Of the three Persons in the community life of God the one that tends to get least attention is the Holy Spirit. Perhaps this is because we find it easier to relate to Jesus who became human. We also have some experience of what it means to have a father. The idea of Spirit is more nebulous. And yet if it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit we would not be able to live the Christian life. In the Holy Spirit we have received a wonderful gift. The Holy Spirit does many necessary things for us. Here are four:
(1) The Holy Spirit is our helper. We cannot live the Christian life on our own power and strength. Jesus knew that what he was asking us to do was humanly impossible. He knew we would need divine help. This is why he and his Father gave us the gift of their Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our energiser, the tiger in our tanks! The Holy Spirit is the one who empowers us to live like Jesus in our daily lives. The Holy Spirit is also the one who helps us to pray.
(2) The Holy Spirit enlightens us. Many of the traditional prayers we say to the Holy Spirit focus on inspiration, understanding and enlightenment. This is because we associate the Holy Spirit with the gift of wisdom and discernment. The Holy Spirit is the one we naturally turn to when we need to be inspired and when we have important decisions to make. When it comes to guidance and to the ability to see the hand of God at work in our lives we are dependent on the Holy Spirit.
(3) The Holy Spirit transforms us. We are invited to become like Jesus. Our destiny is to share in the very life of God. The problem is that we all have hurts, bias and selfish tendencies within us that need to be healed and purified. This healing and purification is the work of the Holy Spirit. One of the symbols we use to describe the action of the Holy Spirit is fire. Fire refines and burns. The flame of the Holy Spirit within us is a refining fire. It burns away the evil in our hearts so that we can become like Jesus.
(4) The Holy Spirit unites us. The Holy Spirit is often referred to as the bond of love. This is a beautiful description of the Holy Spirit. In the same way that a child is the bond of love between a husband and wife so the Holy Spirit is the bond of love between the Father and the Son in the life of God. The Holy Spirit is also the bond of love between Jesus and us and indeed between the members of the Christian community. The Holy Spirit is the one who links us up, who makes us into a family. The Holy Spirit is the source of unity between us. This is why we say that the Church was born as a community on the first Pentecost. There is a divine energy flowing between us, holding us together, allowing us to affect one another, even when we are physically separated. This divine energy is the Holy Spirit.
To have a divine person in our lives to help us, to enlighten us, to transform us and to unite us is surely a gift to take hold of, depend on and cherish.