The following is from a fortnightly newsletter issued by Bishop Paul Hewett, SSC Bishop of the Diocese of The Holy Cross.
Catechesis – last month, two vital and thought-provoking questions were posed which are often central to inquirers’ classes, and in preparing for confirmation and ordination: (i) "what is the Gospel, in one sentence”, and (ii) "what, in one sentence, is the aim of the Christian life?”
(i) Some answers for the first question are John 3:16, "…God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Holy Fathers like St. Athanasius (4th century Egypt) would say that "the Son of God became man, so that men might become the sons of God.” He became what we are, to make us what He is. The first Collect for Christmas Day (p. 96) puts it this way: "Almighty God, who hast given us thy only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin; grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.”
(ii) As for the aim of the Christian life, St. Seraphim of Sarov (19th century Russia) said that it is "to receive the Holy Spirit.” In receiving the Holy Spirit, we attain Christ, who restores us to communion with the Father. We go "in the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father.” Since the Church is the Sacrament of the Holy Spirit, everything in our lives in the Church from baptism onwards is a drenching with and receiving of the Holy Spirit. Everything in the Kingdom is "epicletic,” a descent of the Dove. The question to ask about the Holy Spirit is not just "how much of the Holy Spirit do I have, but how much of me does the Holy Spirit have?” From the Third Sunday after Easter to Whitsunday, the Gospels at Mass will, using John’s Gospel, give us our Lord’s teaching on the Holy Spirit. Lancelot Andrewes (17th century England) said that the ascent of our flesh in Christ means the descent of His Spirit, in a Royal Exchange.
Such simple summaries as these are pegs on which to hang one’s hat; they are skeletal frameworks on which the body depends, they front-load the heart of the matter.
