The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity. With the Father and the Son, he is adored and glorified. The word “Spirit” comes from “the Hebrew word ruah, which, in its primary sense, means breath, air, wind” (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC] 691). While conversing with Nicodemus, Jesus likens the Holy Spirit to the wind (cf. Jn 3:8). To be sure, one can also attribute the terms “holy” and “spirit” to the Father and the Son, but by joining these words together, “Scripture, liturgy, and the theological language designate the inexpressible person of the Holy Spirit, without any possible equivocation with other uses of the terms ‘spirit’ and ‘holy’ ” (CCC 691).

Jesus also uses the term “Paraclete” for the Holy Spirit, which is a Greek word meaning “intercessor” or “comforter.” The Spirit is the one called to our side—to plead our cause for us. Therefore, he also is known as the Advocate. He is likewise called the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of the promise, the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Glory.

No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God (cf. 1 Cor 2:11). It is the Spirit who reveals God to us, that is, his Christ, who is his Word, his living Utterance. The Spirit does not speak on his own, but only what he hears from the Christ. Such divine self-effacing on the part of the Spirit “explains why ‘the world cannot receive [him], because it neither sees him nor knows him,’ while those who believe in Christ know the Spirit because he dwells with them” (CCC 687). The Spirit is also known through Sacred Scripture, Tradition, the Magisterium, the Church’s liturgies, individual prayer, the charisms and ministries of the Church, the apostolic and missionary life of the Church, and the witness of the saints.

For further reading on the Holy Spirit, please read CCC 687-688, 691-693. May God bless you.

Fr. Ian

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches us that when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, his body was glorified. He manifested powers he had not previously manifested such as altering his appearance (cf. Jn 20:14, Lk 24:15-16), passing through locked doors (cf. Jn 20:19,26), disappearing from their sight (cf. Lk 24:31), and yet still eating with them (cf. Lk 24:41-43) and enabling Thomas to put his finger into his hands and his hand into his side to reveal that his body remained real (cf. Jn 20:27-28). Nonetheless, our Lord’s body reaches its zenith forty days after his resurrection when he ascends into heaven to take his seat at the right hand of God. The difference between Christ’s risen glory and his ascended glory is intimated in his words to Mary Magdalene on the morning of the Resurrection when he says to her to stop holding onto him, because he has not yet ascended to the Father (cf. Jn 20:17). This difference manifests itself in the historical and transcendent event of the Ascension.

Christ’s ascension also reveals the truth of his incarnation. He says to Nicodemus, “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man” (Jn 3:13). The human race has no way of entering heaven on its own. Still, Jesus, our new and eternal high priest, forever lives to make intercession for us at the Father’s right hand, so that where he has gone, we hope to follow. When we say “seated at the Father’s right hand,” we mean that Jesus, the coeternal God, is seated next to the Father in heaven in his incarnate and glorified body.

Our Lord’s enthronement in heaven marks his entry into his kingdom, where he receives dominion and glory, where all peoples serve him, and which is an everlasting kingdom. It was after our Lord ascended into heaven that his apostles went forth to proclaim a kingdom that will never end.

May God bless you. For further reading, please read CCC 659-667.

Fr. Ian