The Power of The Holy Spirit

In the beginning, the Spirit of God, the giver of life, hovered over the form of lifeless matter; He swept over the waters (Gn 2:1). Thereby He made the creation possible as it came into being through the Word of God. The Word, through whom all things were made, became man, Jesus the only begotten Son of God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. As the visible image of the invisible God, He came from God in heaven. He entered our creation and returned to the Father when His mission was complete. His Passion, Death, Resurrection, and glorious Ascension fulfilled His Redemptive mission. Instead of taking His retirement, He is still present in our midst through the Holy Spirit.

Through His public ministry, Jesus reveals His intimate relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The day He was baptized by John the Baptist to start His ministry, the Holy Spirit, by whom He was conceived, descended on him like a dove. God anointed him “with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (Ac 10: 38). To us who believed in Him, He gave power to become children of God through water and the Holy Spirit. He promised to send the same Holy Spirit to His disciples after His return to the Father. Pentecost is the fulfilment of that promise at the beginning of the Church.

The Holy Spirit strengthened the faith of the apostles and other disciples, deepened their devotional life, and sharpened their ministry skills. He granted them the spirit of understanding to stay focused on Christ in carrying on Jesus’ mission of salvation. He helped the disciples to use the gifts He gave them to set them to work for the glory of God and the salvation of the world. The Holy Spirit led the disciples to confidence and courage to bear witness to the gospel even in the face of opposition. They went everywhere making disciples and baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are the fruits of their ministry.

Through our baptism we have been configured to Jesus. We have been anointed by the Holy Spirit to share in the offices of Jesus as King, Prophet, and Priest. Through confirmation we have been marked with a seal like Jesus was marked with his Father's seal. “This seal of the Holy Spirit marks our total belonging to Christ, our enrollment in his service forever, as well as the promise of divine protection in the great eschatological trial” (CCC, n. 1296), that is, God’s judgement at the end of time. As we already have been sealed, do we need to celebrate Pentecost to receive the Holy Spirit who already dwells in us?

Our Pentecost celebration is not a simple commemoration of what happened to the Apostles. The Holy Spirit is really coming once more to us to kindle again and again the fire of our baptism and confirmation because no sacrament takes away our natural inclination or our human tendency towards sin. The Holy Spirit imparts the love of God within us by changing us every day from self-centeredness to God-centeredness. As long as we are in our journey to holiness, to be able to live the perfect love of God, the Holy Spirit will continue to guide us in this journey. He needs our cooperation to let him impregnate us with the God-life of love and service to others.

The celebration of Pentecost is so unique this year. Like at the beginning of the Church, the disciples were afraid of those who killed Jesus, and locked themselves away. We too are “locked away” for fear of the challenges of our time: the pandemic, war, violence, inflation, discrimination, injustice, etc. The Holy Spirit came to free the disciples from fear. He is doing the same for us this Pentecost to strengthen our faith and trust in God by staying connected to Jesus.

It seems like we live now in an airplane where the oxygen level has dropped dangerously low. God the Father sent us His Son, Jesus, as our oxygen mask. He came down from heaven to provide us with the oxygen we need to be alive. This oxygen is the Holy Spirit who is Lord and giver of life. Putting on our own mask should be our priority, otherwise we will not be able to help anyone. How can we bring the Holy Spirit to others if we are not ourselves connected to Jesus, the provider sent by the Father? The oxygen mask image points out that God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God is still at work for our redemption.