I Believe in the Holy Spirit

1

• "I Believe in the Holy Spirit"
• General audience of April 26, 1989

2

• The Christological cycle is followed by that
  which is called pneumatological.
• The Apostles' Creed expresses this concisely in
  the words
• "I believe in the Holy Spirit."
• The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed develops this
  at greater length
• "I believe in the Holy Spirit,
• the Lord and giver of life,
• who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
• With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and
  glorified.
• He has spoken through the prophets."

3

• The creed,
• a profession of faith formulated by the Church,
• refers us back to the biblical sources where the
  truth about the Holy Spirit is presented in the
  context of the revelation of the Triune God.
• The Church's pneumatology is based on Sacred
  Scripture,
• especially on the New Testament,
• although to a certain extent the Old Testament
  foreshadows it.

4

• The first source to which we can turn is a text
  from John's Gospel in Christ's farewell discourse
  to his disciples on the day before his passion
  and death on the cross.

5

• Jesus speaks of the coming of the Holy Spirit in
  connection with his own "departure,"
• by announcing the coming (or descent) of the
  Spirit upon the apostles.
• "I tell you the truth
• it is to your advantage that I go away,
• for if I do not go away,
• the Counselor will not come to you
• but if I go,
• I will send him to you"
• (Jn 167).

6

• The content of this text may appear paradoxical.
• Jesus, who makes a point of emphasizing
• "I tell you the truth,"
• presents his own "departure"
• (and therefore his passion and death on the
  cross)
• as an advantage
• "It is to your advantage...."
• However, he explains immediately what the value
  of his death consists in.
• Since it is a redemptive death,
• it is the condition for the fulfillment of God's
  salvific plan which will be crowned by the coming
  of the Holy Spirit.

7

• It is therefore the condition of all that this
  coming will bring about
• for the apostles and
• for the future Church,
• as people will receive new life through the
  reception of the Spirit.
• The coming of the Spirit and all that will result
  in the world from its coming will be the fruit of
  Christ's redemption.

8

• If Jesus' departure takes place through his death
  on the cross,
• one can understand how the evangelist John can
  already see in this death the power and glory of
  the crucified.
• However, Jesus' words also imply the ascension to
  the Father as the definitive departure
• (cf. Jn 1610),
• according to what we read in the Acts of the
  Apostles
• "Being exalted at the right hand of God,
• and having received from the Father the promise
  of the Holy Spirit"
• (Acts 233).

9

• The descent of the Holy Spirit occurred after the
  ascension into heaven.
• It is then that Christ's passion and redemptive
  death produce their full fruit.
• Jesus Christ, Son of Man, at the climax of his
  messianic mission,
• received the Holy Spirit from the Father,
• in the fullness in which this Spirit is to be
  given to the apostles and to the Church
  throughout all ages.
• Jesus foretold
• "I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw
  all men to myself"
• (Jn 1232).

10

• This clearly indicates the universality of
  redemption both in the extensive sense of
  salvation for all humanity,
• and in the intensive sense of the totality of
  graces offered to the redeemed.
• This universal redemption, however,
• must be accomplished
• by means of the Holy Spirit.

11

• The Holy Spirit is he who comes as a result and
  by virtue of Christ's departure.
• The words of John 167 express a causal
  relationship.
• The Spirit is sent by virtue of the redemption
  effected by Christ
• "If I go, I will send him to you"
• (cf. DV 8).

12

• Indeed, "according to the divine plan,
• Christ's 'departure' is an indispensable
  condition for the 'sending' and the coming of the
  Holy Spirit, but these words also say that what
  begins now is the new salvific self-giving of
  God, in the Holy Spirit"
• (DV 11).

13

• Through his being "lifted up" on the cross, Jesus
  Christ will
• "draw all people to himself"
• (cf. Jn 1232).
• In the light of the words spoken at the Last
  Supper we understand that that "drawing" is
  effected by the glorified Christ through the
  sending of the Holy Spirit.

14

• It is for this reason that Christ must go away.
• The Incarnation achieves its redemptive efficacy
  through the Holy Spirit.
• By departing from this world,
• Christ not only leaves his salvific message,
• but gives the Holy Spirit,
• and to that is linked the efficacy of the message
  and of redemption itself in all its fullness.

15

• A distinct Person
•  The Holy Spirit,
• as presented by Jesus especially in his farewell
  discourse in the upper room,
• is evidently a Person distinct from himself
• "I will pray the Father, and he will give you
  another Counselor"
• (Jn 146).
• "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the
  Father will send in my name will teach you all
  things, and bring to your remembrance all that I
  have said to you"
• (Jn 1426).

16

• In speaking of the Holy Spirit,
• Jesus frequently uses the personal pronoun "he."
• "He will bear witness to me"
• (Jn 1526).
• "He will convince the world of sin"
• (Jn 168).
• "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide
  you into all the truth"
• (Jn 1613).
• "He will glorify me"
• (Jn 1614).
• From these texts it is evident that the Holy
  Spirit is a Person,
• and not merely an impersonal power issuing from
  Christ
• (cf. e.g., Lk 619 "Power came forth from
  him...").

17

• As a Person,
• he has his own proper activity of a personal
  character.
• When speaking of the Holy Spirit,
• Jesus said to the apostles
• "You know him, for he dwells in you,
• and will be in you"
• (Jn 147).
• "He will teach you all things, and bring to your
  remembrance all that I have said to you"
• (Jn 1426).
• "He will bear witness to me"
• (Jn 1526).
• "He will guide you into all the truth."
• "Whatever he hears he will speak"
• (Jn 1613).
• He "will glorify" Christ
• (cf. Jn 1614),
• and "he will convince the world of sin"
• (Jn 168).

18

• The Apostle Paul, on his part,
• states that the Spirit
• "cries in our hearts"
• (Gal 46)
• "he apportions"
• his gifts
• "to each one individually
• as he wills"
• (1 Cor 1211)
• "he intercedes for the saints"
• (Rom 827).

19

• The Holy Spirit revealed by Jesus is therefore a
  personal being
• (the third Person of the Trinity)
• with his own personal activity.
• However, in the same farewell discourse,
• Jesus showed the bonds that unite the person of
  the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son.
• He announced the descent of the Holy Spirit,
• and at the same time the definitive revelation of
  God as a Trinity of Persons.

20

• Jesus told the apostles
• "I will pray the Father,
• and he will give you another Counselor"
• (Jn 1416),
• "the Spirit of truth
• who proceeds from the Father"
• (Jn 1526),
• "whom the Father will send
• in my name"
• (Jn 1426).

21

• The Holy Spirit is therefore a Person distinct
  from the Father and from the Son and,
• at the same time,
• intimately united with them.
• "He proceeds" from the Father,
• the Father "sends" him in the name of the Son and
  this is in consideration of the redemption
  effected by the Son through his self-offering on
  the cross.

22

• Therefore, Jesus Christ said
• "If I go, I will send him to you"
• (Jn 167).
• "The Spirit of truth who proceeds from the
  Father"
• is announced by Christ as the Counselor, whom
• "I shall send to you from the Father"
• (Jn 1526).
• John's text which narrates Jesus' discourse in
  the upper room contains the revelation of the
  salvific action of God as Trinity.

23

• John Paul II wrote in the encyclical
• Dominum et Vivificantem
• "The Holy Spirit,
• being consubstantial with the Father and the Son
  in divinity,
• is love and uncreated gift from which derives as
  from its source
• (fons vivus)
• all giving of gifts vis-à-vis creatures
• (created gifts)
• the gift of existence to all things,
• through creation
• the gift of grace to human beings through the
  whole economy of salvation"
• (n. 10).

24

• The Holy Spirit reveals the depths of the
  divinity
• the mystery of the Trinity in which the divine
  Persons subsist,
• but open to human beings to grant them life and
  salvation.
• St. Paul refers to that when he writes in the
  First Letter to the Corinthians that
• "the Spirit searches everything,
• even the depths of God"
• (1 Cor 210).