Tag Archives: holy-spirit

Advent Day 3: Get to know the Trinity!

Posted on by
Reply

TODAY’S GOSPEL (Lk 10:21-24)

From Luke 10:21-22:

Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said,
…
“No one knows who the Son is except the Father,
and who the Father is except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

From The Navarre Bible: St Luke, page 139:

“Here we see Christ as almighty Lord and God, consubstantial with the Father, and the only one capable of revealing who the Father is. At the same time, we can recognize the divine nature of Jesus only if the Father gives us the grace of faith — as he did to St Peter (cf. Mt 16:17).”

From the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The Gospel of Luke, pages 42-43:

“The Father, Son, and Spirit are equal in being, and no one of them possesses more of the divine life and knowledge than another. Since the Son is no less perfect than the Father, he is uniquely qualified to reveal the inner life of the Trinity to the world.”

From the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture: The Gospel of Luke, page 208:

“Already at the age of twelve, [Jesus] had expressed awareness of his identity as Son (Lk 2:49). He now expresses it more fully — the words Father and Son occur a total of eight times in verses 21-22 — and he does so in the holy Spirit (v. 21), giving a glimpse of the life of the Trinity. He thus reveals to the larger group of disciples what Peter, John, and James found out on the mountain (Lk 9:35) and Mary had been told by the angel (Lk 1:32, 35).”

From Opening the Scriptures: Bringing the Gospel of Luke to Life, page 296:

“Because Jesus is uniquely the Son of God and has a privileged intimacy with the Father, he can make him known to anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him. What Jesus is able to reveal about the Father goes beyond the knowledge that humans can have of God through creation (Rom 1:19-20) or through God’s previous revelations (Heb 1:1-2).”

My take

What a treasure Catholics have in the many wonderful commentaries now available! The excerpts above highlight and provide superb insights into what I myself just discovered when scanning today’s readings in trying to decide what to highlight. What we have in verses 21-22 is a fairly obvious explication of the Holy Trinity. Jesus “rejoice[s] in the Holy Spirit,” the One who enlightens, and then speaks of the intimate relationship between the Father and the Son. It is a lesson for us that we should have devotion to each of the three Persons of the Trinity individually. All one Godhead, yes. But there is a reason that there are three Persons and that this was revealed to us plainly in Holy Writ by Jesus through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Practically, we can and should frequently invoke the three Persons in spontaneous prayer, particularly in group settings. It can go something like this:

“Heavenly Father, we ask you to send your Holy Spirit to send His many gifts to enlighten us in this endeavor [and then expound on it]. We ask this, as we ask all good things, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”

That the opening two verses of today’s first reading (Is 11:1-10) provides us a list of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit is a bonus that serves to highlight exactly what the Third Person of the Trinity brings to the table, so to speak.

Finally, I found particularly thought provoking the last commentary that refers to Heb 1:1-2. While all of Scripture is “God-breathed” (cf. 2 Tim 3:16 — think of the Holy Spirit as Holy Breath) and it is all the Word of God, who is Jesus (cf. Jn 1:1, 14), it is only with the Incarnation of the Son of God that the Father’s plan is fully revealed (see also Jn 1:18). All creation had been awaiting the Messiah since Adam and Eve’s fall (cf. Gen 3:15). We had glimpses and foreshadowings and types of Christ, but the reality of the Messiah in the flesh exploded all expectations and marked a new age in salvation history.

Do we really appreciate the gift we have in Jesus, awaited for thousands of years, and now with us (cf. Mt 28:20) until the end of time — and for all eternity if we accept the grace of redemption?

TRINITY RESOURCES

ADVENT RESOURCES

ADVENT/CHRISTMAS READING

The Trinity (early 17th Century) by Circle of Artus Wolffort (1581–1641)

God bless!

Advent Day 3: Come Holy Spirit!

Posted on by
Reply

TODAY’S READINGS

The first reading is from Is 11:1-10, the famous passage that gives us the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him:
a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
A Spirit of counsel and of strength,
a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,
and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD. (vv. 2-3a)

Refer to this helpful article for Aquinas’s breakdown of these gifts and some additional interesting commentary. Also worth checking out is this video by the good Dominicans at the Thomistic Institute.

“This text is important for the whole pneumatology of the Old Testament, because it constitutes a kind of bridge between the ancient biblical concept of ‘spirit,’ understood primarily as a ‘charismatic breath of wind,’ and the ‘Spirit” as a person and as a gift, a gift for the person. The Messiah of the lineage of David (‘from the stump of Jesse’) is precisely that person upon whom the Spirit of the Lord ‘shall rest.’ It is obvious that in this case one cannot speak of a revelation of the Paraclete. However, with this veiled reference to the figure of the future Messiah there begins, so to speak, the path towards the full revelation of the Holy Spirit in the unity of the Trinitarian mystery, a mystery which will finally be manifested in the New Covenant. (Dominum et Vivificantem, 15)” (The Navarre Bible: Major Prophets, 88-89)

“The way to heaven is opened by the sevenfold grace of the Spirit. Isaiah speaks from the viewpoint of heaven, numbering the steps in descending order: wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and piety, and fear of the Lord. Since it is written ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,’ it is clear that the way ascends from fear to wisdom instead of going down from wisdom to fear. The prophet thus reasons from heavenly things to humbler things. (St Gregory the Great, Homilies on Ezekiel 2, 7, 7).” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Isaiah, 36)

God bless.