Who is the Holy Spirit and what does He do?
Geo George Kom - July 2021
For many people even Christians the Spirit is a stranger, something abstract or a kind of spectre. But the Holy Spirit is none of that. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Holy Trinity.
We fail to give the Spirit a well-defined face because He stays 'behind the scenes'. But we can know Him through the signs of his action. The Spirit is the giver of life. He makes us participants in God's life and is God's love itself. The Spirit is creator.
He's the spirit of God that moved over the waters when the world was created. The Holy Spirit is the gift of the Risen Lord to the disciples and he reveals to us the profound meaning of revelation.
When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth (John 16:3).
Jesus calls the Spirit the 'paraclete' that is consolar. He comes to our aid, consoles us and defends us. The Spirit is represented with different images: ranging from the classic dove to the luminous cloud of the transfiguration. But the Spirit is also Living Water, holy chrism, and above all fire. The famous tongues of flame that came to rest up on the disciples on the day of Pentecost.
The Spirit frees us from fear and infuses us with strength and courage. The Holy Spirit bursting into the cenacle, is called a violent wind. Wind in fact brings change. The Holy Spirit does the same.
Pope Francis defines Holy Spirit as the divine force that changes the world.
But He is also the breath of the risen Jesus.
He breathed on them and said to them" Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22).
The breath of God is life when he creates man and Jesus's breath is new life for the disciples and the start of their mission in the world.
When He sends the Spirit the Church is born as well. The "Society of the Spirit" as St. Augustine calls it. The Spirit moves the church and continues to build it in unity and diversity through charisms.
The gift of the Spirit is renewed with the sacraments especially baptism and confirmation. And in those who welcome Him the "fruits of the Spirit" flourish: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
It's the Spirit's task to bring us to God. How? With prayer. The spirit moves us to pray and prays in us.
God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"(Galatians 4:6)
Every day we too can pray to the spirit with a brief aspiration prayer 'Come Holy Spirit' .
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