I wonder if in my past understanding of the Holy Spirit’s role in the process of salvation and redemption I unwittingly limited the Spirit’s activity to the Spirit’s role in the life of Catholics.
Emphasizing in my own mind the presence of the Holy Spirit as the Soul of the Church and as the sanctifier in the life of Catholics, I may have unwittingly not appreciated the role of the Holy Spirit in the world.
Without realizing it, I may have been limiting the role of the Holy Spirit. Probably in the past if I had been asked if the Holy Spirit was operative in the lives of people who are not Catholic I would have answered that the Spirit was present to everyone.
Still I usually thought of the Church as where the Holy Spirit was present and influencing people. Having re-read Bernard Cooke’s “Power and the Spirit of God: Toward an Experience-Based Pneumatology” (Oxford University Press, 2004, 209 pp.) I think I have expanded my understanding of the Holy Spirit’s presence to persons in the world.
In the past I believed that no one grew in holiness without the help of the Holy Spirit, but I think my understanding of the implications of that belief has improved and, I hope, deepened.
The presence of the Holy Spirit is awesome. Commenting on what the presence and power of the Holy Spirit can accomplish in the world, Cooke wrote the following:
“Human life in such a context will be ‘controlled’ by the Spirit of God, that Spirit will be the power moving humanity eschatologically toward its fulfillment as the ‘reign of God.’ Such a global sharing of the Spirit of God will not be a specifically religious phenomenon but something as broad as human life worldwide. …
“What all this implies is that a pneumatology that attempts to limit the functioning of ‘the Holy Spirit’ to any specific religious faith or more generally to ‘religious’ activity as a particular activity in humans’ lives is truncating the influence of God in human existence.
“The ecumenical implications of this are obvious, but it extends far beyond what is ordinarily considered the sphere of ecumenical considerations. God’s Spirit embraces and transforms what is often — sometimes pejoratively — referred to as ‘the secular world.’ This Spirit is coextensive with ‘the providence of God’ and characterizes that providence as functioning in history through the lives of men and women” (p. 27).
I find what Cooke wrote about the presence and power of the Spirit in the world immensely encouraging. I believe that wherever good is being done, the Holy Spirit is present and operative. Catholic teaching is that no one can grow in goodness or holiness without the assistance of the Holy Spirit.
I am thinking now of many, many human actions that in the past I did not think of as happening because of the Holy Spirit. I think that today teaching religious truth to students of any age is difficult.
But the Spirit is present not only when religious truth is being taught but when anything is being taught that can help students grow as persons. I think of lawyers trying to serve people to achieve justice.
I think of architects trying to beautify the world. I think of doctors and nurses and anyone trying to help people overcome illness. I think of counselors who try to help clients to improve their emotional lives. I think of those in the armed forces, those on the police force, and those who are firefighters, all ready to risk their lives to help people.
I think of politicians trying to help not only the rich but the poor and needy, who can so easily be forgotten. I think of spouses who try to be more loving and more deeply committed to their partners.
I think of parents who unselfishly try to help their children grow to be good human beings. I think of laborers involved in one way or another working to improve the environment. There is no person or vocation that cannot be touched by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Once we stop limiting in our minds the presence of the Holy Spirit in the world to those areas we usually refer to as religious, then I think we begin to see that every person can be influenced by the Spirit even if the person does not think of what he or she is doing as religious.
Indeed, people can be influenced by the Holy Spirit even if they think of themselves as atheists or agnostics. The Spirit breathes where it will.
When we come to believe in the presence of the Holy Spirit to everyone, I think our faith is broadened and enriched.
Father Lauder is a philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica. He presents two 15-minute talks from his lecture series on the Catholic Novel, 10:30 a.m. Monday through Friday on NET-TV.