"Receive the holy Spirit"
The Paschal events-the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ-are also the time of the new coming of the Holy Spirit, as the Paraclete and the Spirit of truth (Jn 14,16-17). They are the time of the "new beginning" of the self- communication of the Triune God to humanity in the Holy Spirit through the work of Christ the Redeemer. This new beginning is the Redemption of the world: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son" (Jn 3,16). Already... the gift of the Son expresses the most profound essence of God who, as Love, is the inexhaustible source of the giving of gifts. The gift made by the Son completes the revelation and giving of the eternal love: the Holy Spirit, who in the inscrutable depths of the divinity is a Person-Gift, through the work of the Son, that is to say by means of the Paschal Mystery, is given to the Apostles and to the Church in a new way, and through them is given to humanity and the whole world.
The definitive expression of this mystery is had on the day of the Resurrection. On this day Jesus of Nazareth "descended from David according to the flesh," as the Apostle Paul writes, is "designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from the dead" (Rm 1,3-4). It can be said therefore that the messianic "raising up" of Christ in the Holy Spirit reaches its zenith in the Resurrection, in which he reveals himself also as the Son of God, "full of power." And this power, the sources of which gush forth in the inscrutable Trinitarian communion, is manifested, first of all, in the fact that the Risen Christ does two things: on the one hand he fulfills God's promise already expressed through the Prophet's words: "A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you,...my spirit" (Ez 36,26-27), and on the other hand he fulfills his own promise made to the Apostles with the words: "If I go, I will send him to you" (Jn 17,7). It is he: the Spirit of truth, the Paraclete sent by the Risen Christ to transform us into his own risen image.
The story of St. Thomas the Apostle or “doubting Thomas” is not unfamiliar to us. When Jesus appears to the apostles a week after the Resurrection, our Lord challenges Thomas in his unbelief and brings him to incredulous adoration. Thomas is moved to say, “My Lord and my God.” Just a week earlier, Thomas had said that he would not believe in the Resurrection unless he had seen the risen Lord physically. When Our Lord appears to the Apostles on the Sunday after Easter, he turns Thomas’ idea on its head. Our Lord states, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” It is clear that our faith in Jesus is based on the testimony of eyewitnesses. This has been the story of the church from her inception. The Catholic faith is built upon the testimony of St. Peter and the apostles, with Jesus Christ at its center. Our faith is not an abstract set of ideas or propositions. It is not a philosophy, as some would suggest. Rather, the Catholic faith is incarnational, rooted in revelation. The transmission of this faith relies upon the testimony of those who walked with the Lord during His brief life here on earth. The Gospels themselves are testimonies of faith, written by those who either personally knew the Lord or used eyewitnesses as their primary source.
For Thomas, seeing was believing. For us, however, the opposite is true — believing is seeing. Barring those saints who have been gifted with ecclesiastically approved apparitions, none of us have seen Jesus in a physically recognizable form. Therefore, our response to Christ is made in faith. It is our eyes of faith that allow us to see Jesus in ways beyond the limitations of physical sight. This is especially true when we come into the presence of the Eucharist. Christ’s presence remains hidden under the veil of sacramental elements but it is our belief that allows us to truly see Him and acknowledge His body, blood, soul and divinity really and substantially present. Our physical sight fails us but our sight by faith allows us to penetrate the hidden mysteries contained in this most sublime sacrament. Similarly, we experience this dynamic in the sacrament of penance. The absolution given by the priest invites us to believe and trust that our sins have been forgiven, even though physical sight cannot detect the cleansing of sins in the soul. Again, it is faith that allows us to see beyond what mere physical sight can render.
St. Anselm of Canterbury once wrote “Credo ut intelligam,” which means “I believe so that I may understand.” This must be the disposition of any authentic disciple of the Lord Jesus. The first move involves God’s initiative in infusing the virtue of faith into our souls at baptism. The second move is our response in faith, actualizing the potency of this virtue. The third move is allowing our eyes of faith to penetrate the mysteries of God more profoundly through the intellect and free will that He has given us. Like St. Anselm, may we better understand that believing means truly seeing with the eyes of faith.
Fr. Magat is parochial vicar of St. William of York Church in Stafford.