“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.
...
Among the Three Persons in the Most Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit is the least understood.
God spoke. Jesus spoke. It is assumed here that the Holy Spirit never spoke despite the Bible having three instances in which the Holy Spirit was supposed to have spoken. [2] A Bible scholar, Dan Steward, came to this conclusion [3]:
[W]e know that the Holy Spirit spoke to the apostles, but we are not told how He spoke to them.
Here are two instances when God spoke:
At Jesus' baptism, quoted without references [4]:
And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
At the Transfiguration, quoted without references [5]:
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
Here is one instance when Jesus spoke [6]:
“Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”
The Holy Spirit does not verbalize and is therefore never heard, and neither does the Holy Spirit speak to the heart or to the mind. There is a possibility that the Holy Spirit communicates only with man's spiritual side.
Just as the Holy Spirit is the least understood part of the Most Holy Trinity, so is the spiritual part of man not well understood. Quoted below without references, italics and hyperlinks is from the Catechism of the Catholic Church [7]:
362 The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual. The biblical account expresses this reality in symbolic language when it affirms that "then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." Man, whole and entire, is therefore willed by God.
363 In Sacred Scripture the term "soul" often refers to human life or the entire human person. But "soul" also refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of greatest value in him, that by which he is most especially in God's image: "soul" signifies the spiritual principle in man
364 The human body shares in the dignity of "the image of God": it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit:
....
Even without an audible voice, the Holy Spirit's messages are powerful. They move the person into action with unexpected force and intensity that transcend and overwhelm rational thought.
Contrary to actions propelled by Satan, actions moved by the Holy Spirit are never premeditated. The reason that all Satanic acts are necessarily premeditated is because Satan's power come from temptations which require a person to assent to them by exercising Free Will.
Does this mean that whenever the Holy Spirit acts, Free Will is taken away?
Of course not. Based on what was quoted above, there is a condition precedent that needs to be satisfied before the Holy Spirit will even be present. These are the words that establish it: "'If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always... [8]
Accordingly, it is only after a person chooses freely to love Christ by obeying His commandments will Christ then ask His Father for the Holy Spirit to accompany him or her.
To have the company of the Holy Spirit does not mean that a person's life is taken over entirely by the works of the Holy Spirit. The person continues to have Free Will and at any moment the person chooses to act contrary to what pleases the Father, the Holy Spirit steps away.
As long as one is alive, Satan remains close by and lays out a plethora of always-changing and never-ending temptations, making it easy for one to pick and choose, and they are all free. Like the Forbidden Fruit, they all look good and please one's narcissistic desires. Quoted from Genesis 3 without references [9]:
The woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
The action taken by Eve and Adam was not moved by the Holy Spirit. The very moment they decided to eat of the Forbidden Fruit, they were left to act in accordance with their respective Free Will.
The Holy Spirit is always with those who love Christ as Jesus promised but acts only when there is love for Christ. One's love for Christ is not always consistent or perfect. Constant efforts made to love Christ count. When one tries unceasingly to do right by God and to obey Christ's commandments, the Holy Spirit will act but not always and therein lies the mystery.
Since the Holy Spirit does not act by speaking, by putting thoughts into the mind or by moving the heart with feelings, the communication comes in the form of a burst of energy, a sudden compulsion that seemingly comes from nowhere that pushes one into action.
The completed action brings total fulfillment but it is fleeting because many would rather return to the world that is familiar, and to take charge of oneself and of things than allowing this unfamiliar, unseen and unknowable Spirit of Truth and force to take over.
The preference for worldly matters is a choice just as loving Christ by keeping His commandments is also a choice. The Holy Spirit is sensitive to the choice made, however it is made at every moment that it is made, and responds accordingly.
[1] http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/14, 15-17.
[2] https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_825.cfm
[3] Ibid.
[4] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/3, 17.
[5] http://www.usccb.org/bible/mark/9, 7.
[6] http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/22, 48.
[7] http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2c1p6.htm, 362-4.
[8] http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/14, 15-16.
[9] http://www.usccb.org/bible/genesis/3, 6.
No comments:
Post a Comment