What's the Nature of the Holy Spirit? (Special Podcast Highlight)
The Patrick Madrid Show
Relevant Radio
4.8 • 588 Ratings
🗓️ 13 June 2024
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Understanding the Trinity and the role of the Holy Spirit can be very confusing, but don't worry! Patrick Madrid is here to explain. Let’s delve into the highlights:
Understanding the Holy Spirit
Nature of the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. This means we're talking about one God in three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is fully God, possessing the same divine nature as the Father and the Son.
Eternal Mystery
Beyond Time: God exists outside of time. When we say God is eternal, it means He is not bound by temporal limitations. This applies equally to the Holy Spirit.
Trinity Explained
One God in Three Persons: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three separate gods. They share one divine essence. If they were separate, it would limit God's infinitude, contradicting His nature.
Analogies: Patrick uses the analogy of a reflection in a mirror to illustrate the distinct yet unified nature of the Trinity. Though this analogy is not perfect, it helps us grasp the concept of distinct persons sharing one essence.
Scriptural Insights
Incarnation and the Holy Spirit: Jesus, the incarnate second person of the Trinity, receives the Holy Spirit in His humanity. This is seen at key moments like His baptism, where the Holy Spirit descends like a dove.
Mary's Role: Mary, full of grace and overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, becomes the mother of Jesus through a miraculous, divine act, showing her unique relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Divine Knowledge and Love
Infinite Attributes: God's knowledge, power, and love are limitless. The Holy Spirit, sharing in this divine infinitude, also embodies these attributes fully.
Go Deeper
If you want to learn more, Patrick recommends Dominum et Vivificantem, an encyclical by St. Pope John Paul II, which delves into the Holy Spirit's role and nature.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | How about John now in Chicago? Good morning, John. |
| 0:02.8 | Good morning, Patrick. I had a question regarding not so much the nature of the Holy Spirit, |
| 0:09.6 | the degree to which it acts in different people. |
| 0:15.0 | I know there is the, according to the creed, it proceeds from the Father and it proceeds from the Son. |
| 0:22.0 | And I know Mary was the spouse of the Holy Spirit, and she was full of grace, so I guess |
| 0:27.1 | she was full of the Holy Spirit. |
| 0:30.4 | But then certain Bible passages seem to indicate that Jesus was not always full of the Holy Spirit. |
| 0:40.3 | Like it says that he came back from the desert full of the Holy Spirit, |
| 0:46.3 | seems to indicate that he wasn't as full before. |
| 0:50.3 | Okay, yeah, let's talk about that. |
| 0:52.3 | So let's begin by discussing the Holy Spirit. You asked first about the nature of the Holy Spirit. Well, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so by nature, we're dealing with the one God who is eternally present, eternally exists. We wouldn't say he pre-exists because that would be a temporal word, |
| 1:14.6 | suggesting that God exists in time before he created temporal things, |
| 1:19.6 | like angels and human beings and planets and things like that. |
| 1:22.6 | But he doesn't exist before any of those things. |
| 1:26.6 | He exists outside of all these things. |
| 1:28.7 | So we do the best we can with our puny human language. |
| 1:31.6 | So when we say that God is eternal, |
| 1:34.6 | that's what we're referring to. |
| 1:35.9 | He's outside of time. |
| 1:38.1 | Now, the nature of God is, |
| 1:41.2 | I mean, we can't summarize the nature of God. I certainly couldn't. But there are some things we |
| 1:46.6 | can assert about the nature of God, and that is, number one, he's one God in three persons. And so |
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