By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,
The Holy Trinity hath another work, undertaken of His free mercy and to show the riches of His grace. When our race fell from God by the prevarication of its will, and in our father, Adam, lost Eden and the graces of paradise, the same power which magnified itself in creation glorified itself more mightily in redemption. "God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son." The Second Person took upon Himself the work of expiation and redemption. To this end He became man and made Himself the second Adam, that through a divine humanity He might pay our debt and heal the wounds of sin, which had corrupted and enfeebled our nature. In this work the Three Persons of the Trinity co operate, and here the Holy Ghost has His peculiar office.
Directly does He concur to the incarnation of God the Word. By His power the immaculate Virgin conceived. "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee," said the archangel Gabriel to her, "and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; therefore the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." The Word was, then, " conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary." By His touch her pure substance was formed into the spotless body of Jesus Christ; and by His breath the soul of God Incarnate was created. Upon that humanity, the greatest and most beautiful work of God, the energies of the divine Spirit, with all His gifts, were put forth. His all-perfecting fingers were ever upon that humanity to fashion and mould its features, as the Man-God "grew in wisdom and age, and grace with God and men." Through all the steps of His earthly work the Redeemer was "led by the Spirit" from height to height of oblation. The Paraclete watched with protecting wings over the humanity conceived by His energy. He filled the womb of St. Elizabeth and caused the unborn forerunner to exult with joy. "John gave testimony, saying, I saw the Spirit coming down as a dove from heaven, and He remained upon Him."
So at the baptism in Jordan "heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape as a dove upon Him." "Evidently great," says the apostle, " is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh and justified in the Spirit." This work of the Spirit in and over the humanity of Christ was carried on through all the bitterness .of the Passion, in the sharpness of death, until the resurrection dawned in a new light, and the Man-God was "taken up into glory."
And when the Word made flesh had finished His earthly work, had paid the penalty due to our sins, and had ascended on high, it was the office of the Spirit to carry on and complete that work. "It is expedient for you that I go," said our Lord to His sorrowing disciples: "for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you: but if I go, I will send Him to you." "He, the Spirit of truth, shall teach you all things. He shall glorify me, because He shall receive of mine, and shall show it to you." "When He cometh, He shall give testimony of me," and " you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you." "I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, who will never leave you, who will abide with you for ever." "He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you." So in the quickening energy of His nature, and the love of which He is the expression, the Paraclete takes up the work of the ascended Christ, brings all His teaching into fruitful light, and by His mighty operations applies the precious Blood of Calvary, and completes the redemption. " Jesus Christ came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifieth that Christ is the truth."
The same energy which fashioned the humanity of the second Adam, fashions also ours by the touch of "the quickening Spirit." "The Spirit Himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God. And if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be made conformable to the image of His Son."
If the work of the Third Person of the holy Trinity was glorious in the first creation, much more wonderful is His operation in the new, where the world of grace opens before us with all its treasures. He unites us to the humanity of our Redeemer, and consoles us with the knowledge of all He did and taught. He is the Comforter under whose reign of mercy we live. He that rejects Him shall find no comfort. He who grieves Him away shall be eternally lost. "The blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven." "He that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come."
