The Holy Spirit is called Paraclete, which means
comforter in Greek, because he consoles us and encourages us and succors our
weakness by his aid. As St. Paul says: When we do not know what prayer to
offer, to pray as we ought, the Spirit himself intercedes for us, with groans
beyond all utterance, obviously to the Father. How many times have we seen a
man suffer violence for the cause of Christ, and undergo outrageous
indignities; torments besieging him, fire, sword, wild beasts, the deep pit.
But the Holy Spirit is in him whispering to him: Be strong, be valiant of heart,
and await the Lord! What is now befalling you is a small matter, that which is
promised you is immense; your suffering will be brief and you will enjoy for
all eternity the society of the angels. The sufferings of this time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us. The
Holy Spirit puts before man the kingdom of heaven; he gives him a glimpse of
the delight of paradise; and the martyrs whose bodies are of necessity under
the eyes of their judges, but who in spirit are already in heaven, trample
underfoot the torments which appear so terrible.
Do you want a proof that it is through the power
of the Holy Spirit that the martyrs bear their witness? Our Lord gives it
himself, when he says to his disciples: When they bring you to trial before
synagogues, and magistrates, and officers, do not consider anxiously what you
are to say, what defense to make or how to make it; the Holy Spirit will
instruct you when the time comes, what words to use. Then it is impossible to
testify to Christ, except by the Holy Spirit. If it is only through the Holy
Spirit that anyone can say, Jesus is the Lord, how could one give his life for
Jesus Christ, but by the Holy Spirit?
Such is the grandeur, the omnipotence, the
wonderful efficacy of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Consider how many of you
are here present; in each one he acts at the right moment. And yet that is
little: turn your mind, in the light he gives you, to your district and all its
inhabitants; think of all those in the whole province; go still further: look
at all countries, the entire universe. Each nation has its bishops, priests,
deacons, monks, virgins and crowds of laypeople: the Holy Spirit is the
protector of all, he dispenses all their gifts. But do not tarry on earth, rise
higher, ascend in imagination to the highest heaven, and behold the myriads of
angels that are there. Rise up, if you can, still higher, see the archangels,
the spirits, the virtues, the principalities, the powers, the thrones, the
dominations: it is the Paraclete who rules them all, on God's behalf, who
teaches and sanctifies them.
It was he who by the Prophets foretold Christ. It
was he who was active in the Apostles. It is he who, to-day, imprints his seal
on the souls of the baptized. The Father gives to the Son, the Son gives to the
Holy Spirit. Jesus himself tells us so when he says: My Father has entrusted
everything into my hands,3 and with respect to the Holy Spirit: When the
truth-giving Spirit, who proceeds from the Father, has come to befriend you, he
will bring honor to me, because it is from me that he will derive what he makes
plain to you.
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