Amidst the variety of peoples, the unity of the Church, which has inspired the heroism of virtue across the centuries, baffles the sceptical observer… He ignores the decisive factor of this wonderful cohesion!
Sequence for the Solemnity of Pentecost
Come, Holy Spirit, come! And from Thy celestial home, shed a ray of light divine! Come, Father of the poor! Come, source of all our store! Come, within our bosoms shine! Thou, of comforters the best; Thou, the soul’s most welcome guest; sweet refreshment here below. In our labour, rest most sweet; grateful coolness in the heat, solace in the midst of woe. O most blessed Light divine, shine within these hearts of Thine, and our inmost being fill! Where Thou art not, we have naught, nothing good in deed or thought, nothing free from taint of ill. Heal our wounds, our strength renew; on our dryness pour Thy dew; wash the stains of guilt away: Bend the stubborn heart and will; melt the frozen, warm the chill; guide the steps that go astray. On the faithful who adore, and confess Thee evermore, in Thy sevenfold gift descend; Give them virtue’s sure reward; give them Thy salvation, Lord; give them joys that never end.
I – The Soul, Factor of Unity and Life
At some time or another we have all undoubtedly attended a funeral, or witnessed a severe car accident involving fatalities. Situations like these affect us deeply—for example, seeing the deceased person’s motionless and unresponsive body, utterly devoid of vitality.
Human life is defined by the presence of the soul animating the body; the body loses its harmony when the soul departs. Since the members of our bodies are so diverse, each with its own characteristics—the arms are distinct from the head, the legs from the arms, and among the fingers of the same hand each has a different function—there is a crucial need for a unifying factor that exercises a coordinating role over the entire organism. This is the soul’s task. Without its presence from the first instant of our conception, we would be a conglomeration of organs and members without cohesion, incapable of acting together.
The Holy Spirit, soul of the Church
This characteristic of human nature is but a pale image of another incomparably higher reality: “What the human soul is to the body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church.”1 The Third Person of the Blessed Trinity is the life source of the Church; in the inadmissible hypothesis that He were to withdraw, the Church would become inert like a cadaver. Christ is the Head, we are the members and the Holy Spirit is the animating soul, maintaining, through His action, the unity of this Mystical Body.
If we pause for a moment to reflect on human society, we will perceive that, as a rule, it receives its dynamism and movement from the outside in. Whoever desires, for example, to found an institution, seeks first and foremost to have suitable people enter it who will ensure its vitality and continuity. The Church, conversely, possesses a life that is born from within it, breathed into it by the Divine Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is present in the Church, dwelling and remaining in its members through sanctifying grace.
This presence is felt by souls, albeit vaguely, as was the case with Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira from his childhood. Reflecting on the unity that is revealed in the diversity of the Church, he thought: “Above all of this there is Someone, Who is more than it! How intriguing! The Church does not so much seem to be an institution, but a person who communicates in a thousand different ways. It has motions, grandeurs, sanctities and perfections, as if it were an immense ‘soul’ that expresses itself in all of the Catholic churches of the world; in all the images, the Liturgy, the chords of the organ and pealing of the bells. This ‘soul’ has wept with the requiems and rejoiced with the carillons of Holy Saturday and Christmas Eve. It weeps with me, and rejoices with me. How I love this ‘soul!’”2 At his tender age, he could not yet define this ‘soul,’ as he would later: “the soul of the Catholic Church is the Holy Spirit. It is He Who is present in all the manifestations of the Church. It is He Who inspired the men of the Church, over time, to make choices in accordance with a certain mode. He gave origin to everything in the Church which is a reflection of Himself.”3
Universality conferred by the Spirit
The Catholic Church is one within the manifold richness of its aspects, as St. Cyprian writes: “As there are many rays of the sun, but one light; and many branches of a tree, but one strong trunk with its tenacious root; and since from one spring flow many streams, although the water seems diffused in the multiplicity of its courses, yet the unity is still preserved in the source. […] Thus also the Church, imbued with the light of the Lord, sheds forth her rays over the whole world, yet it is one light which is everywhere diffused, nor is the unity of the body separated. Her fruitful abundance spreads her branches over the whole world. She broadly expands her rivers, flowing abundantly, yet her head is one, her font one; and she is one mother, plentiful in her fruitfulness: from her womb we are born, by her milk we are nourished, by her spirit we are animated.”4
By divine action, sons of the most varied nations and with the most diverse cultures participate in the reciprocal love of one and the same Faith, under the care of one pastor. When Our Lord Jesus Christ declared: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16: 18), He was promising His Church the perpetuity of this vitality, which will never abandon her. Thus, the Church is indestructible, and those who believe that they can overthrow it delude themselves with the impossible. Furthermore, she is entirely triumphant in all circumstances.
A tepid and fearful seed that bore splendid fruit
An archetypical example of this indestructibility was the transformation that took place in the Apostles at Pentecost. As the seed of the Church, they constituted a body yet without life, as the events preceding the scene portrayed in the first reading of this Solemnity illustrate. The Gospels narrate how, at the end of the Last Supper, Our Lord departed with His disciples for the Garden of Olives, amid festive hymns. Sensing that the dreadful hour of the Passion was at hand, He went to pray to the Father with sadness and distress, accompanied only by the three Apostles, His closest confidants. But overcome by sleep, they earned the Divine Master’s reproach (Mt 26: 40): “Could you not watch with Me one hour?” Later, witnessing His arrest, they all fled out of fear (cf. Mt 26: 56; Mk 14: 50), and St. Peter, following Him at a distance, denied Him three times (cf. Mt 26: 69-75; Mk 14: 67-72; Lk 22: 55-62; Jn 18: 25-27), out of human respect.
After Jesus’ burial, the disciples were gathered behind closed doors, afraid of persecution being unleashed against them (cf. Jn 20: 19). Finally, when Our Lord appeared to them resurrected, they were alarmed lest He were a ghost, until He asked them for food to show them the reality of His body. However, despite having witnessed Christ’s victory over death, the Apostles were more concerned with the restoration of the temporal reign of Israel—as the dialogue prior to Jesus’ Ascension proves—than with the further doctrine that the Resurrected Lord wanted to transmit to them.
Their conduct after Pentecost was entirely other; they went out filled with fervour preaching to the multitudes, without fear of arrest or persecution. “With the coming of the Holy Spirit”—St. John Chrysostom affirms—“they were immediately transformed and were above all that was corporeal. For wherever the Holy Spirit is present, He makes clay men into men of gold. […] With unprotected body they took the field against all the armed, though against them all men had arbitrary power: terrors of rulers, force of arms, cities and strong walls. Without experience, without skill of the tongue, and in the condition of ordinary men, matched against juggling conjurors, against impostors, against the whole throng of sophists, of rhetoricians, of philosophers grown mouldy in the Academy and the walks of the Peripatetics, against all these they fought the battle out.”5
It was from the outpouring of the Divine Spirit that the Church began to act and expand. The Holy Spirit brought the flowering of marvels and treasures which was witnessed over centuries and inspired the courage and heroism of the martyrs, and the preaching of the Gospel throughout the world. And it is He Who continually rejuvenates the Bride of Christ, multiplying her fruits of sanctity over the face of the earth in every age.
II – The Holy Spirit in Us
Are we not, at times, powerfully moved to enthusiasm, good desires and resolutions without being able to explain the cause? At other times, we may have been feeling bitter or discouraged when, suddenly—without any action of ours—we are imbued with deep consolation. In both instances, these interior impulses came from the Holy Spirit, Who acts over our souls as He did with the Apostles, predisposing us to the practice of good and enabling us, through the might of His transforming power, to even attain heroism.
The Holy Spirit divinizes us
Tertullian’s famous saying: “O testimonium animæ naturaliter christianæ6—The testimony of the soul naturally Christian,” expresses a great truth since each soul is created in light of Our Lord Jesus Christ. However, before receiving the regenerating waters of Baptism, devoid of divine life, nature stained by original sin is a hotbed for egoism, exclusive concern with self and exaggerated attention to personal interests, resulting in the bitter experiences that human interaction has yielded over the years.
Thus, man must be “reborn of water and the Spirit” (Jn 3: 5). Filled with faith, hope and charity, he acquires a profound understanding of supernatural realities, which then reflects in the desire to practice the good and to offer himself up in sacrifice, if necessary, for the good of others. Such is the life of grace; preserved, developed and strengthened by the action of the Paraclete. In St. Augustine’s words: “God is love. Therefore God the Holy Spirit, Who proceeds from the Father, when He has been given to man, inflames him to the love of God and of his neighbour, and is Himself love.”7
How does this participation in the divine life take place? In the God-Man, supreme model of all creation, the Word serves as a support—from the Greek, hypostasis—for the union of human and divine nature. Something similar and mysterious takes place within us with the sanctifying grace received at Baptism. The role that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity fulfils in Jesus is exercised—in a proportional scale—in us by the Third Person, making us participants in the uncreated life of God and members of the Mystical Body of Christ.
Adopted as God’s children
We may claim, then, through Baptism, to have become part of the divine family. While Our Lord Jesus Christ, in His origin, is God’s only begotten Son, engendered by the Father from all eternity, we, although not begotten within the Trinity, through grace, become children of God by adoption.
To aid in grasping this lofty truth, let us imagine, for example, the difference between being adopted into a modest or a wealthy family. Given the choice, most people would opt for the second prospect, which would promise a higher social standing and a better inheritance. And yet of infinitely greater value than gaining honours or material goods is being received by God as a son. This supernatural adoption is not effected in the human way, registered in a notary’s office, without the parents being able to share their biological life with their adopted children. God, in contrast, endows us with a physical and formal participation in His own life.
Unlike clothing, which varies according to a person’s tastes and occupation, and affects merely the exterior appearance without altering the organism itself, grace qualifies the interior, clothing our soul and configuring us with Christ, according to the Apostle’s words: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me” (Gal 2: 20).
The well-known image used by theologians to explain this doctrine is that of a piece of iron put into a blazing forge and made incandescent, taking on the characteristics of the fire, while continuing to be iron. In like manner, the soul imbued with sanctifying grace is divinized, without ceasing to be human.
Our nature is inadequate to govern this divine organism
To be on par with such a gift we must act as God Himself acts. How can we rise to such a lofty requirement? At Baptism, together with sanctifying grace, God infuses virtues into the soul, which constitute the dynamic and operative element of the supernatural organism. However, although the Holy Spirit causes movements of these virtues within us, as He continually sustains, inspires and helps us with actual graces, it falls to us to use these virtues. They depend on our initiative and will—which can represent a hazard, since we are conceived in original sin.
We are thus like a child in the pilot’s seat of a passenger plane; state-of-the-art technology will be of no avail in the inexperienced hands of a child… Here, once again, the exclusive role of the Holy Spirit reveals itself, reflected in the beautiful Sequence which today’s Liturgy presents.
III – The Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Essential Aid for Spiritual Life
Having previously commented in this section on the narration of the descent of the Holy Spirit, as well as the two options for the Gospel offered by Holy Church for this Solemnity,8 let us focus on the Sequence, the celebrated Veni Sancte Spiritus.
Come, Holy Spirit, come! And from Thy celestial home, shed a ray of light divine! Come, Father of the poor! Come, source of all our store! Come, within our bosoms shine!
The ray of light referred to here is an image of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which will be detailed in the verses of the Sequence. This oft-forgotten theme is so rich that much could be written of it to benefit the faithful. We have heard of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, perhaps repeatedly—but do we in fact know what they are? They are infused habits, which act over the virtues, fortifying them, making them more robust and bringing them to their full development.
Let yourself be led…
The movement of the gifts does not belong to man, but the Divine Holy Spirit as the sole cause. In the same way that a child would require the guidance of an experienced pilot to keep the passenger plane in flight, God, in infusing the gifts into our soul, becomes our guide, placing the most opportune help at our disposal to overcome our incapacity to govern a supernatural organism that infinitely surpasses us. The soul only needs to let itself be led…
To better understand the action of the virtues in the soul, let us call to mind the classic figure of a small child walking while clasping its mother’s hand. Subject to the inexperience of its age, it is undeniably the child who is walking, albeit supported by its mother’s aid. However, if the mother, concerned for the child’s wellbeing decides to carry it, the situation changes completely. The effort of walking now depends solely on her will, and no longer on the baby’s unsure steps. This second scenario is a pale image of the beneficent action of the gifts. The Holy Spirit “carries us in His arms,” “elevating with His illuminations and special motions, our own way of thinking, desiring and acting,”9 protecting us from all the dangers that surround us in our lives.
Sole light and consolation of hearts
Furthermore, the Holy Spirit enriches our intellectual capacity, granting us the necessary light to grasp the truths of the Faith. In addition to shedding rays of His light on our intelligence, the Consoler also illuminates our will or heart, and under this luminosity we are led to desire what is right. Without it, we stray from the path traced by Revelation and our love is side-tracked, leading to what St. Paul describes in his Epistle to the Romans in this Solemnity’s second reading: “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom 8: 8). By “flesh” is not only understood that which contravenes the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue; it also designates the naturalistic and human consideration of reality, in which material concerns monopolize our attention. The Holy Spirit elevates our thoughts, freeing us from slavery to the laws of the flesh.
Thou, of comforters the best; Thou, the soul’s most welcome guest; sweet refreshment here below; In our labour, rest most sweet; grateful coolness in the heat, solace in the midst of woe.
Dwelling within us, the Divine Spirit brings effective aid to our soul. All of our good movements come from Him. But since He is Humility in essence, He acts discreetly, freely bestowing treasures upon us from His infinite riches, like someone possessed of great wealth who opens a bank account for another, and deposits a generous sum for him there.
He is also our sweet refreshment, because He is the only font that can furnish us with true peace and inner consolation. In fact, in moments of distress in daily life, solace can only be found in Him Who changes tears into true joy.
Sublime example of the necessity for petition
O most blessed Light divine, shine within these hearts of Thine, and our inmost being fill!
There are certain actions of the Divine Spirit that do not need to be requested. For example, when a child is baptized, grace acts on its own, without any solicitation from the recipient. Nevertheless, on other occasions, the Holy Spirit desires supplication. The Apostles were gathered together in prayer for nine days (cf. Acts 1: 14; 2: 1) awaiting His coming, as Our Lord had commanded them (cf. Acts 1: 4).
If Our Lady had not been in the Cenacle to intercede for them, imploring the descent of the Holy Spirit, how much longer would His coming have been delayed? Following the example of Mary Most Holy, before beginning any activity, let us pray to the Paraclete, beseeching that He entirely possess and dominate everything that we do.
A power surpassing that of the human creature
Where Thou art not, we have naught, nothing good in deed or thought, nothing free from taint of ill.
At Pentecost, a superabundant infusion of the gifts of the Holy Spirit was worked in the Apostles, so that they went out proclaiming the Gospel in their own tongue while others heard them in their respective languages (cf. Acts 2: 7-8), for it was the Holy Spirit Who spoke through the Twelve and Who was heard in the souls of the people.
If it were not for His marvellous action, human interaction would become unbearable. He produces reciprocal understanding, and causes perfect fluency in a single and common language of love among God’s children, for mutually beneficial dealings among them.
Nothing is impossible for the Holy Spirit!
Heal our wounds, our strength renew; on our dryness pour Thy dew; wash the stains of guilt away.
The grace of the Divine Spirit can purify even those who have spent their entire lives on the tortuous paths of impurity and error, making them clearer and more limpid than a Seraph! If this affirmation seems too bold, consider St. Mary Magdalene. Immersed in sin, after her first conversion to which—according to tradition—she was not faithful, falling into an even worse state, she was sanctified in such a way that today her name is at the head of the virgins invoked in the Litany of All Saints. Does not the Holy Spirit do what He wills? When we feel the need to make due reparation for some fault, we too should not hesitate to ask Him to descend, transform and cleanse us! Only He can teach the way of salvation to those who have been lost on the paths of sin!
Bend the stubborn heart and will; melt the frozen, warm the chill; guide the steps that go astray.
A similar phenomenon can occur when an unresponsive field of apostolate becomes fruitful, or when obstinate moral defects are decisively overcome. There are countless instances where persons who seemed inflexibly hardened in error suddenly yielded their opinion by the action of the Holy Spirit. Also, souls dominated by the scourge of indifference or apathy, having lost the taste for spiritual things and having become cold in relation to God, are only effectively enkindled by the Holy Spirit.
On the faithful who adore, and confess Thee evermore, in Thy sevenfold gift descend; Give them virtue’s sure reward; give them Thy salvation, Lord; give them joys that never end.10
We must implore the seven sacred gifts for ourselves! They are essential to fulfilling the specific mission reserved for each one of us. With their aid, step by step, the virtues acquire a note of perfection which, due to our insufficiency, they would never otherwise attain. Conversely, if the gifts do not act, everything will unfold with the mark of our own limitations…
Without the state of grace, the acts we practice, no matter how heroic they appear, will be deprived of supernatural merit, being limited to the mere value of our deficient human nature. But if we do not resist the Consoling Spirit, He will grant us eternal salvation at the end of our earthly pilgrimage.
IV – Come, Holy Spirit!
The teachings contained in the Solemnity of Pentecost show us our very great need to grow in devotion to the Holy Spirit, called by a prominent theologian of the twentieth century, Fr. Antonio Royo Marín, ‘the great unknown,’11 and Who could also be described as ‘the great forgotten.’
From the moment we awake, we should ask His intervention in all our activities of the day, in accordance with the points contemplated in this Liturgy’s Sequence. Nothing can discourage one who is filled with the Holy Spirit! Let us be edified by the martyrs’ integrity—they who remained steadfast in the Faith, like St. Lawrence who was burnt alive on a grill. Although we may not experience sufferings like theirs, we are subjected to the martyrdom of daily life, with its deceptions, disappointments and difficult relationships—perhaps even within our own family. Whatever our circumstances, we should be certain that the solution for every anguish, affliction or trial is in the light of the Holy Spirit.
If we live in this world not according to the flesh, but the Spirit, following St. Paul’s counsel—“All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom 8: 14)—we will perceive that all of the torments that assault us are insignificant in comparison with our hope in the wonder of the Resurrection, when we will recover our own flesh, at last glorious and transformed.
Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur…
On this Solemnity closing the Easter cycle, we should surrender ourselves entirely to the Divine Holy Spirit, beseeching Him to care for us, as is prayed in the opening prayer: “with the divine grace that was at work when the Gospel was first proclaimed, fill now once more the hearts of believers.”12 Let us ardently desire to participate in the same joy felt by the Apostles, in the Cenacle, at Pentecost! Let us pray that the same readiness to bring the Kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the ends of the world shine also in contemporary days! May we see the face of the earth enkindled by a fire of love like that announced by Jesus: “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled” (Lk 12: 49). This is our great desire! That this fire spread in all its splendour, to instil new life in the Holy Church: “Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem Terræ” (Ps 103: 30), so that Our Lady may proclaim: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart triumphed!” ◊
