The Holy Spirit as Person

“There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of His roots. 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 fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:1-3)

Many Christians assume by Spirit, even Holy Spirit, is meant an idea or principle, an influence on us. The Holy Spirit is in every sense Person equal with Father and Son in the Holy Trinity. As in our prayer, He is “everywhere present and fills all things.” How He does this is a great mystery, but a great truth also. “All things” includes you and me as well. The glorious mystical sacrament of the Church is the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we can walk in the Spirit, live in the Spirit, pray in the Spirit, and open ourselves to the silent prayer of the Spirit who prays for us and in us so that we may welcome Him freely into our mystical eye of the soul, or nous.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are sealed in us by the sacrament of anointment with Holy Chrism, normally just after we had been baptized into Jesus Christ. They follow in the same order as the salvation won by our Lord Jesus in His crucifixion, resurrection, ascent into heaven inaugurated the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Baptism is a gift, but unless and until we learn to appreciate that gift, we are not ready to utilize the gifts that come about by the Spirit at work within us. It does depend on our freedom. God will never act in us or for us if we do not welcome Him freely to do so. The gifts of the Spirit are latent in us until we are eager to make use of their wealth. This is a great mystery, and it’s certainly not magic. The Spirit will act only when we are ready to grow in grace and walk in the Spirit as St. Paul puts it. Nicholas Cabasilas in The Life of Christ, p. 110, describes the two rituals and the way each of them has its own effect.

Some of us are immature, not capable of appreciating the life of Christ through the Holy Spirit, others are unprepared for the various reasons that our Lord suggests in the parable of the Sower and the Seed (Matthew 13:3ff). Among all the tragedies of waste in our world, none is as disastrous as the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit unused, unknown and undiscovered within the souls of so many who had been baptized into Christ, yet had never put on Christ.

Life will be a glorious experience of self-discovery for those on the other hand who are willing to explore the mysterious depths of their souls and to take on the challenges of losing their old selves in order to find in Christ and the Holy Spirit the person whom the Father created when He had them in mind before the world existed. It requires recognizing the lie in this culture’s pretense to offer instantaneous gratification in all things including salvation. It is accepting St. Paul’s invitation to “work out your own salvation in fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).

Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer. He leads us from darkness, ignorance, inability to find our way to the Kingdom of His Father, from the arrogance that refuses divine help, and the pride that tells us we can get along fine without God. When He returned to His Father, He sent the same Spirit that rested on Him at His baptism and Transfiguration. We have been anointed with the Holy Spirit. When we open ourselves to Him, we discover a wisdom we never knew we had. In the Spirit we are able to plumb the depths of our souls and perceive with an inner eye what our vision would otherwise miss. We understand in the Spirit how to order our lives so that goodness and mercy will always follow us. The Spirit advises us the ways to avoid the agony of misplaced emotions. He gives us strength and courage to stand up for truth, justice, honesty and fairness. We will know right from wrong, virtue from sin, what will help us from what will do us harm. And we fear losing Him by abusing or ignoring His presence in the deep regions of the heart.