Fr. Giertych’s Homily at the Convocation Mass of the Holy Spirit

Audio / podcast

By Rev. Wojciech Giertych, O.P.
Theologian of the Papal Household
Baccalaureate Mass of the Holy Spirit
Convocation 2025
Thomas Aquinas College, New England
August 23, 2025

Jesus promises the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity in our souls. At this Mass of the Holy Spirit, we want to probe this truth. We have received the Holy Trinity in our souls at baptism, but this reality sometimes needs to be unpacked. We have not thought about the consequences and implications of this divine presence within us. It is the whole Trinity that has made its home in us, but we attribute this sanctifying influence primarily to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit works secretly within us. At times, when we reflect back on our life, we recognize the divine hand, secretly nudging us toward Christ, toward the good. This is done discreetly. The Holy Spirit does not forcefully impact our emotions. He makes Himself noticed only when we are ready to respond. If we do want to respond, He remains silent, so as not to put us in a stupid situation, where He called, and we said, “No.” So He prefers to be discreet. How can we open up to His sanctifying influence?

It is good to recall the retreat that the Apostles had as they prayed together with Mary and other women after the Ascension. The Apostles were no longer locked in fear and sadness, as was the case after the death of Jesus. They had seen the Risen Lord. They heard His words. They ate with Him. But then He ascended into Heaven, being present among them mystically, in the Church and in the sacraments. 

But the Apostles were anxious. They were not sure. They worried. Will not the experience of encountering Jesus fade in their memories, as days and years pass? They were aware of their mission. They had to preach the Gospel to the whole world. But they were conscious of their limitations. The task committed to them completely surpassed their capabilities. That is why they needed the special time for prayer, together with Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Jesus promised that He will send the Holy Spirit. The Paraclete, the Defender, the Consoler. They will not be left alone. He will teach them about everything. He will remind them of the words of Jesus and explain their meaning.

The Holy Spirit will witness about Jesus and lead to the fullness of truth about Him. He will teach about sin, justice, and judgment. He will tell us that we are freed from sin through faith in Jesus; that we are made just by the justice of Jesus; and that the divine judgment is not like the trial led by Pilate. The divine judgment comes with force and burns out what is nondivine within us. He enables us to do the good. The Holy Spirit primarily points to the Person of Christ. He strengthens our faith in His power. This is the direction: First, we are moved from within by the Holy Spirit; He leads us to Christ. We get to know Jesus; and through Jesus, we discover the Heavenly Father.

“We need a rule of thumb, a clear understanding of man in his pristine dignity, and we find this is Christ.”

Thus, the Holy Spirit invites us to know Jesus. Primarily, we know Jesus through prayer. In faith that is exercised in prayer, we encounter Him. We know Him also, by studying and keeping His word. That Word has to sink into our minds and hearts. This entails also study. 

St. Thomas Aquinas, as he reflected about Jesus, noticed that the Gospels use various terms to describe Jesus: He is Lord, Shepherd, Gate, Way, Truth, Life, the Son of Man, Rabbi. But there are two terms that are used with greatest force: Jesus is the Son of the Heavenly Father, and He is the Word, the Logos of the Father that was made flesh. 

What is the meaning of this term Logos? Aquinas, after reading Aristotle, noticed that, when we are in the process of studying, we often grapple with an issue, but we do not fully understand. Sometimes we say that we know, but we cannot put a name on what we know. Since we cannot name what we know, we cannot define it, we do not yet know. But there comes a moment when something clicks in the mind, and then we have a word. We can name what we know. Jesus is the Word of the Father. He is as if what had clicked in the mind of the Heavenly Father. He is God’s project for us. That divine project, that divine Word, appeared in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth. When we want to know the Father, we need to look at Jesus. We need to reflect about Him. We need to see His divinity and His glorified humanity. And as we know Him, we learn about His Father.

Since Jesus is the Divine Word, He helps us to understand ourselves. St. John Paul II said that man cannot fully understand himself without Christ. If we want to understand what it means to be fully human, we have to look at Jesus. We have to study His glorified humanity.

Jesus is the rule of thumb for anthropology. His human soul and will are not marked by sin. He shows us how a truly natural and a truly divine human being functions. In His total gift of self, we perceive the glory of man, who is also capable of generosity, responsibility, attention toward the other. 

What we understand about anthropology, by viewing Jesus, has implications in all the sciences about man. If we study philosophy, psychology, pedagogics, law, history, literature, economics, political science, sociology — in all these disciplines, we need a clear perception of how man exists and functions. We cannot study sick people, sinful people, or animals, and then draw conclusions about humanity. We need a rule of thumb, a clear understanding of man in his pristine dignity, and we find this is Christ. This, then, enables us to study the various disciplines about man, correcting any eventual erroneous or ideological perceptions of man. Christ, the Incarnate Divine Word, clarifies our self-understanding, and this has to impact our studies about humanity. Then we shall not go astray, having maybe an extensive knowledge, but one that is not organized, which only describes but does not explain.

And as the Holy Spirit leads to Jesus, and we come to know Him, we discover the Heavenly Father. In Jesus, we see that He is the One who has been sent. In His words, we hear not only His words, but also the words of the Father who sent Him. We discover the filial relationship of Jesus with the Father. We see that He regularly ensured that He had time to be alone with the Father, when He prayed. The Apostles noticed this. Even Judas knew that Jesus would pray in silence, and He knew where He prayed. So Judas could lead the guards who arrested Jesus to the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus had his cherished place of prayer. 

Encountering Jesus, we see that He is the Son of the Heavenly Father, and even more we discover that we are called to be the children of the Father, through our brother Jesus Christ. And those are the children of God, who are attentive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and respond to them. Knowing Jesus, and being moved by the Holy Spirit, we see that we need to live out our lives being children in the face of God, living in trustful, child-like hope and love, being adults in the face of the challenges of the world. 

And this is not to be the other way around. We are not to think that we have to be adult in the face of God and immature, permanent teenagers in the face of life. We are to be mature, competent, professional, well educated, free agents in the world, maintaining always a filial, child-like relationship of trust in the power and proximity of the Heavenly Father.

The Holy Spirit leads us to this.

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