Man - Spirit

Let us consider now the aspect of pneuma. The idea of spirit has become one of the most confused ideas in philosophy. The manuals and dictionaries of Western theology speak abundantly of the soul and of the Holy Spirit, but very rarely of the spirit of human beings. Yet Saint Paul often spoke of the "nous" or the "pneuma" and attributed them to humanity. In the Hebraic Bible, "ruah"(translated by "pneuma", then "spiritus"), is the wind, the breath, the vital dynamism of the person, the animating and vivifying principle, the divine breath which man received according to Genesis: "the Lord made man with the dust of the earth, then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life."

Even if certain texts allow some doubt, Paul clearly distinguishes human pneuma and divine pneuma, our spirit and the Spirit of God. The former points to the latter, which inhabits the believer, guides him, takes hold of him in the same way it took hold of the prophets. It makes of us an adoptive son/daughter, allowing us to call God Abba, "Father. Spirit also manifests itself in mysterious phenomena, outside of human possibilities.

Understood in this way, the spirit is always, "issued from God". It belongs to the divine sphere; in the human being, it is of the order of a reality received from above; it comes from God and returns to God; it puts in relief the relationship between human beings and God. It attests to humanity that it is destined for the resurrection; a transcendent element, it is for humans and in humans the manifestation of the Divine; it roots us in Being, Life, the Absolute; it is a seed within us, a divine spark.

"The spirit is not a different reality from the body and the soul; it does not proceed from an object, but from God, who is subject. It is like the breath of God which penetrates us and confers on us his supreme dignity, the supreme quality of his existence, freedom and inner unity."

"The spirit is not being, but the meaning of being, the truth of being. It is the divine element in human beings. It is the spirit which makes us in the image of God. It is thanks to the spirit that we can rise to the highest divine spheres." "The spirit is not created by God the way nature is, but rather emanates from God. It is poured out, breathed into us by God." "The spirit is both transcendent and immanent. In it the transcendent becomes immanent and the immanent transcendent."

 "That which characterizes the spirit is total independence in relation to natural and social determinisms. It is the inner as opposed to the external.""It is in our spirit that the Holy Spirit acts. The spiritual life is a communion with the divine life. In our greatest depths, it is revealed that that, which occurs within us occurs in the very depths of the divine life." "All charismata (spiritual power), all gifts come from the spirit, not only the gifts of the prophets and of the apostles and the saints, but also those of the poets, the philosophers, the inventors, and the reformers."

"We do not have an objective spiritual nature over and above our corporal and psychic nature. But our soul and our body can have access to another level, a higher level, that of spiritual existence, that of freedom, opening onto the kingdom of meaning." "Our body can therefore participate with the spirit, be spiritualized and conquered for our liberty. It is with our body that we can reach theosis, the entrance into the divine life." "The spirit is not a different reality, but gives meaning to reality." "Through the spirit, God is rooted in human beings and we are rooted in God." "It is through the spirit that we receive everything from God and give everything to God.