No. 36 From what you have taught us so far, it seems that discussions on the Holy Spirit focus on His work in the life of the church and the individual Christian. Now, however, you have introduced the intimate relationship of the Spirit to Christ. So if the Spirit is this closely related to Christ, should we not take a step backward and discuss the place of the Holy Spirit in the life and mission of Christ Himself? >>DR. LEOPALDO SANCHEZ M.: Yes, we should. That is a great question. When I went through seminary, we often talked about the place of the Spirit in the church or perhaps his work through the means of grace. But very little, if anything, was said on the Holy Spirit and the life of Christ. And yet if we talk about being Christ centered, shouldn't also the doctrine of the Holy Spirit lead us back to the source, the central source of our reflection, Jesus Christ himself? We have been anticipating to some extent this discussion. So far we have said in somewhat general terms that Christ is the bearer and the giver of the Holy Spirit. Another way of saying the same thing is to say that the Holy Spirit rests on Christ and is sent by Christ. But how exactly is the Holy Spirit involved in the life and mission of Christ? Let us look at some highlights of Christ's life in the Spirit. Let's begin with his conception and holiness. In Matthew 1:18 and 20, we are told that Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is there from the very first moment of the Son's human existence. In the Gospel of Luke, we read the following: The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. These are the words of the angel to Mary at the annunciation. "Therefore," says the angel, "the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God." The Holy Spirit makes the fruit of Mary's womb holy. The holiness of the Christ child is attributed to the presence of the Holy Spirit in him. So when we think of the conception of the incarnate Son and his holiness, we do well to think of the place of the Spirit in his life and mission. Another major event in the history of salvation where the role of the Holy Spirit is highlighted in Jesus' life is his baptism at the Jordan. Here we have the Son's anointing formation. At the Jordan Jesus is anointed by the Father with the Holy Spirit. He bears his Spirit to be we may say our prophet, our king and our priest. As our prophet, Jesus proclaims good news in power. We see these, for example, in Luke 4. Jesus himself says: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and to proclaim a year favorable to the Lord. And in John Chapter 3 we hear the following words about Christ's ministry of proclamation: For the one whom God has sent -- that is to say the Son -- speaks the words of God. For God has given him the Spirit without measure. So Christ is anointed at the Jordan with the Spirit for a ministry as prophet. A ministry of proclaiming good news. Christ is also anointed as our king. As our king, Jesus drives out demons and defeats the powers of the anti-kingdom. After the anointing at the Jordan, for example, we hear that Jesus was immediately led by the Spirit, driven by the Spirit, into the desert, the place of struggle where Jesus was tempted by Satan. And here Jesus also defeated him with the Word of God, the Sword of the Spirit. Saint Peter in the book of acts, as he proclaims the Gospel to his hearers, at one point says the following: You know how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power and how he went about doing good and healing all of those who were oppressed by the devil. For God was with him. And Jesus also once said: If it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. So when the kingdom of God comes to us through Christ's words and deeds in the Spirit, there can be no evil in his midst. The Holy Spirit takes over the evil spirit. So Christ is anointed as king for us. He's also anointed at the Jordan as our priest. As our priest, Jesus prays for us. But also as a priest, there's also a sacrifice. He offers his own life for us. As to Jesus' prayer life, Luke tells us that Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and praised the Father. So the Spirit is never far from Jesus' prayer life, from his Communion to the Father. As a faithful son he prays to the Father in the Spirit. In the garden of Gethsemane for example as his death for us was approaching, Jesus ultimately puts his life in the Father's hands and says: Abba, Father, not what I will but what you will. Now, this Abba prayer as Saint Paul tells us in Romans 8 is like Jesus' prayer, one done by a son led by the Spirit. So Jesus is led by the Spirit to intercede for us as our priest. But as our priest Jesus does not only pray to his Father for us in the Spirit, he's also anointed as a suffering servant. He is the one in whom the Father is well pleased. He's the one who did not come to be served but to serve. And to give his life as a ransom for many. So there is a sense in which Jesus' baptism in water at the Jordan is a baptism unto death. Is a baptism that leads to his baptism in blood at Golgotha. And in fact Luke can speak of Jesus' death as a baptism. The author of Hebrews reminds us that the crucified Christ through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God to clear our conscience from the works to worship the living God. Finally the Holy Spirit also participates in Christ's resurrection. Saint Paul proclaims that Jesus Christ was established by God as some of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness from the resurrection from the dead. The Spirit of holiness. That's an ancient Hebraic form of Holy Spirit. He is there as the one through whom the Father raises Christ from the dead. So as you can see, the Holy Spirit always accompanies the Son through major events in his life and mission. He's inseparably united to him. We may think of a joined mission of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in God's history of salvation. Now, what does this all mean for us? Well, here is key to realize that Christ does not only bear the Spirit. For we have seen already that he's also the one who gives the Spirit to the church, to us. The same Spirit then in whom Christ proclaimed the good news, for example, Christ has also given to us, to the church, to do the same. So for example at the beginning of the book of Acts we can hear Jesus saying to his disciples: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And at the end of the book of John Jesus says to the disciples: Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. And when he has said this he breathed on them and said to them: Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them and whose sins you retain are retained. This is almost like a repetition of John 3 but now it applies not to Jesus but now to the church. Now, the same Spirit in whom Christ drives out demons, that same Spirit Christ has given to the church, as well. To drive out demons. You see we, too, are led into deserts in our lives. Where the devil attacks like Jesus. We, too, have been given the Word of God, the Sword of the Spirit, to fight the attacks. We, too, have been given access to the Father through prayer in the name of Jesus to fight Satan. The book of Hebrews also tells us that through his death, Jesus defeated the one who had the power over death. That is to say Satan. What that means is that after Christ frees himself from the devil to free us from the devil there is sort of a boomerang effect to the attacks of the devil on Christians. What I mean by that is that every time the devil attacks us and tempts us, it backfires on him. Because his attacks often lead us to prayer and lead us also to hear the Word of God. So in a sense, his attacks boomerang us back to Christ. The same Spirit in whom Christ prayed for others and gave himself to service unto death Christ has also given to us through the church to do the same. So we are led by the Spirit to pray in Jesus' name for our neighbor and to give our lives often making sacrifices as it were to serve them. Finally, the same Spirit in whom Christ was raised from the dead Christ has also given to the church, to us, to have us share in his resurrection at the last day. Paul makes this connection between Christ and the church eloquently. He writes: If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit dwelling in you. I've taken a little bit of time to go into this because it's not a ***tinction that gets much attention in our church. But how neat it is to know that the same Spirit in whom Christ lived his life lives also in the body of Christ.