the
early Church, is referred-under the impulse of the Spirit poured out at
Pentecost-to the redemptive power of Christ crucified and risen. Thus the
promise concerning the Holy Spirit made before Easter is fulfilled: "He
will take what is mine and declare it to you." When therefore, during the
Pentecost event, Peter speaks of the sin of those who "have not
believed"(119) and have sent Jesus of Nazareth to an ignominious death, he
bears witness to victory over sin: a victory achieved, in a certain sense,
through the greatest sin that man could commit: the killing of Jesus, the Son
of God, consubstantial with the Father! Similarly, the death of the Son of God
conquers human death: "I will be your death, O death,"(120) as the
sin of having crucified the Son of God "conquers" human sin! That sin
which was committed in Jerusalem on Good Friday-and also every human sin. For
the greatest sin on man's part is matched, in the heart of the Redeemer, by the
oblation of supreme love that conquers the evil of all the sins of man. On the
basis of this certainty the Church in the Roman liturgy does not hesitate to repeat
every year, at the Easter Vigil, "O happy fault!" in the deacon's
proclamation of the Resurrection when he sings the "Exsultet. "
32.
However, no one but he himself, the Spirit of truth, can "convince the
world," man or the human conscience of this ineffable truth. He is the
Spirit who "searches even the depths of God."(121) Faced with the
mystery of sin, we have to search "the depths of God" to their very
depth. It is not enough to search the human conscience, the intimate mystery of
man, but we have to penetrate the inner mystery of God, those "depths of
God" that are summarized thus: to the Father-in the Son- through the Holy
Spirit. It is precisely the Holy Spirit who "searches" the
"depths of God," and from them draws God's response to man's sin.
With this response there closes the process of "convincing concerning
sin," as the event of Pentecost shows.
By
convincing the "world" concerning the sin of Golgotha, concerning the
death of the innocent Lamb, as happens on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit
also convinces of every sin, committed in any place and at any moment in human
history: for he demonstrates its relationship with the Cross of Christ. The
"convincing" is the demonstration of the evil of sin, of every sin,
in relation to the Cross of Christ. Sin, shown in this relationship, is
recognized in the entire dimension of evil proper to it, through the
"mysterium iniquitatis"(122) which is hidden within it. Man does not
know this dimension-he is absolutely ignorant of it apart from the Cross of
Christ. So he cannot be "convinced" of it except by the Holy Spirit:
the Spirit of truth but who is also the Counselor.
For
sin, shown in relation to the cross of Christ, is at the same time identified
in the full dimension of the "mysterium pietatis,"(123) as indicated
by the Post- Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia.(124)
Man is also absolutely ignorant of this dimension of sin apart from the Cross
Christ. And he cannot be "convinced" of this dimension either, except
by the Holy Spirit: the one who "searches the depths of God."
3.
The Witness Concerning the Beginning: the Original Reality of Sin
33.
This is the dimension of sin that we find in the witness concerning the beginning,
commented on in the Book of Genesis.(125) It is the sin that according to the
revealed Word of God constitutes the principle and root of all the others. We
find ourselves faced with the original reality of sin in human history and at
the same time in the whole of the economy of salvation. It can be said that in
this sin the "mysterium iniquitatis" has its beginning, but it can
also be said that this is the sin concerning which the redemptive power of the
"mysterium pietatis" becomes particularly clear and efficacious. This
is expressed by St. Paul, when he contrasts the "disobedience" of the
first Adam with the "obedience" of Christ, the second Adam:
"Obedience unto death."(126)
According
to the witness concerning the beginning, sin in its original reality takes
place in man's will-and conscience-first of all as "disobedience,"
that is, as opposition of the will of man to the will of God. This original
disobedience presupposes a rejection, or at least a turning away from the truth
contained in the Word of God, who creates the world. This Word is the same Word
who was "in the beginning with God," who "was God," and
without whom "nothing has been made of all that is," since "the
world was made through him."(127) He is the Word who is also the eternal
law, the source of every law which regulates the world and especially human
acts. When therefore on the eve of his Passion Jesus Christ speaks of the sin
of those who "do not believe in him," in these words of his, full of
sorrow, there is as it were a distant echo of that sin which in its original
form is obscurely inscribed in the mystery of creation. For the one who is
speaking is not only the Son of Man but the one who is also "the
first-born of all creation," "for in him all things were created
...through him and for him."(128) In the light of this truth we can
understand that the "disobedience" in the mystery of the beginning
presupposes in a certain sense the same "non-faith," that same
"they have not believed" which will be repeated in the Paschal Mystery.
As we have said, it is a matter of a rejection or at least a turning away from
the truth contained in the Word of the Father. The rejection expresses itself
in practice as "disobedience," in an act committed as an effect of
the temptation which comes from the "father of lies."(129) Therefore,
at the root of human sin is the lie which is a radical rejection of the truth
contained in the Word of the Father, through whom is expressed the loving
omnipotence of the Creator: the omnipotence and also the love "of God the
Father, Creator of heaven and earth."
34.
"The Spirit of God," who according to the biblical description of
creation "was moving over the face of the water,"(130) signifies the
same "Spirit who searches the depths of God": "searches the depths
of the Father and of the Word-Son in the mystery of creation. Not only is he
the direct witness of their mutual love from which creation derives, but he
himself is this love. He himself, as love, is the eternal uncreated gift. In
him is the source and the beginning of every giving of gifts to creatures. The
witness concerning the beginning, which we find in the whole of Revelation,
beginning with the Book of Genesis, is unanimous on this point. To create means
to call into existence from nothing: therefore, to create means to give
existence. And if the visible world is created for man, therefore the world is
given to man.(131) And at the same time that same man in his own humanity
receives as a gift a special "image and likeness" to God. This means
not only rationality and freedom as constitutive properties of human nature,
but also, from the very beginning, the capacity of having a personal
relationship with God, as "I" and "you," and therefore the
capacity of having a covenant, which will take place in God's salvific
communication with man. Against the background of the "image and
likeness" of God, "the gift of the Spirit" ultimately means a
call to friendship, in which the transcendent "depths of God" become
in some way opened to participation on the part of man. The Second Vatican
Council teaches; "The invisible God out of the abundance of his love
speaks to men as friends and lives among them, so that he may invite and take
them into fellowship with himself."(132)
35.
The Spirit, therefore, who "searches everything, even the depths of
God," knows from the beginning "the secrets of man."(133) For
this reason he alone can fully "convince concerning the sin" that
happened at the beginning, that sin which is the root of all other sins and the
source of man's sinfulness on earth, a source which never ceases to be active.
The Spirit of truth knows the original reality of the sin caused in the will of
man by the "father of lies," he who already "has been
judged."(134) The Holy Spirit therefore convinces the world of sin in
connection with this "judgment," but by constantly guiding toward the
"righteousness" that has been revealed to man together with the Cross
of Christ: through "obedience unto death."(135)
Only
the Holy Spirit can convince concerning the sin of the human beginning,
precisely he who is the love of the Father and of the Son, he who is gift,
whereas the sin of the human beginning consists in untruthfulness and in the
rejection of the gift and the love which determine the beginning of the world
and of man.
36.
According to the witness concerning the beginning which we find in the
Scriptures and in Tradition, after the first (and also more complete)
description in the Book of Genesis, sin in its original form is understood as
"disobedience," and this means simply and directly transgression of a
prohibition laid down by God.(136) But in the light of the whole context it is
also obvious that the ultimate roots of this disobedience are to be sought in
the whole real situation of man. Having been called into existence, the human
being-man and woman-is a creature. The "image of God," consisting in
rationality and freedom, expresses the greatness and dignity of the human
subject, who is a person. But this personal subject is also always a creature:
in his existence and essence he depends on the Creator. According to the Book
of Genesis, "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" was to
express and constantly remind man of the "limit" impassable for a
created being. God's prohibition is to be understood in this sense: the Creator
forbids man and woman to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. The words of the enticement, that is to say the temptation, as
formulated in the sacred text, are an inducement to transgress this prohibition-that
is to say, to go beyond that "limit": "When you eat of it your
eyes will be opened, and you will be like God ["like gods"], knowing
good and evil."(137)
"Disobedience"
means precisely going beyond that limit, which remains impassable to the will
and the freedom of man as a created being. For God the Creator is the one
definitive source of the moral order in the world created by him. Man cannot
decide by himself what is good and what is evil-cannot "know good and
evil, like God." In the created world God indeed remains the first and
sovereign source for deciding about good and evil, through the intimate truth
of being, which is the reflection of the Word, the eternal Son, consubstantial
with the Father. To man, created to the image of God, the Holy Spirit gives the
gift of conscience, so that in this conscience the image may faithfully reflect
its model, which is both Wisdom and eternal Law, the source of the moral order
in man and in the world. "Disobedience," as the original dimension of
sin, means the rejection of this source, through man's claim to become an
independent and exclusive source for deciding about good and evil The Spirit
who "searches the depths of God," and who at the same time is for man
the light of conscience and the source of the moral order, knows in all its
fullness this dimension of the sin inscribed in the mystery of man's beginning.
And the Spirit does not cease "convincing the world of it" in
connection with the Cross of Christ on Golgotha.
37.
According to the witness of the beginning, God in creation has revealed himself
as omnipotence, which is love. At the same time he has revealed to man that, as
the "image and likeness" of his Creator, he is called to participate
in truth and love. This participation means a life in union with God, who is
"eternal life."(138) But man, under the influence of the "father
of lies," has separated himself from this participation. To what degree?
Certainly not to the degree of the sin of a pure spirit, to the degree of the
sin of Satan. The human spirit is incapable of reaching such a degree.(139) In
the very description given in Genesis it is easy to see the difference of
degree between the "breath of evil" on the part of the one who
"has sinned (or remains in sin) from the beginning"(140) and already
"has been judged,"(141) and the evil of disobedience on the part of
man.
Man's
disobedience, nevertheless, always means a turning away from God, and in a
certain sense the closing up of human freedom in his regard. It also means a
certain opening of this freedom-of the human mind and will-to the one who is
the "father of lies." This act of conscious choice is not only
"disobedience" but also involves a certain consent to the motivation
which was contained in the first temptation to sin and which is unceasingly
renewed during the whole history of man on earth: "For God knows that when
you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good
and evil."
Here
we find ourselves at the very center of what could be called the
"anti-Word," that is to say the '"anti-truth:" For the
truth about man becomes falsified: who man is and what are the impassable
limits of his being and freedom. This "anti-truth" is possible
because at the same time there is a complete falsification of the truth about
who God is. God the Creator is placed in a state of suspicion, indeed of
accusation, in the mind of the creature. For the first time in human history
there appears the perverse "genius of suspicion." He seeks to
"falsify'' Good itself; the absolute Good, which precisely in the work of
creation has manifested itself as the Good which gives in an inexpressible way:
as bonum diffusivum sui, as creative love. Who can completely "convince
concerning sin," or concerning this motivation of man's original
disobedience, except the one who alone is the gift and the source of all giving
of gifts, except the Spirit, who "searches the depths of God" and is
the love of the Father and the Son?
38.
For in spite of all the witness of creation and of the salvific economy
inherent in it, the spirit of darkness(142) is capable of showing God as an
enemy of his own creature, and in the first place as an enemy of man, as a
source of danger and threat to man. In this way Satan manages to sow in man's
soul the seed of opposition to the one who "from the beginning" would
be considered as man's enemy-and not as Father. Man is challenged to become the
adversary of God!
The
analysis of sin in its original dimension indicates that, through the influence
of the "father of lies," throughout the history of humanity there
will be a constant pressure on man to reject God, even to the point of hating
him: "Love of self to the point of contempt for God," as St.
Augustine puts it.(143) Man will be inclined to see in God primarily a
limitation of himself, and not the source of his own freedom and the fullness
of good. We see this confirmed in the modern age, when the atheistic ideologies
seek to root out religion on the grounds that religion causes the radical
"alienation" of man, as if man were dispossessed of his own humanity
when, accepting the idea of God, he attributes to God what belongs to man, and
exclusively to man! Hence a process of thought and historico-sociological
practice in which the rejection of God has reached the point of declaring his
"death." An absurdity, both in concept and expression! But the
ideology of the "death of God" is more a threat to man, as the Second
Vatican Council indicates when it analyzes the question of the "independence
of earthly affairs" and writes: "For without the Creator the creature
would disappear...when God is forgotten the creature itself grows
unintelligible."(144) The ideology of the "death of God" easily
demonstrates in its effects that on the "theoretical and practical"
levels it is the ideology of the "death of man."
4.
The Spirit Who Transforms Suffering into Salvific Love
39.
The Spirit who searches the depths of God was called by Jesus in his discourse
in the Upper Room the Paraclete. For from the beginning the Spirit "is invoked"(145)
in order to "convince the world concerning sin." He is invoked in a
definitive way through the Cross of Christ. Convincing concerning sin means
showing the evil that sin contains, and this is equivalent to revealing the
mystery of iniquity. It is not possible to grasp the evil of sin in all its sad
reality without "searching the depths of God." From the very
beginning, the obscure mystery of sin has appeared in the world against the
background of a reference to the Creator of human freedom. Sin has appeared as
an act of the will of the creature-man contrary to the will of God, to the
salvific will of God; indeed, sin has appeared in opposition to the truth, on
the basis of the lie which has now been definitively "judged": the
lie that has placed in a state of accusation, a state of permanent suspicion,
creative and salvific love itself. Man has followed the "father of
lies," setting himself up in opposition to the Father of life and the
Spirit of truth.
Therefore,
will not "convincing concerning sin" also have to mean revealing
suffering? Revealing the pain, unimaginable and inexpressible, which on account
of sin the Book of Genesis in its anthropomorphic vision seems to glimpse in
the "depths of God" and in a certain sense in the very heart of the
ineffable Trinity? The Church, taking her inspiration from Revelation, believes
and professes that sin is an offense against God. What corresponds, in the
inscrutable intimacy of the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, to this
"offense," this rejection of the Spirit who is love and gift? The
concept of God as the necessarily most perfect being certainly excludes from
God any pain deriving from deficiencies or wounds; but in the "depths of
God" there is a Father's love that, faced with man's sin, in the language
of the Bible reacts so deeply as to say: "I am sorry that I have made
him."(146) "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth.... And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth.... The Lord
said: 'I am sorry that I have made them.'"(147) But more often the Sacred
Book speaks to us of a Father who feels compassion for man, as though sharing
his pain. In a word, this inscrutable and indescribable fatherly
"pain" will bring about above all the wonderful economy of redemptive
love in Jesus Christ, so that through the mysterium pietatis love can reveal
itself in the history of man as stronger than sin. So that the "gift"
may prevail!
The
Holy Spirit, who in the words of Jesus "convinces concerning sin," is
the love of the Father and the Son, and as such is the Trinitarian gift, and at
the same time the eternal source of every divine giving of gifts to creatures.
Precisely in him we can picture as personified and actualized in a transcendent
way that mercy which the patristic and theological tradition following the line
of the Old and New Testaments, attributes to God. In man, mercy includes sorrow
and compassion for the misfortunes of one's neighbor. In God, the Spirit- Love
expresses the consideration of human sin in a fresh outpouring of salvific
love. From God, in the unity of the Father with the Son, the economy of
salvation is born, the economy which fills the history of man with the gifts of
the Redemption. Whereas sin, by rejecting love, has caused the "suffering"
of man which in some way has affected the whole of creation,(148) the Holy
Spirit will enter into human and cosmic suffering with a new outpouring of
love, which will redeem the world. And on the lips of Jesus the Redeemer, in
whose humanity the "suffering" of God is concretized, there will be
heard a word which manifests the eternal love full of mercy:
"Misereor." (149) Thus, on the part of the Holy Spirit,
"convincing of sin" becomes a manifestation before creation, which is
"subjected to futility," and above all in the depth of human
consciences, that sin is conquered through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God who
has become even "unto death" the obedient servant who, by making up
for man's disobedience, accomplishes the redemption of the world. In this way the
spirit of truth, the Paraclete, "convinces concerning sin."
40.
The redemptive value of Christ's sacrifice is expressed in very significant
words by the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, who after recalling the
sacrifices of the Old Covenant in which "the blood of goats and
bulls..." purifies in "the flesh," adds: "How much more
shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God?"(150) Though we are aware of other possible interpretations,
our considerations on the presence of the Holy Spirit in the whole of Christ's
life lead us to see this text as an invitation to reflect on the presence of
the same Spirit also in the redemptive sacrifice of the Incarnate Word.
To
begin with we reflect on the first words dealing with this sacrifice, and then
separately on the "purification of conscience" which it accomplishes.
For it is a sacrifice offered "through the eternal Spirit," that
"derives" from it the power to "convince concerning sin."
It is the same Holy Spirit, whom, according to the promise made in the Upper
Room, Jesus Christ "will bring" to the Apostles on the day of his
Resurrection, when he presents himself to them with the wounds of the crucifixion,
and whom "he will give" them "for the remission of sins":
"Receive the Holy Spirit; if you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven."(151)
We
know that "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with
power," as Simon Peter said in the house of the centurion Cornelius.(152)
We know of the Paschal Mystery of his "departure," from the Gospel of
John. The words of the Letter to the Hebrews now explain to us how Christ
"offered himself without blemish to God," and how he did this "with
an eternal Spirit." In the sacrifice of the Son of Man the Holy Spirit is
present and active just as he acted in Jesus' conception, in his coming into
the world, in his hidden life and in his public ministry. According to the
Letter to the Hebrews, on the way to his "departure" through
Gethsemani and Golgotha, the same Christ Jesus in his own humanity opened
himself totally to this action of the Spirit-Paraclete, who from suffering
enables eternal salvific love to spring forth. Therefore he "was heard for
his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he
suffered."(153) In this way this Letter shows how humanity, subjected to
sin, in the descendants of the first Adam, in Jesus Christ became perfectly
subjected to God and united to him, and at the same time full of compassion
towards men. Thus there is a new humanity, which in Jesus Christ through the
suffering of the Cross has returned to the love which was betrayed by Adam
through sin. This new humanity is discovered precisely in the divine source of
the original outpouring of gifts: in the Spirit, who "searches...the
depths of God" and is himself love and gift.
The
Son of God Jesus Christ, as man, in the ardent prayer of his Passion, enabled
the Holy Spirit, who had already penetrated the inmost depths of his humanity,
to transform that humanity into a perfect sacrifice through the act of his
death as the victim of love on the Cross. He made this offering by himself. As
the one priest, "he offered himself without blemish to God:(154) In his
humanity he was worthy to become this sacrifice, for he alone was "without
blemish." But he offered it "through the eternal Spirit," which
means that the Holy Spirit acted in a special way in this absolute self-giving
of the Son of Man, in order to transform this suffering into redemptive love.
41.
The Old Testament on several occasions speaks of "fire from heaven"
which burnt the oblations presented by men.(155) By analogy one can say that
the Holy Spirit is the "fire from heaven" which works in the depth of
the mystery of the Cross. Proceeding from the Father, he directs toward the
Father the sacrifice of the Son, bringing it into the divine reality of the
Trinitarian communion. if sin caused suffering, now the pain of God in Christ
crucified acquires through the Holy Spirit its full human expression. Thus
there is a paradoxical mystery of love: in Christ there suffers a God who has
been rejected by his own creature: "They do not believe in me!"; but
at the same time, from the depth of this suffering-and indirectly from the
depth of the very sin "of not having believed"-the Spirit draws a new
measure of the gift made to man and to creation from the beginning. In the
depth of the mystery of the Cross, love is at work, that love which brings man
back again to share in the life that is in God himself.
The
Holy Spirit as Love and Gift comes down, in a certain sense, into the very
heart of the sacrifice which is offered on the Cross. Referring here to the
biblical tradition, we can say: He consumes this sacrifice with the fire of the
love which unites the Son with the Father in the Trinitarian communion. And
since the sacrifice of the Cross is an act proper to Christ, also in this
sacrifice he "receives" the Holy Spirit. He receives the Holy Spirit
in such a way that afterwards-and he alone with God the Father- can "give
him" to the Apostles, to the Church, to humanity. He alone
"sends" the Spirit from the Father.(156) He alone presents himself
before the Apostles in the Upper Room, "breathes upon them" and says:
"Receive the Holy Spirit; if you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven,"(157) as John the Baptist had foretold: "He will baptize
you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."(158) With those words of Jesus,
the holy Spirit is revealed and at the same time made present as the Love that
works in the depths of the Paschal Mystery, as the source of the salvific power
of the Cross of Christ, and as the gift of new and eternal life.
This
truth about the Holy Spirit finds daily expression in the Roman liturgy, when
before Communion the priest pronounces those significant words; "Lord
Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, by the will of the Father and the work of
the Holy Spirit your death brought life to the world...." And in the Third
Eucharistic Prayer, referring to the same salvific plan, the priest asks God
that the Holy Spirit may "make us an everlasting gift to you."
5.
The Blood that Purifies the Conscience
42.
We have said that, at the climax of the Paschal Mystery, the Holy Spirit is definitively
revealed and made present in a new way. The Risen Christ says to the Apostles:
"Receive the Holy Spirit." Thus the Holy Spirit is revealed, for the
words of Christ constitute the confirmation of what he had promised and
foretold during the discourse in the Upper Room. And with this the Paraclete is
also made present in a new way. In fact, he was already at work from the
beginning in the mystery of creation and throughout the history of the Old
Covenant of God with man. His action was fully confirmed by the sending of the
Son of Man as the Messiah, who came in the power of the Holy Spirit. At the
climax of Jesus' messianic mission, the Holy Spirit becomes present in the
Paschal Mystery in all his divine subjectivity: as the one who is now to continue
the salvific work rooted in the sacrifice of the Cross. Of course Jesus
entrusts this work to humanity: to the Apostles, to the Church. Nevertheless,
in these men and through them the Holy Spirit remains the transcendent
principal agent of the accomplishment of this work in the human spirit and in
the history of the world: the invisible and at the same time omnipresent
Paraclete! The Spirit who "blows where he wills."(159)
The
words of the Risen Christ on the "first day of the week" give
particular emphasis to the presence of the Paraclete-Counselor as the one who
"convinces the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment." For
it is only in this relationship that it is possible to explain the words which
Jesus directly relates to the "gift" of the Holy Spirit to the
Apostles. He says: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of
any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
(160) Jesus confers on the Apostles the power to forgive sins, so that they may
pass it on to their successors in the Church But this power granted to men
presupposes and includes the saving action of the Holy Spirit. By becoming
"the light of hearts,"(161) that is to say the light of consciences,
the Holy Spirit "convinces concerning sin," which is to say, he makes
man realize his own evil and at the same time directs him toward what is good.
Thanks to the multiplicity of the Spirit's gifts, by reason of which he is
invoked as the "sevenfold one," every kind of human sin can be reached
by God's saving power. In reality-as St. Bonaventure says-"by virtue of
the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit all evils are destroyed and all good things
are produced.(162)
Thus
the conversion of the human heart, which is an indispensable condition for the
forgiveness of sins, is brought about by the influence of the Counselor.
Without a true conversion, which implies inner contrition, and without a
sincere and firm purpose of amendment, sins remain "unforgiven," in
the words of Jesus, and with him in the Tradition of the Old and New Covenants.
For the first words uttered by Jesus at the beginning of his ministry,
according to the Gospel of Mark, are these: "Repent, and believe in the
Gospel. "(163) A confirmation of this exhortation is the "convincing
concerning sin" that the Holy Spirit undertakes in a new way by virtue of
the Redemption accomplished by the Blood of the Son of Man. Hence the Letter to
the Hebrews says that this "blood purifies the conscience."(164) It
therefore, so to speak, opens to the Holy Spirit the door into man's inmost
being, namely into the sanctuary of human consciences.
43.
The Second Vatican Council mentioned the Catholic teaching on conscience when
it spoke about man's vocation and in particular about the dignity of the human
person. It is precisely the conscience in particular which determines this
dignity. For the conscience is "the most secret core and sanctuary of a
man, where he is alone with God, whose voice echoes in his depths." It
"can ...speak to his heart more specifically: do this, shun that."
This capacity to command what is good and to forbid evil, placed in man by the
Creator, is the main characteristic of the personal subject. But at the same
time, "in the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does
not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience."(165) The
conscience therefore is not an independent and exclusive capacity to decide
what is good and what is evil. Rather there is profoundly imprinted upon it a
principle of obedience vis-a-vis the objective norm which establishes and
conditions the correspondence of its decisions with the commands and
prohibitions which are at the basis of human behavior, as from the passage of
the Book of Genesis which we have already considered. (166) Precisely in this
sense the conscience is the "secret sanctuary" in which "God's
voice echoes." The conscience is "the voice of God," even when
man recognizes in it nothing more than the principle of the moral order which
it is not humanly possible to doubt, even without any direct reference to the
Creator. It is precisely in reference to this that the conscience always finds
its foundation and justification.
The
Gospel's "convincing concerning sin" under the influence of the Spirit
of truth can be accomplished in man in no other way except through the
conscience. If the conscience is upright, it serves "to resolve according
to truth the moral problems which arise both in the life of individuals and
from social relationships"; then "persons and groups turn aside from
blind choice and try to be guided by the objective standards of moral
conduct."(167)
A
result of an upright conscience is, first of all, to call good and evil by
their proper name, as we read in the same Pastoral Constitution: "whatever
is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion,
euthanasia, or willful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the
human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts
to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman
living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution,
the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions,
where people are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and
responsible persons"; and having called by name the many different sins
that are so frequent and widespread in our time, the Constitution adds:
"All these things and others of their kind are infamies indeed. They
poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than to
those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are a supreme dishonor to the
Creator"(168)
By
calling by their proper name the sins that most dishonor man, and by showing
that they are a moral evil that weighs negatively on any balance- sheet of
human progress, the Council also describes all this as a stage in "a
dramatic struggle between good and evil, between light and darkness,"
which characterizes "all of human life, whether individual or
collective."(169) The 1983 Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on
reconciliation and penance specified even more clearly the personal and social
significance of human sin.(170)
44.
In the Upper Room, on the eve of his Passion and again on the evening of Easter
Day, Jesus Christ spoke of the Holy Spirit as the one who bears witness that in
human history sin continues to exist. Yet sin has been subjected to the saving
power of the Redemption. "Convincing the world concerning sin" does
not end with the fact that sin is called by its right name and identified for
what it is throughout its entire range. In convincing the world concerning sin
the Spirit of truth comes into contact with the voice of human consciences. By
following this path we come to a demonstration of the roots of sin, which are
to be found in man's inmost being, as described by the same Pastoral
Constitution: "The truth is that the imbalances under which the modern
world labors are linked with that more basic imbalance rooted in the heart of
man. For in man himself many elements wrestle with one another. Thus, on the
one hand, as a creature he experiences his limitations in a multitude of ways.
On the other, he feels himself to be boundless in his desires and summoned to a
higher life. Pulled by manifold attractions, he is constantly forced to choose
among them and to renounce some. Indeed, as a weak and sinful being, he often
does what he would not, and fails to do what he would."(171) The Conciliar
text is here referring to the well-known words of St. Paul.(172) The
"convincing concerning sin" which accompanies the human conscience in
every careful reflection upon itself thus leads to the discovery of sin's roots
in man, as also to the discovery of the way in which the conscience has been
conditioned in the course of history. In this way we discover that original
reality of sin of which we have already spoken. The Holy Spirit "convinces
concerning sin" in relation to the mystery of man's origins, showing the fact
that man is a created being, and therefore in complete ontological and ethical
dependence upon the Creator. The Holy Spirit reminds us, at the same time, of
the hereditary sinfulness of human nature. But the Holy Spirit the Counselor
"convinces concerning sin" always in relation to the Cross of Christ.
In the context of this relationship Christianity rejects any
"fatalism" regarding sin. As the Council teaches: "A monumental
struggle against the powers of darkness pervades the whole history of man. The
battle was joined from the very origins of the world and will continue until
the last day, as the Lord has attested."(173) "But the Lord himself
came to free and strengthen man."(174) Man, therefore, far from allowing
himself to be "ensnared" in his sinful condition, by relying upon the
voice of his own conscience "is obliged to wrestle constantly if he is to
cling to what is good. Nor can he achieve his own interior integrity without
valiant efforts and the help of God s grace."(175) The Council rightly sees
sin as a factor of alienation which weighs heavily on man's personal and social
life. But at the same time it never tires of reminding us of the possibility of
victory.
45.
The Spirit of truth, who "convinces the world concerning sin," comes
into contact with that laborious effort on the part of the human conscience
which the Conciliar texts speak of so graphically. This laborious effort of
conscience also determines the paths of human conversion: turning one's back on
sin, in order to restore truth and love in man's very heart. We know that
recognizing evil in ourselves sometimes demands a great effort. We know that
conscience not only commands and forbids but also Judges in the light of
interior dictates and prohibitions. It is also the source of remorse: man suffers
interiorly because f the evil he has committed. Is not this suffering, as it
were, a distant echo of that "repentance at having created man" which
in anthropomorphic language the Sacred Book attributes to God? Is it not an
echo of that "reprobation" which is interiorized in the
"heart" of the Trinity and by virtue of the eternal love is
translated into the suffering of the Cross, into Christ's obedience unto death?
When the Spirit of truth permits the human conscience to share in that suffering,
the suffering of the conscience becomes particularly profound, but also
particularly salvific. Then, by means of an act of perfect contrition, the
authentic conversion of the heart is accomplished: this is the evangelical
"metanoia."
The
laborious effort of the human heart, the laborious effort of the conscience in
which this "metanoia," or conversion, takes place, is a reflection of
that process whereby reprobation is transformed into salvific love, a love
which is capable of suffering. The hidden giver of this saving power is the
Holy Spirit: he whom the Church calls "the light of consciences"
penetrates and fills "the depths of the human heart."(176) Through
just such a conversion in the Holy Spirit a person becomes open to forgiveness,
to the remission of sins. And in all this wonderful dynamism of
conversion-forgiveness there is confirmed the truth of what St. Augustine
writes concerning the mystery of man, when he comments on the words of the
Psalm: "The abyss calls to the abyss."(177) Precisely with regard to
these "unfathomable depths" of man, of the human conscience, the
mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit is accomplished. The Holy Spirit
"comes" by virtue of Christ's "departure" in the Paschal
Mystery: he comes in each concrete case of conversion- forgiveness, by virtue
of the sacrifice of the Cross. For in this sacrifice "the blood of
Christ...purifies your conscience from dead works to serve the living
God."(178) Thus there are continuously fulfilled the words about the Holy
Spirit as "another Counselor," the words spoken in the Upper Room to
the Apostles and indirectly spoken to everyone: "You know him, for he
dwells with you and will be in you."(179)
6.
The Sin Against the Holy Spirit
46.
Against the background of what has been said so far, certain other words of
Jesus, shocking and disturbing ones, become easier to understand. We might call
them the words of "unforgiveness." They are reported for us by the
Synoptics in connection with a particular sin which is called "blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit." This is how they are reported in their three
versions:
Matthew:
"Whoever says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven but whoever
speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in
the age to come."(180)
Mark:
"All sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they
utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness,
but is guilty of an eternal sin."(181)
Luke:
"Every one who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but
he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven."(182)
Why
is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit unforgivable? How should this blasphemy be
understood ? St. Thomas Aquinas replies that it is a question of a sin that is
"unforgivable by its very nature, insofar as it excludes the elements
through which the forgiveness of sin takes place."(183)
According
to such an exegesis, "blasphemy" does not properly consist in
offending against the Holy Spirit in words; it consists rather in the refusal
to accept the salvation which God offers to man through the Holy Spirit,
working through the power of the Cross. If man rejects the "convincing
concerning sin" which comes from the Holy Spirit and which has the power
to save, he also rejects the "coming" of the Counselor-that
"coming" which was accomplished in the Paschal Mystery, in union with
the redemptive power of Christ's Blood: the Blood which "purifies the
conscience from dead works."
We
know that the result of such a purification is the forgiveness of sins.
Therefore, whoever rejects the Spirit and the Blood remains in "dead
works," in sin. And the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit consists
precisely in the radical refusal to accept this forgiveness, of which he is the
intimate giver and which presupposes the genuine conversion which he brings
about in the conscience. If Jesus says that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit
cannot be forgiven either in this life or in the next, it is because this
"non-forgiveness" is linked, as to its cause, to
"non-repentance," in other words to the radical refusal to be
converted. This means the refusal to come to the sources of Redemption, which
nevertheless remain "always" open in the economy of salvation in
which the mission of the Holy Spirit is accomplished. The Spirit has infinite
power to draw from these sources: "he will take what is mine," Jesus
said. In this way he brings to completion in human souls the work of the
Redemption accomplished by Christ, and distributes its fruits. Blasphemy against
the Holy Spirit, then, is the sin committed by the person who claims to have a
"right" to persist in evil-in any sin at all-and who thus rejects
Redemption. One closes oneself up in sin, thus making impossible one's
conversion, and consequently the remission of sins, which one considers not
essential or not important for one's life. This is a state of spiritual ruin,
because blasphemy against the Holy Spirit does not allow one to escape from
one's self-imposed imprisonment and open oneself to the divine sources of the
purification of consciences and of the remission of sins.
47.
The action of the Spirit of truth, which works toward salvific "convincing
concerning sin," encounters in a person in this condition an interior resistance,
as it were an impenetrability of conscience, a state of mind which could be
described as fixed by reason of a free choice. This is what Sacred Scripture
usually calls "hardness of heart."(184) In our own time this attitude
of mind and heart is perhaps reflected in the loss of the sense of sin, to
which the Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia devotes many
pages.(185) Pope Pius XII had already declared that "the sin of the
century is the loss of the sense of sin,"(186) and this loss goes hand in
hand with the "loss of the sense of God." In the Exhortation just
mentioned we read: "In fact, God is the origin and the supreme end of man,
and man carries in himself a divine seed. Hence it is the reality of God that
reveals and illustrates the mystery of man. It is therefore vain to hope that
there will take root a sense of sin against man and against human values, if
there is no sense of offense against God, namely the true sense of
sin."(187)
Hence
the Church constantly implores from God the grace that integrity of human
consciences will not be lost, that their healthy sensitivity with regard to
good and evil will not be blunted. This integrity and sensitivity are
profoundly linked to the intimate action of the Spirit of truth. In this light
the exhortations of St. Paul assume particular eloquence: "Do not quench
the Spirit"; "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit."(188) But above all
the Church constantly implores with the greatest fervor that there will be no
increase in the world of the sin that the Gospel calls "blasphemy against
the Holy Spirit." Rather, she prays that it will decrease in human
souls-and consequently in the forms and structures of society itself-and that
it will make room for that openness of conscience necessary for the saving
action of the Holy Spirit. The Church prays that the dangerous sin against the
Spirit will give way to a holy readiness to accept his mission as the
Counselor, when he comes to "convince the world concerning sin, and
righteousness and judgment."
48.
In his farewell discourse Jesus linked these three areas of
"convincing" as elements of the mission of the Paraclete: sin,
righteousness and judgment. They mark out the area of that mysterium pietatis
that in human history is opposed to sin, to the mystery of iniquity.(189) On
the one hand, as St. Augustine says, there is "love of self to the point
of contempt of God"; on the other, "love-of God to the point of
contempt of self."(190) The Church constantly lifts up her prayer and
renders her service in order that the history of consciences and the history of
societies in the great human family will not descend toward the pole of sin, by
the rejection of God's commandments "to the point of contempt of
God," but rather will rise toward the love in which the Spirit that gives
life is revealed.
Those
who let themselves be "convinced concerning sin" by the Holy Spirit,
also allow themselves to be convinced "concerning righteousness and
judgment." The Spirit of truth who helps human beings, human consciences,
to know the truth concerning sin, at the same time enables them to know the
truth about that righteousness which entered human history in Jesus Christ. In
this way, those who are "convinced concerning sin" and who are
converted through the action of the Counselor are, in a sense, led out of the
range of the "judgment" that "judgment" by which "the
ruler of this world is judged."(191) In the depths of its divine-human
mystery, conversion means the breaking of every fetter by which sin binds man
to the whole of the mystery of iniquity.
Those
who are converted, therefore, are led by the Holy Spirit out of the range of
the "judgment," and introduced into that righteousness which is in
Christ Jesus, and is in him precisely because he receives it from the
Father,(192) as a reflection of the holiness of the Trinity. This is the
righteousness of the Gospel and of the Redemption, the righteousness of the
Sermon on the Mount and of the Cross, which effects the purifying of the
conscience through the Blood of the Lamb. It is the righteousness which the
Father gives to the Son and to all those united with him in truth and in love.
In
this righteousness the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and the Son, who
"convinces the world concerning sin," reveals himself and makes
himself present in man as the Spirit of eternal life.
PART
III
THE
SPIRIT WHO GIVES LIFE
1.
Reason for the Jubilee of the Year 2000: Christ Who Was Conceived of the Holy
Spirit
49.
The Church's mind and heart turn to the Holy Spirit as this twentieth century
draws to a close and the third Millennium since the coming of Jesus Christ into
the world approaches, and as we look toward the great Jubilee with which the
Church will celebrate the event. For according to the computation of time this
coming is measured as an event belonging to the history of man on earth. The
measurement of time in common use defines years, centuries and millennia
according to whether they come before or after the birth of Christ. But it must
also be remembered that for us Christians this event indicates, as St. Paul
says, the "fullness of time,"(193) because in it human history has
been wholly permeated by the "measurement" of God himself: a
transcendent presence of the "eternal now." He "who is, who was,
and who is to come"; he who is "the Alpha and the Omega, the first
and the last, the beginning and the end."(194) "For God so loved the
world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish
but have eternal life."(195) "When the time had finally come, God
sent forth his Son, born of a woman...so that we might receive adoption as
sons."(196) And this Incarnation of the Son-Word came about "by the
power of the Holy Spirit."
The
two Evangelists to whom we owe the narrative of the birth and infancy of Jesus
of Nazareth express themselves on this matter in an identical way. According to
Luke, at the Annunciation of the birth of Jesus, Mary asks: "How shall
this be, since I have no husband?" and she receives this answer: "The
Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow
you: therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of
God."(197)
Matthew
narrates directly: "Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together
she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit."(198) Disturbed by this
turn of events, Joseph receives the following explanation in a dream: "Do
not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the
Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he
will save his people from their sins."(199)
Thus
from the beginning the Church confesses the mystery of the Incarnation, this
key-mystery of the faith, by making reference to the Holy Spirit. The Apostles'
Creed says: "He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of
the Virgin Mary." Similarly, the Nicene- Constantinopolitan Creed
professed: "By the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the
Virgin Mary, and was made man."
"By
the power of the Holy Spirit" there became man he whom the Church, in the
words of the same Creed, professes to be the Son, of the same substance as the
Father: "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God; begotten,
not made." He was made man by becoming "incarnate from the Virgin
Mary." This is what happened when "the fullness of time had
come."
50.
The great Jubilee at the close of the second Millennium, for which the Church
is already preparing, has a directly Christological aspect: for it is a
celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. At the same time it has a
pneumatological aspect, since the mystery of the Incarnation was accomplished
"by the power of the Holy Spirit." It was "brought about"
by that Spirit-consubstantial with the Father and the Son-who, in the absolute
mystery of the Triune God, is the Person-love, the uncreated gift, who is the
eternal source of every gift that comes from God in the order of creation, the
direct principle and, in a certain sense, the subject of God's self-
communication in the order of grace. The mystery of the Incarnation constitutes
the climax of this giving, this divine self-communication.
The
conception and birth of Jesus Christ are in fact the greatest work accomplished
by the Holy Spirit in the history of creation and salvation: the supreme grace
"the grace of union," source of every other grace, as St. Thomas
explains.(200) The great Jubilee refer to this work and also-if we penetrate
its depths-to the author of this work, to the person of the Holy Spirit.
For
the "fullness of time" is matched by a particular fullness of the
self- communication of the Triune God in the Holy Spirit. "By the power of
the Holy Spirit" the mystery of the "hypostatic union" is
brought about-that is, the union of the divine nature and the human nature, of
the divinity and the humanity in the one Person of the Word-Son. When at the
moment of the Annunciation Mary utters her "fiat": "Be it done
unto me according to your word,"(201) she conceives in a virginal way a
man, the Son of Man, who is the Son of God. By means of this
"humanization" of the Word-Son the self-communication of God reaches
its definitive fullness in the history of creation and salvation. This fullness
acquires a special wealth and expressiveness in the text of John's Gospel:
''The Word became flesh."(202) The Incarnation of God the Son signifies
the taking up into unity with God not only of human nature, but in this human
nature, in a sense, of everything that is "flesh": the whole of
humanity, the entire visible and material world. The Incarnation, then, also
has a cosmic significance, a cosmic dimension. The "first-born of all
creation,"(203) becoming incarnate in the individual humanity of Christ,
unites himself in some way with the entire reality of man, which is also
"flesh" (204)-and in this reality with all "flesh," with
the whole of creation.
51.
All this is accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit, and so is part of the
great Jubilee to come. The Church cannot prepare for the Jubilee in any other
way than in the Holy Spirit. What was accomplished by the power of the Holy
Spirit "in the fullness of time" can only through the Spirit's power
now emerge from the memory of the Church. By his power it can be made present
in the new phase of man's history on earth: the year 2000 from the birth of
Christ.
The
Holy Spirit, who with his power overshadowed the virginal body of Mary,
bringing about in her the beginning of her divine Motherhood, at the same time
made her heart perfectly obedient to that self-communication of God which
surpassed every human idea and faculty. "Blessed is she who
believed!"(205): thus Mary is greeted by her cousin Elizabeth, herself
"full of the Holy Spirit."(206) In the words of greeting addressed to
her "who believed" we seem to detect a distant (but in fact very
close) contrast with all those about whom Christ will say that "they do
not believe."(207) Mary entered the history of the salvation of the world
through the obedience of faith. And faith, in its deepest essence, is the
openness of the human heart to the gift: to God's self- communication in the
Holy Spirit. St. Paul write: "The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is freedom."(208) When the Triune; God opens himself
to man in the Holy Spirit, this opening of God reveals and also gives to the
human creature the fullness of freedom. This fullness was manifested in a
sublime way precisely through the faith of Mary, through the "obedience of
faith"(209): truly, "Blessed is she who believed!"
2.
Reason for the Jubilee: Grace Has Been Made Manifest
52.
In the mystery of the Incarnation the work of the Spirit "who gives
life" reaches its highest point. It is not possible to give life, which in
its fullest form is in God, except by making it the life of a Man, as Christ is
in his humanity endowed with personhood by the Word in the hypostatic union.
And at the same time, with the mystery of the Incarnation there opens in a new
way the source of this divine life in the history of mankind: the Holy Spirit.
The Word, "the first-born of all creation," becomes "the
first-born of many brethren."(210) And thus he also becomes the head of
the Body which is the Church, which will be born on the Cross and revealed on
the day of Pentecost-and in the Church, he becomes the head of humanity: of the
people of every nation, every race, every country and culture, every language
and continent, all called to salvation. "The Word became flesh, (that Word
in whom) was life and the life was the light of men...to all who received him
he gave the power to become the children of God."(211) But all this was
accomplished and is unceasingly accomplished "by the power of the Holy
Spirit."
For
as St. Paul teaches, "all who are led by the Spirit of God" are
"children of God."(212) The filiation of divine adoption is born in
man on the basis of the mystery of the Incarnation, therefore through Christ
the eternal Son. But the birth, or rebirth. happens when God the Father
"sends the Spirit of his Son into our hearts."(213) Then "we
receive a spirit of adopted sons by which we cry 'Abba, Father!'"(214)
Hence the divine filiation planted in the human soul through sanctifying grace
is the work of the Holy Spirit. "It is the Spirit himself bearing witness
with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs
of God and fellow heirs with Christ."(215) Sanctifying grace is the
principle and source of man's new life: divine, supernatural life
The
giving of this new life is as it were God's definitive answer to the Psalmist's
words, which in a way echo the voice of all creatures: "When you send
forth your Spirit, they shall be created; and you shall renew the face of the
earth."(216) He who in the mystery of creation gives life to man and the
cosmos in its many different forms, visible and invisible, again renews this
life through the mystery of the Incarnation. Creation is thus completed by the
Incarnation and since that moment is permeated by the powers of the Redemption,
powers which fill humanity and all creation. This is what we are told by St.
Paul, whose cosmic and theological vision seems to repeat the words of the
ancient Psalm: creation "waits with eager longing for the revealing of the
sons of God,"(217) that is, those whom God has "foreknown" and
whom he "has predestined to be conformed to the image of his
Son."(218) Thus there is a supernatural "adoption," of which the
source is the Holy Spirit, love and gift. As such he is given to man. And in the
superabundance of the uncreated gift there begins in the heart of all human
beings that particular created gift whereby they "become partakers of the
divine nature."(219) Thus human life becomes permeated, through
participation, by the divine life, and itself acquires a divine, supernatural
dimension. There is granted the new life, in which as a sharer in the mystery
of Incarnation "man has access to the Father in the Holy
Spirit."(220) Thus there is a close relationship between the Spirit who
gives life and sanctifying grace and the manifold supernatural vitality which
derives from it in man: between the uncreated Spirit and the created human
spirit.
53.
All this may be said to fall within the scope of the great Jubilee mentioned
above. For we must go beyond the historical dimension of the event considered
in its surface value. Through the Christological content of the event we have
to reach the pneumatological dimension, seeing with the eyes of faith the two
thousand years of the action of the Spirit of truth, who down the centuries has
drawn from the treasures of the Redemption achieved by Christ and given new
life to human beings, bringing about in them adoption in the only-begotten Son,
sanctifying them, so that they can repeat with St. Paul: "We have received
...the Spirit which is from God."(221)
But
as we follow this reason for the Jubilee, we cannot limit ourselves to the two
thousand years which have passed since the birth of Christ. We need to go
further back, to embrace the whole of the action of the Holy Spirit even before
Christ-from the beginning, throughout the world, and especially in the economy
of the Old Covenant. For this action has been exercised, in every place and at
every time, indeed in every individual, according to the eternal plan of
salvation, whereby this action was to be closely linked with the mystery of the
Incarnation and Redemption, which in its turn exercised its influence on those
who believed in the future coming of Christ. This is attested to especially in
the Letter to the Ephesians.(222) Grace, therefore, bears within iitself both a
Christological aspect and a pneumatological one, which becomes evident above
all in those who expressly accept Christ: "In him [in Christ] you...were
sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee of our
inheritance, until we acquire possession of it."(223)
But,
still within the perspective of the great Jubilee, we need to look further and
go further afield, knowing that "the wind blows where it wills,"
according to the image used by Jesus in his conversation with Nicodemus.(224)
The Second Vatican Council, centered primarily on the theme of the Church,
reminds us of the Holy Spirit's activity also "outside the visible body of
the Church." The council speaks precisely of "all people of good will
in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way. For, since Christ died for all,
and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to
believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man
the possibility of being associated with this Paschal Mystery."(225)
54.
"God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and
truth."(226) These words were spoken by Jesus in another conversation, the
one with the Samaritan woman. The great Jubilee to be celebrated at the end of
this Millennium and at the beginning of the next ought to constitute a powerful
call to all those who "worship God in spirit and truth." It should be
for everyone a special occasion for meditating on the mystery of the Triune
God, who in himself is wholly transcendent with regard to the world, especially
the visible world. For he is absolute Spirit, "God is spirit"(227);
and also, in such a marvelous way, he is not only close to this world but
present in it, and in a sense immanent, penetrating it and giving it life from
within. This is especially true in relation to man: God is present in the
intimacy of man's being, in his mind, conscience and heart: an ontological and
psychological reality, in considering which St. Augustine said of God that he
was "closer than my inmost being."(228) These words help us to
understand better the words of Jesus to the Samaritan woman: "God is
spirit." Only the Spirit can be "closer than my spiritual experience.
Only the spirit can be so permanent in man and in the world, while remaining
inviolable and immutable in his absolute transcendence.
But
in Jesus Christ the divine presence in the world and in man has been made
manifest in a new way and in visible form. In him "the grace of God has
appeared indeed."(229) The love of God the Father, as a gift, infinite
grace, source of life, has been made visible in Christ, and in his humanity
that love has become "part" of the universe, the human family and
history. This appearing of grace in human history, through Jesus Christ, has
been accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit, who is the source of
all God's salvific activity in the world: he, the "hidden God,"(230)
who as love and gift "fills the universe."(231) The Church's entire
life, as will appear in the great Jubilee, means going to meet the invisible
God, the hidden God: a meeting with the Spirit "who gives life."
3.
The Holy Spirit in Man's Inner Conflict: "For the desires of the flesh are
against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh"
55.
Unfortunately, the history of salvation shows that God's coming close and
making himself present to man and the world, that marvelous
"condescension" of the Spirit, meets with resistance and opposition in
our human reality. How eloquent from this point of view are the prophetic words
of the old man Simeon who, inspired by the Spirit, came to the Temple in
Jerusalem, in order to foretell in the presence of the new-born Babe of
Bethlehem that he "is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, for a
sign of contradiction."(232) Opposition to God, who is an invisible
Spirit, to a certain degree originates in the very fact of the radical
difference of the world from God, that is to say in the world's "visibility"
and "materiality" in contrast to him who is "invisible" and
"absolute Spirit"; from the world's essential and inevitable
imperfection in contrast to him, the perfect being. But this opposition becomes
conflict and rebellion on the ethical plane by reason of that sin which takes
possession of the human heart, wherein "the desires of the flesh are
against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the
flesh."(233) Concerning this sin, the Holy Spirit must "convince the
world," as we have already said.
It
is St. Paul who describes in a particularly eloquent way the tension and
struggle that trouble the human heart. We read in the Letter to the Galatians:
"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the
flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of
the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to
prevent you from doing what you would."(234) There already exists in man,
as a being made up of body and spirit, a certain tension, a certain struggle of
tendencies between the "spirit" and the "flesh." But this
struggle in fact belongs to the heritage of sin, is a consequence of sin and at
the same time a confirmation of it. This is part of everyday experience. As the
Apostle writes: "Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication,
impurity, licentiousness... drunkenness, carousing and the like." These
are the sins that could be called "carnal." But he also adds others:
"enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit,
envy."(235) All of this constitutes the "works of the flesh."
But
with these works, which are undoubtedly evil, Paul contrasts "the fruit of
the Spirit," such as "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."(236) From the context it is clear
that for the Apostle it is not a question of discriminating against and
condemning the body, which with the spiritual soul constitutes man's nature and
personal subjectivity. Rather, he is concerned with the morally good or bad
works, or better the permanent dispositions-virtues and vices-which are the
fruit of submission to (in the first case) or of resistance to (in the second
case) the saving action of the Holy Spirit. Consequently the Apostle writes:
"If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit."(237) And
in other passages: "For those who live according to the flesh set their
minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit
set their minds on the things of the Spirit"; "You are in the Spirit,
if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you."(238) The contrast that St.
Paul makes between life "according to the Spirit" and life
"according to the flesh" gives rise to a further contrast: that
between "life" and "death." "To set the mind on the
flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace";
hence the warning: "For if you live according to the flesh you will die,
but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live."(239)
Properly
understood, this is an exhortation to live in the truth, that is, according to
the dictates of an upright conscience, and at the same time it is a profession
of faith in the Spirit of truth as the one who gives life. For the body is
"dead because of sin, but your spirits are alive because of
righteousness." "So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh,
to live according to the flesh."(240) Rather we are debtors to Christ, who
in the Paschal Mystery has effected our justification, obtaining for us the
Holy Spirit: "Indeed, we have been bought at a great price."(241)
In
the texts of St. Paul there is a superimposing- and a mutual compenetration-of
the ontological dimension (the flesh and the spirit), the ethical (moral good
and evil), and the pneumatological (the action of the Holy Spirit in the order
of grace). His words (especially in the Letters to the Romans and Galatians)
enable us to know and feel vividly the strength of the tension and struggle
going on in man between openness to the action of the Holy Spirit and
resistance and opposition to him, to his saving gift. The terms or poles of
contrast are, on man's part, his limitation and sinfulness, which are essential
elements of his psychological and ethical reality; and on God's part, the mystery
of the gift, that unceasing self-giving of divine life in the Holy Spirit.- Who
will win? The one who welcomes the gift.
56.
Unfortunately, the resistance to the Holy Spirit which St. Paul emphasizes in
the interior and subjective dimension as tension, struggle and rebellion taking
place in the human heart, finds in every period of history and especially in
the modern era its external dimension, which takes concrete form as the content
of culture and civilization, as a philosophical system, an ideology, a program
for action and for the shaping of human behavior. It reaches its clearest
expression in materialism, both in its theoretical form: as a system of
thought, and in its practical form: as a method of interpreting and evaluating
facts, and likewise as a program of corresponding conduct. The system which has
developed most and carried to its extreme practical consequences this form of
thought, ideology and praxis is dialectical and historical materialism, which
is still recognized as the essential core of Marxism.
In
principle and in fact, materialism radically excludes the presence and action
of God, who is spirit, in the world and above all in man. Fundamentally this is
because it does not accept God's existence, being a system that is essentially
and systematically atheistic. This is the striking phenomenon of our time:
atheism, to which the Second Vatican Council devoted some significant
pages.(242) Even though it is not possible to speak of atheism in a univocal
way or to limit it exclusively to the philosophy of materialism, since there
exist numerous forms of atheism and the word is perhaps often used in a wrong
sense, nevertheless it is certain that a true and proper materialism,
understood as a theory which explains reality and accepted as the key-principle
of personal and social action, is characteristically atheistic. The order of
values and the aims of action which it describes are strictly bound to a
reading of the whole of reality as "matter." Though it sometimes also
speaks of the "spirit" and of "questions of the spirit," as
for example in the fields of culture or morality, it does so only insofar as it
considers certain facts as derived from matter (epiphenomena), since according
to this system matter is the one and only form of being. It follows, according
to this interpretation, that religion can only be understood as a kind of
"idealistic illusion," to be fought with the most suitable means and
methods according to circumstances of time and place, in order to eliminate it from
society and from man's very heart.
It
can be said therefore that materialism is the systematic and logical
development of that resistance" and opposition condemned by St. Paul with
the words: "The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit." But, as
St. Paul emphasizes in the second part of his aphorism, this antagonism is
mutual: "The desires of the Spirit are against the flesh." Those who
wish to live by the Spirit, accepting and corresponding to his salvific
activity, cannot but reject the internal and external tendencies and claims of
the "flesh," also in its ideological and historical expression as
anti-religious "materialism." Against this background so
characteristic of our time, in preparing for the great Jubilee we must
emphasize the "desires of the spirit," as exhortations echoing in the
night of a new time of advent. at the end of which, like two thousand years
ago, "every man will see the salvation of God."(243) This is a
possibility and a hope that the Church entrusts to the men and women of today.
She knows that the meeting or collision between the "desires against the
spirit" which mark so many aspects of contemporary civilization,
especially in some of its spheres, and "the desires against the
flesh," with God's approach to us, his Incarnation, his constantly renewed
communication of the Holy Spirit-this meeting or collision may in many cases be
of a tragic nature and may perhaps lead to fresh defeats for humanity. But the
Church firmly believes that on God's part there is always a salvific self-giving,
a salvific coming and, in some way or other, a salvific "convincing
concerning sin" by the power of the Spirit.
57.
The Pauline contrast between the "Spirit" and the "flesh"
also includes the contrast between "life" and "death." This
is a serious problem, and concerning it one must say at once that materialism,
as a system of thought, in all its forms, means the acceptance of death as the
definitive end of human existence. Everything that is material is corruptible,
and therefore the human body (insofar as it is "animal") is mortal.
If man in his essence is only "flesh," death remains for him an
impassable frontier and limit. Hence one can understand how it can be said that
human life is nothing but an "existence in order to die."
It
must be added that on the horizon of contemporary civilization-especially in
the form that is most developed in the technical and scientific sense-the signs
and symptoms of death have become particularly present and frequent. One has
only to think of the arms race and of its inherent danger of nuclear
self-destruction. Moreover, everyone has become more and more aware of the
grave situation of vast areas of our planet marked by death-dealing poverty and
famine. It is a question of problems that are not only economic but also and
above all ethical. But on the horizon of our era there are gathering ever
darker "signs of death": a custom has become widely established- in
some places it threatens to become almost an institution-of taking the lives of
human beings even before they are born, or before they reach the natural point
of death. Furthermore, despite many noble efforts for peace, new wars have
broken out and are taking place, wars which destroy the lives or the health of
hundreds of thousands of people. And how can one fail to mention the attacks
against human life by terrorism, organized even on an international scale?
Unfortunately,
this is only a partial and in complete sketch of the picture of death being
composed in our age as we come ever closer to the end of the second Millennium
of the Christian era. Does there not rise up a new and more or less conscious
plea to the life-giving Spirit from the dark shades of materialistic
civilization, and especially from those increasing signs of death in the
sociological and historical picture in which that civilization has been
constructed? At any rate, even independently of the measure of human hopes or
despairs, and of the illusions or deceptions deriving from the development of
materialistic systems of thought and life, there remains the Christian
certainty that the Spirit blows where he wills and that we possess "the
first fruits of the Spirit," and that therefore even though we may be
subjected to the sufferings of time that passes away, "we groan inwardly
as we wait for...the redemption of our bodies,"(244) or of all our human
essence, which is bodily and spiritual. Yes, we groan, but in an expectation
filled with unflagging hope, because it is precisely this human being that God
has drawn near to, God who is Spirit. God the Father, "sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the
flesh."(245) At the culmination of the Paschal Mystery, the Son of God,
made man and crucified for the sins of the world, appeared in the midst of his
Apostles after the Resurrection, breathed on them and said, "Receive the
Holy Spirit." This "breath" continues forever, for "the
Spirit helps us in our weakness."(246)
4.
The Holy Spirit Strengthens the "Inner Man"
58.
The mystery of the resurrection and of Pentecost is proclaimed and lived by the
Church, which has inherited and which carries on the witness of the Apostles
about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. She is the perennial witness to this
victory over death which revealed the power of the Holy Spirit and determined
his new coming, his new presence in people and in the world. For in Christ's
Resurrection the Holy Spirit-Paraclete revealed himself especially as he who
gives life: "He who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your
mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you."(247) In the
name of the Resurrection of Christ the Church proclaims life, which manifested
itself beyond the limits of death, the life which is stronger than death. At
the same time, she proclaims him who gives this life: the Spirit, the Giver of
Life; she proclaims him and cooperates with him in giving life. For
"although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive
because of righteousness,"(248) the righteousness accomplished by the
Crucified and Risen Christ. And in the name of Christ's Resurrection the Church
serves the life that comes from God himself, in close union with and humble
service to the Spirit.
Precisely
through this service man becomes in an ever new manner the "way of the Church,"
as I said in the Encyclical on Christ the Redeemer(249) and as I now repeat in
this present one on the Holy Spirit. United with the Spirit, the Church is
supremely aware of the reality of the inner man, of what is deepest and most
essential in man, because it is spiritual and incorruptible. At this level the
Spirit grafts the "root of immortality,"(250) from which the new life
springs. This is man's life in God, which, as a fruit of God's salvific self-
communication in the Holy Spirit, can develop and flourish only by the Spirit's
action. Therefore St. Paul speaks to God on behalf of believers, to whom he
declares "I bow my knees before the Father..., that he may grant you...to
be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man."(251)
Under
the influence of the Holy Spirit this inner, "spiritual," man matures
and grows strong. Thanks to the divine self- communication, the human spirit
which "knows the secrets of man" meets the "Spirit who searches
everything, even the depths of God."(252) In this Spirit, who is the
eternal gift, the Triune God opens himself to man, to the human spirit. The
hidden breath of the divine Spirit enables the human spirit to open in its turn
before the saving and sanctifying self-opening of God. Through the gift of
grace, which comes from the Holy Spirit, man enters a "new life," is
brought into the supernatural reality of the divine life itself and becomes a
"dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit," a living temple of God.(253) For
through the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son come to him and take up their
abode with him.(254) In the communion of grace with the Trinity, man's
"living area" is broadened and raised up to the supernatural level of
divine life. Man lives in God and by God: he lives "according to the Spirit,"
and "sets his mind on the things of the Spirit."
59.
Man's intimate relationship with God in the Holy Spirit also enables him to
understand himself, his own humanity, in a new way. Thus that image and likeness
of God which man is from his very beginning is fully realized.(255) This
intimate truth of the human being has to be continually rediscovered in the
light of Christ who is the prototype of the relationship with God. There also
has to be rediscovered in Christ the reason for "full self-discovery
through a sincere gift of himself" to others, as the Second Vatican
Council writes: precisely by reason of this divine likeness which "shows
that on earth man...is the only creature that God wishes for himself" in
his dignity as a person, but as one open to integration and social
communion.(256) The effective knowledge and full implementation of this truth
of his being come about only by the power of the Holy Spirit. Man learns this
truth from Jesus Christ and puts it into practice in his own life by the power
of the Spirit, whom Jesus himself has given to us.
Along
this path-the path of such an inner maturity, which includes the full discovery
of the meaning of humanity-God comes close to man, and permeates more and more
completely the whole human world. The Triune God, who "exists" in
himself as a transcendent reality of interpersonal gift, giving himself in the
Holy Spirit as gift to man, transforms the human world from within, from inside
hearts and minds. Along this path the world, made to share in the divine gift,
becomes-as the Council teaches-"ever more human, ever more profoundly
human," (257) while within the world, through people's hearts and minds,
the Kingdom develops in which God will be definitively "all in
all"(258): as gift and love. Gift and love: this is the eternal power of
the opening of the Triune God to an and the world, in the Holy Spirit.
As
the year 2000 since the birth of Christ draws near, it is a question of
ensuring that an ever greater number of people "may fully find
themselves...through a sincere gift of self," according to the expression
of the Council already quoted. Through the action of the Spirit-Paraclete, may
there be accomplished in our world a process of true growth in humanity, in
both individual and community life. In this regard Jesus himself "when he
prayed to the Father, 'that all may be one...as we are one' (Jn
17:21-22)...implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine persons
and the union of the children of God in truth and charity."(259) The
Council repeats this truth about man, and the Church sees in it a particularly
strong and conclusive indication of her own apostolic tasks. For if man is the
way of the Church, this way passes through the whole mystery of Christ, as
man's divine model. Along this way the Holy Spirit, strengthening in each of us
"the inner man," enables man ever more "fully to find himself
through a sincere gift of self." These words of the Pastoral Constitution
of the Council can be said to sum up the whole of Christian anthropology: that
theory and practice, based on the Gospel, in which man discovers himself as
belonging to Christ and discovers that in Christ he is raised to the status of
a child of God, and so understands better his own dignity as man, precisely
because he is the subject of God's approach and presence, the subject of the
divine condescension, which contains the prospect and the very root of
definitive glorification. Thus it can truly be said that "the glory of God
is the living man, yet man's life is the vision of God" (260): man, living
a divine life, is the glory of God, and the Holy Spirit is the hidden dispenser
of this life and this glory. The Holy Spirit-says the great Basil- "while
simple in essence and manifold in his virtues...extends himself without
undergoing any diminishing, is present in each subject capable of receiving him
as if he were the only one, and gives grace which is sufficient for
all."(261)
60.
When, under the influence of the Paraclete, people discover this divine
dimension of their being and life, both as individuals and as a community, they
are able to free themselves from the various determinisms which derive mainly
from the materialistic bases of thought, practice and related modes of action.
In our age these factors have succeeded in penetrating into man's inmost being,
into that sanctuary of the conscience where the Holy Spirit continuously
radiates the light and strength of new life in the "freedom of the
children of God." Man's growth in this life is hindered by the
conditionings and pressures exerted upon him by dominating structures and
mechanisms in the various spheres of society. It can be said that in many cases
social factors, instead of fostering the development and expansion of the human
spirit, ultimately deprive the human spirit of the genuine truth of its being
and life-over which the Holy Spirit keeps vigil-in order to subject it to the
"prince of this world."
The
great Jubilee of the year 2000 thus contains a message of liberation by the
power of the Spirit, who alone can help individuals and communities to free
themselves from the old and new determinisms, by guiding them with the
"law of the Spirit, which gives life in Christ Jesus,"(262) and
thereby discovering and accomplishing the full measure of man's true freedom.
For, as St. Paul writes, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
freedom."(263) This revelation of freedom and hence of man's true dignity
acquires a particular eloquence for Christians and for the Church in a state of
persecution-both in ancient times and in the present-because the witnesses to
divine Truth then become a living proof of the action of the Spirit of truth
present in the hearts and minds of the faithful, and they often mark with their
own death by martyrdom the supreme glorification of human dignity.
Also
in the ordinary conditions of society, Christians, as witnesses to man's
authentic dignity, by their obedience to the Holy Spirit contribute to the
manifold "renewal of the face of the earth," working together with
their brothers and sisters in order to achieve and put to good use everything
that is good, noble and beautiful in the modern progress of civilization,
culture, science, technology and the other areas of thought and human activity.(264)
They do this as disciples of Christ who-as the Council writes-"appointed
Lord by his Resurrection...is now at work in the hearts of men through the
power of his Spirit. He arouses not only a desire for the age to come but by
that very fact, he animates, purifies and strengthens those noble longings too
by which the human family strives to make its life more humane and to render
the earth submissive to this goal."(265) Thus they affirm still more
strongly the greatness of man, made in the image and likeness of God, a
greatness shown by the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, who
"in the fullness of time," by the power of the Holy Spirit, entered
into history and manifested himself as true man, he who was begotten before
every creature, "through whom are all things and through whom we
exist"(266)
5.
The Church as the Sacrament of Intimate Union with God
61.
As the end of the second Millennium approaches, an event which should recall to
everyone and as it were make present anew the coming of the Word in the
fullness of time, the Church once more means to ponder the very essence of her
divine-human constitution and of that mission which enables her to share in the
messianic mission of Christ, according to the teaching and the ever valid plan
of the Second Vatican Council. Following this line, we can go back to the Upper
Room, where Jesus Christ reveals the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete, the Spirit
of truth, and where he speaks of his own "departure" through the
Cross as the necessary condition for the Spirit's "coming": "It
is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor
will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you."(267) We have
seen that this prediction first came true the evening of Easter day and then
during the celebration of Pentecost in Jerusalem, and we have seen that ever
since then it is being fulfilled in human history through the Church.
In
the light of that prediction, we also grasp the full meaning of what Jesus
says, also at the Last Supper, about his new "coming." For it is
significant that in the same farewell discourse Jesus foretells not only his
"departure" but also his new "coming." His exact words are:
"I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you."(268) And at the
moment of his final farewell before he ascends into heaven, he will repeat even
more explicitly: "Lo, I am with you," and this "always, to the
close of the age."(269) This new "coming" of Christ, this
continuous coming of his, in order to be with his Apostles, with the Church,
this "I am with you always, to the close of the age," does not of
course change the fact of his "departure." It follows that departure,
after the close of Christ's messianic activity on earth, and it occurs in the
context of the predicted sending of the Holy Spirit and in a certain sense
forms part of his own mission. And yet it occurs by the power of the Holy
Spirit, who makes it possible for Christ, who has gone away, to come now and
for ever in a new way. This new coming of Christ by the power of the Holy
Spirit, and his constant presence and action in the spiritual life are
accomplished in the sacramental reality. In this reality, Christ, who has gone
away in his visible humanity, comes, is present and acts in the Church in such
an intimate way as to make it his own Body. As such, the Church lives, works
and grows "to the close of the age." All this happens through the
power of the Holy Spirit.
62.
The most complete sacramental expression of the "departure" of Christ
through the mystery of the Cross and Resurrection is the Eucharist. In every
celebration of the Eucharist his coming, his salvific presence, is
sacramentally realized: in the Sacrifice and in Communion. It is accomplished
by the power of the Holy Spirit, as part of his own mission.(270) Through the
Eucharist the Holy Spirit accomplishes that "strengthening of the inner
man" spoken of in the Letter to the Ephesians.(271) Through the Eucharist,
individuals and communities, by the action of the Paraclete- Counselor, learn
to discover the divine sense of human life, as spoken of by the Council: that
sense whereby Jesus Christ "fully reveals man to man himself,"
suggesting "a certain likeness between the union of the divine persons,
and the union of God's children in truth and charity."(272) This union is
expressed and made real especially through the Eucharist, in which man shares
in the sacrifice of Christ which this celebration actualizes, and he also
learns to "find himself...through a...gift of himself,"(273) through
communion with God and with others, his brothers and sisters.
For
this reason the early Christians, right from the days immediately following the
coming down of the Holy Spirit, "devoted themselves to the breaking of
bread and the prayers," and in this way they formed a community united by
the teaching of the Apostles.(274) Thus "they recognized" that their
Risen Lord, who had ascended into heaven, came into their midst anew in that
Eucharisticcommunity of the Church and by means of it. Guided by the Holy Spirit,
the Church from the beginning expressed and confirmed her identity through the
Eucharist. And so it has always been, in every Christian generation, down to
our own time, down to this present period when we await the end of the second
Christian Millennium. Of course, we unfortunately have to acknowledge the fact
that the Millennium which is about to end is the one in which there have
occurred the great separations between Christians. All believers in Christ,
therefore, following the example of the Apostles, must fervently strive to
conform their thinking and action to the will of the Holy Spirit, "the
principle of the Church's unity,"(275) so that all who have been baptized
in the one Spirit in order to make up one body may be brethren joined in the celebration
of the same Eucharist, "a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of
charity!"(276)
63.
Christ's Eucharistic presence, his sacramental "I am with you,"
enables the Church to discover ever more deeply her own mystery, as shown by
the whole ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council, whereby "the Church
is in Christ as a sacrament or sign and instrument of the intimate union with
God and of the unity of the whole human race."(277) As a sacrament, the
Church is a development from the Paschal Mystery of Christ's
"departure," living by his ever new "coming" by the power
of the Holy Spirit, within the same mission of the Paraclete- Spirit of truth.
Precisely this is the essential mystery of the Church, as the Council
professes.
While
it is through creation that God is he in whom we all "live and move and
have our being, "(278) in its turn the power of the Redemption endures and
develops in the history of man and the world in a double "rhythm" as
it were, the source of which is found in the Eternal Father. On the one hand
there is the rhythm of the mission of the Son, who came into the world and was
born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit; and on the other hand
there is also the rhythm of the mission of the Holy Spirit, as he was revealed
definitively by Christ. Through the "departure" of the Son, the Holy
Spirit came and continues to come as Counselor and Spirit of truth. And in the
context of his mission, as it were within the indivisible presence of the Holy
Spirit, the Son, who "had gone away" in the Paschal Mystery,
"comes" and is continuously present in the mystery of the Church, at
times concealing himself and at times revealing himself in her history, and
always directing her steps. All of this happens in a sacramental way, through
the power of the Holy Spirit, who, "drawing from the wealth of Christ's
Redemption," constantly gives life. As the Church becomes ever more aware
of this mystery, she sees herself more clearly, above all as a sacrament.
This
also happens because, by the will of her Lord, through the individual
sacraments the Church fulfills her salvific ministry to man. This sacramental
ministry, every time it is accomplished, brings with it the mystery of the
"departure" of Christ through the Cross and the Resurrection, by
virtue of which the Holy Spirit comes. He comes and works: "He gives
life." For the sacraments signify grace and confer grace: they signify
life and give life. The Church is the visible dispenser of the sacred signs,
while the Holy Spirit acts in them as the invisible dispenser of the life which
they signify. Together with the Spirit, Christ Jesus is present and acting.
64.
If the Church is the sacrament of intimate union with God, she is such in Jesus
Christ, in whom this same union is accomplished as a salvific reality. She is
such in Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit. The fullness of the
salvific reality, which is Christ in history, extends in a sacramental way in
the power of the Spirit Paraclete. In this way the Holy Spirit is "another
Counselor," or new Counselor, because through his action the Good News
takes shape in human minds and hearts and extends through history. In all this
it is the Holy Spirit who gives life.
When
we use the word "sacrament" in reference to the Church, we must bear
in mind that in the texts of the Council the sacramentality of the Church
appears as distinct from the sacramentality that is proper, in the strict
sense, to the Sacraments. Thus we read: "The Church is...in the nature of
a sacrament-a sign and instrument of communion with God." But what matters
and what emerges from the analogical sense in which the word is used in the two
cases is the relationship which the Church has with the power of the Holy
Spirit, who alone gives life: the Church is the sign and instrument of the
presence and action of the life-giving Spirit.
Vatican
II adds that the Church is "a sacrament. . . of the unity of all mankind.
"Obviously it is a question of the unity which the human race which in
itself is differentiated in various ways-has from God and in God. This unity
has its roots in the mystery of creation and acquires a new dimension in the
mystery of the Redemption, which is ordered to universal salvation. Since God
"wishes all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the
truth,"(279) the Redemption includes all humanity and in a certain way all
of creation. In the same universal dimension of Redemption the Holy Spirit is
acting, by virtue of the "departure of Christ." Therefore the Church,
rooted through her own mystery in the Trinitarian plan of salvation with good
reason regards herself as the "sacrament of the unity of the whole human
race." She knows that she is such through the power of the Holy Spirit, of
which power she is a sign and instrument in the fulfillment of God's salvific
plan.
In
this way the "condescension" of the infinite Trinitarian Love is
brought about: God, who is infinite Spirit, comes close to the visible world.
The Triune God communicates himself to man in the Holy Spirit from the
beginning through his "image and likeness." Under the action of the
same Spirit, man, and through him the created world, which has been redeemed by
Christ, draw near to their ultimate destinies in God. The Church is "a
sacrament, that is sign and instrument" of this coming together of the two
poles of creation and redemption, God and man. She strives to restore and
strengthen the unity at the very roots of the human race: in the relationship
of communion that man has with God as his Creator, Lord and Redeemer. This is a
truth which on the basis of the Council's teaching we can meditate on, explain
and apply in all the fullness of its meaning in this phase of transition from
the second to the third Christian Millennium. And we rejoice to realize ever
more clearly that within the work carried out by the Church in the history of
salvation. which is part of the history of humanity, the Holy Spirit is present
and at work-he who with the breath of divine life permeates man's earthly
pilgrimage and causes all creation, all history, to flow together to its
ultimate end, in the infinite ocean of God.
6.
The Spirit and the Bride Say: "Come!''
65.
The breath of the divine life, the Holy Spirit, in its simplest and most common
manner, expresses itself and makes itself felt in prayer. It is a beautiful and
salutary thought that, wherever people are praying in the world, there the Holy
Spirit is, the living breath of prayer. It is a beautiful and salutary thought
to recognize that, if prayer is offered throughout the world, in the past, in
the present and in the future, equally widespread is the presence and action of
the Holy Spirit, who "breathes" prayer in the heart of man in all the
endless range of the most varied situations and conditions, sometimes favorable
and sometimes unfavorable to the spiritual and religious life. Many times,
through the influence of the Spirit, prayer rises from the human heart in spite
of prohibitions and persecutions and even official proclamations regarding the
non-religious or even atheistic character of public life. Prayer always remains
the voice of all those who apparently have no voice-and in this voice there
always echoes that "loud cry" attributed to Christ by the Letter to the
Hebrews.(280) Prayer is also the revelation of that abyss which is the heart of
man: a depth which comes from God and which only God can fill, precisely with
the Holy Spirit. We read in Luke: "If you then, who are evil, know how to
give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit to those who ask him."(281)
The
Holy Spirit is the gift that comes into man's heart together with prayer. In
prayer he manifests himself first of all and above all as the gift that
"helps us in our weakness." This is the magnificent thought developed
by St. Paul in the Letter to the Romans, when he writes: "For we do not
know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with
sighs too deep for words."(282) Therefore, the Holy Spirit not only
enables us to pray, but guides us "from within" in prayer: he is
present in our prayer and gives it a divine dimension.(283) Thus "he who
searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the
Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." (284)
Prayer through the power of the Holy Spirit becomes the ever more mature
expression of the new man, who by means of this prayer participates in the
divine life.
Our
difficult age has a special need of prayer. In the course of history-both in
the past and in the present-many men and women have borne witness to the
importance of prayer by consecrating themselves to the praise of God and to the
life of prayer, especially in monasteries and convents. So, too, recent years
have been seeing a growth in the number of people who, in ever more widespread
movements and groups, are giving first place to prayer and seeking in prayer a
renewal of their spiritual life. This is a significant and comforting sign, for
from this experience there is coming a real contribution to the revival of
prayer among the faithful, who have been helped to gain a clearer idea of the
Holy Spirit as he who inspires in hearts a profound yearning for holiness. In
many individuals and many communities there is a growing awareness that, even
with all the rapid progress of technological and scientific civilization, and
despite the real conquests and goals attained, man is threatened, humanity is
threatened. In the face of this danger, and indeed already experiencing the
frightful reality of man's spiritual decadence, individuals and whole
communities, guided as it were by an inner sense of faith, are seeking the
strength to raise man up again, to save him from himself, from his own errors
and mistakes that often make harmful his very conquests. And thus they are
discovering prayer, in which the "Spirit who helps us in our
weakness"manifests himself. In this way the times in which we are living
are bringing the Holy Spirit closer to the many who are returning to prayer.
And I trust that all will find in the teaching of this Encyclical nourishment
for their interior life, and that they will succeed in strengthening, under the
action of the Spirit, their commitment to prayer in harmony with the Church and
her Magisterium.
66.
In the midst of the problems, disappointments and hopes, desertions and returns
of these times of ours, the Church remains faithful to the mystery of her
birth. While it is an historical fact that the Church came forth from the Upper
Room on the day of Pentecost, in a certain sense one can say that she has never
left it. Spiritually the event of Pentecost does not belong only to the past:
the Church is always in the Upper Room that she bears in her heart. The Church
perseveres in preserves, like the Apostles together with Mary, the Mother of
Christ, and with those who in Jerusalem were the first seed of the Christian
community and who awaited in prayer the coming of the Holy Spirit.
The
Church perseveres in prayer with Mary. This union of the praying Church with
the Mother of Christ has been part of the mystery of the Church from the
beginning: we see her present in this mystery as she is present in the mystery
of her Son. It is the Council that says to us: "The Blessed Virgin...overshadowed
by the Holy Spirit... brought forth...the Son..., he whom God placed as the
first-born among many brethren (cf. Rom 8:29), namely the faithful. In their
birth and development she cooperates with a maternal love"; she is through
"his singular graces and offices...intimately united with the Church....
[She] is a model of the Church."(285) "The Church, moreover,
contemplating Mary's mysterious sanctity, imitating her charity,...becomes
herself a mother" and "herself is a virgin, who keeps...the fidelity
she has pledged to her Spouse. Imitating the Mother of The Lord, and by the
power of the Holy Spirit, she preserves with virginal purity an integral faith,
a firm hope, and a sincere charity."(286)
Thus
one can understand the profound reason why the Church, united with the Virgin
Mother, prays unceasingly as the Bride to her divine Spouse, as the words of
the Book of Revelation, quoted by the Council, attest: "The Spirit and the
bride say to the Lord Jesus Christ: Come!"(287) The Church's prayer is
this unceasing invocation, in which "the Spirit himself intercedes for
us": in a certain sense, the Spirit himself utters it with the Church and
in the Church. For the Spirit is given to the Church in order that through his
power the whole community of the People of God, however widely scattered and
diverse, may persevere in hope: that hope in which "we have been
saved."(288) It is the eschatological hope, the hope of definitive
fulfillment in God, the hope of the eternal Kingdom, that is brought about by
participation in the life of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit, given to the
Apostles as the Counselor, is the guardian and animator of this hope in the
heart of the Church.
In
the time leading up to the third Millennium after Christ, while "the
Spirit and the bride say to the Lord Jesus: Come!" this prayer of theirs
is filled, as always, with an eschatological significance, which is also
destined to give fullness of meaning to the celebration of the great Jubilee.
It is a prayer concerned with the salvific destinies toward which the Holy
Spirit by his action opens hearts throughout the history of man on earth. But
at the same time this prayer is directed toward a precise moment of history
which highlights the "fullness of time" marked by the year 2000. The
Church wishes to prepare for this Jubilee in the Holy Spirit, just as the
Virgin of Nazareth in whom the Word was made flesh was prepared by the Holy
Spirit.
CONCLUSION
67.
We wish to bring to a close these considerations in the heart of the Church and
in the heart of man. The way of the Church passes through the heart of man,
because here is the hidden place of the salvific encounter with the Holy
Spirit, with the hidden God, and precisely here the Holy Spirit becomes "a
spring of water welling up to eternal life."(289) He comes here as the
Spirit of truth and as the Paraclete, as he was promised by Christ. From here
he acts as Counselor, Intercessor, Advocate, especially when man, when humanity
find themselves before the judgment of condemnation by that "accuser"
about whom the Book of Revelation says that "he accuses them day and night
before our God."(290) "The Holy Spirit does not cease to be the
guardian of hope in the human heart: the hope of all human creatures, and
especially of those who "have the first fruits of the Spirit'' and
"wait for the redemption of their bodies."(291)
The
Holy Spirit, in his mysterious bond of divine communion with the Redeemer of
man, is the one who brings about the continuity of his work: he takes from
Christ and transmits to all, unceasingly entering into the history of the world
through the heart of man. Here he becomes-as the liturgical Sequence of the
Solemnity of Pentecost proclaims-the true "father of the poor, giver of
gifts, light of hearts"; he becomes the "sweet guest of the
soul," whom the Church unceasingly greets on the threshold of the inmost
sanctuary of every human being. For he brings "rest and relief" in
the midst of toil, in the midst of the work of human hands and minds; he brings
"rest" and "ease" in the midst of the heat of the day, in
the midst of the anxieties, struggles and perils of every age; he brings
"consolation," when the human heart grieves and is tempted to
despair.
And
therefore the same Sequence exclaims: "without your aid nothing is in man,
nothing is without fault." For only the Holy Spirit "convinces
concerning sin," concerning evil, in order to restore what is good in man
and in the world: in order to "renew the face of the earth."
Therefore, he purifies from everything that "disfigures" man, from
"what is unclean"; he heals even the deepest wounds of human
existence; he changes the interior dryness of souls, transforming them into the
fertile fields of grace and holiness. What is "hard he softens," what
is "frozen he warms," what is "wayward he sets anew" on the
paths of salvation.(292)
Praying
thus, the Church unceasingly professes her faith that there exists in our
created world a Spirit who is an uncreated gift. He is the Spirit of the Father
and of the Son: like the Father and the Son he is uncreated, without limit,
eternal, omnipotent, God, Lord.(293) This Spirit of God "fills the
universe," and all that is created recognizes in him the source of its own
identity, finds in him its own transcendent expression, turns to him and awaits
him, invokes him with its own being. Man turns to him, as to the Paraclete, the
Spirit of truth and of love, man who lives by truth and by love, and who
without the source of truth and of love cannot live. To him turns the Church,
which is the heart of humanity, to implore for all and dispense to all those
gifts of the love which through him "has been poured into our
hearts."(294) To him turns the Church, along the intricate paths of man's
pilgrimage on earth: she implores, she unceasingly implores uprightness of
human acts, as the Spirit's work; she implores the joy and consolation that
only he, the true Counselor, can bring by coming down into people's inmost
hearts(295); the Church implores the grace of the virtues that merit heavenly
glory, implores eternal salvation, in the full communication of the divine
life, to which the Father has eternally "predestined" human beings,
created through love in the image and likeness of the Most Holy Trinity.
The
Church with her heart which embraces all human hearts implores from the Holy
Spirit that happiness which only in God has its complete realization: the joy
"that no one will be able to take away,"(296) the joy which is the
fruit of love, and therefore of God who is love; she implores "the righteousness,
the peace and the joy of the Holy Spirit" in which, in the words of St.
Paul, consists the Kingdom of God.(297)
Peace
too is the fruit of love: that interior peace, which weary man seeks in his
inmost being; that peace besought by humanity, the human family, peoples,
nations, continents, anxiously hoping to obtain it in the prospect of the
transition from the second to the third Christian Millennium. Since the way of
peace passes in the last analysis through love and seeks to create the
civilization of love, the Church fixes her eyes on him who is the love of the
Father and the Son, and in spite of increasing dangers she does not cease to
trust, she does not cease to invoke and to serve the peace of man on earth. Her
trust is based on him who, being the Spirit-love, is also the Spirit of peace
and does not cease to be present in our human world, on the horizon of minds
and hearts, in order to "fill the universe" with love and peace.
Before
him I kneel at the end of these considerations, and implore him, as the Spirit
of the Father and the Son, to grant to all of us the blessing and grace which I
desire to pass on, in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, to the sons and
daughters of the Church and to the whole human family.
Given
in Rome, at St. Peter's, on May 18, the Solemnity of Pentecost, in the year
1986, the eighth of my Pontificate.
JOHN
PAUL II
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES
1.
Jn 7:37f.
2.
Jn 7:39.
3.
Jn 4:14; cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen
Gentium, n. 4.
4.
Cf. Jn 3:5.
5.
Cf. Leo XIII, Encyclical Divinum Illud Munus (May 9, 1897): Acta Leonis, 17
(1898), pp. 125-148; Pius XII, Encyclical Mystici Corporis (June 29, 1943): AAS
35 (1943), pp. 193-248.
6.
General Audience of June 6, 1973: Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, XI (1973), 477.
7.
Roman Missal; cf. 2 Cor 13:13.
8.
Jn 3:17.
9.
Phil 2:11.
10.
Cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium,
n. 4; John Paul II, Address to Those Taking Part in the International Congress
on Pneumatology (March 26, 1982), I: Insegnamenti V/1 (1982), p. 1004.
11.
Cf. Jn 4:24.
12.
Cf. Rom 8:22; Gal 6:15.
13.
Cf. Mt 24:35.
14.
Jn 4:14.
15.
Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, n.
17.
16.
Allon parakleton: Jn 14:16.
17.
Jn 14:13, 16f.
18.
Cf. 1 Jn 2:1.
19.
Jn 14:26.
20.
Jn 15:26f.
21.
Cf. 1 Jn 1:1-3; 4:14.
22.
"The divinely revealed truths, which are contained and expressed in the books
of the Sacred Scripture, were written through the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit," and thus the same Sacred Scripture must be "read and
interpreted with the help of the same Spirit by means of whom it was
written": Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine
Revelation, Dei Verbum, nn. 11, 12.
23.
Jn 16:12f.
24.
Acts 1:1.
25.
Jn 16:14.
26.
Jn 16:15.
27.
Jn 16:7f.
28.
Jn 15:26.
29.
Jn 14:16.
30.
Jn 14:26.
31.
Jn 15:26.
32.
Jn 14:16.
33.
Jn 16:7.
34.
Cf. Jn 3:16f., 34; 6:57; 17:3, 18, 23.
35.
Mt 28:19.
36.
Cf. 1 Jn 4:8, 16.
37.
Cf. I Cor 2:10.
38.
Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theo. Ia, qq. 37-38.
39.
Rom 5:5.
40.
Jn 16:14.
41.
Gen l:lf.
42.
Gen 1:26.
43.
Rom 8:19-22.
44.
Jn 16:7.
45.
Gal 4:6; cf. Rom 8:15.
46.
Cf. Gal 4:6; Phil 1:19; Rom 8:11.
47.
Cf. Jn 16:6.
48.
Cf. Jn 16:20.
49.
Cf. Jn 16:7.
50.
Acts 10:37f.
51.
Cf Lk 4:16-21; 3:16; 4:14; Mk 1:10.
52.
11:1-3.
53.
61:lf.
54.
48:16.
55.
Is 42:1.
56.
Cf. Is 53:5-6, 8.
57.
Is 42:1.
58.
Is 42:6.
59.
Is 49:6.
60.
Is 59:21.
61.
Cf. Lk 2:25-35.
62.
Cf. Lk 1:35.
63.
Cf. Lk 2:19, 51.
64.
Cf. Lk 4:16-21; Is 61:lf.
65.
Lk 3:16; cf. Mt 3:11; Mk 1:7f.; Jn 1:33.
66.
n 1:29.
67.
Cf. Jn 1:33f.
68.
Lk 3:21f.; cf. Mt 3:16; Mk 1:10.
69.
Mt 3:17.
70.
Cf. St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto, XVI, 39: PG 32, 139.
71.
Acts 1:1.
72.
Cf. Lk 4:1.
73.
Cf. Lk 10:17-20.
74.
Lk 10:21; cf. Mt 11:25f.
75.
Lk 10:22; cf. Mt 11:27.
76.
Mt 3:11; Lk 3:16.
77.
Jn 16:13.
78.
Jn 16:14.
79.
Jn 16:15.
80.
Cf. Jn 14:26; 15:26.
81.
Jn 3:16.
82.
Rom 1:3f.
83.
Ez 36:26f.; cf. Jn 7:37-39; 19:34.
84.
Jn 16:7.
85.
St. Cyril of Alexandria, In Ioannis Evangelium, Bk. V, Ch. II: PG 73, 755.
86.
Jn 20:19-22.
87.
Cf. Jn 19:30.
88.
Cf. Rom 1:4.
89.
Cf. Jn 16:20.
90.
Jn 16:7.
91.
Jn 16:15.
92.
Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, n.
4.
93.
Jn 15:26f.
94.
n. 4.
95.
Cf. Acts 1:14.
96.
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, n. 4. There is a whole Patristic
and theological tradition concerning the intimate union between the Holy Spirit
and the Church, a union presented sometimes as analogous to the relation
between the soul and the body in man: cf. St. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, III,
24, 1: SC 211, pp. 470-474; St. Augustine, Sermo 267, 4, 4: PL 38, 1231; Sermo
268, 2: PL 38, 1232; In Iohannis Evangelium Tractatus, XXV, 13; XXVII, 6: CCL
36, 266, 272f.; St. Gregory the Great, In Septem Psalmos Poenitentiales
Expositio, Psal. V, 1: PL 79, 602; Didymus the Blind, De Trinitate, II, 1: PG
39, 449f.; St. Athanasius, Oratio 111 Contra Arianos, 22, 23, 24: PG 26, 368f.,
372f.; St. John Chrysostom, In Epistolam ad Ephesios, Homily IX, 3: PG 62, 72f.
St. Thomas Aquinas has synthesized the preceding Patristic and theological
tradition, presenting the Holy Spirit as the "heart" and the
"soul" of the Church; cf. Summa Theo., III, q. 8, a. 1, ad 3; In
Symbolum Apostolorum Expositio, a. IX; In Tertiurn Librum Sententiarum, Dist.
XIII, q. 2, a. 2, Quaestiuncula 3. Decree on the Church's Missionary Activity,
Ad Gentes,
97.
Cf. Rev 2:29; 3:6, 13, 22.
98.
Cf. Jn 12:31; 14:30; 16:11.
99.
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, n. 1.
100.
Ibid., n. 41.
101.
Ibid., n. 26.
102.
Jn 16:7f.
103.
Jn 16:7.
104.
Jn 16:8-11.
105.
Cf. Jn 3:17; 12:47.
106.
Cf. Eph 6:12.
107.
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, n. 2.
108.
Cf. ibid., nn. 10, 13, 27, 37, 63, 73, 79, 80.
109.
Acts 2:4.
110.
Cf. St. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, III, 17, 2: SC 211, pp. 330-332.
111.
Acts 1:4, S, 8.
112.
Acts 2:22-24.
113.
Cf. Acts 3:14f.; 4:10, 27f.; 7:52; 10:39; 13:28f.; etc.
114.
Cf. Jn 3:17; 12:47.
115.
Acts 2:36.
116.
Acts 2:37f.
117.
Cf. Mk 1:15.
118.
Jn 20:22.
119.
Cf. Jn 16:9.
120.
Hos 14:14 Vulgate; cf. 1 Cor 15:55.
121.
Cf. 1 Cor 2:10.
122.
Cf. 2 Thess 2:7.
123.
Cf. 1 Tim 3:16.
124.
Cf. Reconciliatio et Paenitentia (December 2, 1984), 19-22: AAS 77 (1985), pp.
229-233.
125.
Cf. Gen 1-3.
126.
Cf. Rom S:19; Phil 2:8.
127.
Cf. Jn 1:1, 2, 3, 10.
128.
Cf. Col 1:15-18.
129.
Cf. Jn 8:44.
130.
Cf. Gen 1:2.
131.
Cf. Gen 1:26, 28, 29.
132.
Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, n. 2.
133.
Cf. 1 Cor 2:10f.
134.
Cf. Jn 16:11.
135.
Cf. Phil 2:8.
136.
Cf. Gen 2:16f.
137.
Gen 3:5.
138.
Cf. Gen 3:22 concerning the "tree of life"; cf. also Jn 3:36; 4:14;
5:24; 6:40, 47; 10:28; 12:50; 14:6; Acts 13:48; Rom 6:23; Gal 6:8; 1 Tim 1:16; Tit
1:2; 3:7; 1 Pet 3:22; 1 Jn 1:2; 2:25; 5:11, 13; Rev 2:7.
139.
Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theo., Ia-IIae, q. 80, a. 4, ad 3.
140.
1 Jn 3:8.
141.
Jn 16:11.
142.
Cf. Eph 6:12; Lk 22:53.
143.
De Civitate Dei, XIV, 28: CCL 48, p. 541.
144.
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, n.
36.
145.
In Greek the verb is parakalem, which means to invoke, to call to oneself.
146.
Cf. Gen 6:7.
147.
Gen 6:5-7.
148.
Cf. Rom 8:20-22.
149.
Cf. Mt 15:32; Mk 8:2.
150.
Heb 9:13f.
151.
Jn 20:22f.
152.
Acts 10:38.
153.
Heb 5:7f.
154.
Heb 9:14.
155.
Cf. Lev 9:24; 1 Kings 18:38; 2 Chron 7:1.
156.
Cf. Jn 15:26.
157.
Jn 20:22f.
158.
Mt 3:11.
159.
Cf. Jn 3:8.
160.
Jn. 20:22f.
161.
Cf. Sequence Veni, Sancte Spiritus.
162.
St. Bonaventure, De Septem Donis Spiritus Sancti, Collatio II, 3: Ad Claras
Aquas, V, 463.
163.
Mk 1:15.
164.
Cf. Heb 9:14.
165.
Cf. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes,
16.
166.
Cf. Gen 2:9, 17.
167.
Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern
World, Gaudium et Spes, n. 16.
168.
Ibid., n. 27.
169.
Cf. ibid., n. 13.
170.
Cf. Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia (December
2, 1984), 16: AAS 77 (1985), pp. 213-217.
171.
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, n. 10.
172.
Cf. Rom 7:14-15, 19.
173.
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, n.
37.
174.
Ibid., n. 13.
175.
Ibid., n. 37.
176.
Cf. Sequence of Pentecost: Reple Cordis Intirna.
177.
Cf. St. Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. XLI, 13: CCL, 38, 470: "What is the
abyss, and what does the abyss invoke? If abyss means depth, do we not consider
that perhaps the heart of man is an abyss? What indeed is more deep than this
abyss? Men can speak, can be seen through the working of their members, can be
heard in conversation; but whose thought can be penetrated, whose heart can be
read?"
178.
Cf. Heb 9:14.
179.
Jn 14:17.
180.
Mt 12:31f.
181.
Mk 3:28f.
182.
Lk 12:10.
183.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theo.IIa-IIae, q. 14, a. 3: cf. St. Augustine, Epist.
185, 11, 48-49: PL 33, 814f.; St. Bonaventure Comment. in Evang. S. Lucae, Ch.
XIV, 15-16: Ad Claras Aquas VII, 314f.
184.
Cf. Ps 81/80:13; Jer 7:24; Mk 3:5.
185.
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia (December 2,
1984), n. 18: AAS 77 (1985), pp. 224-228.
186.
Pius XII, Radio Message to the National Catechetical Congress of the United
States of America in Boston (October 26, 1946): Discorsi e Radiomessaggi, VIII
(1946), 228.
187.
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia (December 2,
1984), n. 18: AAS 77 (1985), pp. 225f
188.
I Thess 5:19; Eph 4:30.
189.
Cf. Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Reconciliatio et Paenitentia (December
2, 1984), nn. 14-22: AAS 77 (19853, pp. 211-233
190.
Cf St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, XIV 28: CCL 48 451
191.
Cf. Jn 16:11.
192.
Cf. Jn 16:15.
193.
Cf. Gal 4:4.
194.
Rev 1:8; 22:13.
195.
Jn 3:16.
196.
Gal 4:4f.
197.
Lk 1:34f.
198.
Mt 1:18.
199.
Mt 1:20f.
200.
Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theo. IIIa, q. 2, aa. 10-12; q. 6, a. 6; q. 7, a.
13.
201.
Lk 1:38.
202.
Jn1:14.
203.
Col 1:15.
204.
Cf., for example, Gen 9: 11; Deut 5:26; Job 34:15; Is 40:6; 42:10; Ps
145/144:21; Lk 3:6; 1 Pet 1:24.
205.
Lk 1:45.
206.
Cf. Lk 1:41.
207.
Cf. Jn 16:9.
208.
2 Cor 3:17.
209.
Cf. Rom 1:5.
210.
Rom 8:29.
211.
Cf.Jn 1:14,4, 12f.
212.
Cf. Rom 8:14.
213.
Cf. Gal 4:6; Rom 5:5; 2 Cor 1:22.
214.
Rom 8:15.
215.
Rom 8:16f.
216.
Cf. Ps 104/103:30.
217.
Rom 8:19.
218.
Rom 8:29.
219.
Cf. 2 Pet 1:4.
220.
Cf. Eph 2:18; Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, n. 2.
221.
Cf. 1 Cor 2:12.
222.
Cf. Eph 1:3-14.
223.
Eph 1:13f.
224.
Cf. Jn 3:8.
225.
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, n.
22; cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, n. 16.
226.
Jn 4:24.
227.
Ibid.
228.
Cf. St. Augustine, Confess., III, 6, 11: CCL 27, 33.
229.
Cf. Tit 2:11.
230.
Cf. Is 45:15.
231.
Cf. Wis 1:7.
232.
Lk 2:27, 34.
233.
Gal 5:17.
234.
Gal 5:16f.
235.
Cf. Gal 5:9-21.
236.
Gal 5:22f.
237.
Gal 5:25.
238.
Cf. Rom 8:5, 9.
239.
Rom 8:6, 13.
240.
Rom 8:10, 12.
241.
Cf. 1 Cor 6:20.
242.
Cf. Pastoral Constitution on the Churchin the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes,
nn. 19, 20, 21.
243.
Lk 3:6; cf. Is 40:5.
244.
Cf. Rom 8:23.
245.
Rom 8:3.
246.
Rom 8:26.
247.
Rom 8:11.
248.
Rom 8:10.
249
Cf Encyclical Redemptor Hominis (March 4, 1979), n. 14: AAS 71 (1979), pp.
284f.
250.
Cf. Wis 15:3.
251.
Cf. Eph 3:14-16.
252.
Cf. 1 Cor 2:10f.
253.
Cf. Rom 8:9; 1 Cor 6:19.
254.
Cf. Jn 14:23; St. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, V, 6, 1: SC 153, pp. 72-80; St. Hilary,
De Trinitate, VIII, 19, 21: PL 10, 250, 252; St. Ambrose, De Spiritu Sancto, I,
6, 8: PL 16, 752f.; St. Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. XLIX, 2: CCL 38, pp. 575f.;
St. Cyril of Alexandria, In Ioannis Evangelium, Bk. I; II: PG 73, 154-158; 246;
Bk. IX: PG 74, 262; St. Athanasius, Oratio111 Contra Arianos, 24: PG 26, 374f.;
Epist. I ad Serapionem, 24: PG 26, 586f.; Didymus the Blind, De Trinitate, II,
6-7: PG 39, 523-530; St. John Chrysostom, In Epist. ad Romanos Homilia XIII, 8:
PG 60, 519; St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theo. Ia, q. 43, aa. 1, 3-6.
255.
Cf. Gen 1:26f.; St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theo. Ia, q. 93, aa. 4, 5, 8.
256.
Cf. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes,
n. 24; cf. also n. 25.
257.
Cf. ibid., nn. 38, 40.
258.
Cf. 1 Cor 15:28.
259.
Cf. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes,
n. 24.
260.
Cf. St. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, IV, 20, 7: SC 100/2,p. 648.
261.
St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto, IX, 22: PG 32, 110.
262.
Rom 8:2.
263.
2 Cor 3:17.
264.
Cf. Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern
World, Gaudium et Spes, nn. 53-59.
265.
Ibid., n. 38.
266.
1 Cor 8:6.
267.
Jn 16:7.
268.
Jn 14:18.
269.
Mt 28:20.
270.
This is what the "Epiclesis" before the Consecration expresses:
"Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may
become for us the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ" (Eucharistic
Prayer II).
271.
Cf. Eph 3:16.
272.
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, n.
24.
273.
Ibid.
274.
Cf. Acts 2:42.
275.
Second Vatican Council, Decree on Ecumensim, Unitatis Redintegratio, n. 2.
276.
St. Augustine, In Ioannis Evangelium Tractatus XXVI, 13, CCL 36, p. 266; cf.
Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum
Concilium, n. 47.
277.
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, n. 1.
278.
Acts 17:28.
279.
1 Tim 2:4.
280.
Cf. Heb 5:7.
281.
Lk 11:13.
282.
Rom 8:26.
283.
Cf. Origen, De Oratione, 2: PG 11, p. 419-423.
284.Rom
8:27.
285.Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, n. 63.
286.Ibid.,
n. 64.
287.Ibid.,
n. 4; cf. Rev 22:17.
288.Cf.
Rom 8:24.
289.Cf.
Jn 4:14; Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, n. 4.
290.
Cf. Rev 12:10.
291.
Cf. Rom 8:23.
292.
Cf. Sequence Veni, Sancte Spiritus.
293.
Cf. Creed Quicumque: DS 75.
294.
Cf. Rom 5:5.
295.
One should mention here the important Apostolic Exhortation, Gaudete in Domino,
published by Pope Paul VI on May 9, in the Holy Year 1975; ever relevant is the
invitation expressed there "to implore the gift of joy from the Holy
Spirit," and likewise "to appreciate the properly spiritual joy that
is a fruit of the Holy Spirit": AAS 67 (1975), pp. 289, 302.
296.
Cf. Jn 16:22.
297.
Cf. Rom 14:17; Gal 5:22.