Today, as we prepare for Pentecost, we will
take a look at the symbols of the Holy Spirit. This is long, so I won’t write
my thoughts, except to say, this explains why the Holy Spirit is never pictured
as a person.
Scripture for
meditation: Acts 2: 3-5
And there appeared to them tongues as of
fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy
Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
Scripture
for reflection: Acts 11:16
And I remembered the
word of the Lord, how He used to
say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
The Catechism of the
Catholic Church teaches us: (694-701)
Water. The symbolism of water signifies the
Holy Spirit's action in Baptism, since after the invocation of the Holy Spirit
it becomes the efficacious sacramental sign of new birth: just as the gestation
of our first birth took place in water, so the water of Baptism truly signifies
that our birth into the divine life is given to us in the Holy Spirit. As
"by one Spirit we were all baptized," so we are also "made to
drink of one Spirit." Thus the Spirit is also personally the living water
welling up from Christ crucified28 as its source and welling up in
us to eternal life.
Anointing.
The symbolism of anointing with oil also signifies the Holy Spirit, to the
point of becoming a synonym for the Holy Spirit. In Christian initiation,
anointing is the sacramental sign of Confirmation, called
"chrismation" in the Churches of the East. Its full force can be
grasped only in relation to the primary anointing accomplished by the Holy
Spirit, that of Jesus. Christ (in Hebrew "messiah") means the
one "anointed" by God's Spirit. There were several anointed ones of
the Lord in the Old Covenant, pre-eminently King David. But Jesus is God's
Anointed in a unique way: the humanity the Son assumed was entirely anointed by
the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit established him as "Christ." The
Virgin Mary conceived Christ by the Holy Spirit who, through the angel,
proclaimed him the Christ at his birth, and prompted Simeon to come to the
temple to see the Christ of the Lord. The Spirit filled Christ and the power of
the Spirit went out from him in his acts of healing and of saving. Finally, it
was the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. Now, fully established as
"Christ" in his humanity victorious over death, Jesus pours out the
Holy Spirit abundantly until "the saints" constitute - in their union
with the humanity of the Son of God - that perfect man "to the measure of
the stature of the fullness of Christ": "the whole Christ," in
St. Augustine's expression.
Fire.
While water signifies birth and the fruitfulness of life given in the Holy
Spirit, fire symbolizes the transforming energy of the Holy Spirit's actions.
The prayer of the prophet Elijah, who "arose like fire" and whose
"word burned like a torch," brought down fire from heaven on the
sacrifice on Mount Carmel. This event was a "figure" of the fire of
the Holy Spirit, who transforms what he touches. John the Baptist, who goes
"before [the Lord] in the spirit and power of Elijah," proclaims
Christ as the one who "will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with
fire." Jesus will say of the Spirit: "I came to cast fire upon the
earth; and would that it were already kindled!" In the form of tongues
"as of fire," the Holy Spirit rests on the disciples on the morning
of Pentecost and fills them with himself. The spiritual tradition has retained
this symbolism of fire as one of the most expressive images of the Holy
Spirit's actions. "Do not quench the Spirit."
Cloud
and light. These two images occur together in the manifestations of the
Holy Spirit. In the theophanies of the Old Testament, the cloud, now obscure,
now luminous, reveals the living and saving God, while veiling the
transcendence of his glory - with Moses on Mount Sinai, at the tent of meeting,
and during the wandering in the desert, and with Solomon at the dedication of
the Temple. In the Holy Spirit, Christ fulfills these figures. The Spirit comes
upon the Virgin Mary and "overshadows" her, so that she might
conceive and give birth to Jesus. On the mountain of Transfiguration, the
Spirit in the "cloud came and overshadowed" Jesus, Moses and Elijah,
Peter, James and John, and "a voice came out of the cloud, saying, 'This
is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!'" Finally, the cloud took Jesus out
of the sight of the disciples on the day of his ascension and will reveal him
as Son of man in glory on the day of his final coming.
The
seal is a symbol close to that of anointing. "The Father has set
his seal" on Christ and also seals us in him. Because this seal indicates
the indelible effect of the anointing with the Holy Spirit in the sacraments of
Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders, the image of the seal (sphragis)
has been used in some theological traditions to express the indelible
"character" imprinted by these three unrepeatable sacraments.
The
hand. Jesus heals the sick and blesses little children by laying hands
on them. In his name the apostles will do the same. Even more pointedly, it is
by the Apostles' imposition of hands that the Holy Spirit is given. The Letter
to the Hebrews lists the imposition of hands among the "fundamental
elements" of its teaching. The Church has kept this sign of the
all-powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit in its sacramental epicleses.
The
finger. "It is by the finger of God that [Jesus] cast out
demons." If God's law was written on tablets of stone "by the finger
of God," then the "letter from Christ" entrusted to the care of
the apostles, is written "with the Spirit of the living God, not on
tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts." The hymn Veni
Creator Spiritus invokes the Holy Spirit as the "finger of the
Father's right hand."
The
dove. 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. The Spirit comes down and remains in the purified hearts of
the baptized. In certain churches, the Eucharist is reserved in a metal
receptacle in the form of a dove (columbarium) suspended above the
altar. Christian iconography traditionally uses a dove to suggest the Spirit.
Prayer: Spirit Of The Living God: Daniel Everson
http://www.angelfire.com/music5/inspiringsong/spiritofthelivingod.htm
Spirit of the living God
Fall afresh on me,
Spirit of the living God
Fall afresh on me
Melt me, mold me,
Fill me, use me, Spirit of the living God
Fall afresh on me.
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