17. Jesus' Relationship with the Father and the Spirit

The Trinity

Every day and several times a day we Christians turn to God and say: "Our Father who art in heaven" etc. Christ himself taught us to do this. We can and we ought to call God "Our Father". But what is the mysterious reality hidden beneath this invocation? In what sense can we really call God "Our Father'? What does Christ tell us of his Father and our Father?

Again, we live in an age when there is much renewed interest in the Holy Spirit. For centuries in the past and for many even today, He remains the almost forgotten Person of the Trinity, but Pope Paul in his address at the formal opening of the third session of Vatican II had much to say about the presence and working of the Holy Spirit in the Church. We even put the Spirit with the Church in our Creed: "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church"...Who is this Holy Spirit? What is Christ's relationship with Him? Where does He come into God's plan for our redemption? What can we learn of the Spirit from the Gospels?

Furthermore, in our background study of the gospels we cannot afford to ignore the context of Jesus' relationship with the Father and the Spirit; the Trinity. It is the very context of our Christian life for we are baptized and have our spiritual birth in the life of the Trinity, "Go, then, to all peoples everywhere...... baptize them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," (Mt 28:19) We are the children of the Trinity.

Jesus and the Father

OLD TESTAMENT

The first reference to the divine fatherhood appears in the fourth chapter of the Book of Exodus, a section which probably goes back to the 9th century B.C. It contains in a concise form all later developments. God had decided to free and save His people from slavery in Egypt. He sent Moses to say to Pharaoh: "This is what Yahweh says, 'Israel is my first-born son. I ordered you to let my son go to offer me worship You refuse to let him go. So be it! I shall put your first-born to death'."(Exodus 4:22-23)

In this early period it is the people as a whole and not each individual taken separately, that is the 'first-born' of God . The idea is developed in other O.T. books e.g. Hosea 11:18; Deuteronomy 32:4ff (Canticle of Moses), etc.

GOSPELS

But the clear and inexhaustible source for our full and rich concept of God's Fatherhood is to be found in Jesus' revelation of Him in the pages of the gospels. Before Christ told us we did not know the Father. Christ has revealed the Father to us. "No one has ever seen God (i.e. the Father); The only one, who is what God is, and who is at the Father's side, has made Him known" (John 1:18). Jesus also says, 'No one knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son wants to reveal Him" (Mt. 11:27). It is in a spirit of prayer, therefore, that we request Christ, speaking to us through the pages of the gospels in this lesson, to reveal the Father to us. We are indeed privileged and happy to have Christ speak to us about the Father; "How happy are you, to see the things you see! For many Prophets and Kings, I tell you, wanted to see what you see but they could not, and to hear what you hear, but they did not" ( Luke 10:23-24).

Survey of Texts in the Gospels about the Father

MATTHEW

5:16: "...Give praise to your Father in heaven.''
5:45: "Love your enemies...so that you will become the sons of your Father."
5:48: "You must be perfect -Just as your Father in heaven is perfect."
6:8 & Luke 12:30: "God is your Father and He knows what you need."
6:9 Luke 11:2: "Our Father" (the prayer).
7:21: "Not everyone who calls Me 'Lord, Lord' will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do what My Father in heaven wants..."
12:30: "For the person who does what my Father in heaven wants him to do is my brother, my sister, my mother."
18:14: "Your Father in heaven does not want any of these little ones to be lost."
25:34: Last Judgement text: "You who are blessed by my Father, come! "

MARK

13:32: Only the Father knows the last day.

LUKE

2:49: "Didn't you know that I had to be in my Father's house?"
6:36: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."
10:21: & Mt 11:27: No one knows the Father except the Son. Also John 6:46.
12:32: "Do not be afraid, little flock! For your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom." Sell all your possessions and give the money away.
22:42: Mt 26:39; Mark 14:36: "Father if you will, take this cup away from Me" (Prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane).
23:34: "Father forgive them! They don't know what they are doing."
23:46: "Father! Into your hands I place my spirit!"

JOHN

3:35: & 5:20: "The Father loves his Son..."
4:23: Samaritan woman at the well..."will worship the Father in spirit and truth."
5:22: "The Father himself judges no one", has given all judgement to the Son.
5:26: The Father has made the Son to be the source of life for all.
5:37: 8:16; 12:49; 14:24: text of the Father sending the Son e.g. "And the one who has sent Me also speaks on my behalf" (5:37).
6:37: "Everyone whom my Father gives Me will come to Me."
6:44: "No one can come to Me unless the Father draws him to me."
8:38: "I talk about what my Father has shown Me..."
8:41: "We have the one Father, God himself."
10:14: "As the Father knows Me and I know the Father in the same way I know my sheep and they know Me."
10:30: "The Father and I are one".
10:36: "As for Me, the Father chose Me and sent Me into the world."
10:38: "...the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father." Also 14:10 & 11.
11:41: "I thank you, Father, that you listen to Me. I know that you always listen to Me..." (raising of Lazarus)
12:27: "Father, do not let this hour come upon Me!'? (See context for the correct meaning.)
13:1: "Jesus knew that his hour had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father."
13: 3 "Jesus knew that the Father had given Him complete power. He knew that He had come from God and was going to God.
14: 2 `'There are many rooms in my Father's house, and I am going to prepare a place for you."
14: 6: "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life; no one goes to the Father except by Me."
14: 16: "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, the Spirit of truth, to stay with you forever."
14:21: "My Father will love him who loves Me; I too will love him and reveal Myself to him." 14:23: "Whoever loves Me will obey my message. My Father will love him, and my father and I will come to him and live with him."
15:1 : "I am the real vine, and my Father is the gardener."
15: 9 &10: "I love you just as the Father loves Me; remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, in the same way that I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love."
15:15 "I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from my Father."
15:16 "And the Father will give you whatever you ask of Him in my name." also 16:23-24.
16:5 , 10, 17, 28 "I am going to the Father." Whole of Chapter 17: Christ's prayer to the Father before the passion.
20:17: "I go back up to Him who is my Father and Your Father, my God and your God". (after the resurrection to Mary Magdalene. )
20:21: "As the Father sent Me, so I send you" (Mission to disciples) .

Notice that in the above texts the word "Father" is mentioned; even so not all texts containing this word have been cited. There are just too many. And besides the "Father" texts there are many other references to the Father under the word "God". Whenever Jesus uses the word "God" He speaks of the Father. It would be good to read through St. John's text just from the point of view of the Father: you'll be surprised.

Let us examine some of these texts to study Jesus' revelation of the Father.

JESUS' PRAYER TO THE FATHER

"But when you pray, go to your room and close the door, and pray to your FATHER who is unseen. And your FATHER, who sees what you do in private, will reward you" (Mt 6:6).

The first thing our Lord says to us, "when we pray", reminds us of the Person to whom we pray, the FATHER, Jesus himself prayed to the Father. He takes it for granted that we should pray He gives us his own model of prayer, the prayer of a life lived in; total dedication to the Father. "I do nothing on my own, but say only what the Father has taught Me...I always do what pleases Him". (Jn 8:28 & 29) Jesus does not say "You should pray"; that He says to us by the example of His whole life; but He says to us "When you pray". No new formula is prescribed, no particular method; He leaves his listeners, the Jews, to the framework of prayer in which they had been brought up (cf. ch. 11). For Our Lord the one essential thing is that prayer should put us in the presence of the FATHER.

See what our Lord tells us of the Father who hears our requests and our praise of Him, and replies to them. He tells us that our Father welcomes our requests for He loves us: "And the Father will give you whatever you ask of Him in my name" (Jn 15:16) and, "Ask and you shall receive" (Mt 7:7).

There is no need to make up long lists of our requirements. Our loving Father knows best what is good for us: "Would anyone of you fathers give his son a stone, when he asks for bread? Or would you give him a snake, when he asks for fish? As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, your Father in heaven, will give good things to those who ask Him" (Mt 7: 10-11 ) .

Our Father is so anxious to be asked that He watches over us as a father watches over his favorite son; "Your Father who is God, already knows what you need before you ask Him", Mt 6, 8. Jesus indeed tells us and wants to impress upon us that our prayer is not to be first and foremost a stern, dry duty, an occasion for possible sins of distraction, but a loving personal and worshipful "being with" the Father, talking to the Father.

To impress this upon us, Jesus teaches us to address God as "Abba" (an intimate name for 'father'). Previously, the Jews had the idea that God was a distant sort of person, unapproachable and stern; (was not His throne in heaven, so far above the earth where men lived?); but when Jesus prays, and when He tells us to do as He does He uses the familiar and friendly title of "abba" expressing His and our personal relationship to God that no Jew would dare to use. At most the Jews would use the more formal and stiff title of "Ab" meaning 'father'; Jesus uses, and wants us to use, the word "Abba" meaning 'Dad'; something really intimate, to show true close relationship to the Father in heaven.

Jesus' Prayer

From time to time in the gospels we get glimpses of our Lord's prayer to the Father. We find Him absorbed in one or other of the petitions He himself taught us in the prayer, the 'Our Father'.

It is then no exaggeration to say that the 'Our Father' sums up the chief prayers of our Lord's own prayer life. It is the greatest prayer, full of our Lord's dearest intentions and desires. We pray for the intentions of our friends and relatives and even of the Holy Father, the Pope; we ought to take even more to heart the intentions of our Lord, Jesus Christ as found in the 'Our Father'... (cf. Mt 6:9-13: Lk 2-4).

Jesus prayed to the Father for us

Jesus' relationship with the Father is further brought out at the occasions when He prayed for the disciples and for us too. Before their choice and ours, our Lord prayed all night. (Lk 6:12 & Mt 14:23) "I do not pray only for them (the apostles), but also for those who believe in Me because of their message. I pray that they may all be one", (Jn 17; 20).

Our Lord prayed often: "He would go away to lonely places where He prayed". (Lk 5:16; 9:18; 9:28). He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane (Lk 22:39; Mt 26:36; Mk 14:32). He prayed on the cross, "Father forgive them for they don't know what they are doing". (Lk 23:34), and, "My God, my God why did You abandon Me?" (Mt 27:46; Mk 15.34)

Our Lord prayed to the Father that we might be true to His name, O holy Father, Keep them safe" (Jn 17:11). He prayed that we might be one (Jn 17:21): He prayed that we might see God's glory, ' O Father! You have given them to Me, and I want them to be with Me where I am (in the glory of heaven) Jn 17:24

Christ teaches us to pray to the Father (cf. the 'Our Father') but He also wants us to pray through Himself, because it is only when we pray with (through) Christ that our otherwise unworthy prayers are pleasing and welcome to the Father. Our Father only loves us if we are in union with Christ.

"for the Father himself loves you. He loves you because you love Me and have believed that I came from God" Jn 16:27. And, "Whoever hates Me hates my Father also", Jn 15:23.

We always pray through and with Christ because our Lord tells us, "I tell you the truth: because you are my disciples, the Father will give you anything you ask of Him. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your happiness may be complete". (Jn 16:23-24) In the Liturgy we always end our prayers: "through Jesus.Christ your only Son our Lord. ... etc"

Jesus' mission is a carrying out of the Father's will

Christ's life-task is doing the work the Father gave Him to do. In St Luke's gospel this is brought out vividly by the first and last words our Lord spoke. They are in total relation to the Father.

In the beginning of his life Christ said:

"Why did you have to look for Me? Didn't you know that I had to be in my Father's house?" (about my Father's business?) Lk 2:49.

At the close of his life, on the cross, our Lord's last words are:

"Father! Into your hands I place my spirit". Lk 23:46

St. John's gospel also tells us that Jesus' last words were in relationship to fulfilling everything the Father wanted him to do, ``It is finished!" "Then he bowed his head and died". (Jn 19:30) The work entrusted to Him by the Father is completed.

Christ came to reveal the Father to us. That is his chief work and if today we don't really know the Father ourselves, then Christ's work is still to be done in us. To know the Father and Christ as His Son is our eternal life.

"And this is eternal life: for men to know You, the only true God' and to know Jesus Christ, whom You sent', (Jn 17:3). Christ's whole mission is expressed in terms of His coming from the Father to us and of his returning to the Father with us.

"From the very beginning when God was, the Word ( the Son) also was; where God was, the Word was with Him... the Word became a human being and lived among us', John 1:1 & 14. "Jesus knew that his hour had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father". (Jn 13:1)

"There are many rooms in my Father's house, and I am going to prepare a place for you...and after I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to Myself, so that you will be where I am", (Jn 14:2-3).

Christ's whole life aimed at showing us how to love the Father and to bear fruit.

"This is how my Father's glory is shown: by your bearing much fruit...If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, in the same way that I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love", (Jn 15:9)

Christ's obedience to the Father revealed what we too should attempt in our life relation to the Father.

"For I have come down from heaven to do the will of Him who sent Me, not my own will...for this is what my Father wants; that all who see the Son and believe in Him should have eternal life", (Jn 6:38).

"My Father works always, and I too must work", (Jn 5:17). "I can do nothing on my own...but only what He who sent Me wants", (Jn 5:30).

Is our spiritual life one of trying to please the Father, as Christ did?

...you will know that I do nothing on my own, but say only what the Father has taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me. He has not left Me alone, because I always do what pleases Him", (Jn 8:28-29).

We are left alone, without God, when we sin and do, not what pleases God, but what satisfies our own selfish inclination.

The Father in the Parables

The parables too reveal the Father to us. Since much has been said on the parables in ch. 15, it is only necessary to mention some points. On reading the parables, with the intention to learn of the Father we will easily grasp new aspects of the personality of the Father.

—We see the mercy of the Father in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11).
—We see the Father's saving love for us in the parable of the Vineyard and (Lk 20:9-19; Mk 12:1-22; Mt 21:33-46
—In the parable, of the Lost Sheep (Mt 18:10-14) we see our Father's concern lest any of us be lost to eternal life.
—In the parable of the Unforgiving Servant we learn how the Father will treat us, "if you do not forgive your brother, every one of you, from your heart" (Mt 18:21-35). See also the parable of the Wedding Feast (Mt. 22:1ff).

UNITY OF FATHER AND SON

From the above we may get the idea that the Father and the Son are quite separate. But Christ also shows us his close and essential union with the Father. In these texts we may see their unity. (Jn 5:19, 6:57; 5:26; 10:38; 14:10 & 11).

"I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:;30)

In Mt 27:46 & Mk 15:34 it seems that the unity of Father and Son is broken. Jesus says from the cross, "My God, why did you abandon Me?" Surely the Father can never be separated from the Son...this would mean to be in a state of mortal sin, because only mortal sin separates us from God.

The answer is that on the cross Jesus was praying, and He used for his prayer the messianic psalm which is about an innocent man undergoing persecution and suffering - Psalm 21. The psalm opens with the words, "My God, my God, why have you deserted me" (Jerusalem Bible translation). Jesus continued to pray silently after having said the opening line aloud.

Jesus always speaks of his own personal relationship to the Father as being different from our relationship with the same Father. Jesus is always the true, only and real Son of the Father: we are only the adopted sons of the Father. This is brought out in such phrases as, "My Father and your Father. Your God and my God" (Jn 20:17). Jesus never says "Our Father"; when He uses "Our Father" He is telling us something. He does not include himself, because his relationship to the Father is something far superior and intimate than our adoptive sonship.

Jesus and the Spirit

The Holy Spirit is God's supreme gift to us (Lk 11:13)). Until we have received Him the work of Christ in us remains incomplete. The Spirit's presence in us we commonly call "being in a state of grace." Without His sanctifying presence, all of Christ's teaching and suffering will have no saving effect on us. Christ's passion and death would remain distant events in the world's history, unrelated to us if we had not the Spirit in us. We would not be God's children: "The Spirit makes you God's sons" (Rom 8:15), and we would still be separated from both Christ and the Father; "Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ, does not belong to him," (Rom 8:9).

We see how incomplete Christ's work was in the apostles before the Spirit came to them. The apostles went with Jesus for three years, and they remained weak. They didn't even appear at the crucifixion. They had three years of catechism class with the best Teacher and still they didn't understand His message very well. Jesus said: "You need someone else. You need the Holy Spirit. Wait here until He comes, and then you will know what I meant when I told you all these things." (Cf. Jn 14:25-26) We too cannot really teach catechism without the Holy Spirit working in our pupils.

Difficulty of knowing the Spirit well

THE SON offers himself to us in his humanity, identical with our own. Through his words, deeds, and attitude He reveals Himself to us.

THE FATHER is invisible but His presence is tangible when we study His Son. It suffices to watch Jesus closely to know His Father Cf. Jn. 14:9. But THE SPIRIT is different. He has no face, not even a name that makes us think of a familiar person. How then can we know Him? Jesus says, "The Spirit of truth...you know Him, for He remains with you and lives in you." (Jn 14:17)

To know the Spirit then is first of all to experience His action in us, to make one's self docile to His inspirations. That is why in the gospels we are never presented with a visual image of Him (the dove at our Lord's baptism is a symbol of His coming), but in its pages He is always shown at work and so it is through His actions that we come to know Him, especially His action in our own lives.

THE NAME 'SPIRIT': The very word 'Spirit' is rather elusive; we get only a partial image from it. The word is 'ruah' in Hebrew, 'pneuma' in Greek and 'spiritus' in Latin; but it is only a common noun meaning 'breath' in everyday language. It can refer to the breath of the wind or to the breath of respiration. So once more we turn from the name (which does not help much in informing us) to the action of the Spirit as found in the gospels in order to know this divine Person.

The Work of the Spirit in Jesus' Life

The Incarnation:

We see the action of the Holy Spirit in our salvation at the very Incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity. "The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God's power will rest on you. For this reason the holy child will be called the Son of God," (Lk 1:35).

In the Creed we say, "conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary." Do we sufficiently ponder this? In Matthew's gospel (1:20) our text implies, "For the Holy Spirit is the father of her child." Our salvation is indeed the work of the Trinity. When the angel says, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you," this way of speaking is an image that results from the Old Testament manifestation of God in the cloud (Shekinah) and in the glory (Kabod). The face of Moses shone with this divine glory; the cloud 'came over" Mount Sinai at the great covenant scene. It rested on the ark during the ten days and later on, overshadowed the inner sanctuary of the temple of Solomon during the dedication ceremony This same divine presence comes over Mary the Spirit is at work.

The Visitation:

We see that Elizabeth's child, John, is prepared for his task by the Spirit: From his very birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit,' (Lk 1:15). The child leapt with joy in her womb The Holy Spirit is at work too in Elizabeth and greets Mary "Blessed are you among women! Blessed is the child you bear' (Lk 1:41-42) The Spirit works in Zechariah (Lk 1:67), and in Simeon too (Lk 2:25-27). We see the work of the Spirit in our salvation.

Our Lord's Baptism:

Mt 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Lk 3:21-22; John 1:29-34. We know the texts well enough. Let us enter into a deeper study of their content to see the work of the Spirit in Christ's public life.

The voice and the coming down of the Spirit seem to have been witnessed only by Jesus and John the Baptist. It is not an external event, but rather a spiritual experience. It is not a purely imaginary happening of course, but an inner experience of Our Lord at the beginning of His public work.

What is the role of the Spirit here? The coming down of the Spirit on someone always denotes that God leads that person on to fulfil a real task. We see how the Spirit comes down on Bezaleel (Ex 31:3; 35:31); on the Judges Othoniel, Gideon, Jephta and Samson(Judges 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13.25), on Saul the King (1 Samuel 10:6-10). It was foretold that in a special way the Spirit of God would be with the redeemer (Isaiah 11:1ff & 61:1ff). The Spirit coming down on Christ then means that the Spirit now moves Christ to do His task, His messianic task, given by the Father. The Spirit brings this task to Jesus, descending in the shape of a dove. The Spirit is the bond between Father and Son bringing to the Son the Father's love ("This is my own dear Son"). The Father now dwells in the Son by His Spirit, the bond of love between them. In the strength of the Spirit everything the Son does, all miracles, all cures, all sayings and deeds, everything can be said to be the work of the Father: "I can do nothing on My own but only what He who sent Me wants" (Jn 5:30).

This union between Father and Son throughout our Lord's life, is the Spirit.

If we understand the unity of will, of life, of love between Father and Son properly, we see that this unity is only through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Hence little is said explicitly about the Spirit in the public life of our Lord. The evangelists preface our Lord's whole public life with this coming down upon Him of the Holy Spirit and thereby taking for granted that all is done through the same Spirit. (Jesus was led to the Desert by the Spirit, etc. Cf. Lk 4:1, 14).

But in our Lord's public life He had received the Spirit only for Himself; through His real baptism on the cross (cf. Lk 12:50) the Son wins the Spirit for us, the whole Church. That is why He says to the apostles that it is BETTER for them (and for us) that He leave them, for only then, having done His task, could the Spirit come also upon them to prepare them for THEIR WORK.

"But I tell you the truth: it is better for you that I go away, because if I do not go, the Helper will not come to you. But if I do go away, then I will send Him to you..." (Jn 16:7)

The Giving of the Spirit to the Church

New Testament writers agree that the giving of the Spirit was withheld until after the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus. Only John and Luke tell the story, and their accounts complement each other.

John puts Jesus' appearance to Mary Magdalene and His appearance to the apostles on one day, (Cf. Jn 20:17 -18)

He described the giving of the Spirit that same evening in these words: "It was late that Sunday evening...Jesus came... Then He breathed on them (remember spirit means 'breath') and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit", (Jn 20:19-22).

Luke, as we all know, tells us that the second giving of the Spirit was fifty days afterwards, (Acts 2:1ff) We know the scene only too well and how the Spirit came upon the Christians assembled together, to prepare them for their task in the world.

We receive the Spirit in Confirmation in order to carry out our apostolate in the world - our lay, religious or clerical apostolate, whichever it may be.

Sins against the Spirit: (Lk 12:10) To say "evil things against the Spirit" will not be forgiven. This means that a person rejects and dismisses the clearly evident signs of the Kingdom's arrival; resists the fully known truth. This sin is unforgivable because the basic disposition of sorrow is just not there and cannot be there. It does not mean that God does not want to forgive this kind of sin.

The Trinity in Teaching of Catechism

Too often we possess in our spiritual life and present in our catechism classes an impoverished notion of the Trinity. Of course, the Trinity is a great mystery, but that does not mean we cannot introduce the children to our great loving and Triune God. Did God reveal Himself only to be told, "Oh! You're a mystery. Why did you bother to reveal yourself ? "

And then, if we do broach the Trinity (as if we can really avoid it!) too often we teach the mathematics of the Trinity. You know, the "not three Gods, but three Persons" approach. Let us meet the Divine Persons ourselves in their unity and diversity and introduce them all THREE to the children. The meaning of "Mystery" is that we can go ever deeper and deeper into knowing the Trinity without ever exhausting the subject; we may exhaust our teaching on telling lies, but never on God the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.

How many of our faithful are like the disciples St. Paul met who on being asked, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" replied, "we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit" (Acts 19:2). And can we not say that the same will be true, if we ask them about the Father?

"For this is eternal life: for men to know You, the only true God." (Jn 17:3)

What a tremendous waste of time if we know all the commandments, but don't know the Triune God! The One-in-Three. Holy, Holy, Holy. Heaven and earth are full of His glory.