Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,
he will guide you to all truth.
He will not speak on his own,
but he will speak what he hears,
and will declare to you the things that are coming.
He will glorify me,
because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.
Everything that the Father has is mine;
for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine
and declare it to you.”
Glorious Processions
In today’s Liturgy we’re swept through time in glorious pro-
cession—from before earth and sky were set in place to the
coming of the Spirit upon the new creation, the Church.
We begin in the heart of the Trinity, as we listen to the testimony of Wisdom in today’s First Reading.
Eternally begotten, the firstborn of God, He is poured forth from of old in the
loving delight of the Father. Through Him the heavens were
established, the foundations of the earth fixed. From before
the beginning He was with the Father as His “craftsman,” the
artisan by whom all things were made. And He took special
delight, He tells us, in the crowning glory of God’s handi-
work—the human race.
In today’s Psalm, He comes down from heaven, made “little less than the angels,” to live among us as “the son of man”
(see Hebrews 2:6–10).
All things are put under His feet so that He can restore to
humanity the glory for which we were made from the beginning, the glory lost by sin. He tasted death that we might be
raised to life in the Trinity, that His name might be made
glorious over all the earth.
Through the Son, we have gained grace and “access by
faith” to the Father, as Paul boasts in today’s Epistle (see
Ephesians 2:18). The Spirit, the Love of God, has been poured
out into our hearts—a Spirit of adoption, making us children
of the Father once more (see Romans 8:14–16). This is the
Spirit that Jesus promises in today’s Gospel.
His Spirit comes as divine gift and anointing (see 1 John
2:27) to guide us to all truth, to show us “the things that are
coming,” the things that were meant to be from before all ages.
In the Holy Spirit we come to know that we will find peace
and union in God, that we will share the life of the Trinity
and dwell in God as He dwells in us (see John 14:23; 17:21).
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. Each Person of the
Blessed Trinity contributes to the holiness of our Church.
Our Triune God declares this truth among many others: that
the Church is holy.
The Church is holy: the Most Holy God is her
author; Christ, her bridegroom, gave himself
up to make her holy; the Spirit of holiness
gives her life. Since she still includes sinners,
she is “the sinless one made up of sinners.”
Her holiness shines in the saints; in Mary she
is already all-holy. (CCC 867)
Sometimes circumstances that seem unbearable enter our life
in dramatic ways. It’s conceivable that a situation—such as a
medical emergency involving an infant—could arise whereby
an emergency baptism would be in order. When appropriate
due to unusual circumstances, any person can baptize following a simple formula invoking the Trinity.
In case of necessity, any person can baptize
provided that he have the intention of doing
that which the Church does and provided
that he pours water on the candidate’s head
while saying: “I baptize you in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit.” (CCC 1284)
Reflect
How can I live out my baptismal promises in my
day-to-day life?
Who in my community has not been baptized? How
might I help bring this person closer to the sacra-
ment that is our ordinary means of salvation?
Heavenly Father, I love You. Jesus, I adore You.
Holy Spirit, I worship You. Most Holy Trinity,
Undivided Unity, live in me, sustain me, and draw
me ever deeper into the dynamic reality of Your
love, welling up to eternal life in the beauty and
glory of heaven. Amen.
Image: Photo by Tofin Creations on Unsplash
