Day 99: Symbols of the Holy Spirit (694-701)

• It’s Day 99!!

• Yesterday we talked about THE JOINT MISSION OF THE SON AND THE SPIRIT

• Although they are DISTINCT persons of the Trinity, they are INSEPARABLE in their mission

• We also learned THE PROPER NAME OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

• Which is HOLY SPIRIT

• And also TITLES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

• Today we will look at SYMBOLS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

• WATER

• ANOINTING

• FIRE

• CLOUD AND LIGHT

• THE SEAL

• THE HAND

• THE FINGER

• THE DOVE

• Jesus is the IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD

• In taking on flesh God becomes VISIBLE and TANGIBLE

• THE INCARNATION!!

• THE ENFLESHMENT OF GOD!!

• AT THE SAME TIME…

• We think of the Father in the way we picture fatherhood

• THE HOLY SPIRIT IS UNIQUE!!

• All the Persons of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are PURELY IMMATERIAL

• EXCEPT FOR THE SON 

• Who has taken on HUMANITY

• He has a body now even though He is MORE than just His human body

• IT’S A WHOLE MYSTERY!!

• THE HYPOSTATIC UNION!!

• BUT…

• How do we imagine the Holy Spirit?

• Typically in the terms we just mentioned

• THE SYMBOLS!!

• The Holy Spirit ISN’T water

• BUT…

• The Holy Spirit is SYMBOLIZED by water

• The Holy Spirit is SYMBOLIZED by anointing oil

• The Holy Spirit is SYMBOLIZED by fire

• Remember the Holy Spirit coming down on the Apostles in tongues of fire

• Also Elijah who called down fire on Mt Carmel

• The Holy Spirit is SYMBOLIZED by cloud and light

• Remember in the Old Testament when that fire, that Holy Spirit, that cloud and lightning storm came upon Mt Sinai

• Also when Jesus was at the Transfiguration, He enters into the CLOUD and there is this LIGHT

• HE IS TRANSFIGURED BEFORE THEM!!

• You have THE SEAL which is a symbol just like anointing

• You have THE HAND

• Jesus heals the sick and blesses little children by LAYING HANDS ON THEM

• The Apostles do the same in His name

• We have THE FINGER 

• Paragraph 700 says, “It is by the finger of God that [Jesus] cast out demons.”

• Also THE DOVE

• From the very beginning in Genesis with Noah to that dove that comes upon Jesus at His Baptism

• We have all these SYMBOLS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

• We are going to learn a bit more about them

• As you listen to these symbols and their explanation they are all rooted in Scripture

• BUT…

• They also have a place in the life of the Church right now

• So you are invited to apprehend the pure spirit of the Holy Spirit

• It helps us to have symbols

• The Trinity is PURE SPIRIT

• We also know that there are these images that HELP US conceptualize

• There are images that HELP US to have access to who God is

• So that’s what we are doing today

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise and glory. Thank you so much for revealing yourself as Father. Thank you for giving us your Son as one of us in His humanity and divinity. And thank you for sending your Holy Spirit upon us. Thank you for your Holy Spirit’s work in Creation, your Holy Spirit’s work in Redemption, and your Holy Spirit’s work of sanctifying this world. We ask that you please make us new. Create us anew. Redeem us once again and save us for your sake, so that we can glorify you and so that we can be instruments of salvation in this world by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

• THERE WE HAVE IT!!

• All of these symbols of the Holy Spirit from water to the dove

• You may be very familiar with some of them

• Water is one of the most present images of the Holy Spirit

• Paragraph 694 says, “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.”

• So that makes sense

• Also THE FLOOD

• St Peter says, “Just as Noah was saved through the water [by the Ark], so we are saved from death to sin through Baptism.”

• BEING SAVED THROUGH WATER

• Paragraph 695 says, “The symbolism of anointing with oil also signifies the Holy Spirit.”

• IN FACT…

• Go back to yesterday when we talked about how the ANOINTING and the presence of the Lord there is NO SEPARATION

• The moment the body comes into contact with Christ is the moment when it comes into contact with the Holy Spirit 

• BUT…

• Jesus the Messiah means THE ANOINTED 

• So every time there is an ANOINTING this is a SYMBOL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

• KING DAVID

• PROPHETS AND KINGS who are anointed

• And then fully established in Jesus Christ

• Now for FIRE

• IT IS REMARKABLE!!

• It is set in contrast to water

• Paragraph 696 says, “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 ‘words burned like a torch,’ brought down fire from heaven on the sacrifice at Mount Carmel.”

• SO SO POWERFUL!!

• SUCH AN INCREDIBLE IMAGE!!

• Paragraph 696 continues, “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…”

• JUST INCREDIBLE!!

• That’s one of the reasons why St Paul writes to the Thessalonians, “Do not quench the Spirit.”

• Why?

• Because you quench fire

• You don’t quench other things

• Well, I guess you can quench thirst

• Anyway…

• CLOUD AND LIGHT is one image together

• Paragraph 697 says, “These two images occur together in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit.”

• Remember that CLOUD by day led the People of Israel through the wilderness

• Remember how that cloud was LUMINOUS at night and it was a PILLAR OF FIRE

• It reveals not only the PRESENCE of the saving God

• But also the TRANSCENDENCE OF HIS GLORY

• That cloud and light OVERSHADOWS THE VIRGIN MARY when she conceives Jesus Christ in her womb

• When Jesus was on Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration a voice came from the CLOUD and said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”

• That cloud is a SYMBOL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

• So even at the Transfiguration we have the Father SPEAKING

• We have the WORD, Jesus Christ Himself

• AND…

• We have the Holy Spirit IN THE FORM OF A CLOUD

• WHICH IS REMARKABLE!!

• THE SEAL is the same kind of thing

• We will talk more and more about the Seal as a symbol that is close to the anointing when we talk about the Sacraments

• Today we have the anointing which is a very clear symbol of the Holy Spirit

• We also have the seal is a very very incredible powerful symbol of the Holy Spirit’s actions

• We have the hand, the finger, and the dove

• THE HAND is the hand of Jesus that BLESSES

• It’s also really important for us to note that it is by the Apostles imposition of hands that the Holy Spirit is given

• Acts 8:17 & 19

• Acts 13:3

• Acts 19:6

• The Holy Spirit is imparted to others through the imposition of hands

• Paragraph 699 says, “The Letter to the Hebrews lists the imposition of hands among the ‘fundamental elements’ of its teaching.”

• The imposition of hands happens over the gifts at every Mass

• The priest extends his hands over the bread and wine that will become the BODY AND BLOOD OF JESUS

• The imposition of hands happens in EVERY ORDINATION

• Every time a man is ordained a deacon, priest, or bishop there is a laying on of hands

• It goes all the way back to Jesus and the Apostles

• THE FINGER

• Paragraph 700 says, “It is by the finger of God that [Jesus] casts out demons.”

• Remember in the Old Testament that God’s Law was written on tablets of stone BY THE FINGER OF GOD

• AND YET…

• In the New Covenant we have the Spirit of the Living God not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts

• Which means it was written by the FINGER OF GOD on YOUR HEART as an image

• THE DOVE goes all the way back to Noah

• Paragraph 701 says, “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.”

• This last note reminds us of the DIVERSITY in the Church

• Paragraph 701 continues, “In certain churches, the Eucharist is reserved in a metal receptacle in the form of a dove (columbarium) suspended above the altar.”

• In the west our tabernacles are not typically in the form of a dove

• It could be in the form of a box that looks like the Ark of the Covenant

• There are tabernacles that are made to look like the womb of the Virgin Mary

• Or even ones that are embedded into a crucifix

• BUT…

• In some churches it is the COLUMBARIUM

• It’s meant to highlight that what Jesus has made POSSIBLE the Holy Spirit makes ACTUAL

• Jesus at the Last Supper and at the Cross gives us His body and blood

• He offers it to the Father as a sacrifice

• He offers it to us as a perpetual covenant

• It is made real and brought present to us by the Holy Spirit

• So it makes sense that the Eucharist would be reserved in the form of a dove

• If there’s another reason for that, look it up

• GOSH!!

• If you have stuck it out this long it is amazing

• Sometimes when we have The Catechism it is hard to sometimes find our place in the story

• This is the life of the Church that has existed now for 2,000 years

• This is the wisdom the Church has fought for 

• The wisdom the Church has revealed to us and handed on to us

• Now we are receiving that

• WHAT AN INCREDIBLE GIFT!!

• We know what we didn’t know before

• Hopefully we love the Lord in a way we weren’t able to love Him before

• We are praying right now for the Holy Spirit to enter our hearts so that we can love God the way he deserves, so we can love God as He has willed us to love Him, so we can love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength

• We can only do this by the power of the Holy Spirit

• So we ask the Holy Spirit to come upon every person listening to these words so we can say YES to the Lord

• We can KNOW Him more truly

• We can FOLLOW Him more closely

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!