The Holy Spirit in the Christian Life JPII General audiences of April thru July 1991

1
The Holy Spirit in the Christian LifeJPII
General audiences of April thru July 1991

• The Spirit Source of New Life
• General audience of April 3, 1991
• The Holy Spirit Light of the Soul
• General audience of April 24, 1991
• The Spirit Source of Interior Life
• General audience of April 10, 1991
• The Spirit Source of Prayer Life
• General audience of April 17, 1991
• The Holy Spirit Is the Vital Principle of Faith
• General audience of May 8, 1991
• The Spirit Life-Giving Source of New Love
• General audience of May 22, 1991
• The Spirit Principle of Peace
• General audience of May 29, 1991
• Only the Holy Spirit Gives True Joy
• General audience of June 19, 1991
• The Spirit Gives Strength to Christians
• General audience of June 26, 1991
• The Spirit Pledge of Eschatological Hope

2
The Holy Spirit Source of Prayer LifeJPII
General audience of April 17, 1991

• The first and most excellent form of the interior
  life is prayer.
• The teachers and masters of the spiritual life
  are so convinced of this that they often present
  the interior life as
• a life of prayer.
• The principal author of this life is the Holy
  Spirit,
• as he was already in Christ.
• We read in the Gospel of Luke
• "At that very moment Jesus rejoiced in the Holy
  Spirit and said,
• 'I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and
  earth'"
• (Lk 1021).
• This is a prayer of praise and thanksgiving
  which, according to the evangelist, wells up from
  Jesus' exultation
• "in the Holy Spirit."

3
The Concept of Spirit

• The same Hebrew word serves to signify both wind
  and spirit
• The wind is the breath of God
• Ruah
• It is a sensible manifestation of the divine
  presence and power
• It moves suddenly and unpredictably
• We can neither foretell nor control its direction
  or its strength
• We can not determine its source or its
  destination
• It is subtle, verges on the immaterial in its
  nature, and is universal and irresistible in its
  scope
• The wind is an extremely apt symbol of the divine

4
The Concept of Spirit

• In the Old Testament the Spirit is not a personal
  being
• It is a principle of action, not a subject.
• It belongs properly to Yahweh alone
• it is communicated to living beings,
• but it never becomes a part of the structure of
  the living being in such a way that the living
  being possesses the spirit as its own.

5
The spirit is said

• to clothe
• (Judg 634 1 Chr 1219 2 Chr 2420)
• to be poured out
• (Isa 2910, 443 Ezek 3929 Joel 228)
• to leap upon.
• (Judg 146,19 1514 1 Sam 1010 116)
• One is filled with the spirit
• (E 313)
• Yahweh puts spirit into one
• (Isa 6311 Ezek 35627 Num 1125,29)
• The spirit can also be taken from a person
• (Ps 5113)
• or can depart
• (1 Sam 1614)
• Elisha asked for a double portion of the spirit
  of Elijah
• (2 Kngs 29)

6
The Concept of Spirit

• The phrases used in these contexts treat the
  spirit as a subtle substance or liquid
• They emphasize the impersonal nature of the
  spirit
• The quality most evident is power.
• The spirit is mentioned as a creative force
• The wind broods over the waters of chaos
• (Gen 12)
• The movement of the wind is the first sign of the
  creative activity about to break forth

7
The Concept of Spirit

• The breath of Yahweh is the principle of life for
  all living beings
• They survive by the communication of his spirit
• This thought appears in a number of passages
• (Gen 27 617 715 Job 334 Eccl 319,21)
• The breath of life is communicated by inspiration
• (Gen 27)
• The living being dies when Yahweh takes away his
  spirit
• (Ps 10429)
• Which then returns to Yahweh
• Isa 3027-28)

8
The Concept of Spirit

• In the period of the judges and of the early
  monarchy we meet the spirit as a mysterious
  divine impulse that moves a man to deeds above
  his known capacity and habits of behavior
• (Jdgs 310 634 1129 1325 146,19 1514)
• Saul is moved by the spirit to deliver the city
  of Jabesh-Gilead
• (1 Sam 116,13)
• In the exilic and post-exilic periods the spirit
  appears as an inspiring agent
• Ez 22 324 115 Zec 712 Neh 930)

9
The Concept of Spirit

• In the messianic era the spirit breaks out in new
  fullness
• Messianic persons such as the king (Isa 111)
• The servant of Yahweh (421)
• The prophet who announces the messianic salvation
• (611)
• Receive the spirit
• The spirit is poured upon the whole people
• (Is 3215 443 Ez 3929 Joel 328)
• The spirit becomes a principle of moral
  regeneration, a deliverer, a power for righteous
  conduct
• (Ez 3626 Is 6311,14)
• That the individual may ask for
• (Ps 5112 14310)

10
Concept of Word

• In the ancient Near East
• the spoken word was conceived of as a distinct
  entity laden with power
• This was especially true of the Divine Word
• In both Egypt and Mesopotamia
• the divine word was a creative force educing the
  world into existence
• The divine word partook of the power of the gods
  themselves, and people could not resist or alter
  it.

11
Concept of Word

• In the Israelite conception this power existed in
  the person speaking the word not in the word
  itself.
• Instances of the words power are numerous
• The deception of Isaac
• (Gen 27)
• The deception of Jacob by Laban
• (Gen 2920-27)
• An error by the person does not invalidate the
  spoken solemn word
• The word by its emission has become a reality
  that can not be recalled

12
Concept of Word

• Isaac can give Esau another, inferior blessing
  but he cannot cancel the blessing he has
  mistakenly given Jacob
• When Micahs mother curses the thief who, unknown
  to her, is her own son, she cannot withdraw the
  curse but can send a blessing to follow its
  fulfillment (Jdg 171-2)
• Davids pronunciation of a sentence of death upon
  the man in the parable of Nathan is unwittingly
  directed at himself, he is assured it will be
  diverted, but it falls on the children of
  Bathsheba (2 Sam 121-18)
• The woman accused of adultery must consume an
  oath of execration by drinking water into which
  the written word of a curse have been immersed
  nothing but innocence will neutralize the curse
  (Num 512-31)

13
Concept of Word

• The word of Yahweh is a creative agent because it
  is Yahweh who speaks it
• (Gen 1 Isa 4026 4813 Pss 336,9 14715-18)
• The word retains the power of its speaker
• The word makes its speaker known
• This is the function of the word as name

14
Concept of Word

• To know the name is to experience the power of
  the word in the reverse direction
• Just as the power of the person determines
  reality by conferring the name
• So the power of the person apprehends reality by
  knowing the name
• The Old Testament conception of
• the word of Yahweh
• must be understood in this way

15
Concept of Word

• Most OT occurrences of the word of Yahweh
  designate the prophetic word
• The word is the specific charism of the prophet,
• As tora (law) is the charism of the priest
• And counsel the charism of the sage.
• (Jer 1818)
• The prophetic word is misunderstood if one thinks
  of it as merely the experience of hearing

16
Concept of Word

• It is the reception of a positive energetic
  reality that arises from the power of the person
  of Yahweh and compels the prophet to speak
• (Amos 38)
• The reception of the word is compared to the
  eating of a scroll
• (Ez 29-33)
• The word of Yahweh is a joy and delight
• (Jer 1516)
• A burning fire shut up in the bones of the
  prophet
• (207-9)
• A fury that he must pour out
• (611)

17
Concept of Word

• The prophetic word partakes of the dynamism of
  Yahweh himself
• It is fulfilled or established when the reality
  of which it speaks comes into existence.
• The relation of of the prophetic word to the
  event is more than the relation of prediction and
  fulfillment
• The word is an entity endowed with power that
  effects the thing signified by the word
• The word partakes of Yahwehs eternity
• (Isa 408)
• Its dynamism may be delayed, but its fulfillment
  is inevitable
• (Isa 98)

18
Concept of Word

• The word of Yahweh is the essential operative
  agent in the history of Israel
• From the first act of the creative process
• (Gen 13)
• To the rebuilding of Jerusalem by the decree of
  Cyrus
• (Isa 4428)
• The utterance of Yahweh brings about the call of
  Abraham and of Moses, the exodus of Israel from
  Egypt, the conquests of Joshua, the call of
  Samuel, the establishment of the monarchy, the
  election of David, the division of the kingdom,
  the fall of the house of Omri, the invasion of
  the Assyrians and the Chaldeans, the fall of the
  kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah.