The Holy Spirit is a sharp, cutting wind that can make us chatter our teeth. It is also a burning fire; if it were to descend on someone like a tongue of flame, it could burn their brain out. And who would dare to claim that they have this Spirit? Sides cannot rent it; it races through statements and contradictions. Supporters of tradition may be vacuously dried up; supporters of progress may march into emptiness. No side can capture the heavenly dove for themselves. It comes and goes. It descends but does not settle. (…)
When the Spirit descended on Jesus at the moment he humbled himself to receive the baptism of repentance in the Jordan, it means that we cannot seize the dove by reaching out into the air above us. The Spirit reaches us, not we it. And it descends where it finds space, readiness, listening, and recognition. The less resistance it encounters, such as preconceived opinions, ready-made systems, categorical principles, closed planning, the more distinctly it can manifest itself, the more clearly it can differentiate...
(Hans Urs von Balthasar /1905–1988/, excerpt from the text Paths to Clarification)
