Trinity - Understanding (or not) the Holy Spirit

May the Spirit of God infuse my words and all our lives that we may come from here bursting forth with God’s purpose. Amen.

Today we have four readings from four different books in the compact library we call the Bible. Next week we will have another four readings from this library. And the next. And the next ….

Sometimes, in the seasons which we call Ordinary Time, three of these readings march through our library picking up near where we left off the last week. Sometimes, like the seasons of Lent and Advent and on feast days like today, these readings are grouped loosely around some theme. In both cases, the psalm is chosen as a reflection on one of the readings.


Today’s theme is the Trinity. Today’s readings all try to help us understand the mystery of One God in Three Persons. Since we spend most of the year reading and talking about Jesus and God, they all focus our thought on the Holy Spirit. Each of them does it from a different perspective.


Wisdom literature like we find in proverbs is some of the oldest recorded thought about God. In ancient Hebrew thought, Wisdom is birthed by God made out of God’s own essence. Wisdom comes before creation and either assists with creation or is delighted by it like a child looking on in wonder. Wisdom is always female and is looked at as the mothering part of God. Wisdom was seen as being active in our lives, helping us to understand our purpose in the world and giving us good advice on how to live. As I understand Wisdom, Wisdom is less powerful than God but uses what power she has all the time.


Next we move on to the Gospel of John. Does anyone remember the first words of the Gospel of John?
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This is one way the Greek culture interpreted Wisdom in John’s community. What follows is the Word “became flesh and lived among us.” So Jesus is Wisdom in a human body.

John also talks about the Spirit of truth which is another view of Wisdom. John understands the Spirit of truth as a messenger, continuing to bring God’s word to the disciples after Jesus’ ascension. The Spirit of truth does not have knowledge of its own, it merely bring the words of the Father, through Christ, to the disciples.


Finally we have the reading from Romans. This is the first time we directly refer to the Holy Spirit. In Paul’s understanding, the Holy Spirit is a gift from God. It serves as kind of a conduit connecting us to God’s love. Like wisdom, it continues to advise us and encourage us to live a life according to God’s plan.


But wait, we have two more descriptions of the Holy Spirit yet to come today. When we recite the Apostle’s Creed, we are saying how we understand the Trinity. In that creed we give three lines to describe God and eleven lines to describe Christ. How many lines do we use to describe the Holy Spirit? … One … “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” Period. Not very helpful is it?

The last spot we describe the Holy Spirit is in the Eucharistic Prayer. Today we use Prayer 3 with the Trinity preface. In this prayer we say “you reveal your glory as the glory of your Son and the Holy Spirit: three persons equal in majesty, undivided in splendour, yet one Lord, one God.” We also talk about the activity of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that sanctifies, or makes holy, both the Eucharistic gifts and us.

These last two reflect current thought about the Trinity. The Apostle’s Creed, which was written and rewritten starting somewhere between the second and fourth centuries and ending around the seventh century, is so vague about the Holy Spirit that it would be hard to disagree with it. Our Eucharistic prayer today is much more specific. It gives an equal position to all three persons of the Trinity, including the Holy Spirit. It gives us some ideas about what role the Holy Spirit plays in our lives and in the activity of God. It doesn’t say a thing about how the Holy Spirit does its work or the gender of the Holy Spirit.


Are you confused yet? … I definitely am. We have several descriptions of the Holy Spirit which are at the least inconsistent and maybe even contradictory. Either that or the Holy Spirit has evolved from Wisdom into one of the Trinity. So how do we choose? Which one is right? Three of these are directly from this library and the other two are based on it.


This is where we see the grace of God. We don’t have to choose. All of these descriptions are probably in some way right. They are all examples of people, human beings with all of our frailties, seeking to understand their faith; trying to understand what the Holy Spirit is doing in their lives. They are all images which can help us to find the Holy Spirit in our own lives.

My favourite way of looking at the Holy Spirit goes a bit like this. Jesus told us that the good news, the Gospel, would continue to be written in our hearts. The Holy Spirit’s job is to help us release that good news into the world and she won’t give up until she succeeds.

Thanks be to God.