I have suggested that the Fourth Gospel tells us that the Holy Ghost is the ascended Jesus Christ; so whenever we talk about the Holy Ghost we are actually talking about Jesus.
Is this helpful? very, very much so - I would say. Instead of a nebulous (because bodiless, unpersonal) spirit-being; we are offered guidance and consolation from the actual person of Jesus - which fits with John 16:7 "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you."
Why would it be expedient for the disciples (and everyone else, presumably) if Jesus goes away (that is dies, resurrects, ascends to Heaven) if the person of Jesus - someone we might love as one individual loves another - was replaced by a nebulous ghost spirit for whom love can only be an abstraction?
As an example, we might consider the comic but Christian character of Don Camillo; a fictional Italian priest who has two-way conversations with Jesus on a crucifix in his Church - and this Jesus is a very distinct, humorous, character (and an exemplar of tough-love).
In these stories, it seems to me that Jesus is replacing, fusing-with, and thereby rendering unnecessary, the Holy Ghost as some kind of separate aspect of deity.
Of course any such conversation as Camillo's with Christ is not a literal communion with Jesus, since it is subject to all our limitations of understanding and motivation, as well as the inevitable ambiguities of language.
Nonetheless, insofar as it is underpinned by direct communion; then this is exactly how Jesus can be or become a real-reality in the lives of Christians: the apprehension of a real personage with who we have present contact.
7 comments:
There are several passages in Paul that suggest the Holy Spirit is the risen Christ. But opposite to you, I think John's gospel is precisely why people reject this idea from Paul, since John has Jesus speak of the Holy Spirit as "another" and also something like "the spirit will not speak of himself but will speak of me." But Paul says things that suggest an identification of Jesus and the Spirit ("Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.") and also calling the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Christ. Yet also that seem contrary to it ("Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost."). It demonstrates that Christian theology was actually in a somewhat unsettled state in the first century.
But how then does the Holy Ghost come down and witness to Jesus's baptist, that 'this is my Son who I am pleased with'. And why does Jesus say upon his ascension that 'I will send you a helper, the Holy Spirit'.
These are treated as very distinct aspests of a triune God.
The Holy Spirit would not be Jesus here, that much seems so clear.
@jason - The differences between the reasoning of me and that of "people" are much more profound than text quibbling!
@cecil - "These are treated as very distinct aspects of a triune God." Very distinct? Triune? Absolutely Not! "how then does the Holy Ghost come down and witness to Jesus's baptist" But that is Not described as the Holy Ghost - it is described as the spirit of God the Father.
General comment - the title of this post was intended to indicate the benefits of thinking of the Holy Ghost as Jesus - in other words to explain why this is a distinction that makes a difference. Whether or not one should believe that this actually is the case (.i.e. whether it is true that the Holy Ghost is Jesus) is a separate issue, although it is of course the Main issue! Yet, people often will not make the effort to think metaphysically unless they can see there is a pay-off, a benefit.
I’ve encouraged my children to view Jesus as their big brother and to ask him for help whenever they are scared of something especially spiritual (e.g. “afraid of the dark”). Unlike me growing up, they have zero troubles with nightmares. One of them at age two told me there was “a bad man” in her room but she “asked Jesus to get rid of him” and Jesus “took him outside”. She was so happy and peaceful about it, no fear or doubt at all. The benefits are readily apparent to me, a parent :)
@Mia - Young children have the advantage - and it Is an advantage - of regarding everything as "beings", persons. This is (I believe) built-in divine knowledge. It is our task to recover this consciously, because that is how things really are.
@Mia Beautiful. I recall as a child having bizarre dreams that came with intense feelings of alienation and loneliness, and sort of mind-loops.
The sort of feeling that makes a child want to run to their parents room in the middle of the night to feel grounded or protected.
Knowing that Jesus is with us in those moments would definitely have been helpful if wholly believed and understood at the time.
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