The Holy Spirit and the Church: a truly catholic communio

Abstract

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE CHURCH OF THE WEST Pope John Paul is well aware that for most of the last millennium Western theology has not been “in the Holy Spirit,” especially in its theology of the Church. He wants the next millennium to be different. The contemporary resurgence of the Holy Spirit in the Church’s theology and spirituality was sanctioned at Vatican II. In fact, all that came out of Vatican II can be summed up as the Church’s rediscovery of the Holy Spirit. The renewal of the liturgy, the empowering of the laity, episcopal collegiality, a more “spiritual” understanding of holiness, biblical study, ecumenism, etc., can all be traced to giving a rightful place to the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church. Pope John Paul II wants to make sure, not only that the Church remains “in the Holy Spirit” but that it continues to sink its roots ever more deeply so that we enter into the third millennium as we embarked in the first: full of the Holy Spirit—the mark of the Annunciation and of Pentecost. The Church is truly a triune reality. It was conceived in Christ and born of the Holy Spirit in order to reconcile all humanity to the Father who is in heaven, our origin and destiny. It is Christ incarnate who gives the Church its body; it is the Spirit who breathes life into that body. The Church has tended to its body for most of the last millennium. It is time now to tend to its Spirit again.