God the Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the blessed Trinity; God Himself. This article will explore where we meet Him in scripture, who He is, and how He interacts with us.
The Groundwork
The importance of the Holy Spirit to us is revealed by the Old Testament – particularly Eden, Babel, and Sinai – and by Pentecost. The following portion is largely lifted from a sermon by a good and holy priest, Fr. Philip Wolfe, FSSP.
The Author of Genesis (who is the Holy Spirit, by the way) notes that Eden is a garden sanctuary with four rivers flowing out of it (Gen 2:10-14). Rivers tend to flow with gravity; we can surmise from these details that Eden is atop a mountain. Eden is the very threshold of Heaven where man could walk in familiarity and amity with God. There was a proper order of nature, wherein man’s interior faculties were subject to his will, and even nature itself was subject to his will. His body was immortal, just as his soul. Childbearing was not painful, work was pleasant, easy, and fulfilling, and man lived in harmony with woman. All of this was contingent on Adam being a good “high priest” in the garden; all of this was lost when he disobeyed.
Shinar was situated on a plain – a low place; symbolically distant from God. The men who settled that land sought to “make [their] names famous” by creating their own holy mountain, a manmade tower; in other words, by approaching the threshold of Heaven on their terms, not God’s. Genesis is subtle in describing their rebellious, secular motives. First, the Author notes that they sought to build this tower only using manmade bricks; no natural materials. Second, the Author implies that they were motivated by the Great Flood of Noah’s time to build this tower both as means to protect themselves from future chastisements, and to avenge their forefathers whom God had slain (Genesis 11). God responds by saying that their unity in mind and language would give them power to achieve anything, and so confuses their speech to put a stop to their plans.
Sinai was another mountain. God called Moses to the top of it, and there he stayed for forty days amidst smoke, fire, trumpets, and winds (Ex 24:9-18). In the midst of all this, in this mountaintop sanctuary, God gives Moses the law on stone tablets. Meanwhile, at the bottom – the low place – the people set up an idol, a golden calf. Moses, returning and seeing this, commanded the Levites to slay the idolaters. They killed thousands of their brethren, and God rewarded them for putting Him above their blood relations by giving their tribe the priesthood (Exodus 32).
God gave the Levites a sanctuary to take with them; the Holy of Holies, the sanctuary within Shiloh and later the Temple where the Ark was kept. On account of man’s corruption, none could approach it except the high priest on Yom Kippur. Man’s unholiness meant God had to remain veiled. The curtains which separated the Ark from the rest of the Temple had two cherubim on them, symbols of the two cherubim who ousted man from Eden. The only contact the laymen had with God was at the altar of burnt offering, set ablaze by God’s heavenly fire, and kept ablaze by constant sacrifice (Leviticus 6:13, 2 Chron 7). The story of the dedication of the Temple notes that God’s glory filled the Temple such that none could enter. Again, mankind’s corruption made them strangers to God, unable to approach His glory with familiarity as in Eden.
The Advocate
First, who is the Holy Spirit? God’s will. The will is the power which makes manifest the knowledge and judgment of the knower. Now a human may have a particular image in his mind that he wishes to paint, but by the impediment of a shaky hand, his will manifests his thought imperfectly. Or, a human may will something, but through a defect in his knowledge, fail to will it perfectly. God, on the other hand, is perfect, so there is nothing which could possibly impede Him from knowing perfectly and manifesting His knowledge exactly as it is. So God’s will perfectly manifests His own self, meaning His will is His own self, expressed in eternal procession from the Father to the Son, and the Son to the Father.
Second, what does the Holy Spirit do? He modifies and strengthens sanctifying grace by indwelling in our souls. Sanctifying grace, as discussed here, is an “entitative habit” in the soul. To draw an analogy: gender is an entitative habit of the body. One can be human without being male; yet, if one is male, they will be equipped with the interior desire and ability to know and achieve those things which pertain to manhood. Likewise, sanctifying grace equips one with the interior desire and ability to know and achieve those things which pertain to God. But as we see from the Old Testament, sanctifying grace was just not enough to overcome the Jews’ rebelliousness and obstinance. The Holy Spirit, sent by Christ the High Priest from the sanctuary of Heaven, hypostatically joins to our souls to give us the powers of soul necessary to behave like Christ.
And how important is this to us? Pentecost reveals the answer (Acts 2). At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles as tongues of fire amid gusts of wind. This is much like Sinai and much like the dedication of the Temple, but with a few key differences. In the sanctuary of the upper room, the Apostles themselves became arks of the Covenant, the Holy Spirit writing the law upon their hearts instead of stone tablets. At Pentecost, there is no smoke amidst the fire and wind. The Apostles, whom God now dwells within, need no veil to protect them from His glory. Like Eden, they could walk in true familiarity with Him. At Pentecost, there was no burnt offering. The Heavenly fire rested upon the Apostles, not to keep alive with goats and rams, but by spreading the faith to the ends of the earth.
Like Moses coming down from Sinai, Peter came down from the upper room and slayed the sins of thousands. How? By pouring out the waters of baptism, like the waters of Eden poured out to the whole earth. They spoke all languages; their desire to exalt God restoring the unity lost at Babel, when men sought to exalt themselves. Through this unity, they could achieve anything. As those at Babel were driven by their desire to avenge sinners whom God justly killed, the Apostles were driven by the desire to serve Christ, whom man unjustly killed. Like Moses and Joshua waged bloody war with the Canaanites, the Apostles waged bloody war against sin with their martyrdoms. These are the same Apostles, I remind you, who uniformly fled from Christ in fear when He was crucified. Such is the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Gifts
According to the Holy See, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord (1 Cor 12, Holy See). These are the manifest powers by which the soul responds to God with Apostolic fervor. They reside within the soul, either the intellect or the will. They do not interact with the senses nor the emotions.
The first and highest gift is wisdom. Wisdom allows one to judge well the things of God, not thinking as fallen mankind does, but as He does. For example, fallen mankind tends to water down and sugarcoat the words of Christ. A few examples: the path to Hell is wide and well-traveled, while the path to salvation is narrow and sparse (Matt. 7:13-14). Hell is eternal (Matt. 25:46). God expects us to strive for moral perfection and will judge our every idle word and deed (Matt 5:48, 12:36). You must be detached from all things – family, friends, self – to enter Heaven (Matt. 10:37). The wisdom of the world tells us that these are hyperbolic, symbolic, or otherwise loose. The wisdom of God tells us that Christ says what He means, and even takes delight in God’s justice, wisdom, and love while meditating on these sayings.
The second gift is knowledge. As wisdom judges well the things of God, knowledge judges well the things of creatures. Knowledge sees and accepts that “all things are dust” and “vanity” (Ecc. 3:20, 1:2). Knowledge asks, “Where are the rulers of the nations, and those who lorded it over the animals on earth? Those who made sport of the birds of the air, and who hoarded up silver and gold in which people trust, and there is no end to their getting; those who schemed to get silver, and were anxious, but there is no trace of their works?” And knowledge answers: “They have vanished and gone down to Hades, and others have arisen in their place” (Bar 3:16-19). Knowledge sees that all the things of this world – power, honor, pleasure, wealth – are nothing, and has no interest in them.
The third gift is counsel. As wisdom judges well the things of God, and knowledge of creatures, so counsel judges one’s own actions. As Our Lord said to the Apostles, “When they hand you over, do not worry about what you will say or how you will say it. When the hour comes, you will be given what you are to say. You yourselves will not be the speakers; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you” (Matt. 10:18-20). Counsel provides men with a prompt and intuitive ability to reference actions to salvation instead of created ends.
The fourth gift is understanding. Understanding is an ability to deeply and intuitively probe the mysteries of the faith. Understanding purifies the mind of errors, phantasms, and worldliness to attain a clear vision of God. St. Thomas argues that the gift of understanding gives one the “clean heart” needed to see God (Summa, Q8 A7). This may manifest in the most high-minded comprehension of the symbolism and meaning in scripture. It might manifest in the simplest ways, as when St. Vianney asked an old farmer why he was sitting in Church, staring at the tabernacle for hours: “I look at Him, and He looks at me.”
The rest of the gifts are gifts of the will, as opposed to the intellect. The fifth is piety. Piety is a generosity in loving God. St. Francis de Sales says, “All the science of the Saints is included in these two things: to do, and to suffer. And whoever has done these two things best, has made himself most saintly.” As one loves God with greater fervor, they rest in Him in greater peace, ever passing from servility to divine childhood. As St. Paul says, “the law is not made for the righteous man, but for the disobedient” (1 Tim 1:9). St. Augustine: “love God, and do what you will.” Christ: “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matt 11:28-30).
The sixth gift is fortitude. Fortitude is a firmness in hope of God’s promises leading to inexhaustible effort, particularly spreading and keeping the faith. The gift of fortitude is not to be confused with stubbornness and self-assurance. The gift of fortitude coexists with meekness, as when Christ prayed for His persecutors on the cross (Luke 23:34). Further, it is not to be confused with inexhaustible effort in secular activities like exercise, dieting, working, and so forth. Fortitude concerns itself with prayer, fasting, and serving others – things which glorify God, not oneself. St. Thomas More, about to be executed for refusing to reject Catholicism for the king: “I die the king’s good servant, but God’s first.” There is no venom in his words, no trace of self-exaltation; only a desire to serve the true King.
The seventh gift is fear of the Lord. Proverbs calls the fear of the Lord “the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 3:10). Fear of the Lord is a proper sense of proportion between us and God. We are finite, weak, disordered, foolish, and sinful; God is infinite, omnipotent, perfect, wise, and noble. If God ceased to think of us, we would cease to exist; God, on the other hand, requires nothing. By acknowledging how small and frail we are and how much we depend on God for everything, fear of the Lord gives us a hatred and terror of sin. It is the very opposite of worldly fear of the Lord, which sees God as an equal and an obstacle preventing mankind from defining for itself the meaning of marriage, when life begins and when it should end, how God should be worshiped, and so on.
The Fruits
According to the Holy See, the fruits of the Holy Spirit are: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity (Gal 5:22-23, Holy See). These are particular perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory.
Charity is God’s own unconditional love. To call one charitable means they always seek the good for the other, as God does. “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and angels, but do not have charity, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I prophesy, and understand all mysteries and knowledge, and if I have faith enough to move mountains, but do not have charity, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions and hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have charity, I gain nothing. Charity is patient; charity is kind; charity is not envious, boastful, arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
Second to charity is joy. Joy is a serene and stable happiness in doing God’s will which overshadows all earthly pleasure. Happiness – in the worldly sense – is merely “a moment before you need more happiness.” The man who seeks his own will is pulled in every direction and filled with anxieties and misery. Contrarily, Christ says, “if your eye is single, your whole body will be light” (Matt 6:22). He who innocently, humbly, and simply serves Christ rises above worldly desires and finds his delight in God, for God is neither limited nor unsatisfying as the things of the world are.
Third is peace. St. Augustine defines peace as “the tranquility of order” which comes from proper relationships. When a parent wisely exercises authority over their child and the child obeys, there is peace. God exercises His parentage over us with perfect wisdom; there can be no defect in Him. Thus, the more we become obedient children before Him, the more tranquil our relationship with reality becomes; the more we are at peace. Man is not designed to seek His own will, just as a child is not designed to disobey his parents. It is impossible to be at peace with the world and the flesh; they change by the hour. But Christ is the same, “yesterday, today, and forever” and is the highest end to which all things tend – “the Alpha and the Omega.” It is perfectly ordered to serve Him, and impossible to do so without finding peace.
Fourth is patience. None could better demonstrate patience than Christ, who submitted to unjust execution rather than calling on “twelve legions of angels” to deliver Him (Matt. 26:53). His crucifixion is the manifest image of God bearing our sins so that we might escape their bondage. The Lord pretends, in a way, not to see our sins, foregoing punishment to give us the chance to repent. As God stoops down to man and meets him where he is, so the Godly man stoops down to sinners who treat him unjustly, ever waiting and praying for their conversion.
Fifth is kindness. Kindness is treating all with goodness. Sometimes this means being harsh with those whom it would be easier to be nice to. Christ, seated at table with the high-class Pharisees, noticed they were all trying to get to the most coveted seats. Instead of turning a blind eye, He boldly laid the situation bare in front of everyone by telling a parable about social climbing (Luke 14:7-11). When Peter denied that He should suffer, He shouted “get behind me, Satan!” (Matt. 16:23). Other times, kindness means being nice to those whom we would be within our rights to be harsh with. The unclean woman who touched His garment, the adulterous woman at the well, Zacchaeus the tax collector, and many others were met by Christ without rebuke, but rather with tender mercy.
Sixth is goodness. This is an interior disposition toward blessing others. God lacks nothing; He had no need to satisfy in creating us. Creation and all of God’s gifts are purely for the benefit of the creature. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit gives one the same disposition, always seeking to give, like the poor woman who gave her last two coins for an offering (Mark 12:41-44).
Seventh is generosity. God gave us a model of generosity in Abel, who offered the best sheep in his flock to God. God is no longer pleased with animal sacrifice; our first fruits are our time, effort, and talents. “You are the light of the world. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:14-16). God demands the best that we can offer, so our generousness might lead others to Him.
Eighth is gentleness. This is the opposite of worldly abrasiveness and ambition. Gentleness is an ease of spirit which results from resting in Christ’s promises. This certainly does not preclude fiery preaching. This certainly does not preclude correcting others when they sin. John the Baptist did both of these things; but he did them with the attitude that “[Christ] must increase, and I must decrease” (John 3:30). It is this shrinking of self that characterizes gentleness.
Ninth is faithfulness. From the very moment Adam sinned, God’s plan for our salvation began to unfold. With unwavering constancy, God made covenant after covenant with humanity. Through all our unfaithfulness, through every chastisement, through every failure, God pressed on. After thousands of years of preparation, He incarnated, preached, and delivered Himself up to death. For 2,000 years He has guided His Church – through all our unfaithfulness, through every chastisement, through every failure. Christ came so that we would “no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of [the deceitful]” (Ephesians 4:14). Faithfulness is a share in God’s constancy manifested through disregard of our whims in favor of fidelity to His doctrine. Christ is the same, “yesterday, today, and forever.” To be like Him is to be constant.
Tenth is modesty. Modesty in women most often references dress, and in men most often references thought and word. Like Eve, women are often guilty of offering the “forbidden fruit”; like Adam, men are often guilty of taking it. Modesty does not just refer to being our brother’s keeper in taking reasonable precautions to avoid tempting anyone to lust; modesty also means fleeing ostentation, coarse language, unhealthy curiosity, unnecessary words and attention, and media which encourages these vices. Modesty is the high wall and guard tower which protects from vices of greed and impurity.
Eleventh is self-control. Christ says the road to Hell is broad (Matt. 7:13-14). Indeed it is broad – but it narrows as one travels down it. The word “vice” comes from the clamping tool which slowly gets tighter and tighter, after all. A man who has never smoked a cigarette is free from cigarettes. Yet, once he smokes, he wants another, and another, traveling further and further down an ever-narrowing road. Conversely, the road to Heaven is narrow – that is, following it requires strict adherence to a rule of life, to the commandments, and to penance. But that road grows ever broader. Self-control is an interior freedom in relationship to all passions, desires, and appetites. Truly, the freedom one would gain in having all the riches on earth could never equal the freedom of temperance.
Twelfth is chastity. Like self-control, chastity is a narrow path which broadens as one travels. What begins with discipline becomes the freedom to love without selfishness, whether in the married state or under religious vows. But chastity is not just related to the sexual faculties. Chastity is a shrinking away from any excessive fleshly satisfaction. God is a Passionless Passion, the model of this “virginity” towards all created things. He who has absolute power over all things permits our sins – what greater chastity is there than this? He who loves His creatures infinitely permits their damnation – what greater chastity is there than this? Though we ought to labor with great fervor for the souls of our neighbors, we, like God, must chastely accept if they choose to remain in their sins. We, like God, are not in the business of taking nor forcing; only chastely giving.
Conclusion
The Holy Spirit is God Himself. He is our Advocate, whom Christ sent to restore us to right relationship with God. As Adam dwelt in the garden in amity and familiarity with God, so he in whom the Spirit dwells can walk in true amity with the Lord. He is the new divine fire of the Temple, kept perpetually ablaze through the transmission of the faith and sacraments.
The Holy Spirit, being God, is concerned with one thing: making us into God. The Holy Spirit dwells in our soul as a hypostasis, strengthening the powers of the entitative habit of sanctifying grace. He does this through the gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. He develops in us the first fruits of eternal glory: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity.