What now since we have already received the Eternal Gift of Salvation?

What now since we have already received the Eternal Gift of Salvation?

We’ve completed Lent, suffered spiritually with Christ on Good Friday and rejoiced on Easter morning as he rose as he said he would; there must be something more that evades our understanding even with the Mystagogy that we searched to remind ourselves that indeed there always is more than a season that ends with Pentecost.  

In case we missed the essence of the Holy Trinity there is the truth that One God is Three persons each with a particular position that separates the three only in a profound understanding.  We cannot place the three persons like a corporation with one at the top and the next two being subservient to the first.  When we divide these three persons according to actions we separate the three into importance and expect certain graces from one where the other two are isolated for our choice.  

The Trinity is One.  We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the "consubstantial Trinity.” (declared by the Council of Constantinople II).  The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire.   “The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son which the Holy Spirit is, i.e., by nature one God.”  In the words of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215): “Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance, essence or nature."  (CCC 253).  

To believe in the Holy Spirit is to profess that the Holy Spirit is one of the persons of the Holy Trinity, consubstantial with the Father and the Son:  “with the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.”  For this reason, the divine mystery of the Holy Spirit was already treated in the context of Triniterian “theology.”  Here, however, we have to do with the Holy Spirit only in the divine “economy.”  (CCC 685).

The One whom the Father has sent into our hearts, the Spirit of his Son, is truly God.  Consubstantial with the Father and the Son, the Spirit is inseparable from them, in both the inner life of the Trinity and his gift of love for the world.  In adoring the Holy Trinity, life-giving, consubstantial, and indivisible, the Church’s faith also professes the distinction of persons.  When the Father sends his Word, he always sends his Breath.  In their joint mission, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct but inseparable.  To be sure, it is Christ who is seen, the visible image of the invisible God, but it is the Spirit who reveals him.  (CCC 689).  

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together.  And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.  Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.  (Acts 2: 1 - 4).

The days of Mystery that placed the Son of God as the Paschal Lamb are now completed and each of us must take the mystery of Pentecost and walk with the Holy Spirit and speak to the world about salvation that came from the Blood of Christ.

Ralph B. Hathaway