11. The Holy Ghost and the Church
1. The Soul of the Church
The Holy Ghost is the Soul of the Church. (Sent. communis.)
In the Encyclical "Divinum illud" (1897), Leo XIII declared: 'Let the one proposition suffice: Christ is the Head of the Church, the Holy Ghost her soul. In the Encyclical "Mystici Corporis" (D2288) Pius XII confirmed this doctrine. In its content it asserts that like the soul in the body, the Holy Ghost is the principle of being and life in the Church. It is the Holy Ghost who welds together the members of the Church among themselves and with Christ the Head, as the Holy Ghost is entirely in the head and entirely in the members of the Mystical Body. It is He who by His assistance upholds the hierarchy in the exercise of the teaching office, of the pastoral office and of the sacerdotal office. It is He who with His grace excites and fosters every salutary activity in the members of the Mystical Body. All life and growth of the Mystical Body proceeds from the Divine life-principle indwelling in it.
This teaching is manifested in the numerous assertions of Holy Scripture on the inner , hidden operation of the Holy Ghost in the Church: He remains with the disciples of Jesus for all time, in His place (John 14,16). He lives in them as in a temple (I Cor. 3,16; 6,19). He binds them all together into one body (I Cor.12,13); He teaches them all and reminds them of all that Jesus said to them (John 14,26; I John 2,27); He gives testimony of Jesus (John 15,26); He leads them to all truth (John 16,13); He speaks in them when they are brought before the Court (Mt. 10,20); He works in them when they confess Jesus as the Lord (I Cor. 12,3)0; He helps to preserve the deposit of faith entrusted to them (2 Tim 1,14); He bestows the extraordinary gifts of grace, and allocates to each as He will (I Cor. 12,11); He molds the Christian to a dwelling of God (Eph 2,22); He effects the forgiveness of sins (John 20,22 et seq), the rebirth (john 3,5), the spiritual renewal (Tit. 3,5); He bestows the spirit of adoption of sons (Rom 8,15); He pours out love into the hearts of the faithful (Rom. 5,5); He brings forth all the Christian virtues (Gal.5,22); He inducts the superiors of the Church (Acts 20,280; He directs them in their official activity (Acts 15,280; He takes pity on our weakness and pleads with us before the Father (Rom. 8,26); supported by Him we cry to God: 'Abba Father' (Rom.8,15; Gao. 4,6).
The Fathers attest the intimate connection of the Holy Ghost with the Church. St. Irenaeus says: "Where the Church is, there is also the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace' (Adv. haer. III 24,I) St. Augustine compares the working of the Holy Ghost in the Church to the working of the soul in the body: 'What the soul is for the body of man that the Holy Ghost is for the body of Christ, that, is, the Church. The Holy Ghost operates in the whole Church that which the soul operates in the members of the one body.' As the soul quickens every member of the body and bestows a definite function on each, so the Holy Ghost, by His grace, quickens every member of the Church, and allocates to each a definite activity in the service of the whole. Through one He works miracles, through others He proclaims the truth; in one He preserves virginity, in another marital chastity; in one He effects this, in another that. As the soul does not follow the member that is cut off from the body, so also the Holy Ghost does not dwell in the member who separates itself from the body of the Church (Sermo 267, 4,4). Scholasticism adopted the thought of St. Augustine, for example, St. Thomas in his Commentary on the Apostles 'Creed (a.9). In another metaphor St. Thomas calls the Holy Ghost the Heart of the Church (cor Ecclesiae), based on the Aristotelian thought that the heart is the central organ, out of which all life-powers stream to the body. In analogous manner the Holy Ghost is the universal principle, from which all supernatural life-powers, that is , all graces, overflow to the Church, the Head (Christ as to His humanity) and the members. As the heart with its universal efficacy is invisible to the eye, so also the Holy Ghost and His universal quickening and uniting efficacy in the Church is invisible. Thus the Holy Ghost is very appropriately compared to the heart, while Christ, as to His sensory human nature is very appropriately compared to the head (S. th. III 8, I and 3). Prescinding from picturesque language, St. Thomas says of the relationship of the Holy Ghost to the Church: The Holy Ghost unites, quickens, teaches, sanctifies the Church, indwells in her, communicates the riches of the one to the others. CF. S. th. 2 II 1,9 ad 5: III 8, I ad3; III 68,9 ad 2; In I Cor. c. 12 lect. 2."
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