FOOD FOR THOUGHT	VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS
	Fr Francis Marsden
	      For 7/6/92

One of the most unusual Pentecost celebrations takes place in Echternach, a small town in Luxembourg, each Whit Tuesday. This is the “Springprozession” or “jumping procession” to the Shrine of St Willibrord, an Englishman who evangelized the Netherlands and died in AD 739.

From Luxembourg City, from the German city of Trier, and from hundreds of neighbouring villages, thousands gather to watch or join in this athletic liturgy, performed regularly since 1553. Starting from a bridge over the River Sûre (the German frontier) the participants link arm in arm four or five abreast, and then hop or dance through the streets. To the music of traditional bands, for every three steps forward they take two steps back. Priests, religious and even bishops take part. The “procession” ends with the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at St Willibrord’s tomb in the abbey church.

This ritual is also referred to as “die springende Heiligen,” roughly translated as “bouncing in the Spirit.” Our parish celebrations this weekend may not quite rise to the heights of such “Springprozessionen” through the streets — but it is heartening that manifestations of the Holy Spirit such as healing services, prophecies and tongues are more widely accepted as part of Catholic life than they were a decade ago.

The Holy Spirit is more easily described through His works than in Himself. In the Creed, we confess Him as “Lord and Giver of life”, and He is always described by symbols of movement and energy — wind and breath, living water, the flying dove, tongues of flame.

The Old Testament reveals the Father, but leaves the Son obscure, a promise for the future. In the Gospels, the Son is fully revealed and the Spirit is promised for the future. However, much about Him is unknown. Von Balthasar describes the Holy Spirit as “the Unknown One beyond the Word”. The Spirit is mysterious and unpredictable. He acts forward, in the space and time opened up by Christ the Word. He brings a new beginning, a new freedom and openness to others.

Perhaps because the Spirit is so hard to tie down and classify, writers and preachers in the Latin Catholic tradition since Trent, have often concentrated upon the works of the Holy Spirit, more than on His identity. The Creed tells us what those works are: “one holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.” 

Books explaining the Catholic faith earlier this century had long sections on grace and the Sacraments, but often no separate section on the Holy Spirit. The Eastern Orthodox rightly criticized the Catholics for this.

In missionary preaching, it was easier to concentrate upon the visible works of the Spirit, rather than on the invisible, abstract Spirit Himself. Cardinal Lepicier, missionary to Abyssinia, spoke of the great success of preaching to the natives about the “three white things” of the Catholic Faith: the Host, the Virgin Mary and the Pope. It began to look almost as if these were substitutes for the Holy Spirit. I am not the first priest to be informed by school pupils that the persons of the Trinity are “God, Jesus and Mary.”

Certainly, it is the Holy Spirit who transforms the bread and wine on the altar into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Holy Communion communicates to us the Spirit’s life and energy. 

Mary is the spouse of the Holy Spirit. Her shrines and apparitions are frequently connected with miraculous outpourings of the Spirit, visions, prophecies and healings. She is the Queen of Prophets, and if the Spirit “has spoken through the prophets”, He will surely speak through her now. The third “white thing”, the Pope, is unmistakably guided by the Holy Spirit.

However, the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son, and together with them He is worshipped and glorified.” So the renewed emphasis on the Holy Spirit in our own day must surely be welcomed. He is not just an adjunct to the Pope or Our Lady. Sadly, I suspect many Christians are still like the disciples of John the Baptist whom St Paul met at Ephesus (Acts 19:1-7).

St Paul could see that there was something lacking in these good people’s lives. “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believer?” he asked. “No, we were never even told there was such a thing as a Holy Spirit,” they all replied. “The moment Paul laid hands on them the Holy Spirit came down on them, and they began to speak with tongues and to prophesy.” In those days, the reception of the Holy Spirit was more frequently associated with the appearance of charisms, although the same is still possible now.

Pope Paul VI warned about the danger of pretending to “live by the Spirit” as an excuse for disobeying the Church’s teaching. “Why have so many become apostles of contention?” he demanded. “Why have some even denounced the bonds of ecclesial obedience and of zealous faithful communion with the Church’s ministry as troublesome chains?” Some, he said, were claiming to be guided by the Spirit but “actually live according to their own spirit, their own private judgment, and their own arbitrary and often short-lived interpretations.”

“The ordinary and institutional structure of the Church is always the great highway by which the Spirit comes to us. Anyone who alters the conception of the Church as a way of renewing religion in modern society thereby ruins the channel of the Spirit established by Christ and compromises the religion of the people.”

Pope Paul VI was deeply disturbed in the early 1970’s at the doctrinal confusion, the collapse of’ respect for the Church’s divine teaching authority, and all manner of bizarre experiments that were being carried out without permission. People were appealing to the “freedom of the Spirit” as an excuse for following their own desires and whims. However, it is not the Spirit of Jesus who leads people to ignore and scorn the teaching of the Pope. It is a spirit from elsewhere.

St Augustine put the same idea more succinctly: “He cannot have God for his Father, who will not have the Church for his Mother.”

Paul VI continued, “It is the Holy Spirit who animates and sanctifies the Church. He is her divine breath, the wind in her sails, the principle of her unity, the inner source of her light and strength. He is her support and consoler, the source of her charisms and songs, her peace and her joy, her pledge and prelude to blessed and eternal life.”

The Holy Spirit works on a community level in the Church, through the hierarchy and the sacraments. He works on a personal level in the hearts of all believers. The more we are led by the Spirit, the more we come to love Christ’s Holy Catholic Church, and particularly in this day to welcome with love and reverence the immense wisdom of Pope John Paul II in his teachings. He is the voice of Peter and the voice of Christ for our day.

It is much more important that we pray for the Holy Spirit than to pray for particular favours from God. If we have the Holy Spirit, we will understand what is God’s will in each Situation, and we will have the strength to do it. And so, in the words of St Augustine again:

“Breathe in me, Thou Holy Spirit, that I may think what is holy.
Move me, Thou Holy Spirit, that I may do what is holy.
Attract me, Thou Holy Spirit, that I may love what is holy.
Strengthen me, Thou holy Spirit, that I may guard what is holy.
Guard me, Thou Holy Spirit, that I may never lose what is holy. Amen.”