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My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Continuing our consideration of the Nicene Creed adopted at the Council of Nicaea held 1,700 years ago in the year 325, we have previously reflected on what it means to believe in someone or something and specifically what we believe about God the Father and God the Son. In this reflection, we will consider the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
There are two references to the Holy Spirit in the Nicene Creed. The first is in the section about Jesus Christ, when we say that “by the Holy Spirit [Jesus] was incarnate of the Virgin Maryand became man.” The second reference is more specifically about the Holy Spirit when we say, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son,who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.” There is a lot of theological substance packed into that one sentence.
God is at times referred to as “Lord” in the Old Testament and Jesus is called “Lord” in the New Testament, so when we say that we “believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord,” we affirm that the Holy Spirit is divine and is consubstantial with the Father and the Son as the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. As we read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “The One whom the Father has sent into our hearts, the Spirit of His Son, is truly God. Consubstantial with the Father and the Son, the Spirit is inseparable from them, in both the inner life of the Trinity and His gift of love for the world. In adoring the Holy Trinity, life-giving, consubstantial, and indivisible, the Church’s faith also professes the distinction of persons. When the Father sends his Word, He always sends his Breath. In their joint mission, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct but inseparable. To be sure, it is Christ who is seen, the visible image of the invisible God, but it is the Spirit who reveals him” (CCC 689).
Because the Spirit is invisible, some may question His existence. When I speak to candidates for confirmation, I tell them that there are things that we cannot see that are quite real, like the air we breathe. We also cannot see wi-fi, so our cell phones and computers use bars to show when a signal is present and how strong it is. Similarly, the Holy Spirit uses different symbols to signify His presence. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit appears as cloud and light. “At the end of the flood, whose symbolism refers to Baptism, a dove released by Noah returns with a fresh olive-tree branch in its beak as a sign that the earth was again habitable. When Christ comes up from the water of his baptism, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, comes down upon Him and remains with Him” (CCC 701).
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes down upon the Apostles as tongues of fire. The Holy Spirit’s action in the sacrament of baptism is signified by water. The symbolism of anointing with consecrated oil, called Sacred Chrism, also signifies the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of confirmation and in the ordination of priests and bishops. The Holy Spirit is also given through the imposition or laying on of hands.
The phrase professing that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son” has been the source of much controversy and division in the Church. In Latin, the phrase “and the Son” is translated as “filioque.” The affirmation of the filioque did not appear in the original version of the Creed. Pope St. Leo I, following an ancient Latin and Alexandrian tradition, proclaimed it dogmatically in 447. The use of this formula in the Creed was gradually admitted into the Latin liturgy between the eighth and eleventh centuries. The introduction of the filioque into the Nicene by the Latin liturgy constitutes a point of disagreement with the Orthodox Churches that persists to this day. “At the outset, the Eastern tradition expresses the Father’s character as first origin of the Spirit. By confessing the Spirit as He ‘who proceeds from the Father,’ it affirms that He comes from the Father through the Son. The Western tradition expresses first the consubstantial communion between Father and Son, by saying that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque).
When we say that the Holy Spirit “has spoken through the prophets,” the faith of the Church here understands “all whom the Holy Spirit inspired in the composition of the sacred books, both of the Old and the New Testaments” (CCC 702).
Since we are all baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” our very identity as Christians is rooted in our faith in the Holy Trinity and so we look to the grace of the Holy Trinity to keep us united in faith.
May God give us this grace. Amen.