114. Exalted at the right hand of God,* he received the promise of the holy Spirit from the Father and poured it forth, as you (both) see and hear. –Acts of the Apostles 2:33

Exalted at the right hand of God,^* he received the promise of the holy Spirit from the Father and poured it forth, as you (both) see and hear. –Acts of the Apostles 2:33

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YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 114

Ave Maria series

114  What role does the Holy Spirit play in the life of Jesus?

Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot understand Jesus.  In his life, the presence of God’s Spirit, whom we call the Holy Spirit, was manifest in a unique way.  [689-691, 702-731]

Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and Mary. …..114

It was the Holy Spirit who called Jesus to life in the womb of the Virgin Mary (Matthew 1:18), endorsed him as God’s beloved Son (Luke 4:16-19), guided him (Mark 1:12) and enlivened him to the end (John 19:30).  On the Cross, Jesus breathed out his Spirit.  After his resurrection, he bestowed the Holy Spirit on his disciples (John 20:22).  At that the Spirit of Jesus went over to his Church: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (John 20:21).

“In Jesus Christ, God himself was made man and allowed us, so to speak, to cast a glance at the intimacy of God himself.  And there we see something totally unexpected:  …The mysterious God is not infinite loneliness, he is an event of love  …The Son who speaks to the Father exists, and they are both one in the Spirit, who constitutes so to speak, the atmosphere of giving and loving which makes them one God.”  (Pope Benedict XVI, Vigil of Pentecost 2006)

And no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.  1 Corinthians 12:3b

[689-691, 702-731]

THE JOINT MISSION OF THE SON AND THE SPIRIT

689 The One whom the Father has sent into our hearts, the Spirit of his Son, is truly God.( Compare Galatians 4:6.)¹⁰ Consubstantial with the Father and the Son, the Spirit is inseparable from them, in both the inner life of the Trinity and his gift of love for the world. In adoring the Holy Trinity, life-giving, consubstantial, and indivisible, the Church's faith also professes the distinction of persons. When the Father sends his Word, he always sends his Breath. In their joint mission, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct but inseparable. To be sure, it is Christ who is seen, the visible image of the invisible God, but it is the Spirit who reveals him. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

690 Jesus is Christ, "anointed," because the Spirit is his anointing, and everything that occurs from the Incarnation on derives from this fullness.( Compare John 3:34.)¹¹ When Christ is finally glorified,( John 7:39.)¹² he can in turn send the Spirit from his place with the Father to those who believe in him: he communicates to them his glory,( Compare John 17:22.)¹³ that is, the Holy Spirit who glorifies him.( Compare John 16:14.)¹⁴ From that time on, this joint mission will be manifested in the children adopted by the Father in the Body of his Son: the mission of the Spirit of adoption is to unite them to Christ and make them live in him: --CCC

The notion of anointing suggests . . . that there is no distance between the Son and the Spirit. Indeed, just as between the surface of the body and the anointing with oil neither reason nor sensation recognizes any intermediary, so the contact

of the Son with the Spirit is immediate, so that anyone who would make contact with the Son by faith must first encounter the oil by contact. In fact there is no part that is not covered by the Holy Spirit. That is why the confession of the Son's Lordship is made in the Holy Spirit by those who receive him, the Spirit coming from all sides to those who approach the Son in faith.( St. Gregory of Nyssa, De Spiritu Sancto, 16:Patrologia Graeca 45,1321A-B.)¹⁵ --CCC

THE NAME, TITLES, AND SYMBOLS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The proper name of the Holy Spirit

691 "Holy Spirit" is the proper name of the one whom we adore and glorify with the Father and the Son. The Church has received this name from the Lord and professes it in the Baptism of her new children.( Compare Matthew 28:19.)¹⁶ –CCC

The term "Spirit" translates the Hebrew word ruah, which, in its primary sense, means breath, air, wind. Jesus indeed uses the sensory image of the wind to suggest to Nicodemus the transcendent newness of him who is personally God's breath, the divine Spirit.( John 3:5-8.)¹⁷ On the other hand, "Spirit" and "Holy" are divine attributes common to the three divine persons. By joining the two terms, Scripture, liturgy, and theological language designate the inexpressible person of the Holy Spirit, without any possible equivocation with other uses of the terms "spirit" and "holy." –CCC

GOD'S SPIRIT AND WORD IN THE TIME OF THE PROMISES

702 From the beginning until "the fullness of time,"( Galatians 4:4.)⁶⁰ the joint mission of the Father's Word and Spirit remains hidden, but it is at work. God's Spirit prepares for the time of the Messiah. Neither is fully revealed but both are already promised, to be watched for and welcomed at their manifestation. So, for this reason, when the Church reads the Old Testament, she searches there for what the Spirit, "who has spoken through the prophets," wants to tell us about Christ.( Compare 2 Corinthians 3:14; John 5:39,46.)⁶¹ –CCC

By "prophets" the faith of the Church here understands all whom the Holy Spirit inspired in living proclamation and the composition of the sacred books, both of the Old and the New Testaments. Jewish tradition distinguishes first the Law (the five first books or Pentateuch), then the Prophets (our historical and prophetic books) and finally the Writings (especially the wisdom literature, in particular the Psalms).( Compare Luke 24:44.)⁶² --CCC

In creation

703 The Word of God and his Breath are at the origin of the being and life of every creature(Compare Psalm 33:6; Ps 104:30; Genesis 1:2; Gen 2:7; Ecclesiastes 3:20-21; Ezekiel 37:10.)⁶³ –CCC

It belongs to the Holy Spirit to rule, sanctify, and animate creation, for he is God, consubstantial with the Father and the Son. . . . Power over life pertains to the Spirit, for being God he preserves creation in the Father through the Son.( Byzantine liturgy, Sundays of the second mode, Troparion of Morning Prayer. )⁶⁴ –CCC

704 "God fashioned man with his own hands [that is, the Son and the Holy Spirit] and impressed his own form on the flesh he had fashioned, in such a way that even what was visible might bear the divine form."( St. Irenaeus, Dem ap. 11:Sources Chretiennes 62,48-49.)⁶⁵ --CCC

The Spirit of the promise

705 Disfigured by sin and death, man remains "in the image of God," in the image of the Son, but is deprived "of the glory of God,"( Romans 3:23.)⁶⁶ of his "likeness." The promise made to Abraham inaugurates the economy of salvation, at the culmination of which the Son himself will assume that "image"(Compare John 1:14; Philippians 2:7.)⁶⁷ and restore it in the Father's "likeness" by giving it again its Glory, the Spirit who is "the giver of life." –CCC

706 Against all human hope, God promises descendants to Abraham, as the fruit of faith and of the power of the Holy Spirit.( Compare Genesis 18:1-15; Luke 1:26-38. Lk 1:54-55; John 1:12-13; Romans 4:16-21.)⁶⁸ In Abraham's progeny all the nations of the earth will be blessed. This progeny will be Christ himself,( Compare Genesis 12:3; Galatians 3:16.)⁶⁹ in whom the outpouring of the Holy Spirit will "gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad."( Compare John 11:52.)⁷⁰ God commits himself by his own solemn oath to giving his beloved Son and "the promised Holy Spirit . . . [who is] the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it."( Ephesians 1:13-14; compare Genesis 22:17-19; Luke 1:73; John 3:16; Romans 8:32; Galatians 3:14.)⁷¹ --CCC

In Theophanies and the Law

707 Theophanies (manifestations of God) light up the way of the promise, from the patriarchs to Moses and from Joshua to the visions that inaugurated the missions of the great prophets. Christian tradition has always recognized that God's Word allowed himself to be seen and heard in these theophanies, in which the cloud of the Holy Spirit both revealed him and concealed him in its shadow. --CCC

708 This divine pedagogy appears especially in the gift of the Law.( Compare Exodus 19:20; Deuteronomy 1:11; Deut 29:28.)⁷² God gave the Law as a "pedagogue" to lead his people towards Christ.( Galatians 3:24.)⁷³ But the Law's powerlessness to save man deprived of the divine "likeness," along with the growing awareness of sin that it imparts,( Compare Romans 3:20.)⁷⁴ enkindles a desire for the Holy Spirit. The lamentations of the Psalms bear witness to this. --CCC

In the Kingdom and the Exile

709 The Law, the sign of God's promise and covenant, ought to have governed the hearts and institutions of that people to whom Abraham's faith gave birth. "If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, . . . you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."( Exodus 19:5-6; Compare 1 Peter 2:9.)⁷⁵ But after David, Israel gave in to the temptation of becoming a kingdom like other nations. The Kingdom, however, the object of the promise made to David,( Compare 2 Samuel 7; Psalm 89; Luke 1:32-33.)⁷⁶ would be the work of the Holy Spirit; it would belong to the poor according to the Spirit. –CCC

710 The forgetting of the Law and the infidelity to the covenant end in death: it is the Exile, apparently the failure of the promises, which is in fact the mysterious fidelity of the Savior God and the beginning of a promised restoration, but according to the Spirit. The People of God had to suffer this purification.( Compare Luke 24:26.)⁷⁷ In God's plan, the Exile already stands in the shadow of the Cross, and the Remnant of the poor that returns from the Exile is one of the most transparent prefigurations of the Church. –CCC

Expectation of the Messiah and his Spirit

711 "Behold, I am doing a new thing."( Isaiah 43:19.)⁷⁸ Two prophetic lines were to develop, one leading to the expectation of the Messiah, the other pointing to the announcement of a new Spirit. They converge in the small Remnant, the people of the poor, who await in hope the "consolation of Israel" and "the redemption of Jerusalem."( Compare Zephaniah 2:3; Luke 2:25,38.)⁷⁹ --CCC

We have seen earlier how Jesus fulfills the prophecies concerning himself. We limit ourselves here to those in which the relationship of the Messiah and his Spirit appears more clearly. --CCC

712 The characteristics of the awaited Messiah begin to appear in the "Book of Emmanuel" ("Isaiah said this when he saw his glory,"( John 12:41; compare Isaiah 6-12.)⁸⁰ speaking of Christ), especially in the first two verses of Isaiah 11: --CCC

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.( Isaiah 11:1-2.)⁸¹ –CCC

713 The Messiah's characteristics are revealed above all in the "Servant songs."( Compare Isaiah 42:1-9; compare Matthew 12:18-21; John 1:32-34; then compare Isa 49:1-6; compare Mt 3:17; Lk 2:32; finally compare Isa 50:4-10 and Isa 52:13-53:12. )⁸² These songs proclaim the meaning of Jesus' Passion and show how he will pour out the Holy Spirit to give life to the many: not as an outsider, but by embracing our "form as slave."( Philippians 2:7.)⁸³ Taking our death upon himself, he can communicate to us his own Spirit of life. –CCC

714 This is why Christ inaugurates the proclamation of the Good News by making his own the following passage from Isaiah(Isaiah 61:1-2; compare Luke 4:18-19.)⁸⁴ –CCC

The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me, 
because the LORD has anointed me 
to bring good tidings to the afflicted; 
he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, 
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 favor. –CCC

715 The prophetic texts that directly concern the sending of the Holy Spirit are oracles by which God speaks to the heart of his people in the language of the promise, with the accents of "love and fidelity."( Compare Ezekiel 11:19; Ezek 36:25-28; Ezek 37:1-14; Jeremiah 31:31-34; and compare Joel 3:1-5.)⁸⁵ St. Peter will proclaim their fulfillment on the morning of Pentecost.( Compare Acts of the Apostles 2:17-21.)⁸⁶ According to these promises, at the "end time" the Lord's Spirit will renew the hearts of men, engraving a new law in them. He will gather and reconcile the scattered and divided peoples; he will transform the first creation, and God will dwell there with men in peace. –CCC

716 The People of the "poor"(Compare Zephaniah 2:3; Psalm 22:27; Ps 34:3; Isaiah 49:13; Isa 61:1; etc.)⁸⁷ - those who, humble and meek, rely solely on their God's mysterious plans, who await the justice, not of men but of the Messiah - are in the end the great achievement of the Holy Spirit's hidden mission during the time of the promises that prepare for Christ's coming. It is this quality of heart, purified and enlightened by the Spirit, which is expressed in the Psalms. In these poor, the Spirit is making ready "a people prepared for the Lord."( Luke 1:17.)⁸⁸ --CCC

THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME

John, precursor, prophet, and baptist

717 "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John."( John 1:6.)⁸⁹ John was "filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb"(Luke 1:15, 41.)⁹⁰ by Christ himself, whom the Virgin Mary had just conceived by the Holy Spirit. Mary's visitation to Elizabeth thus became a visit from God to his people.( Compare Luke 1:68.)⁹¹ –CCC

718 John is "Elijah [who] must come."( Matthew 17:10-13; compare Luke 1:78.)⁹² The fire of the Spirit dwells in him and makes him the forerunner of the coming Lord. In John, the precursor, the Holy Spirit completes the work of "[making] ready a people prepared for the Lord."( Luke 1:17.)⁹³ –CCC

719 John the Baptist is "more than a prophet."( Luke 7:26.)⁹⁴ In him, the Holy Spirit concludes his speaking through the prophets. John completes the cycle of prophets begun by Elijah.( Compare Matthew 11:13-14.)⁹⁵ He proclaims the imminence of the consolation of Israel; he is the "voice" of the Consoler who is coming.( John 1:23; compare Isaiah 40:1-3.)⁹⁶ As the Spirit of truth will also do, John "came to bear witness to the light."( John 1:7; compare John 15:26; Jn 5:35.)⁹⁷ In John's sight, the Spirit thus brings to completion the careful search of the prophets and fulfills the longing of the angels.( Compare 1 Peter 1:10-12.)⁹⁸ "He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. . . . Behold, the Lamb of God."( John 1:33-36.)⁹⁹ –CCC

720 Finally, with John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit begins the restoration to man of "the divine likeness," prefiguring what he would achieve with and in Christ. John's baptism was for repentance; baptism in water and the Spirit will be a new birth.( Compare John 3:5.)¹⁰⁰ --CCC

"Rejoice, you who are full of grace"

721 Mary, the all-holy ever-virgin Mother of God, is the masterwork of the mission of the Son and the Spirit in the fullness of time. For the first time in the plan of salvation and because his Spirit had prepared her, the Father found the dwelling place where his Son and his Spirit could dwell among men. In this sense the Church's Tradition has often read the most beautiful texts on wisdom in relation to Mary.( Compare Proverbs 8:1-9:6; Sirach 24.)¹⁰¹ Mary is acclaimed and represented in the liturgy as the "Seat of Wisdom." –CCC

In her, the "wonders of God" that the Spirit was to fulfill in Christ and the Church began to be manifested: --CCC

722 The Holy Spirit prepared Mary by his grace. It was fitting that the mother of him in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily"( Colossians 2:9.)¹⁰² should herself be "full of grace." She was, by sheer grace, conceived without sin as the most humble of creatures, the most capable of welcoming the inexpressible gift of the Almighty. It was quite correct for the angel Gabriel to greet her as the "Daughter of Zion": "Rejoice."( Compare Zephaniah 3:14; Zechariah 2:14.)¹⁰³ It is the thanksgiving of the whole People of God, and thus of the Church, which Mary in her canticle(Compare Luke 1:46-55.)¹⁰⁴ lifts up to the Father in the Holy Spirit while carrying within her the eternal Son. –CCC

723 In Mary, the Holy Spirit fulfills the plan of the Father's loving goodness. Through the Holy Spirit, the Virgin conceives and gives birth to the Son of God. By the Holy Spirit's power and her faith, her virginity became uniquely fruitful.( Compare Luke 1:26-38; Romans 4:18-21; Galatians 4:26-28.)¹⁰⁵ –CCC

724 In Mary, the Holy Spirit manifests the Son of the Father, now become the Son of the Virgin. She is the burning bush of the definitive theophany. Filled with the Holy Spirit she makes the Word visible in the humility of his flesh. It is to the poor and the first representatives of the gentiles that she makes him known.( Compare Luke 1:15-19; Matthew 2:11.)¹⁰⁶ –CCC

725 Finally, through Mary, the Holy Spirit begins to bring men, the objects of God's merciful love,( Compare Luke 2:14.)¹⁰⁷ into communion with Christ. And the humble are always the first to accept him: shepherds, magi, Simeon and Anna, the bride and groom at Cana, and the first disciples. –CCC

726 At the end of this mission of the Spirit, Mary became the Woman, the new Eve ("mother of the living"), the mother of the "whole Christ."( Compare John 19:25-27.)¹⁰⁸ As such, she was present with the Twelve, who "with one accord devoted themselves to prayer,"( Acts of the Apostles 1:14.)¹⁰⁹ at the dawn of the "end time" which the Spirit was to inaugurate on the morning of Pentecost with the manifestation of the Church. --CCC

727 The entire mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the fullness of time, is contained in this: that the Son is the one anointed by the Father's Spirit since his Incarnation - Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. --CCC

Everything in the second chapter of the Creed is to be read in this light. Christ's whole work is in fact a joint mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here, we shall mention only what has to do with Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit and the gift of him by the glorified Lord. --CCC

728 Jesus does not reveal the Holy Spirit fully, until he himself has been glorified through his Death and Resurrection. Nevertheless, little by little he alludes to him even in his teaching of the multitudes, as when he reveals that his own flesh will be food for the life of the world.( Compare John 6:27,51,62-63.)¹¹⁰ He also alludes to the Spirit in speaking to Nicodemus,( Compare John 3:5-8.)¹¹¹ to the Samaritan woman,( Compare John 4:10,14,23-24.)¹¹² and to those who take part in the feast of Tabernacles.( Compare John 7:37-39.)¹¹³ To his disciples he speaks openly of the Spirit in connection with prayer(Compare Luke 11:13.)¹¹⁴ and with the witness they will have to bear.( Compare Matthew 10:19-20.)¹¹⁵ –CCC

729 Only when the hour has arrived for his glorification does Jesus promise the coming of the Holy Spirit, since his Death and Resurrection will fulfill the promise made to the fathers.( Compare John 14:16-17,26; Jn 15:26; Jn 16:7-15; Jn 17:26.)¹¹⁶ The Spirit of truth, the other Paraclete, will be given by the Father in answer to Jesus' prayer; he will be sent by the Father in Jesus' name; and Jesus will send him from the Father's side, since he comes from the Father. The Holy Spirit will come and we shall know him; he will be with us for ever; he will remain with us. The Spirit will teach us everything, remind us of all that Christ said to us and bear witness to him. The Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth and will glorify Christ. He will prove the world wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment. –CCC

730 At last Jesus' hour arrives(Compare John 13:1; Jn 17:1.)¹¹⁷ he commends his spirit into the Father's hands(Compare Luke 23:46; John 19:30.)¹¹⁸ at the very moment when by his death he conquers death, so that, "raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,"( Romans 6:4.)¹¹⁹ he might immediately give the Holy Spirit by "breathing" on his disciples.( Compare John 20:22.)¹²⁰ From this hour onward, the mission of Christ and the Spirit becomes the mission of the Church: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you."( John 20:21; compare Matthew 28:19; Luke 24:47-48; Acts of the Apostles 1:8.)¹²¹ --CCC

THE SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH IN THE LAST DAYS

Pentecost

731 On the day of Pentecost when the seven weeks of Easter had come to an end, Christ's Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, manifested, given, and communicated as a divine person: of his fullness, Christ, the Lord, pours out the Spirit in abundance.( Compare Acts of the Apostles 2:33-36.)¹²² –CCC

Penticost  Descent