“The wizard of Oz says look inside yourself and find yourself. God says look inside yourself and find the Holy Spirit. The first will get you to Kansas. The latter will get you to heaven. Take your pick.” ― Max Lucado
One of the biggest mysteries of the faith is the Holy Trinity. We believe in one God but three distinct Persons. It’s one of the first parts of our faith we learn when we are young and taught to make the Sign of the Cross. Oftentimes, we just dismiss the idea of understanding the Trinity because it’s just one of those “mysteries” of the Church that will never make sense.
Growing up I did this. I knew there was only one God so I just used the terms Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit interchangeably like it was no big deal. They all just mean God, don’t they? It wasn’t until I was talking to my friend one day and used Jesus interchangeably with the Holy Spirit and he questioned me that I stopped to think about the actual importance of each Person in the Blessed Trinity.
We know the first Person is God the Father, creator of the world. He is the one that created the universe. He is the one that created Adam and Eve. We read about God the Father in the Old Testament.
Then there is the second Person, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the easiest to comprehend because He had a human body like we do so we can visualize Him more so than the other two persons. He’s the Person that humbled Himself to join us on Earth through our pains and sufferings so that we might be able to join Him in Heaven one day. He is the one still present with us on Earth through the Eucharist. Each time at Mass, He once again humbles Himself to make His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity present to us through the Eucharist.
Finally, there is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is an important Person of the Trinity that I think many times gets overlooked. He gets overlooked because the Old Testament is about God the Father, the New Testament is about God the Son, so where do we find the stories of God the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit always existed. Since God is eternal, then that means God the Father has always existed, God the Son has always existed, and God the Holy Spirit has always existed. I think we forget that sometimes because we think of it as the futuristic gift promised to us by Christ in John 14:16-17 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.”
The first time the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the Bible is at the very beginning in Genesis. Genesis 1:26 states, “Then God said: “Let US make human beings in OUR image, after OUR likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth.” Why is the plural pronoun used in this verse? Because we are made in the image and likeness of all three persons of the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit has always existed and is mentioned throughout the Old and New Testaments. The Holy Spirit came in a special way 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead on Pentecost. We read about this special day in Acts 2:2-4 “And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.”
In this Bible verse, the Holy Spirit is described as tongues of fire. One image of God throughout scripture is the form of fire. This is shown multiple ways in the Old Testament such as when God approached Abraham as “a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch” in Genesis 15:17 and Moses as “fire flaming out of a bush” in Exodus 3:2. God led the Israelites out slavery with the “column of fire to give them light” in Exodus 13:21. With fire, it is a light. Just as light allows us to see, the spiritual light of fire allows us to see the deeper spiritual truths that visible light cannot show us. This is what makes the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of tongues as of fire so meaningful. The Holy Spirit is the light of God given to us as a guide. There were visible tongues of fire above the heads of the crowd that now gave them illumination to follow God’s path. We also receive this fire in the sacrament of confirmation when the Holy Spirit comes to us in a special way to lead us to have “a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross” (Catholic Catechism 1303).
Another effect of confirmation is that “it increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us” (Catholic Catechism 1303). These gifts of the Holy Spirit help us spread the Word of God in the unique way God designed us to do His will. During confirmation we receive the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord (Catholic Catechism 1831). There are also other gifts called charisms that we may receive from the Holy Spirit. There are more common and simple charisms like courage to spread the faith whereas others are more special and noticeable like the Apostles’ ability to speak in tongues. The Holy Spirit gives us certain charisms we need to help spread the word of God to others. Some of these gifts people have their whole life while others only come for a time and go away after that person no longer needs them. Some of these charisms include prophecy, tongues, wisdom, knowledge, discernment, faith, miracles, and healing.
I personally have felt the power of the gift of the Holy Spirit when giving a talk at a Catholic retreat. I am the worst public speaker there is. I’m terrified to talk to people, I talk so quietly, and I talk super fast out of nervousness so that not even I can keep up with the words coming out of my mouth. So it was a shock even to me when I decided to volunteer to give a talk in front of 100 college students about having faith in God. The crazy part was that during my talk it was not me who was talking but the Spirit speaking through me. I know it wasn’t me talking because for the first time ever giving a presentation, I did not rush a single word. I was amazed at how confident I sounded because it was the word of the Spirit being spoken through me. After my presentation
was over, my gift of the Spirit went away too and I went back to my normal not good at talking self. When we ask the Holy Spirit to help us spread the word of God, He does always come, quiet and unseen, ready to guide us through His workings.
The Holy Spirit was Jesus’ special gift to us that God He may be “with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). We are so blessed that God gave us the gift of His Spirit to guide us on our journey to holiness. St. Paul reminds us in 2 Timothy 1:14 that we are to “guard this rich trust with the help of the holy Spirit that dwells within us” and that “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you” in Romans 8:11. We have the Spirit of God dwelling within us through our faith in God and the reception of the sacraments. May we never forget to go to the Spirit in times of needing spiritual guidance. When we call on Him to guide us, He always is there as a light illuminating the path we should take to follow God’s path.
“Breathe into me, Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy.
Move in me, Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy.
Attract my heart, Holy Spirit, that I may love only what is holy.
Strengthen me, Holy Spirit, that I may defend all that is holy.
Protect me, Holy Spirit, that I may always be holy.” -Saint Augustine
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