By Henry Aloysius Barry
CHAPTER V. THE HOLY GHOST IN VISIBLE FORM.
The Holy Ghost has, on various occasions, appeared in symbolic form, that is, visibly, before the human senses. On the solemn occasion of our Lord's baptism He showed in the form of a dove,— "and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, as a dove, upon Him." (Luke, iii, 22.) This particular symbol swiftly summons to our fancy the commingled idea of purity and ingenuousness.
The Saviour of mankind, in a loveliness of heroism that bewilders understanding, sets Himself up for the world's aggregate-sinner having need to be made clean. We draw from this vicarious life-picture the lesson of how snowy in whiteness one's soul ought to be, how swept, washed and dusted, aye, fumigated, one's heart ought to be if one really and seriously intends to receive the Holy Ghost as a guest under his roof tree. "The dove stands as a symbol of that purity, which the Holy Ghost worketh within us; it goes to express that purity which Christ inaugurated, that is to say, the purification of the soul and is the word which expresses the secret, supernatural force, which He imparts to the waters, for the soul's sanctification," by the virtue of contact with His Sacred Body. Purity, therefore, is the characteristic idea of the proper kind of abode for the Holy Ghost, as these words teach us,—" Create a clean heart within me, O God, and renew a right spirit within my bowels." (Ps. 1., xii.)
We have this idea conveyed to us by the unblemished whiteness of the dove and its natural cleanness. Some discover evidences of the dove's cleanness in its return to the ark. Many draw the inference that it's not finding a place for resting means that it could not fetch upon a clean spot, one that was free of defilement, of mud, of frowsy carcass or slimy lees of the deluge. We can thence conclude that the Holy Ghost has no disposition to dwell in such a place as a diseased conscience, one befouled with sin, vice-polluted. (Hort. Past. Lib. i., 4 Lect. 2, Page 1.)
The Holy Ghost appeared draped in the symbol of cloud; — " and as He was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed Him." (Matt, xvii, 5.) "The clouds, in Holy Writ, make for the symbol of divine majesty and, accordingly, figure with frequency in connection with the divine apparitions, as the Scriptures evince: — "His throne is in a column of cloud." The Holy Ghost is, furthermore, peculiarly designated by the clouds. When, accordingly, the Mystery of the Trinity was portrayed in the instance of the Transfiguration, the Son showed in a robe of glory, the Father in the voice, the Holy Ghost in the lucid cloud. The Holy Ghost was that overshadowing cloud through which the Blessed Virgin Mary conceived Christ. "This cloud also overshadows us, the outcome of which happily consists in this, namely, that it smothers the flame of fleshly desires and raises, with the lever of its vision, our minds aloft to things heavenly. The Holy Ghost is that pillar of cloud which guides us who constitute the true Israelites, onward to the promised land!" (March. Loco. Cit.) The Holy Ghost appeared, besides, in the shape of fiery tongues: — "And there appeared to them broad tongues of fire, as it were, and it sat upon every one of them." (Acts ii, 3.) The purport in the present instance is the breeding of fellowship, a melting of self-will, and, of course, a cementing them into one mind and one heart: —a folding— "one fold;" a churching — " My Church." "First of all it does not come amiss for the Holy Ghost to appear as fire, inasmuch as fire is the usual symbol of Divinity and has often served as a medium for the display of the divine glory." We read, for example, in Exodus, fourteenth chapter: "And the sight of the glory was like a A burning fire upon the top of a mountain." Moses, also, tells us in Deuteronomy, fourth chapter—"The Lord thy God is consuming fire." In the second place, fire especially and justly designates the Holy Ghost, because goodness and love are attributed to the Holy Ghost, and these are correctly signified by fire, because, of all elements, fire has the most pronounced tendency to extend itself to all things, dominating and assimilating them. Hence if you apply it to oil, iron, or even water, it strives to amalgamate it in its own nature and to extend to such its own character and beauty. Of such sort is the divine goodness and love. Wherever it pours itself out, communicates itself, it essays to conform every man to itself, make all share in its own productiveness and glory and, for the rest, assimilate all things, according to their capacity, into itself, because in everything that is there is some vestige of, and participation in, the Divinity. "When, therefore, the Holy Ghost proceeds as love and goes out to us, with the intent to transform all things into His own nature —a procedure peculiar to fire—the Holy Ghost is very properly designated under the name of fire."—(Loc. Cit.) "But, we all beholding the glory of the Lord, with open face, are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord." (Gal., iii. 18.)
