Consolator optime, Greatest comforter,
dulcis hospes animae, sweet guest of the soul,
dulce refrigerium. sweet consolation.
This stanza is simply three descriptions of the Holy Spirit: comforter, guest, and consolation. There is no verb, so we can read it either as a continuation of the last stanza’s “Come,” or we can read it as praise of the Holy Spirit – a holy statement about the Truth of who He is. We might ask, ‘Why is His light a comfort, a consolation, and a sweet guest?’
Those who are filled with the Holy Spirit have a special way of receiving the challenges in life with grace. They seem to be filled with a sweetness and a supernatural contentment. In his book, “The Holy Spirit, Fire of Divine Love,” Fr. Wilfred Stinissen explains, “[The Holy Spirit] comforts by giving a certain taste for poverty. He teaches you to love your littleness.” The Holy Spirit doesn’t necessarily come and take away the things that cause pain, humiliation, or a sense of weakness. He can, certainly, free us from these pains, but he also has the power to help us bear them for Christ and for his body, with peace.
It is only the presence of the Holy Spirit that could make the Martyrs happy and joyful in the face of death. It is only the presence of the Holy Spirit that could lead saints to speak about the beauty of the grace that comes through suffering. He conforms our lives to the cross of Jesus Christ, through which comes resurrection!
The Spirit is a guest, not an intruder. Guests come at an invitation – He will never barge in. He desires to enter but waits in reverence like the Lord in the book of Revelation: “I stand at the door and knock.” Plus, as God himself, when he comes into our interior life, he is really also inviting us into his interior life. The Latin word translated here as “Guest,” hospes,can also mean “a friendly host.” When we invite Him, He enters our soul as a guest and hosts us in the divine life and light. The life of the Trinity is a life of outpouring love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – it looks a lot like Jesus, crucified for the life of the world.
St. Paul is one of those saints who truly invited the Holy Trinity into his very self and therefore became very much like Jesus. He reveals this in his letter to the Galatians: “I have been crucified with Christ;and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” We see that St. Paul was filled with the consolation of God to the extent that he could rejoice in his imprisonment, his sufferings, his beatings, and his ultimate martyrdom, because in all these ways he gained a deep communion with Jesus. Communion with Jesus is the most consoling thing in the universe, and the Holy Spirit happily brings that communion to life in us.
Come, Holy Spirit, sweet guest of my soul! Come set me on fire with your love and console me by uniting me with Jesus in his life, his death, and his resurrection.