Part Two of Excerpts and Commentary

Volume Two – Chapter L: The Influence of the Holy Ghost in the Perfect Soul (continued)

The Activity of the Uncreated Gift in Our Souls

We have truly received the supreme Gift. Through charity and the gift of wisdom, from which proceeds a quasi-experimental knowledge of the presence in our souls of the divine Persons, who always remain united, we can enjoy this gift.

At this point in our study, we consider it advisable to insist on the principal effects attributed to the Holy Ghost by appropriation, although the Father and the Son also concur in their production, as They do in the every effect of the divine power that is common to the three Persons (3).

[Here Fr RGL is explaining that there is a reason that we distinguish the Holy Ghost and his gifts as being of him and coming from him, even though of course all good comes through God overall and there is always concurrence in the will of God and his action among the Holy Trinity. By recognizing and understanding the Holy Ghost as the uncreated Gift, people are better able to recognize his works and cooperate with them.]

The uncreated Gift first of all strengthens, preserves, and increases the created gift of sanctifying grace in our souls. Therefore, says St. Thomas, our Lord, speaking to the Samaritan woman, calls grace “a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting.” In contrast to dead water preserved in cisterns or ditches, living water is not separated from its gushing source and, under the impulsion of its source, always flows toward the ocean.

3 Cf. St. Thomas, Contra Gentes, Bk. IV, chaps. 21f: “De effectibus attributis Spiritui Sancto.” Among these effects, St. Thomas points out especially infused contemplation and infused love, which give the holy liberty of the children of God. In chapter 22 he says: “The special characteristic of friendship is to converse with one’s friend. Moreover, the conversation of man with God is by the contemplation of Him, as the Apostle said (Phil. 3:20): ‘Our conversation is in heaven.’ Because therefore the Holy Spirit makes us lovers of God, it follows that by the Holy Spirit we are made contemplators of God; whence the Apostle says (II Cor. 3:18): ‘But we all beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as the Spirit of the Lord.’” These effects attributed to the Holy Ghost by appropriation are also produced by the Father and the Son, for they are effects of the divine power common to the three Persons, but they have a special resemblance to personal Love, which is the proper name of the Holy Ghost.

[Fr. RGL and St. Thomas, through this footnote, are explaining that while all gifts, glory, and holy effectiveness come from God, Jesus taught and the Apostles recognize that distinguishing a portion of those gifts and applying them to the Holy Ghost as bestowed by him helps humans to recognize and utilize these gifts. Specifically, the effect of the Holy Ghost is most easily recognized as resembling the personal love that humans (should) feel for each other. Therefore, St. Thomas quotes St. Paul to explain that by recognizing the Spirit in action, one can better see the transfer of holiness from God to human.]

Thus sanctifying grace is not separated from the source of living water, the Holy Ghost; it is He Himself who preserves it in us and gives it that strength of impulsion which drives it in a way toward the spiritual ocean that is eternal life. In this sense St. Paul says: “The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us.”

Hence the Holy Ghost sometimes gives the perfect soul a confident certitude of being in the state of grace, according to the words of St. Paul: “The Spirit Himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God.” He gives us this testimony, says St. Thomas, by the filial affection which He excites in us, and by which, in a way, He makes Himself felt by us as the life of our life.

However, this sort of transitory certitude is far from having the clarity of evidence, for we cannot perfectly discern the filial affection inspired from a natural act of God, from an inefficacious love, accompanied at times by a certain lyricism, which may exist without grace, as happens in some poets.

[Fr. RGL and his quote of St. Paul continue to emphasize that the Holy Ghost is felt as a force that is always in motion, as it is “poured forth.” The Holy Ghost is not a static state of being. The Holy Ghost himself continually gives witness and testimony on behalf of people as they go through life, through the affection that is excited throughout life. Notice, however, the significant caution that Fr. RGL makes; one I would have added at this point in the text as commentary if he had not. That is to not confuse lyricism without grace as the action of the Holy Ghost. This refers to people who self glorify and get carried away in aesthetics of their own creation as thinking they are channeling or experiencing Holy Ghost, for they are not. We can all think of people who speak in tongues, are slain in the spirit, who are hysterical or excessively sensitive to every fleeting thought in their heads who do not realize that they are experiencing these sensations without grace, and hence they are not of the Holy Ghost. God’s glory and grace, not the individual’s, are the hallmark of an authentic event of the Holy Spirit.]

The Holy Ghost “dwells in light inaccessible” which seems obscure to us because it is too strong for us, but His inspiration reassures us, according to the words of the Apocalypse: “To him that overcometh, I will give the hidden manna, … and a new name written, which no man knoweth, but he that receiveth it” (Apocalypse 2:17.)

For the same reason the Holy Ghost strengthens our faith and makes it penetrating and sweet. St. Paul says: “The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God… Now we have received… the Spirit that is of God, that we may know the things that are given us from God” (Cf. I Cor. 2:10, 12.)

In consequence also, the Holy Ghost strengthens the certitude of our hope, a certitude which is not yet that of salvation, but that of tending toward salvation; a certitude that increases in the measure in which we draw near to the end of the journey.

[Fr. RGL quotes one of St. Paul’s most insightful passages in his comprehension of how the Holy Ghost actually works. Those of you who are computer programmers can especially relate to the brilliance of St. Paul’s insight when he says “The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God…” The Holy Ghost is, like the air, and like the water, in constant motion, touching all that is of God, and all that is of humankind, and making those connections wherever humans are receptive. The Holy Ghost touches and accesses those deep things of God that humans could not otherwise hope to reach, and bring them into contact with people, who he is also constantly searching. The Holy Ghost in this sense is a universal broker and agent, constantly looking for receptivity in humans, and then bringing to those spiritual ports the deep experience of God. This is why people often marvel at the unexpected places and ways that the Holy Ghost
operates. The Holy Ghost sees potential receptivity where the person themselves may not. In this way, as Fr. RGL describes it, like the seed that needs to be made fecund, nurtured, fed, and drawn toward God, the Holy Ghost “strengthens the certitude of hope… which is not yet that of salvation, but that of tending toward salvation.” Think of the sunflower seed that is sanctifying grace, and then as that seed grows to a flower, its face naturally follows the sun to collect the most light. That is how the Holy Ghost operates, by searching all the human sunflowers who seek the light, and making that match between their face and God’s light. The Holy Ghost constantly searches for those who are open to the light of God, and then brings to them, sometimes in unexpected ways, what he has retrieved for them from “the deep things of God.” It is recognition of this blessed process that causes Fr. RGL to proclaim it as “penetrating and sweet.” And it is because there is this sunflower-to-sun relationship that governs each plant’s growth that makes it a unique one-off relationship, so that “a new name written, which no man knoweth, but he that receiveth it.” It is not the secrecy that is the point, it is the totally unique and individual “your name only based on your own access to the hidden manna” that is the point and the objective, said to each person who listens to the Holy Ghost and receives.]