La Vie Chrétienne: The Holy Spirit - Gift of God

By: FATHER MITCHELL GUIDRY
Pastor Our Lady Queen of All Saints Catholic Church

In I John, we read, “God is love” and love is his first gift, containing all others. The Holy Spirit is love. The love exchanged between God the Father and God the Son generates God the Holy Spirit, the three divine persons in the Holy Trinity made one God by the act of love. God’s love is poured into our hearts in the Holy Spirit who draws us into the very life of God and makes us one with God. The Holy Spirit prepares us with the love of God to bring us into union with God. The Spirit makes Christ present in us, he inspires us with the Word of God and opens our minds to the suffering, death and resurrection of the Word made flesh. He makes Christ really and fully present in the Eucharist in order to reconcile us with God and bring us into communion with him so that we may, as Christ commanded us, “bear much fruit.”
Though the human soul can be dead (through original and mortal sin) or wounded (through venial sin), the gift of God’s love in the Holy Spirit is stronger than sin or death. He absolves our sins and raises us to new life in Christ. The Holy Spirit, through the actions of Christ in the church, restores to the souls of the baptized the divine image and likeness of God lost through human sin. He then gives us the “pledge” or “first fruits” of our inheritance of eternal life, the very life of the Holy Trinity, which is to love as God has loved us. This love is the source of our new life in Christ, made possible because we have received power from the Holy Spirit. By this power, God’s children can bear abundant spiritual fruit. The Holy Spirit who has made us branches of the True Vine (Christ) will make us produce the good fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
The Lord Jesus said that it is by their fruits that we come to truly know others. These fruits are the signs that one is an authentic Christian in union with God. St. Basil the Great wrote, “Through the Holy Spirit, we are restored to paradise, led back to the kingdom of heaven and adopted as children, given confidence to call God “Father” and to share in Christ’s grace, called children of the light and given a share in eternal glory.” St. Paul reminds us, “We live by the Spirit,” and the more we renounce ourselves, the more we “walk by the Spirit.” Come, Holy Spirit, and renew the face of the earth!