Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 113 - Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 113 - Part II. What does it mean to say: I believe in the Holy Spirit?

(Youcat answer - repeated) To believe in the Holy Spirit means to worship him as God just like the Father and the Son. It means to believe that the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts so that we as children of God might know our Father in heaven. Moved by God’s Spirit, we can change the face of the earth.         

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 684 a) Through his grace, the Holy Spirit is the first to awaken faith in us and to communicate to us the new life, which is to "know the Father and the one whom he has sent, Jesus Christ" (In 17:3). But the Spirit is the last of the persons of the Holy Trinity to be revealed. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, the Theologian, explains this progression in terms of the pedagogy of divine "condescension": The Old Testament proclaimed the Father clearly, but the Son more obscurely. The New Testament revealed the Son and gave us a glimpse of the divinity of the Spirit.    

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Before his death, Jesus promised his disciples that he would send them “another Counselor” (Jn 14:16) when he was no longer with them. Then when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the disciples of the original Church, they learned what Jesus had meant. They experienced a deep assurance and joy in their faith and received particular charisms; in other words, they could prophesy, heal, and work miracles. To this day there are people in the Church who possess such gifts and have these experiences.     

 (CCC Comment)

(CCC 684 b) Now the Spirit dwells among us and grants us a clearer vision of himself. It was not prudent, when the divinity of the Father had not yet been confessed, to proclaim the Son openly and, when the divinity of the Son was not yet admitted, to add the Holy Spirit as an extra burden, to speak somewhat daringly.... By advancing and progressing "from glory to glory," the light of the Trinity will shine in ever more brilliant rays (St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio theol., 5, 26 (= Oratio 31, 26): PG 36, 161-163).      

(This question:  What does it mean to say: I believe in the Holy Spirit? is continued)