The Holy Spirit

Joe, your Pentecost reading reminded of something I wanted to ask the forum. The Holy Spirit, is it an entity, a force or what?

It is one of the nagging questions that really hasn't stopped me from Believing but how is it defined.

We say there are three person in one, so it makes you think that the Holy Ghost is an entity like the Father and the Son but.....

When we read the NT, the Pentecost for example, the Holy Spirit seems to be more like a FORCE from God, like the force that would cause a miracle. If we are filled with the Holy Spirit what are we saying?

The notion of holiness is in the very name of this Divine Person: indeed, we give to him the name of Holy Spirit. One may ask why the Father and the Son are not called, "Holy Father" and "Holy Son"

Definitely, one could call them so, since all the Divine Trinity is Holy: our God is a God three times "Holy" (cf. Isaiah 6, 3, for example) In the same way, Jesus calls his Father: "Holy Father" (John 17, 11). And the Christ is called: "the Holy One of God" (Mark 1, 24). The early Church made use of and spread the use of the term, Holy Spirit, for the third Person of the Divine Trinity. It is therefore to this Person that we must attribute the holiness of God, no in virtue of a merely human decision, but of course why the Church is constantly guided and attended by this same Spirit about whom we want to speak here.

The holiness consists in the constantly and always lived perfection. It is what Jesus wanted to affirm when he said: "You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt. 5, 48) Now God alone is perfect: as much as the eternal being who exists by himself, without depending on another being than himself, God is the only being who is veritably perfect. The holiness of God is therefore his fundamental attribute, because directly founded on his eternal and independent existence from any other being than himself. It allows to say therefore, if the third Person of the Divine Trinity is called Holy Spirit, that this same Person is living in the heart and in the very foundation of all the Divine Trinity.

We commonly say that the Father is the Principle of the whole Divine Trinity, that he is the Principle without Principle, that is to say that he is the divine Person from whom the Son is Only Begotten and from whom the Holy Spirit proceeds. But the unique "motor" of the generation of Son by the Father, it is properly Love, this mutual Love of Father and of Son which is precisely personalized in the Holy Spirit. So, when the Father begets his Son, he always does it in Love, that is to say in the Spirit who unites the Father and the Son.

Otherwise said, even though, truly, the Father is the Principle of all the Divine Trinity, the Holy Spirit, as much as "motor" of the generation of the Son by the Father, can be rightly considered like the heart and the foundation of all the Divine Trinity. The Spirit of God is therefore the Divine Person who is Holy by excellence, although this excellence proceeds from the Father, principle of the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit.

Speaking about the holiness of the Spirit of God, we are "plunging", so to speak, in this eternity of the divinity. This passes over our finite mind: our mind is limited and we could not understand this by a natural way. But the intervening grace of God could help us to catch sight of a little of this Mystery. That's why the grace is first a grant of acquaintance, not an acquaintance which would be, intrinsically, intellectual, but well an acquaintance of love. The grace allows us to know Love of the three times Holy God. "So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." (1 John 4, 16) "O righteous Father, the world has not known thee, but I have known thee; and these know that thou hast sent me. I made known to them thy name, and I will make it known, that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17, 25-26)

This acquaintance of love is a gracious acquaintance. If we want to receive it, let us ask it: God doesn't have any other desire than to see us becoming Saints through his Spirit. To know the holiness of God, it is to live this holiness every day of our life, it is to be a believer, day after day, in the Spirit of God who guides his Church. In order to always and constantly live the holiness of God, there is no better means than the Eucharistic Communion. There is all the life of the three times Holy God: "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me." (John 6, 57)

Who says Eucharist, says Resurrection: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6, 54)

I saved this one too.

So, there are two holies that can be present in our lives, the Holy Spirit and Christ.

I know some Fundamentalist that really put an emphasis on the Holy Spirit, so much so that it makes me nervous. At times it is like a power they have harnessed that they can use to affect the natural world. Maybe I am misunderstanding them.

On a personal note you mentioned the eternal presence. The idea that eternal means without time or, always present has helped me a great deal. When I attend Mass I focus on being in the present. As Lewis said, "the Present is as close as we can get to eternity in this world."