XVIII — THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST

Presence of God. — O Holy Spirit, who worked with such fullness in the Most Holy Soul of Jesus, deign to take the direction of my poor soul.

Meditation

1 — In Sacred Scripture the Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of Christ” (Rom. 8:9); this expression is rich in meaning. Christ is the Incarnate Word, made man, and yet He always remains the Word, the Son of God, from whom, as from the Father, the Holy Spirit proceeds; therefore it can rightly be said that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, precisely because Christ’s Person is none other than the Word. But when one speaks of Christ, one means to speak of Him not only insofar as He is God, but above all insofar as He is Man, that is, insofar as He is the Incarnate Word; now, even in this sense, one can say that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. We know in fact that the divine Paraclete, with the Father and the Son, dwells in all souls in grace, and not only dwells in them, but dwells there with delight; indeed, His delight is all the greater the higher the degree of grace He finds in a soul, because where grace is more abundant there is a more intense and luminous reflection of God’s nature and goodness. For this very reason the Holy Spirit took immense delight in the soul of Mary Most Holy, which, already full of grace, went on growing from fullness to fullness. Yet the grace possessed by Mary was only a pale reflection of that possessed by Jesus, a grace theologians call “infinite.”

If, then, Jesus possesses grace in an infinite manner, one can say that the Holy Spirit delights in Christ’s soul in an infinite way and dwells there as in His preferred temple. This is precisely how the encyclical Mystici Corporis expresses it, affirming that the divine Paraclete “takes His delight in dwelling in the soul of the Redeemer as in His preferred temple.” And if one can affirm that the Holy Spirit is ours because He dwells in our souls sanctified by grace, infinitely more can one say that He is “of Christ,” whose Most Holy Soul possesses grace in an immeasurable measure.

2 — The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ and dwells in Him as in His preferred temple. The Holy Spirit is in Christ’s soul to bear it continually toward God, to lead it to the fulfillment of its redemptive mission, to urge it to adhere to the will of the heavenly Father. We see this concretely in the Gospel where St. Luke, after describing Jesus’ baptism, in which the Holy Spirit “descended upon Him in bodily shape, as a dove” (3:22), adds: “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert” (4:1). Here is an explicit declaration of the fullness without measure with which the Holy Spirit dwelt in Jesus’ soul, a fullness that undoubtedly goes back to the very first instant of the Savior’s life and of which God wished to give us a sensible proof at the moment of His baptism; and here too is a clear example of what the Holy Spirit worked unceasingly in Jesus’ Soul, inspiring all His actions and guiding Him to the fulfillment of His redemptive mission, according to St. Paul: “Christ through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God” (Heb. 9:14). If we wish to understand more deeply this mysterious action of the divine Paraclete in Jesus’ soul, we must think of what He works in a soul that has reached transforming union. St. John of the Cross teaches that, in this most lofty state, the Holy Spirit invades the soul now fully docile to His motion, directs it and moves it in all its actions, ceaselessly impelling it toward God by means of perfect adherence to His holy will. Immeasurably more than this - because in an immeasurably fuller way - the Holy Spirit worked in Christ’s Soul, which was most docile to Him and stood under His impulse in the most perfect manner. The divine Spirit encounters this sublime creature, the Soul of Jesus: He invades it, directs it, moves it to the fulfillment of its mission, and bears it into God with a most powerful impulse, precisely because it stands totally under the governance of His motion.

Colloquy

“O Holy Spirit, your clemency, your ineffable love, kept the Son of God fastened to the wood of the most holy Cross, for neither nails nor cords could have held Him bound without the bond of charity. And then, when Christ lifted up on high returned to the Father, You, Holy Spirit, were sent into the world with the power of the Father, with the wisdom of the Son, and with your own clemency, to strengthen the way of doctrine that Christ left in the world... O Holy Spirit, come into my heart; by your power draw it to You, true God; grant me charity with holy fear; preserve me from every evil thought; warm me and inflame me with your most sweet love, so that every suffering may seem light to me. Holy Father of mine and sweet Lord of mine, now help me in all my actions” (St. Catherine of Siena).

“O Jesus, I present to You my poor love, placing it in the arms of your burning Spirit, in the blazing furnace of your love. O my Beloved, by your divine power prepare me for spiritual combat with the weapons of your Spirit, for I place my trust not in myself but in your goodness alone.

“Everything that is not wholly yours uproot from me by your inestimable charity, so that, invited and refreshed by the living sweetness of your love, I may love none but You. May the sweet effusions of your Spirit make the burden of life brief and light for me; and do You Yourself deign not to withdraw your cooperation from my works, so that my soul may magnify You forever; may my life be consecrated to You, and my spirit exult in God my Savior; so that every thought and action may be praise and thanksgiving to You” (St. Gertrude).

O Holy Spirit, who with such fullness worked in the Most Holy Soul of Jesus, deign to work also in my poor soul and to take it entirely under your direction, so that in every interior and exterior action I may move according to your inspirations, your desires, your good pleasure.