Veni, Sancte Spiritus!

Gospel Reflection for May 19, 2024, Pentecost Sunday

Veni, Sancte Spiritus

Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!
Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine.
You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul's most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;
In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!
Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;
Give them virtue's sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end. Amen.
Alleluia.

For this Pentecost Sunday, I would like to reflect on the sequence (one of only four that remain from the many that existed in medieval times) called Veni, Sancte Spiritus, especially since many parishes do not recite it during Mass. Since its beginning, most likely composed by Pope Innocent III in the thirteenth century, it has popularly been called the Golden Sequence, due to its lyrical beauty and theological clarity. This great hymn perfectly summarizes the truth of the Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, who descended on the apostles and, through them, on the whole Church in a special way on this Pentecost. Just as Easter was the ultimate fulfillment of the Jewish feast of Passover, when, like the Hebrews who were saved from death in Egypt by the blood of the lamb, we are now saved from eternal death by the Blood of the Lamb of God, Pentecost is the fulfillment of the Jewish feast of the same name. This festival marked the conclusion of the Paschal season and the harvest; it is also celebrated by Jews today, and was similarly recognized by the Church Fathers, as the day when God gave the Law to Moses on Mt. Sion. The Jews who had come from throughout the Diaspora to Jerusalem were participating in the celebratory gatherings on this feast day (Dt 16:11) as a symbol of the bringing in of the harvest and the reunification of Israel.

All of this symbolism acts as a background for this now Christian feast of Pentecost, when the Church – which was not born today, having existed as the People of God since the primordial sacrament of the marriage of Adam and Eve, continued in the Israelites and established definitively as the Body of Christ in the Blessed Virgin Mary and the sacrament of redemption on the Cross – was infused with a special gift of the Holy Spirit. The sequence for today brings out the many layers of this gift, reminding us that the Holy Ghost is not merely one “stage” or gradual revelation of God (contrary to millenarism) but is consubstantial with the Father and the Son in the oneness of the Trinity. As the personification of the divine love between the other Persons of the Trinity, He is the source of all goodness in Creation, the power who brought all things into existence, who hovered over the waters and caused life to begin, who breathed spiritual souls into Adam and Eve as He does for every soul created when a new human person is conceived, who overshadowed the Virgin Mary and caused the Incarnation of Christ, who inspired the testimony of St. Peter to Christ’s divinity and who conferred on the apostles, through the inspiration of Christ, the authority to act in His name, forgiving sins, confecting the Sacraments and maintaining Sacred Tradition.

The Holy Spirit infuses His sevenfold gifts of “wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord” (CCC 1831) into us at Baptism, making it possible for us to transcend ordinary human virtue and restore the likeness of God in us through holiness. As He did for the apostles on the original Pentecost, He previews and begins even now the restoration of all things and the full correction of original sin which Christ won on the Cross and which will be completed in the Apocalypse, reunifying mankind from the chaos of Babel and enabling Christians to preach the Gospel and suffer all things, even martyrdom, in imitation of Christ, a supernatural and heroic courage which the apostles lacked prior to this day. The foretaste of this future beatitude is manifested in the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which are “charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity.” These fruits “are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory.” (CCC 1832) Just as the magisterial authority of the apostles did not end at their deaths but was handed on to their heirs the bishops, the grace of the Holy Ghost is given to every Christian, not only at Baptism but also at Confirmation as a participation in the special gift of this feast day.

This hymn is not only theological, however, but also deeply personal. It expresses the fact that, while the Father remains hidden from us and the Son, although we are members of His Body, is still concealed sacramentally in the Eucharist, the Holy Spirit is our Paraclete and Comforter, the constant reminder of God’s abiding love within us, working to sanctify us and cleanse us of all taint of sin. As the hymn says, He is our solace, our rest, our coolness, the divine Light shining within us, enlightening our hearts and acting as a beacon to all those who still live in darkness.

Without Him, we can do nothing. (Jn 15:5) This is a lesson that is frequently missed, especially in the modern world, when prosperity has surrounded us with so many good things. It is so easy to forget that, without God, there is no goodness, nor is any good truly permanent or meaningful; equally, without God there is no evil, in the sense that we cannot say anything is truly and objectively wrong. All things become a mere matter of subjective taste. So, not only should we be grateful to God for all His blessings, but we should also remember that, anytime we are tempted to blame God for evil or use it to doubt His existence, without Him we could not say anything is evil. For this reason, we should, following the hymn, allow Him to irrigate our dry hearts, wash away all our sins and guide us into the fullness of truth which is Himself, confessing Him to all peoples and sharing in the joys that never end and can be found in God alone.