The Holy Spirit Is the Forgiveness of Sins
Today is a Mass that some of us look forward to all year long. Though the beautiful Gospel tells us about Christ the Good Shepherd, the beautiful offertory turns our mind towards the true Manna, the Most Blessed Sacrament, it is especially the Post-Communion that we look forward to. Let us take a look at it.
Ipse Est Remíssio Omnium Peccatórum.
The Post-Communion today was the following:
May the Holy Spirit, we beseech You, O Lord, renew our minds through the heavenly sacrament, for He Himself is the forgiveness of all sins.
Those last words, He Himself is the forgiveness of sins, ipse est remissio omnium peccatorum, are the words that stand out. They speak to us a great mystery. The monk is to “confess to God daily in prayer with tears or groaning one’s own past wicked deeds”, as the 67th instrument of good works states in Chapter IV of the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict. He is to reckon “himself already brought before the dread judgment, saying always to himself in his heart that which the publican said in the Gospel with his eyes fixed on the ground: O Lord, I, a sinner, I am not worthy to lift mine eyes towards the heavens. And again with the Prophet: I am bent down and humbled in every way”, as today’s reading of the 12th step of humility in Chapter 7 put it. The monk is to pray “not with clamorous voice, but with tears and fervor of heart” (Chapter 52).
Needless to say, the forgiveness of sins is on the monk’s mind and heart a lot.
And here, in today’s Mass, we learn its secret.
He Himself Is the Forgiveness of Sins
What does it mean for the Holy Spirit to be the forgiveness of sins? We must first ask: What is the Holy Spirit? We cannot answer this, of course, because God is immense and beyond all definition. Yet we can say something, for theology teaches us that the Holy Spirit is the very love that is breathed between the God the Father and the Word of God, His Son. The Holy Spirit is Love.
Why would Love be the forgiveness of sins? Quite simply because sin is, as Saint Padre Pio put, a failure in love. Sin is when Love is not loved in us. Therefore Love banished sins. Love is the forgiveness of sins, and a perfect act of love would perfectly forgive sins. This is the basis of the Church’s teaching that a perfect act of contrition restores grace even before confession (but confession is still necessary, for one cannot truly love without obedience, as Christ said, “If you love me, keep my commandments”, and Christ commands us to confess our sins).
The Transformation of All Wounds into Wounds of Love
All of this brings to mind one of the most mystical passages of the Doctor Mysticus, Saint John of the Cross. Writing of the wound of love caused by the cautery of the Holy Spirit, Saint John of the Cross says that the wound of the Holy Spirit takes all wounds and transforms them into wounds of love.
To understand the nature of this wound, which is addressed by the soul, it should be known that the cautery of material fire always leaves a wound where it is applied. And it possesses this property: If applied to a wound not made by fire, it converts it into a wound caused by fire. Whether a soul is wounded by other wounds of miseries and sins or whether it is healthy, this cautery of love immediately effects a wound of love in the one it touches, and those wounds deriving from other causes become wounds of love. The Living Flame of Love, Stanza 2, para. 6.
A Wound Only Curable by Wounding
Yet there is a difference between this loving cautery and the cautery produced by material fire. The wound left by material fire is only curable by other medicines, whereas the wound effected by the cautery of love is incurable through medicine; for the very cautery that causes it, cures it, and by curing it, causes it. As often as the cautery of love touches the wound of love, it causes a deeper wound of love, and thus the more it wounds, the more it cures and heals. The more wounded the lover, the healthier the lover is, and the cure caused by love is to wound and inflict wound upon wound, to such an extent that the entire soul is dissolved into a wound of love. And now all cauterized and made one wound of love, it is completely healthy in love, for it is transformed in love. The Living Flame of Love, Stanza 2, para. 7.
A Delightful Wound
This is what is understood by the wound of which the soul (all wounded and all healthy) speaks. Even though the soul is all wounded and all healthy, the cautery of love does not fail to fulfill its task, which is to touch and wound with love. Being wholly delightful and completely sound, the wound brings delight, just as a good doctor usually does. As a result the soul says: “O delightful wound!”
Oh, then, wound, so much more delightful as the fire of love that causes it is higher and more sublime! The Holy Spirit produces it only for the sake of giving delight, and since his will to delight the soul is great, this wound will be great, for it will be extremely delightful. The Living Flame of Love, Stanza 2, para. 7.
A Love Song to the Wound of the Holy Spirit
Saint John of the Cross continues. speaking to the wound whereby the Holy Spirit unites Himself in love to the soul:
O happy wound, wrought by one who knows only how to heal! O fortunate and choicest wound; you were made only for delight, and the quality of your affliction is delight and gratification for the wounded soul! You are great, O delightful wound, because he who caused you is great! And your delight is great because the fire of love is infinite and makes you delightful according to your capacity and greatness. O, then, delightful wound, so much more sublimely delightful the more the cautery touched the intimate center of the substance of the soul, burning all that was burnable in order to give delight to all that could be delighted! The Living Flame of Love, Stanza 2, para. 8.
The Wound and the Forgiveness of Sins
Saint John of the Cross and the Post-Communion are actually saying one and the same thing. What does it mean for all our wounds to be turned into the one great wound caused by the love of the Holy Spirit, except that all our sins, all the consequences of our sins, and all the sins of others that have wounded are transformed into love? The very wound of sin, which had previously been a violation of love, becomes now the occasion of a deeper love in the Holy Spirit.
This is the forgiveness of sins, and the Holy Spirit is the forgiveness of sins, for it is He Who wounds us ineffably with love until all our wounds of sin become, like they did for Saint Mary Magdalene, flames of love alive in the Holy Spirit.