THE HOLY SPIRIT — THE GREAT UNKNOWN
THE UNKNOWN THIRD PERSON OF THE HOLY TRINITY
Of the three Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the uncreated Godhead is the most unknown, the most unstudied, the most unapproached, the most ‘unbefriended’ and the most unbeckoned; so much so that he was described by St. Jose Maria Escriva in his homily for the Pentecost Sunday of 25th May 1969 as the Great Unknown. Most Christians are acquainted with God the Father and make supplications directly to him, especially when they pray the Lord’s Prayer. There are also several other prayers, invocations or devotions that draw many into a direct relationship with God the Father. There are as well countless forms of devotions and prayers that link the faithful with Jesus Christ in a personal relationship, such as devotions to the Eucharist, the Sacred Heart, the Divine Mercy, the Precious Blood and so on. But not so many among us Catholic and non-Catholics, have a special affection, affinity or personal relationship and friendship with the Holy Spirit. The purpose of this devotional series is to attempt bridge this devotional deficit, by, again attempting to draw the attention of Christ’s faithful, to the necessity of devotion to the Holy Spirit — hence the general title of this series.
SO LITTLE IS KNOWN AND DONE ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT
In the course of reading up for this series, I visited a College Library in Rome (the headquarters of Catholicism) which houses about ten thousand books, but sadly, in the section for the Holy Spirit, there were only four books, three small pamphlets and a book-size commentary. This incident became for me a confirmation of the need to seek in some way to draw attention to the Holy Spirit. It is a clear attestation of the fact that so little has been done about the Holy Spirit and so little is actually known about him, or rather, so little has been sought about him and from him. However, since everything is ultimately ordered by God, we can also very comfortably say that: so little among us have been given access to the knowledge of and friendship with the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Blessed Trinity.
Apart from the usual invitatory and introductory invocation of the Holy Spirit at the beginning of some prayer sessions, the greater majority of us Christians do not pray to the Holy Spirit or have any rapport or personal liaison with him as a unique person, as the third person of the Holy Trinity. This hidden nature or invisibility of God the Holy Spirit is also visible in the liturgical life of the Catholic Church. He has only one feast and one public devotion, namely: the Feast of Pentecost and the Novena to the Holy Spirit that precedes it. Unfortunately, the post Vatican II liturgical reforms, abrogated the Octave of Pentecost, which hitherto proceeded the feast. It is also curios to note that, of the 266 popes that have shepherded the Church for the past 2,000 years, only two encyclicals have been written on the Holy Spirit. These are: Divinum Illud Munus of Leo XIII in 1897 and Dominum et Vivificantem of John Paul II in 1986.
But this is not to be seen as an error or a disregard for the third person of the Trinity, because it is true that great treasures and true riches are usually hidden from the many. But the irony of it is that, just as it is the silent waters that usually run deep, this invisible Divine Spirit is the substance and power of the Godhead. He is the divine helper which the Godhead graciously willed to man, as a lifelong indwelling companion, after the ascension of Christ, the Godman. Given that the Holy Spirit is the font of a fruitful and joyful Christian life, it is disconcerting and disquieting to see that no so many have personal devotion to Him.
SO FEW ENJOY FELLOWSHIP AND FRIENDSHIP WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT
Though he is the fountain and power-source of the Christian life, it is ironical to see that only very few Christians enjoy friendship and fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Though the Holy Spirit is a distinct person of the Godhead, distinguished from God the Father and God the Son with the tittle of ‘third person’ it is curious to note that not many Christians realise that he is a unique person of the Godhead. Though so many are attached to God the Son and some to God the Father, not many are in like manner attached to God the Holy Spirit. Very few enjoy nearness to him and friendship with him. Part of what creates this situation is the fact that so many of us either forget or do not realise at all that the Holy Spirit is a distinct person of the Holy Trinity and that he can be besought, befriended and espoused as a personal friend in a personal relationship.
Even among those of us who grew up in the bosom of the Catholic Church and were instructed with the traditional question and answer catechism which made it clear to us that there are three persons in the One God and that these three persons, though equal in dignity, are unique in their persons and in their functions; many no longer or may have not at all, sought a closer relationship with the Holy Spirit. To some people, the Holy Spirit is but an abstract force, an abstruse supernatural power, a transcendental spiritual reality that is not accessible or approachable to man. But this is not what the Church, our Mother and our Teacher taught us. The Church teaches that the Holy Spirit is a person and that He speaks through the prophets. So, he is real and near. He is accessible and reachable. He can speak to us. It is true that the Holy Spirit is an immaterial, intangible being, the essence and substance of the divinity, but he is also available to us. He can relate with us in a personal way. As a matter of fact, he is the ultimate gift given to us by God, as a supernatural helper. He is that help from above. He is the helper given to us from on high. He is our indwelling helper. The Holy Spirit is the helper sent to dwell within each and every one of us and to help us from within.
THE PRE-EMINECE OF THE INVISIBLE OVER THE VISIBLE
It is true that the Holy Spirit, the Divine Spouse of the Blessed Virgin, is the unseen God! He is the invisible One among us. Many people are not drawn to practice devotion to the Holy Spirit because they do not find any concrete representation of him or a corresponding figure for him in the realm of nature, such as we see in the Fatherhood of God the Father and in the Sonship of God the Son, or even in the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin. Yet we should always have in mind that the invisible things are even more real than the visible things. As we see, both in the natural order and in the realm of the supernatural, the invisible things take priority over the visible things. The unseen things are usually more important than the visible things, at least to the degree that visible things are more often than not dependent on invisible things. When you consider the invisible things in our lives, you will see that they out-value the visible things. In like manner, when you befriend the Invisible Spirit of God, you will see that it is the true and only indispensable principle of life and living.
We recall that it was by means of this invisible Spirit that creation was called into being. It was from the invisible that the visible was made. It was from nothing that things were made. It was by the Divine Spirit that hovered over the formless void that everything was made. It was the breath of the same Spirit that gave life to the lifeless form of Adam made from the dust of nothingness. Since everything was made by means of the unseen Spirit, everything rightly depends on the unseen Spirit. Just as supernatural realities precede and supersede natural realities, in the order of nature, the invisible things such as air and heat, the intangible things such as light and darkness, the distant things such as sun and moon, the hidden things such as the nutrients and minerals of the earth and the interior things such as the organs of the body and the faculties of the mind are more vital to life than the things within our immediate reach.
Similarly, in the supernatural order the invisible forms of faith take priority over the visible elements. In baptism we received the life of God through the washing of water but above all through the infusion of the unseen Spirit. At the incarnation, the unseen Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary and she conceived the Only-Begotten Son of God. At the Mass, the invisible Spirit descends upon bread and wine and transforms them into the body and blood of Christ. Evidences of the action of the invisible Spirit are everywhere around us and the greatest of them is that the Holy Spirit makes his dwelling the souls of all those who devoutly seek him.
Michael Richmond Duru
https://michaelrichmondduru.medium.com/subscribe
