ET IN SPIRITUS SANCTUS

Lately I've been pondering the subject of the Holy Spirit, Le saint Esprit, der heilige Geist, the Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the Trinity. On one Catholic forum I saw that someone had written, 'We Catholics tend to forget about the Holy Spirit: we have the Father, the Son and the Blessed Mother.' In slightly more sophisticated theological discussions, I have been seeing the Spirit referred to as the dynamic of love between the Father and the Son into which we can be drawn through prayer. In the New Testament, the Spirit is given in curiously specific ways at curiously specific moments, just as 'peace' becomes something very specific: leave your peace in the house you visit, but if it does not receive you well, take your peace back again. Jesus breathes on the apostles and they receive the Holy Spirit. 

It's all very confusing. How can the Spirit be both a spiritus -- a pneuma, a ruach -- a cloud, a wisp, a breeze, present but intangible like a gas or an odour, and a person? Is the Spirit a He or an It? One place this leads us, of course, is to the Creed, which tells us that the Spirit 'proceeds from the Father and the Son'. It did not always do so: the gestation of that phrase in the Creed was a long and horribly difficult one, as the Wikipedia article on the subject shows. 

So I thought I'd look up a Church Father or two -- in our busy lives we tend to ignore them, which is foolish of us. If Christians read the past scholars and thinkers of their faith as carefully and assiduously as devout Jews do those of theirs, our religious life would be less simplistic and infinitely richer. St Basil did not answer my question but he did write something very fine which, through a metaphor, answered another of my constant questions: how can God, creator of the Whole, be present to little me, a speck on a speck, a breadcrumb on the skirt of the universe? Here is Basil:

Simple in himself, the Spirit is manifold in his mighty works. The whole of his being is present to each individual; the whole of his being is present everywhere. Though shared in by many, he remains unchanged; his self-giving is no loss to himself. Like the sunshine, which permeates all the atmosphere, spreading over land and sea, and yet is enjoyed by each person as though it were for him alone, so the Spirit pours forth his grace in full measure, sufficient for all, and yet is present as though exclusively to everyone who can receive him. To all creatures that share in him he gives a delight limited only by their own nature, not by his ability to give.  . . . .

As clear, transparent substances become very bright when sunlight falls on them and shine with a new radiance, so also souls in whom the Spirit dwells, and who are enlightened by the Spirit, become spiritual themselves and a source of grace for others.

From the Spirit comes foreknowledge of the future, understanding of the mysteries of faith, insight into the hidden meaning of Scripture, and other special gifts. Through the Spirit we become citizens of heaven, we are admitted to the company of the angels, we enter into eternal happiness and abide in God. 

The question of the Spirit's Personhood remains; one keeps looking, and thinking. But meanwhile, we know that He is accessible to us, that He is our Comforter and Advocate, that whenever we pray, it is He that prays in and through us and makes it possible for us to pray at all. Perhaps we have trouble seeing Him clearly not because He is far away but because He is so close. Veni, creator Spiritus.