The knowledge of faith is possible only in the Holy Spirit: to be in touch with Christ, we must first have been touched by the Holy Spirit.[1]
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you will renew the face of the earth. Amen.
Who is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity and is the Person of God with whom we have the most difficulty conceptualizing. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and does not have a human form. He has symbolically revealed Himself to mankind in the form of a dove (at Jesus’s Baptism – Mt 3:16) and as the wind and tongues of fire (at Pentecost – Acts 2:3-4). In understanding who the Holy Spirit is, it is easier to start by describing what He does and what gifts He brings to His people.
The Paraclete
Jesus called Him the Paraclete (Jn 14:15-17). He assists us in living a Christian life on a daily basis. He is present in all aspects of our worship of God and our pursuit of holiness. St. Paul says that no one can confess Jesus is Lord except through the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:3). It is the Holy Spirit who enlightens our hearts to recognize God and His truths in our world. The Holy Spirit writes God’s truth in our hearts.[2] As children, we readily recognize these truths. As children, we believed in God; we believed in the angels that He sends to guard over us. As adults, we often forget God’s truth that is written in our hearts. When we open ourselves to God in prayer, it is then that the Holy Spirit can intercede and once again enlighten us of the truths we have forgotten and bestow on us new gifts to help us advance in holiness.[3]
The Gift of Reconciliation
The gifts the Holy Spirit gives us are necessary for our salvation.[4] The first and foremost gift is the spirit of contrition for our sin. Without this gift we would not feel impelled to seek reconciliation with God for our sin. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation we encounter the Trinity: the Holy Spirit impelling us to seek reconciliation,[5] Jesus who covers us with His blood and washes us clean of our sin, and the Father who looks upon us covered in the blood of Jesus and finds us acceptable to Him once again.[6] In being covered with the blood of Jesus, Our Father then heaps graces and mercy upon us which we could not have received in our previous state of sin. [7] The guilt we feel when we sin is the intervention of the Holy Spirit upon our conscience. The Holy Spirit desires that we be reconciled with God. When we are reconciled with God we can once again receive His graces. If we refuse the mercy of God and refuse the forgiveness that the Holy Spirit desires that we seek then we will not receive graces and mercy, but God’s justice and will be required to pay the penalty for our sin. Because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Love, He desires that we do not separate ourselves from God and urges us to reconcile when we do separate ourselves from God through sin.
The Gifts of The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit works in our lives by giving us graces to assist us in attaining holiness and helping others attain holiness as well. (To attain holiness, we must love God and seek to do His Will.) Every gift He gives us is meant to be shared with our brothers and sisters. He gives different gifts to different people. Because we are called to be a community of believers, each of us is expected to use our gifts for the common good and benefit of all (1 Cor 12:4-7).
Therefore, we are not to be jealous of one another’s gifts: the Holy Spirit gives us all the gifts either directly, or through another person. In a community that shares its gifts with one another, all members become recipients of all gifts. A concrete example of this: a father gives his son a pear and his daughter an apple. Each child cuts his fruit in half and gives one half to the other. Thus, both children have an apple and a pear. There is no cause for jealousy that one has more than the other or that one received a better gift, because by sharing their gifts, the children received both fruits.
This is an important issue in the life of the believer because we are required to share what we have been given. To those who are given more, more will be required of them. God does not give us gifts for our personal glory, but for our growth and His glorification. There is nothing that we have which was not given to us by God; all gifts belong to Him and He lets us borrow everything we have on earth from Him for the short time we are here. We are merely stewards of the gifts we possess, and are required by God to share our gifts with others.
The Holy Spirit gives us many gifts at Confirmation: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, piety, fear of the Lord, counsel, and fortitude (Is 11:13). These are the gifts that we need as adult Christians to respond to God’s call to the fullest measure. The more we pray for these gifts, the more abundantly we will be given them.
Ministering Gifts
The Holy Spirit also gives different people ministering gifts to build up the body of Christ. The gifts that are most commonly encountered are: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, teaching, prayer, and discernment (also called distinguishing of spirits). Other gifts are tongues, interpretation of tongues, working of miracles, and prophesy. These gifts are given to glorify God and to enrich the people of God in their faith and love for God (1 Cor 12 and Rom 12:5-16).
The Holy Spirit does not give us His gifts only at Confirmation or at specific times in our lives. He continually gives us gifts. The more we pray and are open to His gifts, the more abundantly we will receive them. We should continually ask Him for the gifts we need and thereby continually grow in grace.
The Fruits of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is manifested in our lives in many ways. Jesus Himself taught us how to distinguish whether or not the Holy Spirit is working in our lives by the fruits that are manifested. If the Holy Spirit is truly working in the life of a person, he or she will grow spiritually. The fruits of the Spirit are: charity (love), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, mildness, and self-control (chastity or modesty) (Gal 5:22).
Because He does not want us to be led astray, Jesus cautions us to examine the fruits. He gave the analogy that a good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit (Mt 12: 33, 35-37). The meaning of the parable is this: many people claim to do good works or preach in the name of Jesus. If they are really inspired by God, their teaching will lead people toward God and toward the truth. Their own lives will have manifestations of the grace of God working in them – namely the fruits previously mentioned. If someone is not working for God but instead has ulterior motives, his teachings will not lead us to God; his teachings and miracles will lead to himself, or worse, to satan. His life will be void of the fruits of the Holy Spirit; his life will be marked with a lack of joy, disharmony, chaos, impatience, meanness, disloyalty (unfaithfulness), aggressiveness, rudeness, and/or lewdness.
We must be cautious in our approach, however. We are not called to judge anyone (Mt 7:1). Everyone makes mistakes, even those who truly seek God. If another’s teaching is not good, we are not to follow it but we are to pray for that person.
Discernment in Matters of Faith
We are given many tools of discernment. We are given God’s Holy Word in scripture. If a teaching contradicts scripture, it is wrong. In interpreting scripture, we have the Catholic Church as the final authority on all matters of faith. Pope St. John Paul II, out of love for the people of God, commissioned the magisterium of the Church to put in writing the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catechism teaches the Catholic faith and takes into account all aspects of our modern world which must be dealt with in the field of morality. After years of writing, research, prayer, and guidance from the Holy Spirit, the Catechism has been written and translated into English for us. It is an excellent resource and guide for teaching us the truth. Sacred Scripture and the Catholic Catechism are two treasures to help us grow in holiness.
Come Holy Spirit, enlighten my heart to see the things which are of God. Come Holy Spirit into my mind that I may know the things that are of God. Come Holy Spirit into my soul that I belong only to God. Sanctify all that I think, say, and do, that all may be for the glory of God. Amen.
Recommended Reading
1 Corinthians 12
[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church, Liguori Publications, 1994. Paragraph #683.
[2] Ibid., paragraph #683.
[3] Ibid., paragraph #688.
[4] Ibid., paragraph #688.
[5] Ibid., paragraph #1433.
[6] Ibid., paragraph #1423-4.
[7] Ibid., paragraph 1432.
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