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Paul declares that our security in Christ is guaranteed by God who “has also put his seal upon us and given the Spirit in our hearts as a first installment” (2 Cor. 1:22). The term “first installment” translates the Greek word, arrabón which is defined as “an installment; a deposit (‘down-payment’) which guarantees the balance (the full purchase-price).” This means the Holy Spirit is a “deposit” we receive at Baptism. The Catechism of the Catholic Church declares: “The apostles entrusted the ‘Sacred deposit’ of the faith (the depositum fidei), contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, to the whole of the Church” (#84) which includes the Magisterium as authentic interpreter and guardian. But the primary agent for the reception, interpretation, and guarding of the deposit within the Magisterium is the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit deposited into the hearts of the faithful at Baptism.
The entire people of God, therefore, has their part in living, preserving, and handing on the deposit of faith. The Catechism later states, “All the faithful share in understanding and handing on revealed truth. They have received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, who instructs them and guides them into all truth” (#91). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, and we learn from the New Testament that Truth does not impose itself but rather is “laid down” as in a deposit.
Jesus declared Himself “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6) and taught that the Holy Spirit “will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you” (Jn. 16:14). Jesus was no tyrant, and neither is the Holy Spirit.
Demons by contrast are tyrants. They control and dominate those they possess unlike Christ. In fact, Jesus allowed us to believe for three days that we had effectively silenced Truth. But Truth rose from the dead in Christ who “dies no more” (Rom. 6:9).
So, we can never be rid of the Truth. The best we can do is avoid it, ignore it, set it aside, pretend it’s not there, or simply reject it. For this reason, while we may welcome the idea that Truth does not impose itself, we may be more reluctant to hear the resultant possibility that not everyone will enter the kingdom of heaven. The only way we could be certain that all would get in is if God were to force everyone to enter, but He doesn’t. The Lord surely grieves the loss of any one of us, proven by His immense labors on the cross and in the resurrection whereby He threw open the gates of paradise before us. But Truth not imposing itself leaves open the possibility of being rejected, even if never again to be silenced altogether.
So, how are we to understand the Spirit of Truth dwelling within us? It appears that the path to glory begins with the Ten Commandments since Jesus taught: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15). The greatest commandment of Jesus was a new one: “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (Jn. 13:34). Paul reiterated the same, saying: “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13). But we don’t begin with love because God didn’t. The Old Testament is the record of God training and instructing His people after the Fall in the virtue of justice summarized for us in the Ten Commandments given to Moses.
But justice is laid down in a more uncompromising fashion. The Decalogue is composed of Ten Commandments, not Ten Suggestions. A judge within the judicial system of the United States sentences a man or woman to years in prison for taking the life of another. Parents strain to raise their children in the virtue of justice, using discipline and the required “time out” when necessary. God visited justice upon ancient Israel in consequence of failing to observe the law given through Moses, destroying the northern kingdom through the Assyrians in 722 BCE and the southern kingdom through the Babylonians in 587 BCE.
While James taught that we now live under “the law of freedom” (Jas. 2:12) which is governed by love, we do not start with love. We start with justice which Jesus made clear, saying, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Mt. 5:17). In other words, love fulfills the Ten Commandments instead of violates them.
Another way of saying the same thing is that it’s impossible to love and violate justice at the same time. One person cannot say to another, “I love you” and then proceed to routinely lie to them in violation of the 8th Commandment or gossip behind their back against the 5th. A family member cannot say, “I love my father and mother” while dishonoring them in violation of the 4th Commandment. A man or woman who regularly hears their alarm go off on Sunday morning only to roll over and return to sleep instead of going to Mass has not only failed in justice by disobeying the 3rd Commandment but also in love.
One of the great deceptions today is calling entrance into the bridal chamber outside of marriage “making love.” Whatever else this behavior represents, it cannot be love since it violates the 6th Commandment of the Decalogue, and it’s impossible to love and violate justice at the same time.
So, the Spirit dwelling in us sets out to instruct us from the beginning in the heart-cleansing virtue of justice which is the runway to love. No airplane gets off the ground without a runway, and we will never get off the ground to love without the runway of justice in which the Holy Spirit trains, empowers, and instructs us in fulfillment of the Lord’s teaching: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15). Paul described this training in very concrete terms when he wrote: “I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it” (1 Cor. 9:26-27) in accord with the help and instruction of the Holy Spirit (see Rom. 8). This would be the equivalent of a man or woman hearing their alarm and feeling like they want to roll over and go back to sleep but instead rise, get ready, and go to Sunday Mass.
When it rains, the seed of a daisy receives the water in the soil and grows to become a cheerful daisy. The seed of the rose upon receiving the same rains grows to become an elegant rose while an acorn, a strong oak. It is similar with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is deposited in our hearts like spring rains through Baptism but thereafter must be received as we look to grow in accord with the training and instruction of the Spirit who aims to conform us to Christ and no other than He. But just as in nature all things grow to become what they are through the spring rains and in grace becoming like Christ involves no coercive hegemony, so also, we grow to become who and what we are before God by cooperating with His life-giving Spirit dwelling in us. In virtue of so noble a Guest in our souls, Mary instructs us, saying, “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn. 2:5) and Jesus advises: “Whoever has ears ought to hear” (Mt. 11:15).
Image from Wikimedia Commons
