Catholic Q&A
People linked to new religions say that misfortunes occurring within a house are due to possession by evil spirits. Would it okay to consider the “Holy Spirit” in Christianity as a “guardian spirit”?
First of all, to say that evil spirits cause hardships and so on is a superstition. There are religions where people earn a lot of money, merely by stating that they can observe spirits that possess people. They use various means like magical incantations and so on, to mollifying those spirits. Even in the present-day age of natural science such superstitions are rampant, since people feel that science and technology alone are insufficient to save mankind in a materialistic society.
The “spirit” cited in the Bible was initially referred to as “rûaḥ ” or “pneuma,” meaning “wind” or “breath.” That is to say, the ancient Jewish people believed that God created the world, and infused life into lifeless objects. What we call the spirit is the invisible work of God, the work of saving people. One may call it the presence of God. Basing themselves on Jewish tradition, the disciples of Jesus believed that God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, has now granted us his Spirit in a decisive manner. The Holy Spirit keeps us alive from within. By transcending space and time he connects us to Christ, and in Christ he links us to each other. He comes to the rescue of weak people like us, and so along with Christ we may cry, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15). In Christianity, the Holy Spirit is believed to be working in the world through history, transforming it and leading it to completion.