It is a joy and a privilege for me to write anything about the Holy Spirit, but I also feel as though I should cover my face as I dare to speak on such a holy and sublime subject. We are considering God, and any words about God are always humanly limited, and pointing to the awe-inspiring divine mystery that transcends all understanding. If words on the Holy Spirit have any truth to them, they have that truth only from and in the Holy Spirit. If one reading these words does not already participate in the Spirit, then these words sound empty and meaningless. By the Spirit are words understood that speak about the Spirit; without the Spirit, there is only darkness, emptiness, an icy void that chills the heart, and makes one long to die. Without the Spirit, we grope in endless night, a condition experienced and described so well by Friedrich Nietzsche. In his case, he reveals the Spirit by its absence in his soul, for those with eyes to see. Without the Spirit, we are not “Supermen,” but savages ruled by the will to power.
The Spirit is love and truth at once. Love without truth is deceitful and self-centered; truth apart from love is lifeless and deadening. In the Spirit, a human being communes with the living God, the One beyond all words, beyond all knowing. The Spirit is the Presence of the unknown God in the soul. This Presence cannot be controlled or possessed, but must be welcomed, enjoyed, followed. Although ever present, it comes as and when it wills. None of us is always conscious of the Spirit’s presence. If we were, we would be enjoying the “beatific vision,” the loving-seeing of God as He is. And yet, thanks be to God, there are moments when one knows, “It is the Holy Spirit:” a new understanding, a sudden impulse to goodness, a renunciation of vengeance, a most delightful peace, a seeing with the heart, a renewal of true love for the beloved. It is the Spirit that opens up the soul and mind to love reality in and for that which brings forth all out of nothing. In the Spirit, one experiences a most delightful joy, a lifting up, moments of ecstasy (“standing out” of oneself) that nothing else can deliver.
