Pat Arensberg: The Holy Spirit sanctifies the Church

“The Spirit prepares men and goes out to them with his grace, in order to draw them to Christ. The Spirit manifests the risen Lord to them, recalls his word to them and opens their minds to the understanding of his Death and Resurrection.” -CCC # 737

On the Feast of Pentecost (which was/is a Jewish feast seven weeks after the Passover) Christ fulfilled the promise he made to send us the Advocate. This outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the fulfillment of Christ’s Passover. Jesus came to forgive our sins and to fully reveal the Blessed Trinity. In the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the revelation of the Trinity is seen in its completed form. The Holy Spirit, which comes upon the Apostles and brings the Church to life is the “first fruits “ of our promised inheritance. The power of the Holy Spirit is what enables the Church, through the ministry of the priest, to exercise the power of forgiveness of sins (Jesus breathing on them in John 20 can be seen as an imparting of the gift of the Holy Spirit since breath was synonymous with spirit for the Jews).
The Spirit and Jesus have the same mission; namely to bring all of us to the Father. They each have a distinct role to play in that mission.

Each member of the Trinity seeks to give themselves away in love. They each seek to give and not to take. They each are solicitous to lead us to the others. We experience some of this when we meet a new friend and wish to share them with others. We so often want to introduce one of our friends to another friend of ours. This desire is like the desire of each member of the Trinity to bring each of us to their beloved.