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Venerable Brothers, Beloved Sons and Daughters, Health and Apostolic
Blessing!
The Church professes Her Faith in the Holy Spirit as "the
Lord, the giver of life". She professes this in the Creed which is called
Nicene-Constantinopolitan
from the name of the two Councils -- of Nicaea (A.D. 325)
and Constantinople (A.D.
381) -- at which it was formulated or promulgated. It also contains the
statement that the Holy Spirit "has spoken through the Prophets".
These are words which the Church receives from
the very source of her faith, Jesus Christ. In
fact, according to the Gospel of John, the Holy Spirit is given to us with
the new life, as Jesus foretells and promises on the great day of the Feast of
Tabernacles: "If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who
believes in me, as the scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow
rivers of living water'". [1] And the Evangelist explains: "This he said
about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive". [2] It
is the same simile of water which Jesus uses in his conversation with the
Samaritan woman, when he speaks of "a spring of water welling up to
eternal life", [3] and in his conversation with Nicodemus when he
speaks of the need for a new birth "of water and the Spirit" in order to
"enter the kingdom of God.". [4]
The Church, therefore, instructed by the words of Christ, and drawing
on the experience of Pentecost and her
own apostolic history, has proclaimed since the earliest centuries her
faith in the Holy Spirit, as the giver of life, the one in whom the
inscrutable Triune God communicates himself to human beings, constituting
in them the source of eternal life.
2. This faith, uninterruptedly professed by the Church, needs to be
constantly reawakened and deepened in the consciousness of the People of
God. In the course of the last hundred years this has been done several
times: by Leo XIII, who published the Encyclical Epistle Divinum Illud
Munus (1897) entirely devoted to the Holy Spirit; by Pius XII, who in
the Encyclical Letter Mystici Corporis (1943) spoke of the Holy
Spirit as the vital principle of the Church, in which he works in union
with the Head of the Mystical Body,
Christ; [5] at the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, which brought out
the need for a new study of the doctrine on the Holy Spirit, as Paul VI
emphasized: "The Christology and particularly the ecclesiology of the
Council must be succeeded by a new study of and devotion to the Holy
Spirit, precisely as the indispensable complement to the teaching of the
Council." [6]
In our own age, then, we are called anew by the ever ancient and ever
new faith of the Church, to draw near to the Holy Spirit as the giver of
life. In this we are helped and stimulated also by the heritage we share
with the Oriental
Churches, which have jealously guarded the extraordinary riches of the
teachings of the Fathers on the Holy Spirit. For this reason too we can
say that one of the most important ecclesial events of recent years has
been the Sixteenth Centenary of the First Council of Constantinople,
celebrated simultaneously in Constantinople and Rome on the Solemnity of
Pentecost in 1981. The Holy Spirit was then better seen, through a
meditation on the mystery of the Church, as the one who points out the
ways leading to the union of Christians, indeed as the supreme source of
this unity, which comes from God himself and to which Saint Paul gave a
particular expression in the words which are frequently used to begin the
Eucharistic liturgy: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of
God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all". [7]
In a certain sense, my previous Encyclicals Redemptor Hominis
and Dives in Misericordia took their origin and inspiration from
this exhortation, cerebrating as they do the event of our salvation
accomplished in the Son, sent by the Father into the world "that the world
might be saved through him" [8] and "every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father". [9] From this exhortation
now comes the present Encyclical on the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the
Father and the Son; with the Father and the Son he is adored and
glorified: a divine Person, he is at the centre of the Christian faith and
is the source and dynamic power of the Church's renewal. [10] The
Encyclical has been drawn from the heart of the heritage of the Council.
For the Conciliar texts, thanks to their teaching on the Church in herself
and the Church in the world, move us to penetrate ever deeper into the
Trinitarian mystery of God himself, through the Gospels, the Fathers and
the Iiturgy: to the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit.
In this way the Church is also responding to certain deep desires which
she believes she can discern in people's hearts today: a fresh discovery
of God in his transcendent reality as the infinite Spirit, just as Jesus
presents him to the Samaritan woman; the need to adore him "in spirit and
truth" [11] the hope of finding in him the secret of love and the power of
a "new creation": [12] yes, precisely the giver of life.
The Church feels herself called to this mission of proclaiming the
Spirit, while together with the human family she approaches the end ot the
second Millennium after Christ. Against the background of a heaven and
earth which will "pass away", she knows well that "the words which will
not pass away" [13] acquire a particular eloquence. They are the words of
Christ about the Holy Spirit, the inexhaustible source of the "water
welling up to eternal life", [14] as truth and saving grace. Upon these
words she wishes to reflect, to these words she wishes to call the
attention of believers and of all people, as she prepares to celebrate --
as will be said later on -- the great Jubilee which will mark the passage
from the second to the third Christian Millennium.
Naturally, the considerations that follow do not aim to explore
exhaustively the extremely rich doctrine on the Holy Spirit, nor to favor
any particular solution of questions which are still open. Their main
purpose is to develop in the Church the awareness that She is compelled by
the Holy Spirit to do her part towards the full realization of the will of
God, who has estab lished Christ as the source of salvation for the whole
world." [15]
1. Jesus' promise and revelation at the Last Supper
3. When the time for Jesus to leave this world had almost come, he told
the Apostles of "another Counsellor". [16] The evangelist John, who was
present, writes that, during the Last Supper before the day of his Passion
and Death, Jesus addressed the Apostles with these words: "Whatever you
ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son
. . . I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor, to
be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth". [17]
It is precisely this Spirit of truth whom Jesus calls the Paraclete --
and parakletos means "counselor", and also "intercessor", or
"advocate". And he says that the Paraclete is "another" Counselor, the
second one, since he, Jesus himself, is the first Counsellor, [18] being
the first bearer and giver of the Good News. The Holy Spirit comes after
him and because of him, in order to continue in the world, through the
Church, the work of the Good News of salvation. Concerning this
continuation of his own work by the Holy Spirit Jesus speaks more than
once during the same farewell discourse, preparing the Apostles gathered
in the Upper Room for his departure, namely for his Passion and Death on
the Cross.
The words to which we will make reference here are found in the Gospel
of John. Each one adds a new element to that prediction and promise. And
at the same time they are intimately interwoven, not only from the
viewpoint of the events themselves but also from the viewpoint of the
mystery of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which perhaps in no passage of
Sacred Scripture finds so emphatic an expression as here.
4. A little while after the prediction just mentioned, Jesus adds: "But
the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he
will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have
said to you". [19] The Holy Spirit will be the Counsellor of the Apostles
and the Church, always present in their midst even though invisible as the
teacher of the same Good News that Christ proclaimed. The words "he will
teach" and "bring to remembrance" mean not only that he, in his own
particular way, will continue to inspire the spreading of the Gospel of
salvation but also that he will help people to understand the correct
meaning of the content of Christ's message; they mean that he will ensure
continuity and identity of understanding in the midst of changing
conditions and circumstances. The Holy Spirit, then, will ensure that in
the Church there will always continue the same truth which the Apostles
heard from their Master.
5. In transmitting the Good News, the Apostles will be in a special way
associated with the Holy Spirit. This is how Jesus goes on: When the
Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit
of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me; and
you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning".
[20] The Apostles were the direct eyewitnesses. They have heard and have
seen with their own eyes", "have looked upon" and even touched with their
hands" Christ, as the evangelist John says in another passage. [21] This
human, first-hand and "historical" witness to Christ is linked to the
witness of the Holy Spirit: "He will bear witness to me". In the witness
of the Spirit of truth, the human testimony of the Apostles will find its
strongest support. And subsequently it will also find therein the hidden
foundation of its continuation among the generations of Christ's disciples
and believers who succeed one another down through the ages.
The supreme and most complete revelation of God to humanity is Jesus
Christ himself, and the witness of the Spirit inspires, guarantees and con
validates the faithful transmission of this revelation in the preaching
and writing of the Apostles," [22] while the witness of the Apostles
ensures its human expression in the Church and in the history of humanity.
6. This is also seen from the strict correlation of content and
intention with the just mentioned prediction and promise, a correlation
found in the next words of the text of John: "I have yet many things to
say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes,
he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own
authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you
the things that are to come" [23]
In his previous words Jesus presents the Counsellor, the Spirit of
truth, as the one who "will teach" and "bring to remembrance, as the one
who "will bear witness" to him. Now he says: "He will guide you into all
the truth". This "guiding into all the truth, referring to what the
Apostles "cannot bear now", is necessarily connected with Christ's
self-emptying through his Passion and Death on the Cross, which, when he
spoke these words, was just about to happen.
Later however it becomes clear that this "guiding into all the truth"
is connected not only with the scandal of the Cross, but also with
everything that Christ "did and taught". [24] For the mystery of Christ
taken as a whole demands faith, since it is faith that adequately
introduces man into the reality of the revealed mystery The "guiding into
all the truth" is therefore achieved in faith and through faith: and this
is the work of the Spirit of truth and the result of his action in man.
Here the Holy Spirit is to be man's supreme guide and the light of the
human spirit. This holds true for the Apostles, the eyewitnesses, who must
now bring to all people the proclamation of what Christ did and taught,
and especially the proclamation of his Cross and Resurrection. Taking a
longer view this also holds true for all the generations of disciples and
confessors of the Master, since they will have to accept with faith and
confess with candour the mystery of God at work in human history, the
revealed mystery which explains the definitive meaning of that history.
7. Between the Holy Spirit and Christ there thus subsists, in the
economy of salvation, an intimate bond, whereby the Spirit works in human
history as "another Counsellor", permanently ensuring the transmission and
spreading of the Good News revealed by Jesus of Nazareth. Thus, in the
Holy Spirit-Paraclete, who in the mystery and action of the Church
unceasingly continues the historical presence on earth of the Redeemer and
his saving work, the glory of Christ shines forth, as the following words
of John attest: "He (the Spirit of truth) will glorify me, for he will
take what is mine and declare it to you". [25] By these words all the
preceding statements are once again confirmed: "He will teach . . . , will
bring to your remembrance . . . , will bear witness. The supreme and
complete seIf-revelation of God, accomplished in Christ and witnessed to
by the preaching of the Apostles, continues to be manifested in the Church
through the mission of the invisible Counsellor, the Spirit of truth. How
intimately this mission is linked with the mission of Christ, how fully it
draws from this mission of Christ, consolidating and developing in history
its salvific results, is expressed by the verb "take": "he will take what
is mine and declare it to you". As if to explain the words "he will take"
by clearly expressing the divine and Trinitarian unity of the source,
Jesus adds: "All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he
will take what is mine and declare it to you". [26] By the very fact of
taking what is "mine", he will draw from "what is the Father's".
In the light of these words "he will take", one can therefore also
explain the other significant words about the Holy Spirit spoken by Jesus
in the Upper Room before the Passover: "It is to your advantage that I go
away, for if I do not go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if
I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes? he will convince the
world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment". [27] It will be
necessary to return to these words in a separate reflection.
8. It is a characteristic of the text of John that the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit are clearly called Persons, the first distinct from
the second and the third, and each of them from one another. Jesus speaks
of the SpiritCounsellor, using several times the personal pronoun "he";
and at the same time, throughout the farewell discourse, he reveals the
bonds which unite the Father, the Son and the Paraclete to one another.
Thus "the Holy Spirit . . . proceeds from the Father" [28] and the Father
"gives" the Spirit. [29] The Father "sends" the Spirit in the name of the
Son, [30] the Spirit "bears witness" to the Son. [31] The Son asks the
Father to send the Spirit-Counsellor, [32] but likewise affirms and
promises, in relation to his own "departure" through the Cross: "If I go,
I will send him to you". [33] Thus, the Father sends the Holy Spirit in
the power of his Fatherhood, as he has sent the Son; [34] but at the same
time he sends him in the power of the Redemption accomplished by Christ --
and in this sense the Holy Spirit is sent also by the Son: "I will send
him to you".
Here it should be noted that, while all the other promises made in the
Upper Room foretold the coming of the Holy Spirit after Christ's
departure, the one contained in the text of John 16:7ff also includes and
clearly emphasizes the relationship of interdependence which could be
called causal between the manifestation of each: "If I go, I will send him
to you". The Holy Spirit will come insofar as Christ will depart through
the Cross: he will come not only afterwards, but because of the Redemption
accomplished by Christ, through the will and action of the Father.
9. Thus in the farewell discourse at the Last Supper, we can say that
the highest point of the revelation of the Trinity is reached. At the same
time, we are on the threshold of definitive events and final words which
in the end will be translated into the great missionary mandate addressed
to the Apostles and through them to the Church: "Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations, a mandate which contains, in a certain sense,
the Trinitarian formula of baptism: "baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". [35] The formula reflects
the intimate mystery of God, of the divine life, which is the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit, the divine unity of the Trinity. The farewell
discourse can be read as a special preparation for this Trinitarian
formula, in which is expressed the life-giving power of the Sacrament
which brings about sharing in the life of the Triune God, for it gives
sanctifying grace as a supernatural gift to man. Through grace, man is
called and made "capable" of sharing in the inscrutable life of God.
10. In his intimate life, God "is love, [36] the essential love shared
by the three divine Persons: personal love is the Holy Spirit as the
Spirit of the Father and the Son. Therefore he "searches even the depths
of God", [37] as uncreated Love-Gift. It can be said that in the Holy
Spirit the intimate life of the Triune God becomes totally gift, an
exchange of mutual love between the divine Persons, and that through the
Holy Spirit God exists in the mode of gift. It is the Holy Spirit who is
the personal expression of this self-giving, of this being-love. [38] He
is Person-Love. He is Person-Gift. Here we have an inexhaustible treasure
of the reality and an inexpressible deepening of the concept of person in
God, which only divine Revelation makes known to us.
At the same time, 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-a-vis creatures
(created gift): the gift of existence to all things through creation; the
gift of grace to human beings through the whole economy of salvation. As
the Apostle Paul writes: "God's love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us". [39] The salvific
self-fiving of God in the Holy Spirit
11. Christ's farewell discourse at the Last Supper stands in particular
reference to this "giving" and "self-giving" of the Holy Spirit. In John's
Gospel we have as it were the revelation of the most profound "logic" of
the saving mystery contained in God's eternal plan, as an extension of the
ineffable communion of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the divine
"logic" which from the mystery of the Trinity leads to the mystery of the
Redemption of the world in Jesus Christ. The Redemption accomplished by
the Son in the dimensions of the earthly history of humanity --
accomplished in his "departure" through the Cross and Resurrection -- is
at the same time, in its entire salvific power, transmitted to the Holy
Spirit: the one who "will take what is mine". [40] The words of the text
of John indicate that, 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.
12. It is a new beginning in relation to the first, original beginning
of God's salvific self-giving, which is identified with the mystery of
creation itself. Here is what we read in the very first words of the Book
of Genesis: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth . . .
, and the Spirit of God (ruah Elohim) was moving over the face of the
waters". [41] This biblical concept of creation includes not only the call
to existence of the very being of the cosmos, that is to say the giving of
existence, but also the presence of the Spirit of God in creation, that is
to say the beginning of God's salvific self-communication to the things he
creates. This is true first of all concerning man, who has been created in
the image and likeness of God: "Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness". [42] "Let us make": can one hold that the plural which the
Creator uses here in speaking of himself already in some way suggests the
Trinitarian mystery, the presence of the Trinity in the work of the
creation of man? The Christian reader, who already knows the revelation of
this mystery, can discern a reflection of it also in these words. At any
rate, the context of the Book of Genesis enables us to see in the creation
of man the first beginning of God's salvific self-giving commensurate with
the "image and likeness" of himself which he has granted to man.
13. It seems then that even the words spoken by Jesus in the farewell
discourse should be read again in the light of that "beginning", so long
ago yet fundamental, which we know from Genesis. "If I do not go away, the
Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you".
Describing his "departure" as a condition for the "coming" of the
Counsellor, Christ links the new beginning of God's salvific
self-communication in the Holy Spirit with the mystery of the Redemption.
It is a new beginning, first of all because between the first beginning
and the whole of human history -- from the original fall onwards -- sin
has intervened, sin which is in contradiction to the presence of the
Spirit of God in creation, and which is above all in contradiction to
God's salvific self-communication to man. Saint Paul writes that,
precisely because of sin, "creation . . . was subjected to futility . . .
, has been groaning in travail together until now" and "waits with eager
longing for the revealing of the sons of God". [43]
14. Therefore Jesus Christ says in the Upper Room: "It is to your
advantage I go away; . . . if I go, I will send him to you". [44] The
"departure" of Christ through the Cross has the power of the Redemption --
and this also means a new presence of the Spirit of God in creation: the
new beginning of God's self-communication to man in the Holy Spirit. "And
that you are children is proven by the fact that God has sent into our
hearts the Spirit of his Son who cries: Abba, Father!"_ as the Apostle
Paul writes in the Letter to the Galatians. [45] The Holy Spirit is the
Spirit of the Father, as the words of the farewell discourse in the Upper
Room bear witness. At the same time he is the Spirit of the Son: he is the
Spirit of Jesus Christ, as the Apostles and particularly Paul of Tarsus
will testify. [46] With the sending of this Spirit "into our hearts",
there begins the fulfillment of that for which "creation waits with eager
longing", as we read in the Letter to the Romans.
The Holy Spirit comes at the price of Christ's "departure". While this
" departure" caused the Apostles to be sorrowful, [47] and this sorrow was
to reach its culmination in the Passion and Death on Good Friday, "this
sorrow will turn into joy," [48] For Christ will add to this redemptive
"departure" the glory of his Resurrection and Ascension to the Father.
Thus the sorrow with its underlying joy is, for the ApostIes in the
context of their Master's "departuren, an "advantageous" departure, for
thanks to it another "Counsellor" will come. [49] At the price of the
Cross which brings about the Redemption, in the power of the whole Paschal
mystery of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes in order to remain from the
day of Pentecost onwards with the Apostles, to remain with the Church and
in the Church, and through her in the world.
In this way there is definitively brought about that new beginning of
the self-communication of the Triune God in the Holy Spirit through the
work of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of man and of the world.
15. There is also accomplished in its entirety the mission of the
Messiah, that is to say of the One who has received the fullness of the
Holy Spirit for the Chosen People of God and for the whole of humanity.
"Messiah" literally means "Christ", that is, "Anointed One", and in the
history of salvation it means "the one anointed with the Holy Spirit".
This was the prophetic tradition of the Old Testament. Following this
tradition, Simon Peter will say in the house of Cornelius: "You must have
heard about the recent happenings in Judaea . . . after the baptism which
John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and
with power" [50].
From these words of Peter and from many similar ones, [51] one must
first go back to the prophecy of Isaiah, sometimes called "the Fifth
Gospel" or "the Gospel of the Old Testament".
Alluding to the coming of a mysterious personage which the New
Testament revelation will identify with Jesus, Isaiah connects his person
and mission with a particular action of the Spirit of God -- the Spirit of
the Lord. These are the words of the Prophet: "There shall come forth a
shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge
and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be tke fear of the Lord".
[52]
This text is important for the whole pneumatology of the Old Testament,
because it constitutes a kind of bridge between the ancient biblical
concept of "spirit", understood primarily as a "charismatic breath of
wind", and the "Spirit" as a person and as a gift, a gift for the person.
The Messiah of the lineage of David ("from the stump of Jesse") is
precisely that person upon whom the Spirit of the Lord "shall rest" It is
obvious that in this case one cannot yet speak of a revelation of the
Paraclete. However, with this veiled reference to the figure of the future
Messiah there begins, so to speak, the path towards the full revelation of
the Holy Spirit in the unity of the Trinitarian mystery, a mystery which
will finally be manifested in the New Covenant.
16. It is precisely the Messiah himself who is this path. In the Old
Covenant, anointing had become the external symbol of the gift of the
Spirit. The Messiah (more than any other anointed personage in the Old
Covenant) is that single great personage anointed by God himselt. He is
the Anointed One in the sense that he possesses the fullness of the Spirit
of God. He himself will also be the mediator in granting this Spirit to
the whole People. Here in fact are other words of the Prophet: "The Spirit
of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anoinfed me to bring good
tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those
who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour". [53]
The Anointed One is also sent "with the Spirit of the Lord": "Now the
Lord God has sent me and his Spirit". [54]
According to the Book of Isaiah, the Anointed One and the One sent
together with the Spirit of the Lord is also the chosen Servant ot the
Lord upon whom the Spirit of God comes down: "Behold my servant, whom I
uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon
him". [55]
We know that the Servant of the Lord is revealed in the Book of Isaiah
as the true Man of Sorrows: the Messiah who suffers for the sins of the
world. [56] And at the same time it is precisely he whose mission will
bear for all humanity the true fruits of salvation: "He will bring forth
justice to the nations . . . "; [57] and he will become "a covenant to the
people, a light to the nations . . . "; [58] "that my salvation may reach
to the end of the earth" [59]
For: "My spirit which is upon you, and my words which I have put in
your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of
your children's children, says the Lord, from this time forth and for
evermore." [60]
The prophetic texts quoted here are to be read in the light of the
Gospel -- just as, in its turn, the New Testament draws a particular
clarification from the marvellous light contained in these Old Testament
texts. The Prophet presents the Messiah as the one who comes in the Holy
Spirit, the one who possesses the fullness of this Spirit in himself and
at the same time for others, for Israel, for all the nations, for all
humanity. The fullness of the Spirit of God is accompanied by many
different gifts, the treasures of salvation, destined in a particular way
for the poor and suffering, for all those who open their hearts to these
gifts sometimes through the painful experience of their own existence --
but first of all through that interior availability which comes from
faith. The aged Simeon, the "righteous and devout man" upon whom "rested
the Holy Spirit", sensed this at the moment of Jesus' presentation in the
Temple, when he perceived in him the "salvation . . . prepared in the
presence of all peoples" at the price of the great suffering -- the Cross
-- which he would have to embrace together with his Mother. [61] The
Virgin Mary, who "had conceived by the Holy Spirit", [62] sensed this even
more clearly, when she pondered in her heart the "mysteries" of the
Messiah, with whom she was associated. [63]
17. Here it must be emphasized that clearly the "spirit of the Lord"
who rests upon the future Messiah is above all a gift of God tor the
person of that Servant of the Lord. But the latter is not an isolated and
independent person, because he acts in accordance with the will of the
Lord, by virtue of the Lord's decision or choice. Even though in the light
of the texts of Isaiah the salvific work of the Messiah, the Servant of
the Lord, incIudes the action of the Spirit which is carried out through
himself, nevertheless in the Old Testament context there is no suggestion
of a distinction of subjects, or of the Divine Persons as they subsist in
the mystery of the Trinity, and as they are later reveaIed in the New
Testament. Both in Isaiah and in the whole of the Old Testament the
personality of the Holy Spirit is completely hidden: in the revelation of
the one God, as also in the foretelling of the future Messiah.
18. Jesus Christ will make reference to this prediction contained in
the words of Isaiah at the beginning of his messianic activity. This will
happen in the same Nazareth where he had lived for thirty years in the
house of Joseph the carpenter, with Mary, his Virgin Mother. When he had
occasion to speak in the Synagogue, he opened the Book of Isaiah and found
the passage where it was written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me"; and having read this passage he said to those
present: "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing". [64]
In this way he confessed and proclaimed that he was the Messiah, the one
in whom the Holy Spirit dwells as the gift of God himself, the one who
possesses the fullness of this Spirit, the one who marks the "new
beginning" of the gift which God makes to humanity in the Spirit.
19. Even though in his home-town of Nazareth Jesus is not accepted as
the Messiah, nonetheless, at the beginning of his public activity, his
messianic mission in the Holy Spirit is revealed to the people by John the
Baptist. The latter, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, foretells at the
Jordan the coming of the Messiah and administers the baptism of
repentance. He says: "I baptize you with water; he who is mightier than I
is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will
baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire". [65]
John the Baptist foretells the Messiah-Christ not only as the one who
"is coming" in the Holy Spirit but also as the one who "brings" the Holy
Spirit, as Jesus will reveal more clearly in the Upper Room. Here John
faithfully echoes the words of Isaiah, words which in the ancient Prophet
concerned the future, while in John's teaching on the banks of the Jordan
they are the immediate introduction to the new messianic reality. John is
not only a prophet but also a messenger: he is the precursor of Christ.
What he foretells is accomplished before the eyes of all. Jesus of
Nazareth too comes to the Jordan to receive the baptism of repentance. At
the sight of him arriving, John proclaims: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who
takes away the sin of the world". [66] He says this through the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, [67] bearing witness to the fulfilment of
the prophecy of Isaiah. At the same time he confesses his faith in the
redeeming mission of Jesus of Nazareth. On the lips of John the Baptist,
"Lamb of God" is an expression of truth about the Redeemer no less
significant than the one used by Isaiah: "Servant of the Lord".
Thus, by the testimony of John at the Jordan, Jesus of Nazareth,
rejected by his own fellowcitizens, is exalted before the eyes of Israel
as the Messiah, that is to say the "One Anointed" with the Holy Spirit.
And this testimony is corroborated by another testimony of a higher order,
mentioned by the three Synoptics. For when all the people were baptized
and as Jesus, having received baptism, was praying, "the heaven was
opened, and the Holy Spirit decended upon him in bodily form, as a dove"
[68] and at the same time "a voice from heaven said 'This is my beloved
Son, with whom I am well pleased'". [69]
This is a Trinitarian theophany which bears witness to the exaltation
of Christ on the occasion of his baptism in the Jordan. It not only
confirms the testimony of John the Baptist but also reveals another more
profound dimension of the truth about Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah. It is
this: the Messiah is the beloved Son of the Father. His solemn exaltation
cannot be reduced to the messianic mission of the "Servant of the Lord".
In the light of the theophany at the Jordan, this exaltation touches the
mystery of the very person of the Messiah. He has been raised up because
he is the beloved Son in whom God is well pleased. The voice from on high
says: "my Son".
20. The theophany at the Jordan clarifies only in a fleeting way the
mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, whose entire activity will be carried out in
the active presence of the Holy Spirit. [70] This mystery would be
gradually revealed and confirmed by Jesus himself by means of everything
that he "did and taught". [71] In the course of this teaching and of the
messianic signs which Jesus performed before he came to the farewell
discourse in the Upper Room, we find events and words which constitute
particularly irnportant stages of this progressive revelation. Thus the
evangelist Luke, who has already presented Jesus as "full of the Holy
Spirit" and "led by the Spirit . . . in the wilderness", [72] tells us
that, after the return of the seventy-two disciples from the mission
entrusted to them by the Master, [73] while they were joyfully recounting
the fruits of their labours, "in that same hour (Jesus) rejoiced in the
Holy Spirit and said: 'I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that
you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed
them to babes; yea, Father for such was your gracious will". [74] Jesus
rejoices at the fatherhood of God: he rejoices because it has been given
to him to reveal this fatherhood; he rejoices, finally, as at a particular
outpouring of this divine fatherhood on the "little ones". And the
evangelist describes all this as "rejoicing in the Holy Spirit".
This "rejoicing" in a certain sense prompts Jesus to say still more. We
hear: "All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows
who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and
any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him". [75]
21. That which during the theophany at the Jordan came so to speak
"from outside", from on high, here comes "from within", that is to say
from the depths of who Jesus is. It is another revelation of the Father
and the Son, united in the Holy Spirit. Jesus speaks only of the
fatherhood of God and of his own sonship he does not speak directly of the
Spirit who is Love and thereby the union of the Father and the Son.
Nonetheless what he says of the Father and of himself-the Son flows from
that fullness of the Spirit which is in him, which fills his heart,
pervades his own "I ", inspires and enlivens his action from the depths.
Hence that "rejoicing in the Holy Spirit". The union of Christ with the
Holy Spirit, a union of which he is perfectly aware, is expressed in that
"rejoicing", which in a certain way renders "perceptible" its hidden
source. Thus there is a particular manifestation and rejoicing which is
proper to the Son of Man, the Christ-Messiah, whose humanity belongs to
the person of the Son of God, substantially one with the Holy Spirit in
divinity.
In the magnificent confession of the fatherhood of God, Jesus of
Nazareth also manifests himself, his divine "I": for he is the Son "of the
same substance", and therefore "no one knows who the Son is except the
Father, or who the Father is except the Son", that Son who "for us and for
our salvation" became man by the power of the Holy Spirit and was born of
a virgin whose name was Mary.
22. It is thanks to Luke's narrative that we are brought closest to the
truth contained in the discourse in the Upper Room. Jesus of Nazareth,
"raised up" in the Holy Spirit, during this discourse and conversation
presents himself as the one who "brings" the Spirit, as the one who is to
bring him and "give" him to the Apostles and to the Church at the price of
this own "departure" through the Cross.
The verb "bring" is here used to mean first of all "reveal". In the Old
Testament, from the Book of Genesis onwards, the Spirit of God was in some
way made known, in the first place as a "breath" of God which gives life,
as a supernatural "living breath". In the Book of Isaiah, he is presented
as a "gift" for the person of the Messiah, as the one who comes down and
rests upon him, in order to guide from within all the salvific activity of
the "Anointed One". At the Jordan, Isaiah's proclamation is given a
concrete form: Jesus of Nazareth is the one who comes in the Holy Spirit
and who brings the Spirit as the gift proper to his own Person, in order
to distribute that gift by means of this humanity "He will baptize you
with the Holy Spirit". [76] In the Gospel of Luke, this revelation of the
Holy Spirit is confirmed and added to, as the intimate source of the life
and messianic activity of Jesus Christ.
In the light of what Jesus says in the farewell discourse in the Upper
Room, the Holy Spirit is revealed in a new and fuller way. He is not only
the gift to the person (the person of the Messiah), but is a Person-gift.
Jesus foretells his coming as that of "another Counsellor" who, being the
Spirit of truth, will lead the Apostles and the Church "into all the
truth". [77] This will be accomplished by reason of the particular
communion between the Holy Spirit and Christ: "He will take what is mine
and declare it to you". [78] This communion has its original source in the
Father: "All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will
take what is mine and declare it to you". [79] Coming from the Father the
Holy Spirit is sent by the Father. [80] The Holy Spirit is first sent as a
gift for the Son who was made man, in order to fulfill the messianic
prophecies. After the "departure" of Christ the Son, the Johannine text
says that the Holy Spirit "will come" directly (it is his new mission), to
complete the work of the Son. Thus it will be he who brings to fulfilment
the new era of the history of salvation.
23. We find ourselves on the threshold of the Paschal events. The new,
definitive revelation of the Holy Spirit as a Person Who is the gift is
accomplished at this precise moment. The Paschal events -- the Passion,
Death and Resurrection of Christ -- are also the time of the new coming of
the Holy Spirit, as the Paraclete and the Spirit of truth. They are the
time of the "new beginning" of the self-communication of the Triune God to
humanity in the Holy Spirit through the work of Christ the Redeemer. This
new beginning is the Redemption of the world: "God so loved the world that
he gave his only Son". [81] Already the "giving" of the Son, the gift of
the Son, expresses the most profound essence of God who, as Love, is the
inexhaustible source of the giving of gifts. The gift made by the Son
completes the revelation and giving of the eternal love: the Holy Spirit,
who in the inscrutable depths of the divinity is a Person-gift, through
the work of the Son, that is to say by means of the Paschal mystery, is
given to the Apostles and to the Church in a new way, and through them is
given to humanity and the whole world.
24. The definitive expression of this mystery is had on the day of the
Resurrection. On this day Jesus of Nazareth, "descended from David
according to the flesh", as the Apostle Paul writes, is "designated Son of
God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from
the dead". [82] It can be said therefore that the messianic "raising up"
of Christ in the Holy Spirit reaches its zenith in the Resurrection, in
which he reveals himself also as the Son of God, "full of power". And this
power, the sources Of which gush forth in the inscrutable Trinitarian
communion, is manifested, first of all, in the fact that the Risen Christ
does two things: on the one hand he fulfills God's promise already
expressed through the Prophet's words "A new heart I will give you, and a
new spirit I will put within you, . . . my spirit"; [83] and on the other
hand he fulfills his own promise made to the Apostles with the words "If I
go, I will send him to you". [84] It is he: the Spirit of truth, the
Paraclete sent by the Risen Christ to transform us into his own risen
image. [85]
"On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being
shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood
among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you'. When he had said this,
he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when
they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you. As the
Father has sent me, even so I send you'. And when he had said this, he
breathed on them, and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit'". [86]
All the details of this key-text of John's Gospel have their own
eloquence, especially if we read them in reference to the words spoken in
the same Upper Room at the beginning of the Paschal events. And now these
events -- the Triduum Sacrum of Jesus whom the Father consecrated with the
anointing and sent into the world -- reach their fulfilment. Christ, who
"gave up his spirit" on the Cross [87] as the Son of Man and the Lamb of
God, once risen goes to the Apostles "to breathe on them" with that power
spoken of in the Letter to the Romans. [88] The Lord's coming fills those
present with joy: "Your sorrow will turn into joy", [89] as he had already
promised them before his Passion. And above all there is fulfilled the
principal prediction of the farewell discourse: the Risen Christ, as it
were beginning a new creation, "brings" to the Apostles the Holy Spirit.
He brings him at the price of his own "departure": he gives them this
Spirit as it were through the wounds of his crucifixion: "He showed them
his hands and his side". It is in the power of this crucifixion that he
says to them: "Receive the Holy Spirit".
Thus there is established a close link between the sending of the Son
and the sending of Holy Spirit. There is no sending of the Holy Spirit
(after original sin) without the Cross and the Resurrection: "If I do not
go away, the Counsellor will not come to you". [90] There is also
established a close link between the mission of the Holy Spirit and that
of the Son in the Redemption. The mission of the Son, in a certain sense,
finds its " fulfilment" in the Redemption. The mission of the Holy Spirit
"draws from" the Redemption: "He will take what is mine and declare it to
you". [91] The Redemption is totally carried out by the Son as the
Anointed One, who came and acted in the power of the Holy Spirit, offering
himself finally in sacrifice on the wood of the Cross. And this Redemption
is, at the same time, constantly carried out in human hearts and minds --
in the history of the world -- by the Holy Spirit, who is the "other
Counsellor".
25. "Having accomplished the work that the Father had entrusted to the
Son on earth (cf. Jn 17:4), on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was
sent to sanctify the Cburch for ever, so that believers might have access
to the Father through Christ in one Spirit (cf. Eph 2:18). He is the
Spirit of life, the fountain of water springing up to eternal life (cf. Jn
4:14; 7:38ff), the One through whom the Father restores life to those who
are dead through sin, until one day he will raise in Christ their mortal
bodies (cf. Rom 8: 10 f)". [92]
In this way the Second Vatican Council speaks of the Church's birth on
the day of Pentecost. This event constitutes the definitive manifestation
of what had already been accomplished in the same Upper Room on Easter
Sunday. The Risen Christ came and "brought" to the Apostles the Holy
Spirit. He gave him to them, saying "Receive the Holy Spirit". What had
then taken place inside the Upper Room, "the doors being shut", later, on
the day of Pentecost is manifested also outside, in public. The doors of
the Upper Room are opened and the Apostles go to the inhabitants and the
piIgrims who had gathered in Jerusalem on the occasion of the feast, in
order to bear witness to Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. In this
way the prediction is fulfilled: "He will bear witness to me: and you also
are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning". [93]
We read in another document of the Second Vatican Council: "Doubtless,
the Holy Spirit was already at work in the world before Christ was
glorified. Yet on the day of Pentecost, he carne down upon the disciples
to remain with them for ever. On that day the Church was publicly revealed
to the multitude, and the Gospel began to spread among the nations by
means of preaching ". [94]
The era of the Church began with the "coming", that is to say with the
descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles gathered in the Upper Room in
Jerusalem, together with Mary, the Lord's Mother. [95] The time of the
Church began at the moment when the promises and predictions that so
explicitly referred to the Counsellor, the Spirit of truth, began to be
fulfilled in complete power and clarity upon the Apostles, thus
deterrnining the birth of the Church. The Acts of the Apostles speak of
this at length and in many passages, which state that in the rnind of the
first community, whose convictions Luke expresses, the Holy Spirit assumed
the invisible -- but in a certain way "perceptible" -- guidance of those
who after the departure of the Lord Jesus felt profoundly that they had
been left orphans. With the coming of the Spirit they felt capable of
fulfilling the mission entrusted to them. They felt full of strength. It
is precisely this that the Holy Spirit worked in them, and this is
continuaIly at work in the Church, through their successors. For the grace
of the Holy Spirit which the Apostles gave to their collaborators through
the imposition of hands continues to be transmitted in Episcopal
Ordination. The bishops in turn by the Sacrament of Orders render the
sacred ministers sharers in this spiritual gift and, through the Sacrament
of Confirmation, ensure that all who are reborn of water and the Holy
Spirit are strengthened by this gift. And thus, in a certain way, the
grace of Pentecost is perpetuated in the Church.
As the Council writes, "the Spirit dwells in the Church and in the
hearts of the faithful as in a temple (cf. 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19). In them he
prays and bears witness to the fact that they are adopted sons (cf. Gal
4:6, Rom 8:15-16.26) The Spirit guides the Church into the fullness of
truth (cf. Jn 16:13) and gives her a unity of fellowship and service. He
furnishes and directs her with various gifts, both hierarchical and
charismatic, and adorns her with the fruits ol his grace (cf. Eph 4:11-12;
1 Cor 12:4; Gal 5: 22). By the power of the Gospel he makes the Church
grow, perpetually renews her, and leads her to perfect union with her
Spouse". [96]
26. These passages quoted from the Conciliar Constitution Lumen Gentium
tell us that the era of the Church began with the coming of the Holy
Spirit. They also tell us that this era, the era of tbe Church, continues.
It continues down the centuries and generations. In our own century, when
humanity is already close to the end of the second Millennium after
Christ, this era of the Church expressed itself in a special way through
the Second Vatican Council, as the Council of our century. For we know
that it was in a special way an "ecclesiological" Council: a Council on
the theme of the Church. At the same time, the teaching of this Council is
essentially "pneumatological": it is permeated by the truth about the Holy
Spirit, as the soul of the Church. We can say that in its rich variety of
teaching the Second Vatican Council contains precisely all that "the
Spirit says to the Churches" [97] with regard to the present phase of the
history of salvation.
Following the guidance of the Spirit of truth and bearing witness
together with hirn, the Council has given a special confirmation of the
presence of the Holy Spirit -- the Counsellor. In a certain sense, the
Council has made the Spirit newly "present" in our difficult age. In the
light of this conviction one grasps more clearly the great importance of
all the initiatives aimed at implementing the Second Vatican Council, its
teaching and its pastoral and ecumenical thrust. In this sense also the
subsequent Assemblies of the Synod of Bishops are to be carefully studied
and evaluated, aiming as they do to ensure that the fruits of truth and
love -- the authentic fruits of the Holy Spirit -- become a lasting
treasure for the People of God in its earthly pilgrimage down the
centuries. This work being done by the Church for the testing and bringing
together of the salvific fruits of the Spirit bestowed in the Council is
something indispensable. For this purpose one must learn how to "discern"
them carefully from everything that may instead come originally from the "
prince of this world". [98] This discernment in implementing the Council's
work is especially necessary in view of the fact that the Council opened
itself widely to the contemporary world, as is clearly seen from the
important Conciliar Constitutions Gaudium et Spes and Lumen Gentium.
We read in the Pastoral Constitution: "For theirs (i.e. of the
disciples of Christ) is a community composed of men. United in Christ,
they are led by the Holy Spirit in their journey to the kingdom of their
Father and they have welcomed the news of salvation which is meant for
every man. That is why this community realizes that is is truly and
intimately linked with mankind and its history". [99] "The Church truly
knows that only God, whom she serves, meets the deepest longings of the
human heart, which is never fully satisfied by what the world has to
offer". [100] "God's Spirit . . . with a marvellous providence directs the
unfolding of time and renews the face of the earth". [101]
27. When Jesus during the discourse in the Upper Room foretells the
coming of the Holy Spirit "at the price of" his own departure, and
promises "I will send him to you", in the very same context he adds "And
when he comes, he will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness
and judgment". [102] The same Counselor and Spirit of truth who has been
promised as the one who "will teach" and "bring to remembrance", who "will
bear witness", and "guide into all the truth", in the words just quoted is
foretold as the one who "will convince the world concerning sin and
righteousness and judgment."
The context too seems significant. Jesus links this foretelling of the
Holy Spirit to the words indicating his "departure" through the Cross, and
indeed emphasizes the need for this departure: "It is to your advantage
that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counsellor will not come to
you". [103]
But what counts more is the explanation that Jesus himself adds to
these three words: sin, righteousness, judgment. For he says this: "He
will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:
concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning
righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more;
concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged". [104] In
the mind of Jesus, sin righteousness and judgment have e very precise
meaning, different from the meaning that one might be inclined to
attribute to these words independently of the speaker's explanation. This
explanation also indicates how one is to understand the "convincing the
world" which is proper to the action of the Holy Spirit. Both the meaning
of the individual words and the fact that Jesus linked them together in
the same phrase are important here.
"Sin", in this passage, means the incredulity that Jesus encountered
among "his own", beginning with the people of his own town of Nazareth.
Sin means the rejection of his mission, a rejection that will cause people
to condemn him to death. When he speaks next of "righteousness", Jesus
seems to have in mind that definitive justice, which the Father will
restore to him when he grants him the glory of the Resurrection and
Ascension into heaven: "I go to the Father". In its turn, and in the
context of "sin" and a righteousness" thus understood, "judgment" means
that the Spirit of truth will show the guilt of the "world" in condemning
Jesus to death on the Cross. Nevertheless, Christ did not come into the
world only to judge it and condemn it: he came to save it. [105]
Convincing about sin and righteousness has as its purpose the salvation of
the world, the salvation of men. Precisely this truth seems to be
emphasized by the assertion that "judgment" concerns only the "prince of
this world", Satan, the one who from the beginning has been exploiting the
work of creation against salvation, against the covenant and the union of
man with God: he is "already judged" from the start. If the
Spirit-Counsellor is to convince the world precisely concerning judgment,
it is in order to continue in the world the salvific work of Christ.
28. Here we wish to concentrate our attention principally on this
mission of the Holy Spirit, which is "to convince the world concerning
sin", but at the same time respecting the general context of Jesus' words
in the Upper Room. The Holy Spirit, who takes from the Son the work of the
Redemption of the world, by this very fact takes the task of the salvific
"convincing of Sin". This convincing is in permanent reference to
"righteousness": that is to say to definitive salvation in God, to the
fulfillment of the economy that has as its centre the crucified and
glorified Christ. And this salvific economy of God in a certain sense
removes man from "judgment", that is from the damnation which has been
inflicted on the sin of Satan, "the prince of this world", the one who
because of his sin has become "the ruler of this world of darkness". [106]
And here we see that, through this reference to "judgment", vast horizons
open up for understanding "sin" and also "righteousness". The Holy Spirit,
by showing sin against the background of Christ's Cross in the economy of
salvation (one could say "sin saved"), enables us to understand how his
mission is also "to convince" of the sin that has already been
definitively judged ("sin condemned").
29. All the words uttered by the Redeemer in the Upper Room on the eve
of his Passion become part of the era of the Church: first of all, the
words about the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete and Spirit of truth. These
words become part of it in an ever new way, in every generation, in every
age. This is confirmed, as far as our own age is concerned, by the
teaching of the Second Vatican Council as a whole, and especially in the
Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes. Many passages of this document
indicate clearly that the Council, by opening itself to the light of the
Spirit of truth, is seen to be the authentic depositary of the predictions
and promises made by Christ to the Apostles and to the Church in the
farewell discourse: in a particular way as the depositary of the
predictions that the Holy Spirit would "convince the world concerning sin
and righteousness and judgment".
This is already indicated by the text in which the Council explains bow
it understands the "world": "The Council focuses its attention on the
world of men, the whole human family along with the sum of those realities
in the midst of which that family lives. It gazes upon the world which is
the theatre of man's history, and carries the marks of his energies, his
tragedies, and his triumphs; that world which the Christian sees as
created and sustained by its Maker's love, fallen indeed into the bondage
of sin, yet emancipated now by Christ. He was crucified and rose again to
break the stranglehold of personified Evil, so that this world might be
fashioned anew according to God's design and reach its fulfillment". [107]
This very rich text needs to be read in conjunction with the other
passages in the Constitution that seek to show with all the realism of
faith the situation of sin in the contemporary world and that also seek to
explain its essence, beginning from different points of view. [108]
When on the eve of the Passover Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as the
one who "will convince the world concerning sin", on the one hand this
statement must be given the widest possible meaning, insofar as it
includes all the sin in the history of humanity. But on the other hand,
when Jesus explains that this sin consists in the fact that a they do not
believe in him ", this meaning seems to apply only to those who rejected
the messianic mission of the Son of Man and condemned him to death on the
Cross. But one can hardly fail to notice that this more "limited" and
historically specified meaning of sin expands, until it assumes a
universal dimension by reason of the universality of the Redemption,
accomplished through the Cross. The revelation of the mystery of the
Redemption opens the way to an understanding in which every sin wherever
and whenever committed has a reference to the Cross of Christ -- and
therefore indirectly also to the sin of those who "have not believed in
him", and who condemned Jesus Christ to death on the Cross.
From this point of view we must return to the event of Pentecost.
30. Christ's prophecies in the farewell discourse found their most
exact and direct confirmation on the day of Pentecost, in particular the
prediction which we are dealing with: "The Counsellor . . . will convince
the world oncerning Sin. On that day, the promised Holy Spirit came down
upon the Apostles gathered in prayer together with Mary the Mother of
Jesus, in the same Upper Room, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles:
"And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other
tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance", [109] "thus bringing back to
unity the scattered races and offering to the Father the first-fruits of
all the nations". [110]
The connection between Christ's prediction and this event is clear. We
perceive here the first and fundamental fulfillment of the promise of the
Paraclete. He comes, sent by the Father, "after" the departure of
Christ,at the price of" that departure. This is first a departure through
the Cross, and later, forty days after the Resurrection, through his
Ascension into heaven. Once more, at the moment of the Ascension, Jesus
orders the Apostles "not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the
promise of the Fathers; "but before many days you shall be baptized with
the Holy Spirit"; "but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you; and you shall be witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judaea
and Samaria and to the end of the earth". [111]
These last words contain an echo or reminder of the prediction made in
the Upper Room. And on the day of Pentecost this prediction is fulfilled
with total accuracy. Acting under the influence of the Holy Spirit, who
had been received by the Apostles while they were praying in the Upper
Room, Peter comes forwards and speaks before a multitude of people of
different languages, gathered for the feast. He proclaims what he
certainly would not have had the courage to say before: "Men of Israel, .
. . Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and
wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst . . . this
Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of
God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. But God raised
him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for
him to be held by it". [112]
Jesus had foretold and promised: "He will bear witness to me, . . . and
you also are my witnesses". In the first discourse of Peter in Jerusalem
this "witness" finds its clear beginning: it is the witness to Christ
crucified and risen. The witness of the Spirit-Paraclete and of the
Apostles. And in the very content of that first witness, the Spirit of
truth, through the lips of Peter, "convinces the world concerning sin":
first of all, concerning the sin which is the rejection of Christ even to
his condemnation to death, to death on the Cross on Golgotha. Similar
prodamations will be repeated, according to the text of the Acts of the
Apostles, on other occasions and in various places. [113]
31. Beginning from this initial witness at Pentecost and for all future
time, the action of the Spirit of truth who "convinces the world
concerning the sin" of the rejection of Christ is linked inseparably with
the witness to be borne to the Paschal Mystery: the mystery ot the
Crucified and Risen One. And in this link the same "convincing concerning
sin" reveals its own saIvific dimension. For it is a "convincing" that has
its purpose not merely the accusation of the world and still less its
condemnation. Jesus Christ did not come into the world to judge it and
condemn it but to save it. [114] This is emphasized in this first
discourse, when Peter exclaims: "Let all the house of Israel therefore
know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom
you crucified". [115] And then, when those present ask Peter and the
Apostles: "Brethren, what shall we do?", this is Peter's answer: "Repent,
and be baptized every of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit". [116]
In this way "convincing concerning sin" becomes at the same time a
convincing concerning the remission of sins, in the power of the Holy
Spirit. Peter in his discourse in Jerusalem calls people to conversion, as
Jesus called his listeners to conversion at the beginning of his messianic
activity. [117] Conversion requires convincing of sin; it includes the
interior judgment of the conscience, and this, being a proof of the action
of the Spirit of truth in man's inmost being, becomes at the same time a
new beginning of the bestowal of grace and love: "Receive the Holy
Spirit". [118] Thus in this "convincing concerning sin" we discover a
double gift: the gift of the truth of conscience and the gift of the
certainty of redemption. The Spirit of truth is the Counsellor.
The convincing concerning sin, through the ministry of the apostolic
kerygma in the early Church, is referred -- under the impulse of the
Spirit poured out at Pentecost -- to the redemptive power of Christ
crucified and risen. Thus the promise concerning the Holy Spirit made
before Easter is fulfilled: "He will take what is mine and declare it to
you". When therefore, during the Pentecost event, Peter speaks of the sin
of those who "have not believed" [119] and have sent Jesus of Nazareth to
an ignominious death, he bears witness to victory over sin: a victory
achieved, in a certain sense, through the greatest sin that man could
commit: the killing of Jesus, the Son of God, consubstantial with the
Father! Similarly, the death of the Son of God conquers human death: "I
will be your death, O death," [120] as the sin of having crucified the Son
of God "conquers" human sin! That sin which was committed in Jerusalem on
Good Friday -- and also every human sin. For the greatest sin on man's
part is matched, in the heart of the Redeemer, by the oblation of supreme
love that conquers the evil of all the sins of man. On the basis of this
certainty the Church in the Roman liturgy does not hesitate to repeat
every year, at the Easter Vigil, "O happy fault!", in the deacon's
proclamation of the Resurrection when he sings the "Exsultet".
32. However, no one but he himself, the Spirit of truth, can "convince
the world", man or the human conscience of this ineffable truth. He is the
Spirit who a searches even the depths of God". [121] Faced with the
mystery of sin we have to search "the depths of God" to their very depth.
It is not enough to search the human conscience, the intimate mystery of
man, but we have to penetrate the inner mystery of God, those "depths of
God" that are summarized thus: to the Father -- in the Son -- through the
Holy Spirit. It is precisely the Holy Spirit who: "searches" the "depths
of God, and from them draws God's response to man's sin. With this
response there closes the process of "convincing concerning sin", as the
event of Pentecost shows.
By convincing the "world" concerning the sin of Golgotha, concerning
the death of the innocent Lamb, as happens on the day of Pentecost, the
Holy Spirit also convinces of every sin, committed in any place and at any
moment in human history: for he demonstrates its relationship with the
Cross of Christ. The "convincing" is the demonstration of the evil of sin,
of every sin, in relation to the Cross of Christ. Sin, shown in this
relationship, is recognized in the entire dimension of evil proper to it,
through the "mysterium iniquitatis" [122] which is hidden within it. Man
does not know this dimension -- he is absolutely ignorant of it apart from
the Cross of Christ. So he cannot be "convinced" of it except by the Holy
Spirit: the Spirit of truth, but who is also the Counsellor.
For sin, shown in relation to the Cross of Christ, is at the same time
identified in the full dimension of the "mysterium pietatis", [123] as
indicated by the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et
Paenitentia. [124] Man is also absolutely ignorant of this dimension of
sin apart from the Cross of Christ. And he cannot be "convinced" of this
dimension either except by the Holy Spirit: the one who "searches the
depths of God".
33. This is the dimension of sin that we find in the witness concerning
the beginning, commented on in the Book of Genesis. [125] It is the sin
that according to the revealed Word of God constitutes the principle and
root ot all the others. We find ourselves faced with the original reality
of sin in human history and at the same time in the whole of the economy
of salvation. It can be said that in this sin the "mysterium iniquitatis"
has its beginning, but it can also be said that this is the sin concerning
which the redemptive power of the "mysterium pietatis" becomes
particularly clear and efficacious. This is expressed by Saint Paul, when
he contrasts the "disobedience" of the first Adam with the "obedience" of
Christ, the second Adam: "Obedience unto death". [126]
According to the witness concerning the beginning, sin in its original
reality takes place in man's will -- and conscience -- first of all as
"disobedience", that is, as opposition of the will of man to the will of
God. This original disobedience presupposes a rejection, or at least a
turning away from the truth contained in the Word of God, who creates the
world. This Word is the same Word who was "in the beginning with God", who
"was God", and without whom "nothing has been made of all that is", since
"the world was made through him". [127] He is the Word who is also the
eternal law, the source of every law which regulates the world and
especially human acts. When therefore on the eve of his Passion Jesus
Christ speaks of the sin of those who "do not believe in him", in these
words of his, full of sorrow, there is as it were a distant echo of that
sin which in its original form is obscurely inscribed in the mystery of
creation. For the one who is speaking is not only the Son of Man but the
one who is also "the first-born of all creation", "for in him all things
were created . . . through him and for him". [128] In the light of this
truth we can understand that the "disobedience" in the mystery of the
beginning presupposes in a certain sense the same "nonfaith", that same
"they have not believed", which will be repeated in the Paschal Mystery.
As we have said, it is a matter of a rejection or at least a turning away
from the truth contained in the Word of the Father. The rejection
expresses itself in practice as adisobediencer, in an act committed as an
effect of the temptation which comes from the "father of lies". [129]
Therefore, at the root of human sin is the lie which is a radical
rejection ot the truth contained in the Word of the Father, through whom
is expressed the Ioving omnipotence of the Creator: the omnipotence and
also the love "of God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth".
34. "The Spirit of God", who according to the biblical description of
creation "was moving over the face of the water", [130] signifies the same
"Spirit who searches the depths of God": "searches the depths of the
Father and of the Word-Son in the mystery of creation. Not only is he the
direct witness of their mutual love from which creation derives, but he
himself is this love. He himself, as love, is the eternal uncreated gift.
In him is the source and the beginning of every giving of gifts to
creatures. The witness concerning the beginning, which we find in the
whole of Revelation, beginning with the Book of Genesis, is unanimous on
this point To create means to call into existence from nothing: therefore,
to create means to give existence. And if the visible world is created for
man, therefore the world is given to man. [131] And at the same time that
same man in his own humanity receives as a gift a special "image and
likeness" to God. This means not only rationality and freedom as
constitutive properties of human nature, but also, from the very
beginning, the capacity of having a personal relationship with God, as "I"
and "you", and therefore the capacity of having a covenant, which will
take place in God's salvific communication with man. Against the
background of the "image and likeness" of God, "the gift of the Spirit"
ultimately means a call to friendship, in which the transcendent "depths
of God" become in some way opened to participation on the part of man. The
Second Vatican Council teaches: "The invisible God out of the abundance of
his love speaks to men as friends and lives among them, so that he may
invite and take them into fellowship with himself". [132]
35. The Spirit, therefore, who "searches everything, even the depths of
God", knows from the beginning "the secrets of man". [133] For this reason
he alone can fully "convince concerning the sin" that happened at the
beginning, that sin which is the root of all other sins and the sources of
man's sinfulness on earth, a source which never ceases to be active. The
Spirit of truth knows the original reality of the sin caused in the will
of man by the "father of lies", he who already "has been judged". [134]
The Holy Spirit therefore convinces the world of sin in connection with
this "judgment", but by constantly guiding toward the "righteousness" that
has been revealed to man together with the Cross of Christ: through
"obedience unto death". [135]
Only the Holy Spirit can convince concerning the sin of the human
beginning, precisely he who is the love of the Father and of the Son, he
who is gift, whereas the sin of the human beginning consists in
untruthfulness and in the rejection of the gift and the love which
determine the beginning of the world and of man.
36. According to the witness concerning the beginning which we find in
the Scriptures and in Tradition, after the first (and also more complete)
description in the Book of Genesis, sin in its original form is understood
as "disobedience" and this means simply and directly transgression of a
prohibition laid down by God. [136] But in the light of the whole context
it is also obvious that the ultimate roots of this disobedience are to be
sought in the whole real situation of man. Having been called into
existence, the human being -- man and woman -- is a creature. The "image
of God", consisting in rationality and freedom, expresses the greatness
and dignity of the human subject, who is a person. But this personal
subject is also always a creature: in his existence and essence he depends
on the Creator. According to the Book of Genesis, "the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil" was to express and constantly remind man of
the "limit" impassable for a created being. God's prohibition is to be
understood in this sense: the Creator forbids man and woman to eat of the
fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The words of the
enticement, that is to say the temptation, as formulated in the sacred
text, are an inducement to transgress this prohibition -- that is to say
to go beyond that "limit": "When you eat of it your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God ("like gods "), knowing good and evil". [137]
"Disobedience" means precisely going beyond that limit, which remains
impassable to the will and the freedom of man as a created being. For God
the Creator is the one definitive source of the moral order in the world
created by him. Man cannot decide by himself what is good and what is evil
-- cannot "know good and evil, like God". In the created world God indeed
remains the first and sovereign source for deciding about good and evil,
through the intimate truth of being, which is the reflection of the Word,
the eternal Son, consubstantial with the Father. To man, created to the
image of God, the Holy Spirit gives the gift of conscience, so that in
this conscience the image may faithfully reflect its model, which is both
Wisdom and eternal Law, the source of the moral order in man and in the
world. "Disobedience", as the original dimension of sin, means the
rejection of this source, through man's claim to become an independent and
exclusive source for deciding about good and evil. The Spirit who
"searches the depths of God", and who at the same time is for man the
light of conscience and the source of the moral order, knows in all its
fullness this dimension of the sin inscribed in the mystery of man's
beginning. And the Spirit does not cease "convincing the world of it" in
connection with the Cross of Christ on Golgotha.
37. According to the witness of the beginning, God in creation has
revealed himself as omnipotence, which is love. At the same time he has
revealed to man that, as the "image and likeness" of his Creator, he is
called to participate in truth and love. This participation means a life
in union with God, who is "eternal life". [138] But man, under the
influence of the "father of lies", has separated himself from this
participation. To what degree? Certainly not to the degree of the sin of a
pure spirit, to the degree of the sin of Satan. The human spirit is
incapable of reaching such a degree. [139] In the very description given
in Genesis it is easy to see the difference of degree between the "breath
of evil" on the part of the one who "has sinned (or remains in sin) from
the beginning" [140] and already "has been judged", [141] and the evil of
disobedience on the part of man.
Man's disobedience, nevertheless, always means a turning away from God,
and in a certain sense the closing up of human freedom in his regard. It
also means a certain opening of this freedom -- of the human mind and will
-- to the one who is the "father of lies". This act of conscious choice is
not only "disobedience" but also involves a certain consent to the
motivation which was contained in the first temptation to sin and which is
unceasingly renewed during the whole history of man on earth: "For God
knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be
like God, knowing good and evil".
Here we find ourselves at the very centre of what could be called the
"anti-Word", that is to say "the anti-truth". For the truth about man
becomes falsified: who man is and what are the impassable limits of his
being and freedom. This "anti-truth" is possible because at the same time
there is a complete falsification of the truth about who God is. God the
Creator is placed in a state of suspicion, indeed of accusation, in the
mind of the creature. For the first time in human history there appears
the perverse "genius of suspicion". He seeks to "falsify" Good itself, the
absolute Good, which precisely in the work of creation has manifested
itself as the Good which gives in an inexpressible way: as bonum diffsivum
sui, as creative love. Who can completely "convince concerning sin", or
concerning this motivation of man's original disobedience, except the one
who alone is the gift and the source of all giving of gifts, except the
Spirit, who "searches the depths of God" and is the love of the Father and
the Son".
38. For in spite of all the witness of creation and of the salvific
economy inherent in it, the spirit of darkness [142] is capable of showing
God as an enemy of his own creature, and in the first place as an enemy of
man, as a source of danger and threat to man. In this way Satan manages to
sow in man's soul the seed of opposition to the one who "from the
beginning" would be considered as man's enemy -- and not as Father. Man is
challenged to become the adversary of God!
The analysis of sin in its original dimension indicates that, through
the influence of the "father of lies", throughout the history of humanity
there will be a constant pressure on man to reject God, even to the point
of hating him: "Love of self to the point of contempt for God", as Saint
Augustine puts it. [143] Man will be inclined to see in God primarily a
limitation of himself, and not the source of his own freedom and the
fullness of good. We see this confirmed in the modern age, when the
atheistic ideologies seek to root out religion on the grounds that
religion causes the radical "alienation" of man, as if man were
dispossessed of his own humanity when, accepting the idea of God, he
attributes to God what belongs to man, and exclusively to man! Hence a
process of thought and historico-sociological practice in which the
rejection of God has reached the point of declaring his "death". An
absurdity, both in concept and expression! But the ideology of the "death
of God" is more a threat to man, as the Second Vatican Council indicates
when it analyzes the question of the "independence of earthly affairs" and
writes:a For without the Creator the creature would disappear . . . when
God is forgotten the creature itself grows unintelligible". [144] The
ideology of the "death of God" easily demonstrates in its effects that on
the "theoretical and practical" levels it is the ideology of the "death of
man".
39. The Spirit who searches the depths of God was called by Jesus in
his discourse in the Upper Room the Paraclete. For from the beginning the
Spirit "is invoked" [145] in order to "convince the world concerning sin".
He is invoked in a definitive way through the Cross of Christ. Convincing
concerning sin means showing the evil that sin contains, and this is
equivalent to revealing the mystery of iniquity. It is not possible to
grasp the evil of sin in all its sad reality without "searching the depths
of God". From the very beginning, the obscure mystery of sin has appeared
in the world against the background of a reference to the Creator of human
freedom. Sin has appeared as an act of the will of the creature-man
contrary to the will of God, to the salvific will of God; indeed, sin has
appeared in opposition to the truth, on the basis of the lie which has now
been definitively "judged": the lie that has placed in a state of
accusation, a state of permanent suspicion, creative and salvific love
itself. Man has followed the "father of lies", setting himself up in
opposition to the Father of life and the Spirit of truth.
Therefore, will not "convincing concerning sin" also have to mean
revealing suffering? Revealing the pain, unimaginable and inexpressible,
which on account of sin the Book of Genesis in its anthropomorphic vision
seems to glimpse in the "depths of God" and in a certain sense in the very
heart of the ineffable Trinity? The Church, taking her inspiration from
Revelation, believes and professes that sin is an offence against God.
What corresponds, in the inscrutable intimacy of the Father, the Word and
the Holy Spirit, to this aoffencen, this rejection of the Spirit who is
love and gift? The concept of God as the necessarily most perfect being
certainly excludes from God any pain deriving from deficiencies or wounds;
but in the a depths of God" there is a Father's love that, faced with
man's sin, in the language of the Bible reacts so deeply as to say: "I am
sorry that I have made him". [146] "The Lord saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth . . . And the Lord was sorry that he bad made
man on the earth . . . The Lord said: 'I am sorry that I have made them'
". [147] But more often the Sacred Book speaks to us of a Father who feels
compassion for man, as though sharing his pain. In a word, this
inscrutable and indescribable fatherly "pain" will bring about above all
the wonderful economy of redemptive love in Jesus Christ, so that through
the mysterium pietatis love can reveal itself in the history of man as
stronger than sin. So that the "gift" may prevail!
The Holy Spirit who in the words of Jesus "convinces concerning sin is
the love of the Father and the Son, and as such is the Trinitarian gift,
and at the same time the eternal source of every divine giving of gifts to
creatures. Precisely in him we can picture as personified and actualized
in a transcendent way that mercy which the Patristic and theological
tradition, following the line of the Old and New Testaments, attributes to
God. In man, mercy includes sorrow and compassion for the misfortunes of
one's neighbor. In God, the Spirit-love expresses the consideration of
human sin in a fresh outpouring of salvific love. From God, in the unity
of the Father with the Son, the economy of salvation is born, the economy
which fills the history of man with the gifts of the Redemption. Whereas
sin, by rejecting love, has caused the "suffering" of man which in some
way has affected the whole of creation, [148] the Holy Spirit will enter
into human and cosmic suffering with a new outpouring of love, which will
redeem the world. And on the lips of Jesus the Redeemer, in whose humanity
the "suffering" of God is concretized, there will be heard a word which
manifests the eternal love full of mercy: "Misereor". [149] Thus on the
part of the Holy Spirit "convincing of sin" becomes a manifestation before
creation, which is "subjected to futility", and above all in the depth of
human consciences, that sin is conquered through the sacrihce of the Lamb
of God who has become even " unto death" the obedient servant who, by
making up for man's disobedience, accomplishes the redemption of the
world. In this way the Spirit of truth, the Paraclete, "convinces
concerning sin".
40. The redemptive value of Christ's sacrifice is expressed in very
significant words by the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, who after
recalling the sacrifices of the Old Covenant in which "the blood of goats
and bulls . . ." purifies in "the flesh", adds: "How much more shall the
blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living
God?". [150] Though we are aware of other possible interpretations, our
considerations on the presence of the Holy Spirit in the whole of Christ's
life lead us to see this text as an invitation to reflect on the presence
of the same Spirit also in the redemptive sacrifice of the Incarnate Word.
To begin with we reflect on the first words dealing with this
sacrifice, and then separately on the "purification of conscience" which
it accomplishes. For it is a sacrifice offered "through the eternal
Spirit", that "derives" from it the power to "convince concerning sin". It
is the same Holy Spirit, whom, according to the promise made in the Upper
Room, Jesus Christ "will bring" to the Apostles on the day of his
Resurrection, when he presents himself to them with the wounds of the
crucifixion, and whom "he will give" them "for the remission ot sins"
"Receive the Holy Spirit; if you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven". [151]
We know that "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and
with power", as Simon Peter said in the house of the centurion Cornelius.
[152] We know of the Paschal Mystery of his "departure", from the Gospel
of John. The words of the Letter to the Hebrews now explain to us how
Christ "offered himself without blemish to God", and how he did this "with
an eternal Spirit". In the sacrifice of the Son of Man the Holy Spirit is
present and active just as he acted in Jesus' conception, in his coming
into the world, in his hidden life and in his public ministry. According
to the Letter to the Hebrews, on the way to his "departure" through
Gethsemani and Golgotha, the same Christ Jesus in his own humanity opened
himself totally to this action ot the Spirit-Paraclete,who from suffering
enables eternal salvific love to spring forth. Therefore he "was heard for
his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what
he suffered". [153] In this way this Letter shows how humanity, subjected
to sin in the descendants of the first Adam, in Jesus Christ became
perfectly subjected to God and united to him, and at the same time full of
compassion towards men. Thus there is a new humanity, which in Jesus
Christ through the suffering of the Cross has returned to the love which
was betrayed by Adam through sin. This new humanity is discovered
precisely in the divine source of the original outpouring of gifts: in the
Spirit, who "searches . . . the depths of God" and is himself love and
gift.
The Son of God Jesus Christ, as man, in the ardent prayer of his
Passion, enabled the Holy Spirit, who had already penetrated the inmost
depths of his humanity, to transform that humanity into a perfect
sacrifice through the act of his death as the victim of love on the Cross.
He made this offering by himself. As the one priest, "he offered himself
without blemish to God". [154]
In his humanity he was worthy to become this sacrifice, for he alone
was "without blemish" But he offered it "through the eternal Spirit",
which means that the Holy Spirit acted in a special way in this absolute
self-giving of the Son of Man, in order to transform this suffering into
redemptive love.
41. The Old Testament on several occasions speaks of "fire from heaven"
which burnt the oblations presented by men. [155] By analogy one can say
that the Holy Spirit is the "fire from heaven" which works in the depth of
the mystery of the Cross. Proceeding from the Father, he directs towards
the Father the sacrifice of the Son, bringing it into the divine reality
of the Trinitarian communion. If sin caused suffering, now the pain of God
in Christ crucified acquires through the Holy Spirit its full human
expression. Thus there is a paradoxical mystery of love: in Christ there
suffers a God who has been rejected by his own creature: "They do not
believe in me!"; but at the same time, from the depth of this suffering --
and indirectly from the depth of the very sin "of not having believed" --
the Spirit draws a new measure of the gift made to man and to creation
from the beginning. In the depth of the mystery of the Cross love is at
work, that love which brings man back again to share in the life that is
in God himself.
The Holy Spirit as Love and Gift comes down, in a certain sense, into
the very heart of the sacrifice which is offered on the Cross. Referring
here to the biblical tradition we can say: he consumes this sacrifice with
the fire of the love which unites the Son with the Father in the
Trinitarian communion. And since the sacrifice of the Cross is an act
proper to Christ, also in this sacrifice he "receives" the Holy Spirit. He
receives the Holy Spirit in such a way that afterwards and he alone with
God the Father -- can "give him" to the Apostles, to the Church, to
humanity. He alone "sends" the Spirit from the Father. [156] He alone
presents himself before the Apostles in the Upper Room, "breathes upon
them" and says: "Receive the Holy Spirit; if you forgive the sins of any,
they are forgiven", [157] as John the Baptist had foretold: "He will
baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire". [158] With those words of
Jesus the Holy Spirit is revealed and at the same time made present as the
Love that works in the depths of the Paschal Mystery, as the source of the
salvific power of the Cross of Christ, and as the gift of new and eternal
life.
This truth about the Holy Spirit finds daily expression in the Roman
liturgy, when before Communion the priest pronounces those significant
words: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, by the will of the
Father and the work of the Holy Spirit your death brought life to the
world . . . ". And in the Third Eucharistic Prayer, referring to the same
salvific plan, the priest asks God that the Holy Spirit may "make us an
everlasting gift to you".
42. We have said that, at the climax of the Paschal Mystery, the Holy
Spirit is definitively revealed and made present in a new way. The Risen
Christ says to the Apostles: "Receive the Holy Spirit". Thus the Holy
Spirit is revealed, for the words of Christ constitute the confirmation of
what he had promised and foretold during the discourse in the Upper Room.
And with this the Paraclete is also made present in a new way. In fact, he
was already at work from the beginning in the mystery of creation and
throughout the history of the Old Covenant of God with man. His action was
fully confirmed by the sending of the Son of Man as the Messiah, who came
in the power of the Holy Spirit. At the climax of Jesus' messianic
mission, the Holy Spirit becomes present in the Paschal Mystery in all his
divine subjectivity: as the one who is now to continue the salvific work
rooted in the sacrifice of the Cross. Of course Jesus entNsts this work to
humanity: to the Apostles, to the Church. Nevertheless, in these men and
through them the Holy Spirit remains the transcendent principal agent of
the accomplishment of this work in the human spirit and in the history of
the world: the invisible and at the same time omnipresent Paraclete! The
Spirit who "blows where he wills". [159]
The words of the Risen Christ on the a"first day of the week give
particular emphasis to the presence of the Paraclete-Counsellor as the one
who "convinces the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment". For
it is only in this relationship that it is possible to explain the words
which Jesus directly relates to the "gift" of the Holy Spirit to the
Apostles. He says: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of
any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained".
[160] Jesus confers on the Apostles the power to forgive sins, so that
they may pass it on to their successors in the Church. But this power
granted to men presupposes and includes the saving action of the Holy
Spirit. By becoming "the light of hearts", [161] that is to say the light
of consciences, the Holy Spirit "convinces concerning sin", which is to
say, he makes man realize his own evil and at the same time directs him
towards what is good. Thanks to the multiplicity of the Spirit's gifts, by
reason of which he is invoked as the "sevenfold one", every kind of human
sin can be reached by God's saving power. In reality -- as Saint
Bonaventure says -- "by virtue of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit all
evils are destroyed and all good things are produced." [162]
Thus the conversion of the human heart, which is an indispensable
condition for the forgiveness of sins, is brought about by the influence
of the Counsellor. Without a true conversion, which implies inner
contrition, and without a sincere and firm purpose of amendment, sins
remain "unforgiven", in the words of Jesus, and with him the Tradition of
the Old and New Covenants. For the first words uttered by Jesus at the
beginning of his ministry, according to the Gospel of Mark, are these:
"Repent, and believe in the Gospel". [163] A confirmation of this
exhortation is the "convincing concerning sin" that the Holy Spirit
undertakes in a new way by virtue of the Redemption accomplished by the
Blood of the Son of Man. Hence the Letter to the Hebrews says that this
"blood purifies the conscience". [164] It therefore, so to speak, opens to
the Holy Spirit the door into man's inmost being, namely into the
sanctuary of human consciences.
43. The Second Vatican Council mentioned the Catholic teaching on
conscience when it spoke about man's vocation and in particular about the
dignity of the human person. It is precisely the conscience in particular
which determines this dignity. For the conscience is "the most secret core
and sanctuary of a man, where he is alone with God, whose voice echoes in
his depths". It "can . . . speak to his heart more specifically: do this,
shun that". This capacity to command what is good and to forbid evil,
placed in man by the Creator, is the main characteristic of the personal
subject. But at the same time, "in the depths of his conscience, man
detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him
to obedience". [165] The conscience therefore is not an independent and
exclusive capacity to decide what is good and what is evil. Rather there
is profoundly imprinted upon it a principle of obedience visa-vis the
objective norm which establishes and conditions the correspondence of its
decisions with the commands and prohibitions which are at the basis of
human behavior, as from the passage of the Book of Genesis which we have
already considered. [166] Precisely in this sense the conscience is the
"secret sanctuary" in which "God's voice echoes". The conscience is "the
voice of God" even when man recognizes in it nothing more than the
principle of the moral order which it is not humanly possible to doubt,
even without any direct reference to the Creator. It is precisely in
reference to this that the conscience always finds its foundation and
justification.
The Gospel's "convincing concerning sin" under the influence of the
Spirit of truth can be accomplished in man in no other way except through
the conscience. If the conscience is upright, it serves "to resolve
according to truth the moral problems which arise both in the life of
individuals and from social relationships "; then "persons and groups turn
aside from blind choice and try to be guided by the objective standards of
moral conduct" [167]
A result of an upright conscience is, first of all, to call good and
evil by their proper name, as we read in the same Pastoral Constitution:
"Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide,
abortion, euthanasia, or willful self-destruction, whatever violates the
integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on
body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human
dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment,
deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as
well as disgraceful working conditions, where people are treated as mere
tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons"; and having
called by name the many different sins that are so frequent and widespread
in our time, the Constitution adds "All these things and others of their
kind are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm
to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury.
Moreover, they are a supreme dishonor to the Creator" [168]
By calling by their proper name the sins that most dishonor man, and by
showing that they are a moral evil that weighs negatively on any
balance-sheet of human progress, the Council also describes all this as a
stage in "a dramatic struggle between good and evil, between light and
darkness", which characterizes "all of human life, whether individual or
collective". [169] The 1983 Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on
reconciliation and penance specified even more clearly the personal and
social significance of human sin." [170]
44. In the Upper Room, on the eve of his Passion and again on the
evening of Easter Day, Jesus Christ spoke of the Holy Spirit as the one
who bears witness that in human history sin continues to exist. Yet sin
has been subjected to the saving power of the Redemption. "Convincing the
world concerning sin" does not end with the fact that sin is called by its
right name and identified for what it is throughout its entire range. In
convincing the world concerning sin the Spirit of truth comes into contact
with the voice of human consciences.
By following this path we come to a demonstration of the roots of sin,
which are to be found in man's inmost being, as described by the same
Pastoral Constitution: "The truth is that the imbalances under which the
modern world labours are linked with that more basic imbalance rooted in
the heart of man. For in man himself many elements wrestle with one
another. Thus, on the one hand, as a creature he experiences his
limitations in a multitude of ways. On the other, he feels himself tO be
boundless in his desires and summoned to a higher life. Pulled by manifold
attractions, he is constantly forced to choose among them and to renounce
some. Indeed, as a weak and sinful being, he often does what he would not,
and fails to do what he woulds". [171] The Conciliar text is here
referring to the well-known words of Saint Paul. [172]
The "convincing concerning sin" which accompanies the human conscience
in every careful reflection upon itself thus leads to the discovery of
sin's roots in man, as also to the discovery of the way in which the
conscience has been conditioned in the course of history. In this way we
discover that original reality of sin of which we have already spoken. The
Holy Spirit "convinces concerning sin" in relation to the mystery of man's
origins, showing the fact that man is a created being, and therefore in
complete ontological and ethical dependence upon the Creator. The Holy
Spirit reminds us, at the same time, of the hereditary sinfulness of human
nature. But the Holy Spirit the Counsellor "convinces concerning sin"
always in relation to the Cross of Christ. In the context of this
relationship Christianity rejects any "fatalism" regarding sin. As the
Council teaches: "A monumental struggle against the powers of darkness
pervades the whole history of man. The battle was joined from the very
origins of the world and will continue until the last day, as the Lord has
attested". [173] "But the Lord himself came to free and strengthen man".
[174] Man, therefore, far from allowing himself to be "ensnared" in his
sinful condition, by relying upon the voice of his own conscience "is
obliged to wrestle constantly if he is to cling to what is good. Nor can
he achieve his own interior integrity without valiant efforts and the help
of God's grave". [175] The Council rightly sees sin as a factor of
alienation which weighs heavily on man's personal and social life. But at
the same time it never tires of reminding us of the possibility of
victory.
45. The Spirit of truth, who "convinces the world concerning sin",
comes into contact with that laborious effort on the part of the human
conscience which the Conciliar texts speak of so graphically. This
laborious effort of conscience also determines the paths of human
conversion: turning one's back on sin, in order to restore truth and love
in man's very heart. We know that recognizing evil in ourselves sometimes
demands a great effort. We know that conscience not only commands and
forbids but also judges in the light of interior dictates and
prohibitions. It is also the source of remorse: man suffers interiorly
because of the evil he has committed. Is not this suffering as it were a
distant echo of that "repentance at having created man" which in
anthropomorphic language the Sacred Book attributes to God? Is it not an
echo of that "reprobation" which is interiorized in the "heart" of the
Trinity and by virtue of the eternal love is translated into the suffering
of the Cross, into Christ's obedience unto death? When the Spirit of truth
permits the human conscience to share in that suffering the suffering of
the conscience becomes particularly profound, but also particularly
salvific. Then, by means of an act of perfect contrition, the authentic
conversion of the heart is accomplished: this is the evangelical
"metanoia".
The laborious effort of the human heart, the laborious effort of the
conscience in which this "metanoia" or conversion takes place, is a
reflection of that process whereby reprobation is transformed into
salvific love, a love which is capable of suffering. The hidden giver of
this saving power is the Holy Spirit: he whom the Church calls "the light
of consciences" penetrates and fills a the depths of the human heart",
[176] Through just such a conversion in the Holy Spirit a person becomes
open to forgiveness, to the remission of sins. And in all this
wonderfuldynamism of conversion-forgiveness there is confirmed the truth
of what Saint Augustine writes concerning the mystery of man, when he
comments on the words of the Psalm: "The abyss calls to the abyss". [177]
Precisely with regard to these "unfathomable depths" of man, of the human
conscience, the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit is accomplished.
The Holy Spirit "comes" by virtue of Christ's "departure" in the Paschal
Mystery: he comes in each concrete case of conversion-forgiveness, by
virtue of the sacrifice of the Cross. For in this sacrifice "the blood of
Christ . . . purifies your conscience from dead works to serve the living
God". [178] Thus there are continuously fulfilled the words about the Holy
Spirit as "another Counsellor", the words spoken in the Upper Room to the
Apostles and indirectly spoken to everyone:"You know him, for he dwells
with you and will be in you". [179]
46. Against the background of what has been said so far, certain other
words of Jesus, shocking and disturbing ones, become easier to understand.
We might call them the words of "unforgiveness". They are reported for us
by the Synoptic in connection with a particular sin which is called
"blasphemy against the Holy Spirit". This is how they are reported in
their three versions: Matthew: "Whoever says a word against the Son of Man
will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be
forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come". [180] Mark: "All sins
will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but
whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is
guilty of an eternal sin". [181] Luke: "Every one who speaks a word
against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but he who blasphemes against the
Holy Spirit will not be forgiven". [182]
Why is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit unforgivable? How should this
blasphemy be understood? Saint Thomas Aquinas replies that it is a
question of a sin that is "unforgivable by its very nature, insofar as it
excludes the elements through which the forgiveness of sin takes place.
[183]
According to such an exegesis, "blasphemy" does not properly consist in
offending against the |
