The Holy Spirit

WE BELIEVE THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GOD
We believe the Holy Spirit is the third divine person of the Most Blessed Trinity. He is our Sanctifier, the one who makes us holy, principally through our reception of the Sacraments. He is the Advocate or Counselor whom Christ the Lord promised to send to us (cf. John 14:26; 16:7).

WHY DO WE BELIEVE THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GOD?
In His Great Commission of the Apostles, Jesus Christ clearly refers to the Holy Spirit as a member of the Blessed Trinity, saying:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Matt. 28:18-20).

The Holy Spirit operates mysteriously throughout Scripture as from behind a veil. He appears in the opening verses of Scripture, "moving over the face of the waters" at the time of Creation (Gen. 1:2). He accompanies the Israelites through the desert as a pillar of cloud and fire (Ex. 13:21); and manifests Himself as a cloud in the Temple of Solomon (2 Chron. 5:13-14). The Spirit's presence in the New Testament is signified by a dove at Christ's Baptism and a bright cloud at the Transfiguration (cf. Matt. 3:16; 17:5). He descends upon the infant Church on the day of Pentecost as tongues of fire, empowering the Apostles to go forth and proclaim the Gospel (Acts 2:1ff.). In his sermon that day, the first of the Christian era, Saint Peter recounts the prophet Joel's foretelling of the Spirit's action in the Church (Acts 2:17-18; Jl. 3:1-2, 5).

Anti-Trinitarians tend to see the Holy Spirit as merely an unconscious force, in spite of the fact that His personhood is plainly stated in the Bible. For instance, Jesus refers to Him as the Counselor who "will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (John 14:17, 26). He intimately and directly guides the Apostolic Church in her decisions and in certain instances speaks directly to individuals (cf. Acts 15:28; 8:29; 13:2, respectively). In Saint Paul's epistles, the Holy Spirit is revealed as our Advocate who assists us in prayer, "interced[ing] for us with sighs too deep for words" (Rom. 8:26). "No one," affirms the Apostle, "comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2:11). And he tells us that "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:3). It is the Holy Spirit who distributes various gifts to the members of the Church (1 Cor. 12:11); and the Apostle admonishes Christians not to grieve Him (Eph. 4:30).

In obedience to Christ's command in Matthew 28:19, the ancient Church invoked the name of the Trinity in her baptismal rite. The earliest verification of this comes from the Didache, a Church manual dated to about 70 A.D.: "Now about baptism: this is how to baptize. Give public instruction on all these points, and then 'baptize' in running water, 'in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit'" (7:1). Pope Saint Clement, writing to the Church in Corinth in about 96 A.D., says, "do we not have one God and one Christ and one Spirit of grace which was poured out upon us?" (Letter to the Corinthians 46:6).

Learn more about the Holy Spirit in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (OR CHARISMATA)
Many Christians involved in Protestant pentecostalism or in the Catholic charismatic renewal have had dramatic spiritual experiences. While non-Catholics are prone to see these as "born again" experiences, the Church maintains, as the Bible teaches, that one is reborn ordinarily through "water and the Spirit" in Baptism (John 3:5). At least in the vast majority of these cases, moreover, the experience is a new awakening or awareness of baptismal gifts already received.

The Church classifies the spiritual gifts or charismata associated with such experiences as extraordinary, meaning they are not essential to the salvation of the individual (as the ordinary gifts of Baptism and Confirmation are), but are given by God for the edification of the Body of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 12:7). To argue this point, pentecostals will cite Mark 16:17-18, in which Jesus says,

“These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover” (cf. Ps. 91:13).

Clearly, though, Jesus’ words are not meant to describe the experience of each individual believer, but of the Christian community as a whole. If every “true” Christian, after all, is required to expel demons, speak in foreign languages, handle serpents, drink poison, and heal by touch, then the actual number of the elect shall be infinitesimal. Of Mark 16:17-18, The Apostolic Constitutions (ca. 400 A.D.) state:

It is not … necessary that every one of the faithful should cast out demons, or raise the dead, or speak with tongues; but such a one only who is vouchsafed this gift, for some cause which may be advantage to the salvation of the unbelievers, who are often put to shame, not with the demonstration of the world, but by the power of the signs; that is, such as are worthy of salvation: for all the ungodly are not affected by wonders" (8:1:1).

Jesus plainly declares, furthermore, the necessity of Baptism for salvation in the preceding verse—“He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mk. 16:16)—, but makes no such claim regarding the charismata. The true purpose of the charismatic signs is to aid the Church in her work of evangelization, to “confirm the message” of the Gospel (Mk. 16:20). Not surprisingly, tongues, healing, the survival of poisoning, and other charisms appear frequently in the accounts of the work of Catholic preachers and missionaries such as Saints Anthony of Padua (d. 1231), Francis Xavier (d. 1552), Louis Bertrand (d. 1581), and Francis Solano (d. 1610).

Traditionally, the gift of tongues has occurred not as spontaneous, unintelligible speech, but as the miraculous speaking of a real human language. For a preacher to be able to communicate in a convert’s tongue was an especially advantageous gift as the infant Church set out to evangelize people from diverse backgrounds and cultures. This is evident in the Apostles’ engagement of the multinational crowd at Pentecost, in which “each one heard them speaking in his own language” (Acts 2:6; cf. 1 Cor. 14:21).

The charismata are signs of the universality of the Gospel. Thus, the main episodes in the New Testament in which the reception of the Spirit is manifest through outward signs involve groups set apart from the larger Jewish-Christian community—the Samaritans (Acts 8:14-17), Gentiles (Acts 10:44-48), and disciples of John the Baptist (Acts 19:1-7). These accounts were primarily designed to assist the incorporation of these groups into the Church. Saint Augustine (d. 430) thought this was especially true in the case of the Baptism of the first Gentile converts, the one occasion in which the charismata precede Baptism. Augustine took this to be a special sign from God that they were capable of receiving the same Spirit, in the same abundance, as those at Pentecost and, thus, that Baptism should not be withheld from them (On Psalm 97, 11; cf. Acts 10:45-47).

Paul encourages the Corinthians to “earnestly desire the spiritual gifts,” saying, “I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy” (1 Cor. 14:1, 5). Regardless of whether the entire assembly in Corinth did indeed receive the charismata, we know the Apostle did not expect every Christian everywhere to receive them, for earlier in the same letter he says quite plainly:

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit … gifts of healing …, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. …

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? (12:7-11, 27-30; emphasis added).

Early Patristic writings, such as the Didache, suggest the charismata were given not to everyone in the Church, but to “apostles and prophets” (11:3-8). Likewise, around the year 210, Tertullian challenged the followers of the heretic Marcion to produce “some prophets, such as have not spoken by human sense, but with the Spirit of God … .” And he boasted, “Now all these signs (of spiritual gifts) are forthcoming from my side without any difficulty …” (Against Marcion 5:8). He stopped short, though, of claiming the charismatic gifts were given to every believer. Saint John Chrysostom (d. 407) had this to say:

“Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” (1 Cor. 12:30). For even as the great gifts God hath not vouchsafed all to all men, but to some this, and to others that, so also did He in respect of the less, not proposing these either to all. And this He did, procuring thereby abundant harmony and love, that each one standing in need of the other might be brought close to his brother (Homilies on First Corinthians 32).

Augustine wrote:

In the earliest times, “the Holy Ghost fell upon them that believed: and they spake with tongues,” which they had not learned, “as the Spirit gave them utterance.” These were signs adapted to the time. For there behooved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit in all tongues, to shew that the Gospel of God was to run through all tongues over the whole earth. That thing was done for a betokening, and it passed away. In the laying on of hands now, that persons may receive the Holy Ghost, do we look that they should speak with tongues? Or when we laid the hand on these infants, did each one of you look to see whether they would speak with tongues, and, when he saw that they did not speak with tongues, was any of you so wrong-minded as to say, These have not received the Holy Ghost; for, had they received, they would speak with tongues as was the case in those times? If then the witness of the presence of the Holy Ghost be not now given through these miracles, by what is it given, by what does one get to know that he has received the Holy Ghost? Let him question his own heart. If he loves his brother the Spirit of God dwelleth in him (Homilies on the First Epistle of John to the Parthians 6:10; cf. Baptism 3:16:21).

In the modern era, the fathers of the Second Vatican Council taught:

As all the members of the human body, though they are many, form one body, so also are the faithful in Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 12:12). Also, in the building up of Christ’s body there is engaged a diversity of members and functions. There is only one Spirit who, according to his own richness and the needs of the ministries, gives his different gifts for the welfare of the Church (cf. 1 Cor. 12:1-11) (Lumen Gentium 7).

Learn more about the Holy Spirit in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.