Holy Spirit, the eternal gift.
~ Brother Thomas Paul ~
Wisdom is the incredible knowledge of the Omniscient God.
‘One who watches for her at dawn will not be disappointed, for she will be found sitting at the gate..to fix ones’ thought on her is perfect understanding.. (Wisdom6:14)
We know that Wisdom, Knowledge..Fortitude are gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 11 speaks about Jesus, the Saviour who will be a righteous judge…here the judge is not the worldly judge…it is talking about God’s salvific plan. This is the Almighty God’s regard and assurance for His children.
Lets look at the story of the leper from the Holy Bible. He believed that Jesus could heal him…that only He could heal him. That is Wisdom. It is mentioned that the sick need doctors but Jesus himself never directs anyone to a doctor. There will be amazing change in us once we attain Wisdom.
Isaiah 11 states..’A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse…from His roots a branch will bear fruit.’
Isaiah prophesied about the Saviour Jesus.
‘The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon Him…The Spirit of Wisdom and understanding..The Spirit of counsel and might…
These are the foundational verses of Christian vigour.
The Holy Spirit comes into us in Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Eucharist. We receive the Holy Spirit in these Sacraments. These three Sacraments are called the Sacraments of Initiation. But we do not understand these Sacraments. It is because of God’s initiative that we receive these Sacraments. The divinity gifted to us through these Sacraments lay latent within us. We have only turned the first page. We have not entered into it at all. We have received the gifts of the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding. It is a free gift.
In his famous encyclical, ‘The Lord,the giver of Life’, the Holy Pope John Paul II stated that the Holy Spirit is an eternal gift.
When we receive a gift, it is a created thing. We consider the Holy Spirit to be a created gift. We associate tge Holy Spirit with power, dove, water, fire and wind. These are only the symbols of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is truly a person…the life giving Creator God. We hold on only to the earthly signs and symbols. It is normal to do so but these are mere symbols. The symbol of a heavenly and uncreated gift. We see this in the Apostles Creed prayer…after saying ..we believe in Jesus Christ, we say that Mother Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit. The faith in the Holy Spirit is professed after tge birth of Jesus. The first act of the Holy Spirit is transforming the Son of God into the Son of Man. This is the Holy Spirit as a person. Only when we understand the Holy Spirit as a person can we share a personal relationship with tge Holy Spirit. This is the right time to bring to mind the Love story that we spoke about earlier. Romance with the fire? Our romance with the Holy Spirit as a person who is Love himself .
Holy Pope John Paul II speaks thus about the Holy Spirit…
The bible scholars state that it is written 365 times in the Holy Bible, ‘Do not be afraid, I am with you.’
There us a person with us who is the Holy Spirit. If we take the example of a pregnant woman…there is a person in her womb. A person within a person. Similarly the Holy Spirit exists as a person in our Spirit. When we are filled with Holy Spirit, it is similar to the state of conception. A person within a person.
The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary that she would conceive and give birth to a son and name Him Jesus. Mother Mary asked the angel, ‘Hiw can this be? I am a Virgin. The angel told her, ” The Holy Spirit will come to you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you. (Luke1:35) which means Mary will conceive by power of the Holy Spirit. Pope John Paul II says that in the old testament it is not written that the Holy Spirit came upon a woman. But in the New testament it is written that the power of the Holy Spirit of the Lord came upon mother Mary and Mary conceived. The Lord has given us the Holy Spirit who is a person. The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding is the result of such an indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit if the Lord is upon Him refers to the Holy Catholic Church as the body of Christ…also upon all God’s children who are in the body of Christ.
