Sermon Blog
The Paraclete, the Life of All Things
June 14, 2025
Although the ancient Octave of Pentecost was removed from the liturgical calendar after Vatican II, the Church invites us to always pay special attention to the Holy Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit, though present within every baptized Christian, is the most hidden member of the Trinity. St. John Henry Newman, in a series of meditations on the Holy Spirit, invites us to reflect on what Scripture tells us about Him and become more familiar with Him.
In “The Paraclete, the Life of all Things,” Newman looks at the role of the Spirit as “the Life of all that live.” From only the second verse of the Bible, we learn that the Spirit hovered over the waters in preparation for creating the world. After participating in creation, the Spirit also maintains all life: “Through Thee the many tribes of brute animals live day by day, drawing in their breath from Thee. Thou art the life of the whole creation.” This is not, to be clear, a form of animism where spirits inhabit all living and nonliving things. Rather, if anything has life, the Holy Spirit is its source and we profess Him to be “the Lord and Giver of life.”
The Bible tells us that man was simply dust until the Spirit animated his body. We are told in Genesis 2 that, “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” The Hebrew and Greek words for spirit are literally translated “breath” or “wind.”
As the life of man began with the Spirit, so also is man reborn in the Spirit. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says that a man must be born of water and spirit to enter the Kingdom of God. At the end of the same Gospel, after Jesus’ death, the disciples had locked themselves in a room “for fear of the Jews” (they didn’t know of Jesus’ resurrection). Suddenly, Jesus appeared and said, “‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’” Just as God breathed man into life, Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into the disciples, giving them eternal life.
How fitting that the gift of the Spirit is accompanied by the gift of the sacrament of penance. This sacrament cleanses our sins and restores us to a life of grace. The Spirit sustains this life of grace with our cooperation. Newman explains: “Of my good desires, whatever they may be, of my good aims, aspirations, attempts, successes, habits, practices, Thou art the sole cause and present continual source.”
When we pray, the Spirit helps us. He gives life to our prayer and He is as close to us as our beating hearts, and much closer than that. We need not not invoke his name to speak to him—a thought, a desire is enough— but let’s address Him asking, along with the Church, “Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.”
