1. Christ’s whole
life was lived in the Holy Spirit. St Basil states that the Spirit
was his “inseparable companion in everything” (De Spir. S., 16) and
offers us this marvellous summary of Christ’s history: “Christ’s
coming: the Holy Spirit precedes; the Incarnation: the Holy Spirit
is present; miraculous works, graces and healings: through the Holy
Spirit; demons are expelled, the devil is chained: through the Holy
Spirit; forgiveness of sins, union with God: through the Holy
Spirit; resurrection of the dead: by the power of Holy Spirit”
(ibid., 19).
After meditating on Jesus’ baptism and his mission carried out in
the power of the Holy Spirit, we now wish to reflect on the
revelation of the Spirit in Jesus’ supreme “hour”, the hour of his
death and resurrection.
2. The Holy Spirit’s presence at the moment of Jesus’ death is
already presupposed by the simple fact that on the cross it is the
Son of God who dies in his human nature. If “unus de Trinitate
passus est” (DS 401), that is, if “one Person of the Trinity
suffered”, the whole Trinity is present in his passion; thus the
Father and the Holy Spirit are present as well.
However, we have to ask ourselves: what was the Holy Spirit’s
precise role in Jesus’ supreme hour? This question can only be
answered if the mystery of redemption is understood as a mystery of
love.
Sin, which is the creature’s rebellion against the Creator, had
interrupted the dialogue of love between God and his children.
In the Incarnation of the Only-begotten Son, God expresses his
faithful and passionate love for sinful humanity, to the point of
making himself vulnerable in Jesus. Sin, for its part, reveals on
Golgotha its nature as an “attack on God”, so that whenever human
beings fall back into serious sin, as the Letter to the Hebrews
says, “they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him
up to contempt” (Heb 6:6).
In handing his Son over for our sins, God reveals to us that his
loving plan precedes our every merit and abundantly surpasses all
our infidelities. “In this is love, not that we loved God but that
he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins” (1 Jn
4:10).
3. The passion and death of Jesus is an ineffable mystery of love in
which the three divine Persons are involved. The Father takes the
free and absolute initiative: it is he who loves first and, in
delivering the Son into our murderous hands, exposes his dearest
possession. As St Paul says, he “did not spare his own Son”, that
is, he did not keep him for himself as a jealously held treasure,
but “gave him up for us all” (Rom 8:32).
The Son fully shares the Father’s love and his plan of salvation:
“He gave himself for our sins ... according to the will of our God
and Father” (Gal 1:4).
And the Holy Spirit? As in the intimacy of Trinitarian life, so too
in this exchange of love which takes place between the Father and
the Son in the mystery of Golgotha, the Holy Spirit is the
Person-Love in whom the love of the Father and the Son converge.
The Letter to the Hebrews develops the image of sacrifice, stating
that Jesus offered himself “through the eternal Spirit” (Heb 9:14).
In the Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem, I showed that in this
passage “eternal Spirit” means precisely the Holy Spirit: as fire
consumed the sacrificial victims of the old ritual sacrifices, so
“the Holy Spirit acted in a special way in this absolute self-giving
of the Son of Man in order to transform this suffering into
redemptive love” (n. 40). “The Holy Spirit as Love and Gift comes
down, in a certain sense, into the very heart of the sacrifice which
is offered on the Cross. Referring here to the biblical tradition we
can say: he consumes this sacrifice with the fire of the love which
unites the Son with the Father in Trinitarian communion. And since
the sacrifice of the Cross is an act proper to Christ, also in this
sacrifice he 'receives’ the Holy Spirit” (ibid., n. 41).
In the Roman liturgy, the priest rightly prays before Communion in
these significant words: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God,
by the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit your death
brought life to the world”.
4. Jesus’ history does not end in death but leads to the glorious
life of Easter. “By his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our
Lord” was “designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of
holiness” (cf. Rom 1:4).
The resurrection is the fulfilment of the Incarnation and it too
takes place, like the Son’s birth in the world, “by the work of the
Holy Spirit”. St Paul says at Antioch in Pisidia: “We bring you the
good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has
fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus; as is also written
in the second psalm, 'You are my Son, today I have begotten you’”
(Acts 13:32).
The gift of the Holy Spirit, which the Son received in its fullness
on Easter morning, is poured out in abundance by him on the Church.
Jesus says to his disciples gathered in the Upper Room: “Receive the
Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22), and he gives this Spirit to them “as it
were through the wounds of his crucifixion: ?He showed them his
hands and his side’” (Dominum et Vivificantem, n. 24). Jesus’ saving
mission is summed up and fulfilled in communicating the Spirit to
human beings, to lead them back to the Father.
5. If the Holy Spirit’s “masterpiece” is the paschal mystery of the
Lord Jesus, a mystery of suffering and glory, through the gift of
the Spirit Christ’s disciples can also suffer and make the cross the
path to light: “per crucem ad lucem”. The Spirit of the Son gives us
the grace to have the same sentiments as Christ and to love as he
loved, to the point of offering our life for the brethren: “He laid
down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren” (1 Jn 3:16).
By communicating his Spirit to us, Christ enters our life, so that
each of us can say, like Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but
Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). Our whole life thus becomes a
continual Passover, a constant passing from death to life, until the
final Passover, when we too will pass with Jesus and like Jesus
“from this world to the Father” (Jn 13:1). In fact, St Irenaeus of
Lyons says, “those who have received and bear the Spirit of God are
led to the Word, that is, to the Son, and the Son welcomes them and
presents them to the Father, and the Father gives them
incorruptibility” (Demonst. Apost., 7).
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To the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors the Holy Father said:
I extend a special greeting to the Filipino community present at
this Audience, who are celebrating the Hundred Years of the
Declaration of Independence. May almighty God abundantly bless your
country! I warmly welcome the Pharmaceutical Group of the European
Union. I greet the priests and laity from the Diocese of
Thamarasserry, and the group of Lutheran young people from Finland.
Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors, especially
those from Ireland, Finland, Singapore, India, the Philippines and
the United States of America, I invoke the joy and peace of our
Lord.
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