Living In And Through the Holy Spirit
By Andre Audette
“Was there a Holy Spirit before Pentecost?” This important question came up at a staff meeting a few weeks ago as we reflected on Jesus preparing the disciples for His ascension and promising them an “Advocate…a Spirit of truth.” He says, “Unless I go away, the Helper will not come to you.” Did the Holy Spirit start at Pentecost? What do we know about what Pope Benedict once called the “neglected” part of the Trinity?
Catholics believe that the Holy Spirit is not a “what,” but a “who”: a divine person in the Godhead, co-equal with and of the same essence as the Father and the Son. Just as Jesus’s mercy poured out in blood and water at the cross, the Holy Spirit pours Himself out for us every day. He poured Himself out at the first Pentecost, and does so today, especially in the Sacraments. He exemplifies the love of God, giving Himself to us over and over.
The Spirit gives us life. We profess in the Creed that “by the Holy Spirit,” Jesus was “incarnate of the Virgin Mary” and that we believe in “the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.” God wills us into existence through the Holy Spirit, breathing every breath into our lungs.
The Spirit is a teacher. I have had many teachers who opened my eyes to new concepts and allowed me to work on skills I did not know I had. The Holy Spirit is a great teacher who brings us to Truth and who opens our hearts and minds to God. Through the Spirit, we can come to understand more clearly God’s love for us.
The Spirit is a gift giver. He gives us the gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. (Perhaps you once memorized a similar list!) But the gifts do not stop there. He gives us our unique charisms – the supernatural gifts that each of us have been entrusted with to build up the Church.
So was there a Spirit before Pentecost? Yes!
Catholics believe that the Holy Spirit is co-eternal with the Father and Son; all three parts of the Holy Trinity existed before the world came into being. As the one who gives us life, the Spirit moved over the water to bring creation into existence. We profess that the Holy Spirit has always taught us and has “spoken through the prophets.” Like coming to know the Father through His covenant with Abraham or the Son through His incarnation, Pentecost is just when the Church came to know the eternal Holy Spirit more intimately.
Then why did Jesus need to directly send us the Advocate if the Holy Spirit was already here and active? Because we also believe in human fallibility and free will; we can misunderstand, refuse to cooperate with, or even resist the graces of the Spirit. The disciples hid their faith behind locked doors even after the Resurrection. Instead, Pentecost teaches us, like in this weekend’s Psalm, to invite the Holy Spirit into our lives to “renew the face of the earth.”
The Holy Spirit is alive and active in our parishes here and now: in our worship of God at Mass, in those developing their individual charisms, in volunteers sharing their time and gifts with the poor, and in the teaching of our priests, catechists, and school teachers. Imagine a world where all were even more in tune with the Spirit! I invite you to pray a simple, three-word prayer every day to make this happen: “Come, Holy Spirit.”