Our Lord
commanded us to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit. In baptism, then, we profess faith in the Creator, and in his
only-begotten Son, and in his Gift, which is the Spirit. There is one Creator
of all things, for in God there is one Father from whom all things have their
being. And there is one only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom
all things exist. And there is one Spirit, the Gift who is in all things. Thus
do they all follow due order, according to the proper operation of each: there
is the one Power that brings all things into being; and the one Son through
whom all things come to be; and the one Gift of perfect hope for all things
that be. Nothing is wanting to this flawless union: in Father there is infinity
of endless being; and in the Son, the perfect reflection of his divine image;
and the Holy Spirit, their mutual enjoyment of the gift.
As our Lord
has described the purpose of the Spirit’s presence in us, let us listen to his
words: I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
It is to your advantage that I go away; if I go, I will send you the Advocate. Moreover,
I will ask the Father and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you
forever, the Spirit of truth. He will guide you into all the truth; for he will
not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he
will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he
will take what is mine.
From among
many of our Lord’s sayings, these have been chosen to guide our understanding,
for they reveal to us the intention of the Giver, the nature of his Gift, and
the condition for its reception. Since our weak minds cannot comprehend the
Father or the Son, we have been given the Holy Spirit as our intermediary and
advocate, to shed light on that hard doctrine of our faith: the incarnation of
God.
We receive the
Spirit of truth so that we can know the things of God. In order to grasp this,
consider how useless the faculties of the human body would become if they were
denied their exercise. Our eyes cannot fulfil their task without light, either
natural or artificial; our ears cannot react without sound vibrations, and in
the absence of any odor our nostrils are ignorant of their function. Not that
these senses would lose their own nature if they were not used; rather, they
demand objects of experience in order to function. It is the same with the
human soul. Unless it absorbs the Gift of the Spirit through faith, the mind
has the ability to know God but lacks the light necessary for that knowledge.
This unique
gift which is in Christ is offered in its fullness to everyone. It is
everywhere available, but it is given to each man in proportion to his
readiness to receive it. Its presence is the fuller, the greater a man’s desire
to be worthy of it. This gift will remain with us until the end of the world,
and will be our comfort in the time of waiting. By the favors it bestows, it is
the pledge of our hope for the future, the light of our minds, and the
splendour that irradiates our understanding.