Thursday 5 May 2011

God gives him the Spirit without reserve Jn 3:4 NOT 'ration the Spirit'

Introduction of the Mass. Thurs 2nd Easter May 05 

Some kind of dissonance occurred when I first saw one of the eight Catholic Translations. The verse, "God does not ration his gift of the Spirit" Jn 3:4. Made me describe the NAB language as bald and prosaic. 
The NJB is more elegant, “God gives him the Spirit without reserve." 
Happily the DGO Commentary was from Blessed John Paul II

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 3:31-36. 
The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things. But the one who comes from heaven is above all.
He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony.
Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy.
For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He does not ration his gift of the Spirit Jn 3 34
The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him. NAB.

Blessed John-Paul II, Pope from 1978 to 2005
Encyclical Letter « Dominum et vivificantem », §10 (© Libreria Editrice Vaticana) 

"God does not ration his gift of the Spirit"

In his intimate life, God "is love," (1Jn 4,8) the essential love shared by the three divine Persons: personal love is the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of the Father and the Son.
Therefore he "searches even the depths of God,"(1Cor 2,10) as uncreated Love-Gift.
It can be said that in the Holy Spirit the intimate life of the Triune God becomes totally gift, an exchange of mutual love between the divine Persons and that through the Holy Spirit God exists in the mode of gift.
It is the Holy Spirit who is the personal expression of this self-giving, of this being-love.
He is Person- Love. He is Person-Gift.
 Here we have an inexhaustible treasure of the reality and an inexpressible deepening of the concept of person in God, which only divine Revelation makes known to us.

At the same time, the Holy Spirit, being consubstantial with the Father and the Son in divinity, is love and (uncreated) gift from which derives as from its source...  all giving of gifts vis-a-vis creatures (created gift): the gift of existence to all things through creation; the gift of grace to human beings through the whole economy of salvation. As the Apostle Paul writes: "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Rm 5,5). 

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