Age of the Holy Spirit

Seeing how the Holy Spirit inspires all good things

04/29/2024

Jn 14:21-26 Jesus said to his disciples: "Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him." Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, "Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. "I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name -- he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you."

The Holy Spirit is the force and the fuel for everything holy or good that the Church accomplishes. For instance, the Holy Spirit inspires my homilies. The Holy Spirit motivated you to get up and come to Mass this morning. The Holy Spirit moved Pope St. John XXIII to convene the Second Vatican Council in 1959. In a word, the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church. Just as a human body is lifeless when the soul departs at death, so the Church, the Body of Christ, would be lifeless and dead without the empowerment of the Spirit.

One day a little girl was watching her father, a Baptist minister, writing his Sunday sermon. She asked, “How do you know what to say?” He answered, “The Holy Spirit tells me.” She looked at his paper and remarked, “Then why do you keep scratching things out?” So, even though the Holy Spirit may inspire us, we may not be entirely attentive or docile to his promptings. In other words, the role of the Holy Spirit in our Christian lives simply cannot be overstated or emphasized enough. He does everything.

In the gospel of John we hear Jesus guarantee us that he and the Father will send the Holy Spirit to be with us. We read: “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name – he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” Now, Jesus said that at the Last Supper, when his own personal tutelage of the apostles as their Teacher was about to come to an end. But their education in faith, hope, and love would continue under the professorship of the Holy Spirit.

In a sense, we can divide the Bible into the teaching tenures of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. God the Father instructs us in the Old Testament, from Genesis to 2 Maccabees (or Malachi in some Bibles). God the Son comes to the front of the class to teach in the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And the Holy Spirit takes the teacher’s desk for the remaining 23 book of the New Testament, from Acts of the Apostles to Revelation. It’s like going from grade school to high school, and finally college.

This same passing of the teacher’s baton can be traced historically. God the Father teaches his Chosen People from Adam and Eve to John the Baptist. Jesus steps on the stage of human history from the year 0 to 33. And the Holy Spirit is the primary protagonist from the year 33 till the end of time. In other words, nothing good has ever happened in the Church, or in the world, since 33 AD without the touch or the teaching of the Holy Spirit.

Several months ago I was having a casual conversation with a parishioner from Winslow and Dc. Mike Henry after Mass in Winslow. We were discussing the richness of the graces we receive in the sacraments, and Dc. Mike remarked, “That grace is the Holy Spirit.” I was stunned by his comment because I always think of grace communicating Christ not the Holy Spirit. As if the Holy Spirit were Someone entirely distinct from the grace of the sacraments. But the Holy Spirit IS the grace of Jesus’ sacraments.

In every sacrament we receive the resurrected life of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit simply IS the resurrected life of Jesus. I remember feeling shocked when I heard that, and Dc. Mike was probably shocked that I was shocked. He could have said to me like Jesus did to Nicodemus, “You are a teacher of Israel, and you do not understand these things??” Or, to paraphrase James Carville who famously commented about the economy back in the 90’s, “It’s the Holy Spirit, stupid.”

Today, try to think of people who are doing good in the Church, or speakers you like to listen to or authors whose books you may enjoy reading. I am a fan of the work of Bishop Robert Barron, Scott Hahn, C. S. Lewis, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Etienne Gilson, and Josef Pieper. By the way, I am not a fan of Fr. Mike Schmitz because he talks too fast for me! But I know lots of people love him and have read the Bible and the Catechism thanks to his help.

Where do these people get all this wisdom, knowledge, joy, and enthusiasm for the faith? Simple: the Holy Spirit, the soul that vivifies the activity of the Church, and indeed of the whole world. This is not the Age of Aquarius, this is the Age of the Holy Spirit.

Praised be Jesus Christ!