Interesting.

I am glad you appreciated it — I hoped you would.

Hermeneutical and exegetical questions have been in the forefront of my mind of late (I am trying to see if I can figure out Balthasar’s exegetical methodology, since I think it is an important way to understand his interpretation on hell). So this post flowed easier than I thought it would once I started writing.

The field of theology called Pneumatology is, for me, one of the most difficult ones. It feels that there is far more speculation going on, and a belief that, if one is discussing the Spirit, something has to be said about the filioque.

Certainly there is a connection between beauty and Spirit, as there is with logic and Logos. And you are right, I try to follow through with Balthasar with aesthetics… but I also feel when I try to discuss aesthetics and beauty, it is only a shell of the reality being discussed — beauty is best experienced beyond words, while with logical analysis, with Christology, while human words still do not reach the fullness of truth, there is just something in it that it makes it an enterprise I can deal with more. Christology has always been one of my main theological areas of study — but that does not mean I try to stay within its limits and don’t try to push myself; obviously, I do.

Let me recall from Day One’s opening scripture passage: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in speech. He who searches hearts knows what the Spirit means, for the Spirit intercedes for the saints as God himself wills.” [Romans 8:26-27]

I interpreted that passage this way: “The Holy Spirit knows us in a way that words can’t express; knows us in the way of God; and the Father knowing us in this manner, acts according to His own Will.”

Let me offer on the final day of the Novena, this passage: “Similarly, no one knows what lies at the depths of God but the Spirit of God. This Spirit we have received is not the world’s spirit but God’s Spirit, helping us to recognize the gifts he has given us.[cf. 1 Cor. 2:10-12]”

This brings us full circle. The Father knows us because the Holy Spirit penetrates our being and ‘groans’ (intercedes for us) to the Father on our behalf. The same Holy Spirit knows the depths of God and provides ‘gifts’ to his children, according to our Father’s holy will. Our understanding of this connection between God and us via the Holy Spirit has the potential to alter our awareness of how God is acting in our life. In a sense, if we could ‘eavesdrop on this divine conversation’ of the Spirit pleading on our behalf as our advocate; and hear the Father’s response with his good gifts; then we would come away with a heightened sense of what our prayer life should be. The ‘wavelength’ of our own personal prayer would begin to look identical to the Spirit’s signal. Once we see that God is acting in ways we’ve missed (or even resisted), we can try to discern his actions with more clarity and sensitivity.

“When dealing with matters of the Holy Spirit, I find it difficult to say much”

But it seems to me you do say much, perhaps without realizing it.

Aren’t Spirit and Beauty intrinsically related? Shouldn’t that relationship be the catalyst for plentiful reflections on the presence of the Holy Spirit in the World? Isn’t this central to the message of Balthazar?

Given this, I’m not sure what you mean when you say you find such difficulty.

On another point, when Mercy infuses Language, Discourse takes a different Form. Empirically, it would appear that this infusion of the Spirit is not wide-spread, even among Catholics. Spiritual alienation is still too much with us.

Thanks! I am glad something good came out of my own contemplation of the feast (like you, I took the time to reflect upon it).

When dealing with matters of the Holy Spirit, I find it difficult to say much — St Basil is right when he talks about the Spirit as the unwritten God. Of course we can say things about the Holy Spirit, but theologically, it is much less, and more difficult, than discussing the Father or the Son. And this is because of how the Spirit works in the recesses and remains hidden to help provide us visual freedom (and unity).

I was thinking…What did Pentecost do? What was it? It was when Christ brought God to the world. It was when mercy could be visible. It was an event that brought people *in* Christ. In Jesus of Nazareth, we see the face of God. In the Spirit, we become Christ’s. A very good concrete example of this is what you gave…unity in our diversity: even in our differences we find a common humanity.

In the Spirit, the word of God is incarnated once again in our hearts. After the fall, the world found itself in loneliness and confusion. What is God’s response to sin? What is God’s response to the fallen world? In the Spirit, we can say: we are.