“Yet whoever did accept him, those who believed in his name, he gave them the power to become the sons of God.”[i] “Do you not know that you are temples of the Holy Spirit?”[ii] In these many weeks of the Easter season and through the great Feast of the Ascension onto Pentecost, the Liturgy of the Hours has provided us with the some very rich readings about the gift of the Holy Spirit. He dwells in the justified soul by sanctifying grace, making us one body with Christ our Head. From the great Feast of the Ascension, the Gospel records Jesus’s own words, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”[iii] It is through baptism that we receive the Holy Spirit and become a child of God by adoption. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive the whole Holy Trinity.
United through His Spirit to those who worshipped Him, and to dwell in our hearts through faith
We read in these two excerpts from Saint Cyril of Alexandria about why the Lord Jesus had to ascend that he might send us the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit is “the bond of union” between us and Christ:
After Christ had completed his mission on earth, it still remained necessary for us to become sharers in the divine nature of the Word. We had to give up our own life and be so transformed that we would begin to live an entirely new kind of life that would be pleasing to God. This was something we could do only by sharing in the Holy Spirit.
It was most fitting that the sending of the Spirit and his descent upon us should take place after the departure of Christ our Saviour. As long as Christ was with them in the flesh, it must have seemed to believers that they possessed every blessing in him; but when the time came for him to ascend to his heavenly Father, it was necessary for him to be united through his Spirit to those who worshipped him, and to dwell in our hearts through faith. Only by his own presence within us in this way could he give us confidence to cry out, Abba, Father, make it easy for us to grow in holiness and, through our possession of the all-powerful Spirit, fortify us invincibly against the wiles of the devil and the assaults of men.[iv]
From Christ and in Christ, we have been reborn through the Spirit in order to bear the fruit of life
The Lord calls himself the vine and those united to him branches in order to teach us how much we shall benefit 
from our union with him, and how important it is for us to remain in his love. By receiving the Holy Spirit, who is bond of union between us and Christ our Saviour, those who are joined to him, as branches are to a vine, share in his own nature…From Christ and in Christ, we have been reborn through the Spirit in order to bear the fruit of life; not the fruit of our old, sinful life but the fruit of a new life founded upon our faith in him and our love for him. Like branches growing from a vine, we now draw our life from Christ, and we cling to his holy commandment in order to preserve this life. Eager to safeguard the blessing of our noble birth, we are careful not to grieve the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, and who makes us aware of God’s presence in us.[v]
Want to learn more about the Holy Spirit and the Divine Indwelling?
Listen to the Podcast | Holy Spirit Dwelling in Our Souls: The ‘Four Offices’ of the Holy Spirit | Fr. James Brent, O.P.
Image Credit:
Caparozzi, Filippo. “Pentecoste.” WikiMedia Commons, September 7, 2017. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Filippo_caparozzi,_pentecoste.jpg.
[i] “John 1:12 Parallel | Catholic Public Domain Version.” John 1:12 . BibleHub. Accessed May 9, 2021. https://biblehub.com/parallel/john/1-12.htm. “Yet whoever did accept him, those who believed in his name, he gave them the power to become the sons of God.”
[ii] 1 Cor 3: 16
[iii] Mark 16:15-16
[iv] Saint Cyril of Alexandria. “From a Commentary on the Gospel of John | If I Do Not Go Away, the Comforter Will Not Come to You.” Thursday, Week 7 – Office of Readings. Accessed May 20, 2021. http://www.liturgies.net/Liturgies/Catholic/loh/easter/week7thursdayor.htm. Lib. 10: PG 74, 434
[v] Saint Cyril, of Alexandria. “From a Commentary on the Gospel of John | I Am the Vine, You Are the Branches.” Tuesday, Week 5 – Office of Readings. Accessed May 9, 2021. http://www.liturgies.net/Liturgies/Catholic/loh/easter/week5tuesdayor.htm. Lib. 10,2: PG 74, 331-334
Posted for Pentecost | May 22, 2021
