In a previous article we tried to rescue the dimension of the “spirit” that has largely been submerged in modern materialist and consumerist culture. Now we want to rescue the figure of the Holy Spirit, which is always marginalized or forgotten in the Latin Church. Since she is a Church of power, she does not coexist well with charisma, which belongs to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the fantasy of God and the motor of change, which are not welcomed by the old hierarchical institution. But the Holy Spirit is coming back.
Vatican Council II emphatically affirms: «The Spirit of God directs the course of history with admirable providence; it renews the face of the Earth and is present in evolution» (Gaudium et Spes, 26/281). The Spirit is always in action. But it appears with greater intensity when there are changes which bring about something new. Four such recent changes are worth mentioning: the Ecumenical Vatican Council II (1962-1965), The Latin American Episcopal Conference in Medellin, Colombia (1969), and the appearance of the Church of Liberation and of the Charismatic Catholic Renewal.
With Vatican II (1962-1965), the Church came into step with the modern world and its liberties. In particular, the Church established a dialogue with techno-science, with the world of labor, with secularization, ecumenism, other religions and fundamental human rights. The Spirit breathed fresh air into the crepuscular building of the Church.
In Medellín (1968) the Church stepped into the underworld of poverty and misery that characterized and still continues to characterize Latin America. Filled with the strength of the Holy Spirit, Latin American pastors made an option for the poor and against poverty and decided to carry out a pastoral practice of integral liberation: liberation not just from our personal and collective sins, but liberation from the sin of oppression, from the sin of the impoverishment of the masses, the discrimination against the Native nations of the continent, the contempt for the Afro-descendants, and the sin of patriarchal domination, that men have practiced over women since the Neolithic age.
From this was born the Church of the Liberation. Her face is seen in the reading of the Bible by the people, in the new form of being Church of the Ecclesiastic Base Communities, in the different social pastorals, (of the Native people, the Afro-descendants, the Earth, health, the children, and others), and in its corresponding reflection, the Theology of Liberation.
This Church of Liberation raised Christians who are politically committed to the oppressed, who opposed the military dictatorships that practiced persecution, jailing, torture and murder. It is doubtless one of the few Churches that has so many martyrs, such as Sister Dorothy Stang, and even bishops such as Enrique Angelleli, in Argentina, and Oscar Arnulfo Romero, in El Salvador.
The fourth change was the emergence of the Charismatic Catholic Renewal in the United States, beginning in 1967, and in Latin America, in the 1970s. It brought back the centrality of prayer, spirituality, and of living the charismas of the Spirit. Communities of prayer were created, communities to foster the gifts of the Holy Spirit, assistance to the poor and the sick. This renewal helped overcome the rigidity of the ecclesiastic organization and the coldness of doctrine. It ended the monopoly of the Word as the sole province of the clergy, opening a space for the free expression of the faithful.
These four events only can be properly theologically evaluated when they are viewed through the lens of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has always burst forth in history and in an innovative form in the Church, that consequently becomes the generator of hope and of the joy of living the faith.
We are living now in what is perhaps the greatest crisis of human history. It is its greatest crisis because it could be terminal. In fact, we have given ourselves the instruments of self-destruction. We have built a death machine that can kill us all and liquidate our entire civilization, that was so painfully constructed over thousands and thousands of years of creative work. And the majority of biodiversity could die with us. If this tragedy occurs, the Earth will continue her journey, covered with corpses, devastated and impoverished; but without us.
For this reason, we say that our technology of death has opened up a new geologic era: the Anthropocene. That is, the human being appears like a great meteorite threatening life. The human being may prefer to self-destruct and perversely spoil the living Earth, Gaia, rather than change its life style and relationship with nature and with Mother Earth. As once in Palestine the Jews preferred Barrabas over Jesus, the present enemies of life could prefer Herod to the innocent children. Then the human being would in fact show himself as the Satan of the Earth, rather than the guardian angel of creation.
At that moment we will invoke, plead and cry out loud the liturgical prayer of the feast of Pentecost: Veni, Sancte Spiritus et emite coelitus, Lucis tuae radio: «Come Holy Spirit and send from heaven a ray of light».
Without the return of the Spirit, we run the risk that the crisis will no longer be a purifying opportunity, and will degenerate into a tragedy, with no return. In the Ecclesiastic Base Communities they sing: «Come Holy Spirit and renew the face of the Earth».
 
Free translation from the Spanish by
Servicios Koinonia, http://www.servicioskoinonia.org.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.