This week we feature a chapter of Fr. Rodney's booklet

GOD THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE OBVIOUS
An Attempt to Make God a Little Less Incomprehensible and a Lot More Obvious

 

This week's chapter

THE SPIRIT OF GOD

Throughout His life on earth Jesus spoke of the Father who had sent Him, who was always with Him, and whose will He came to do. It was not until the end of his life that He began to speak about the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth whom He would ask the Father to send in His name. Before He ascended into heaven He told His apostles to go to Jerusalem to wait and pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit. On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit entered spectacularly and powerfully into the affairs and fortunes of the apostles and into the life of the Church.

From the beginning the Holy Spirit has been a mysterious presence and power in the Church that is little understood. Aside from the memorizing of the gifts and the fruits of the Holy Spirit, many have little understanding and awareness of the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church and in their own lives.

Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation and lied His whole life under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. When He began His public life with baptism in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descended upon Him. Then He was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. By the power of the Holy Spirit He returned to Galilee where He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath. He stood up and read from Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.” Rolling up the scroll, He handed it back to the attendant and said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” By the power of the Holy Spirit He expelled demons, healed the sick, forgave sinners and raised the dead to life. At the Last Supper He promised to send the Holy Spirit to His apostles. And before He died on the cross He said, “Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit.”

The Mystical Body of Jesus, the Church, was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and lives its life under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. St. Augustine called the Holy Spirit the soul of the Church. Just as the human soul is the principle of life of the human body, so too, the Holy Spirit is the principle of life of the Mystical Body of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the principle of unity in the Church. It is also the principle of endurance and stability, enabling it to withstand diabolical attacks from without and corrupting influences from within. CLICK HERE for the Entire Chapter