The Transforming Work Of the Spirit

he April 13 issue of Newsweek confronts us with an unlikely question: “With more Americans feeling the Holy Spirit in their lives, what happens to the Trinity?"

It is not difficult to find the answer. Just remember the hymn the Church sings whenever she wishes to implore the Holy Spirit: Veni Sancte Spiritus; Per te sciamus da Patrem; Noscamus atque Filium (Come, Holy Spirit; through thee may we the Father know; through thee the eternal Son).

The end of the Easter season brings the feast of the Holy Spirit, the feast of Pentecost. The sending of the Holy Spirit completes the revelation of the divine Trinity, by disclosing that between the Father and the Son exists a third divine person. He is the person of love because, as St. Thomas Aquinas helpfully remarks in his Summa Theologiae, both Father and Son love through him.

In the Church's earliest preaching, its pastors taught about the Trinity. For example, consider Paul's discourse in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia. He reminds his listeners of what is said in the second psalm: “You are my son; this day I have begotten you” (Ac 13:33). Within the Blessed Trinity, the eternal generation of the Son discloses the unique way that God is Father. That is to say, God is eternally Father by reason of his relationship to his only Son. This truth of divine faith embodies a mystery of salvation to which Jesus himself testifies when he says in the Gospel of John: “No one comes to the Father but through me” (Jn 14:6).

The Christian faith requires us to confess the blessed Trinity of persons. Only through the revelation of Jesus Christ is “Father” known to be literally the name of God. Apart from this precious gift of divine truth, we would be left to conclude that when we call God “Father” we are only using a metaphor, as we do when we say “The Lord is my shepherd.” Even though God transcends all human expression of fatherhood, God still remains uniquely Father. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it simply, “no one is father as God is Father” (239).

Christ's revelation of the Father is inseparably linked to the grace of Christ that saves us. Thus every Christian grace is filial, for no one is saved without being united with Christ, and through this union, entering into a filial relation with the Father. And so, Christ consoles his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Have faith in God and faith in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places” (Jn 14:1).

Sons and daughters possess a home and an inheritance. Every time we speak a word of personal address to God, we are caught up into the knowledge and love that form the inner life of the Trinity. Every time we utter “Our Father,” we have already found our dwelling place, the one that Christ has prepared for those whom he has redeemed by his blood.

Personal love comes only from a God who is personal, indeed tri-personal. The real and exciting truth is that the persons of the Blessed Trinity first dwell in us before we come to find our proper dwelling place with them. “The indwelling of the Trinity in the souls of the just” is not so much a statement about where God is as it is an expression of a truth about our knowing and loving the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Such an extraordinary opportunity can easily incline us to ask with the Apostle Thomas, “How can we know the way?” Then, Jesus comes immediately to reassure us that he is the way, the truth, and the life. One thinks immediately of the priestly office: to govern (to show the way), to teach (the truth), and to sanctify (to bring new life).

God never fails to call some men to exercise this sacred ministry, so that the world will still have preachers of the Blessed Trinity. How else can we discover that the God of Jesus Christ is not merely a benevolent power that governs the universe, but a loving Father who from all eternity begets a Son? How else can we say at the center of the eucharistic sacrifice, “Our Father”?

In his letter to priests on Holy Thursday (1998), the Holy Father spoke about the transforming work of the Spirit. One effect of this love is the priesthood. This grace conforms some of our brothers to Christ in a special way, disposing them to cry out from the bottom of their hearts, “Abba, Father.” This grace is not for the priest alone. Every member of the Church is a beneficiary of a priestly vocation, and so we are encouraged to support our priests and to foster among young men the desire to surrender themselves to the unique work of this Trinitarian mystery. With more priests who are strong men of faith, then we will never need to ask, “What happened to the Trinity?”

Senior writer Father Romanus Cessario OP is a professor of systematic theology at St. John's Seminary, Brighton, Massachusetts.