Youcat commented through CCC. Question n. 38 – Part IV.

YOUCAT Question n. 38 - Part IV. Who is the “Holy Spirit”?

(Youcat answer - repeated) The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Holy Trinity and has the same divine majesty as the Father and the Son.      

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 119) "It is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules, towards a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture in order that their research may help the Church to form a firmer judgement. For, of course, all that has been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgement of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God" (DV 12 § 3). But I would not believe in the Gospel, had not the authority of the Catholic Church already moved me (St. Augustine, Contra epistolam Manichaei 5, 6: PL 42, 176) (CCC 204) God revealed himself progressively and under different names to his people, but the revelation that proved to be the fundamental one for both the Old and the New Covenants was the revelation of the divine name to Moses in the theophany of the burning bush, on the threshold of the Exodus and of the covenant on Sinai. (CCC 205) God calls Moses from the midst of a bush that bums without being consumed: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (Ex 3:6) God is the God of the fathers, the One who had called and guided the patriarchs in their wanderings. He is the faithful and compassionate God who remembers them and his promises; he comes to free their descendants from slavery. He is the God who, from beyond space and time, can do this and wills to do it, the God who will put his almighty power to work for this plan.    

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) When we discover the reality of God in us, we are dealing with the working of the Holy Spirit. God sent “the Spirit of his Son into our hearts” (Gal 4:6), so that he might fill us completely. In the Holy Spirit a Christian finds profound joy, inner peace, and freedom. “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship [in whom] we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ (Rom 8:15b)”. In the Holy Spirit, whom we receive in Baptism and Confirmation we are permitted to call God “Father”.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 311) Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned. Thus has moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered the world. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil (Cf. St. Augustine, De libero arbitrio 1, 1, 2: PL 32, 1223; St. Thomas Aquinas, STh I-II, 79, 1). He permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it: For almighty God…, because he is supremely good, would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself (St. Augustine, Enchiridion 3, 11: PL 40, 236).      

(This question: Who is the “Holy Spirit”? is continued)