Jesse Romero's Online Blog!

The Father sent his Son. The Holy Spirit, however, is not apart from the mission of Incarnation. There are three distinct moments when, in relation to the humanity of our Lord, there was a special influx, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The first moment was at the Incarnation itself. To have generation, you have to have love, and here the love was not supplied by a human person, it was supplied by God himself. That breath of God, that ruah that brooded over creation, brooded over Mary for the new creation, and God became man. Then there came a second growing and increase in the Spirit. He was led by the Spirit into the desert to combat the evil spirit.  A new Spirit, as it were, or rather a new power is needed now for the conflict with evil. God the Father speaks, and the Spirit appears under the form of a dove. In the Middle Ages, people used to say that the dove had no gall. That was why it was the symbol of the Spirit; there was no bitterness in it. The point is that our Blessed Lord did receive the Spirit in his humanity at the River Jordan. The third time was at his exaltation. We could pick out various passages in Sacred Scripture that show that he died for our sins with the Spirit; he rose from the dead with the Spirit; he became Lord of all things in heaven by the Spirit.