By Henry Aloysius Barry
St. Athanasius expresses himself in this style:— "The Spirit is the ointment and seal wherewith the Word anoints and seals all. The ointment indeed retains the odor and fragrance of the one anointing. The ointment and seal are not of created nature, but, of the Son, Who by the spirit that is in Him joins us to the Father." (Ad. Serap. Ep. n. 23, 24.)
Says St. Basil:— "the pathway to the knowledge of God stretches from one Spirit, through one Son to one Father, and, in the opposite order, natural goodness, essential sanctity and royal dignity flow out of the Father by the Only-Begotten into the Spirit." (De Spirito Sacnto n. 47.) In another place the same saint says, "Since the Holy Ghost is essentially holy, he is called the Fount of Holiness." (Ead. Ep. 8, n. 10.)
St. Gregory Nazianzen also acknowledges sanctity as the peculiar personal character of the Holy Ghost —"Define our Holy Faith," says he, "and teach that the Father is truly Father and the Son truly Son —and the Holy Ghost truly holy. Neither is there any other such or such wise, neither is his sanctity by accession but sanctity itself." (Or. 25. al. 23. n. 16)
St. Cyril reminds us that the Holy Ghost is of the Son as, "sweetness from honey, as heat from fire, as refreshment from water." "Tell us, you who dare assert that the Spirit is holy by participation and not naturally, how is He then in His own Person Spirit? The one thing we have heard from the Holy Scripture is that He is holy, He is not, therefore, holy by participation or composition, but essentially and naturally sanctifier and the sanctity of the Son and of the Father just, I may say, as the quality of sweetness from the honey and sweet odor from the flower. The designation tells us what He is when He is called holy." (Thes. T. V. P. l.p. 350, 351.) The earth has many medicinal springs that bubble up from her prolific bosom, and one is at liberty to choose out of her various assortment a particular one, the peculiar chemical properties of which are of a nature that promises to succor one in his peculiar indisposition or tone him up in quarters where he is run down or afford him a beverage that is guaranteed to keep his system in good working order. While not so, exclusively, the Holy Ghost is, however, personally and specifically of service in proffering to man such endowments, and in relieving such of his ailments, as centre round the will or appetitive faculty. This is the lesson that is emphatically and directly taught us by the revealed mode of the Holy Ghost's procession, namely, by the "will" and mutual love of the Father and Son. Have, then, our will-forces degenerated? have they grown lethargic? have they waxed vicious" or has the queen-faculty become dimmed, vacillating, pusillanimous? The spring we should patronize, in such event, is the Holy Ghost, whence pour forth the waters of love, of goodness, of holiness. Of course the Holy Ghost must promote, by way of consequence, the welfare also of the understanding, besides doing so in the sense of its being one of His gifts.
St. Athanasius expresses himself in this style:— "The Spirit is the ointment and seal wherewith the Word anoints and seals all. The ointment indeed retains the odor and fragrance of the one anointing. The ointment and seal are not of created nature, but, of the Son, Who by the spirit that is in Him joins us to the Father." (Ad. Serap. Ep. n. 23, 24.)
Says St. Basil:— "the pathway to the knowledge of God stretches from one Spirit, through one Son to one Father, and, in the opposite order, natural goodness, essential sanctity and royal dignity flow out of the Father by the Only-Begotten into the Spirit." (De Spirito Sacnto n. 47.) In another place the same saint says, "Since the Holy Ghost is essentially holy, he is called the Fount of Holiness." (Ead. Ep. 8, n. 10.)
St. Gregory Nazianzen also acknowledges sanctity as the peculiar personal character of the Holy Ghost —"Define our Holy Faith," says he, "and teach that the Father is truly Father and the Son truly Son —and the Holy Ghost truly holy. Neither is there any other such or such wise, neither is his sanctity by accession but sanctity itself." (Or. 25. al. 23. n. 16)
St. Cyril reminds us that the Holy Ghost is of the Son as, "sweetness from honey, as heat from fire, as refreshment from water." "Tell us, you who dare assert that the Spirit is holy by participation and not naturally, how is He then in His own Person Spirit? The one thing we have heard from the Holy Scripture is that He is holy, He is not, therefore, holy by participation or composition, but essentially and naturally sanctifier and the sanctity of the Son and of the Father just, I may say, as the quality of sweetness from the honey and sweet odor from the flower. The designation tells us what He is when He is called holy." (Thes. T. V. P. l.p. 350, 351.) The earth has many medicinal springs that bubble up from her prolific bosom, and one is at liberty to choose out of her various assortment a particular one, the peculiar chemical properties of which are of a nature that promises to succor one in his peculiar indisposition or tone him up in quarters where he is run down or afford him a beverage that is guaranteed to keep his system in good working order. While not so, exclusively, the Holy Ghost is, however, personally and specifically of service in proffering to man such endowments, and in relieving such of his ailments, as centre round the will or appetitive faculty. This is the lesson that is emphatically and directly taught us by the revealed mode of the Holy Ghost's procession, namely, by the "will" and mutual love of the Father and Son. Have, then, our will-forces degenerated? have they grown lethargic? have they waxed vicious" or has the queen-faculty become dimmed, vacillating, pusillanimous? The spring we should patronize, in such event, is the Holy Ghost, whence pour forth the waters of love, of goodness, of holiness. Of course the Holy Ghost must promote, by way of consequence, the welfare also of the understanding, besides doing so in the sense of its being one of His gifts.
