Chapter 18. Devotion to the Holy Ghost
We have now traced in outline the office of the Sanctifier, which is appropriated to the Holy Ghost in the work of the salvation of souls. As the Father is our Maker, the Son our Eedeemer, so the Holy Ghost is our Sanctifier; and yet creation, redemption, and sanctification are all equally works of the Ever-blessed Trinity. This must be al ways borne in mind lest we seem to divide what is one and indissoluble, and to imply that we owe to any one Person of the Ever-blessed Three any love, worship, or devotion which is not equally due to All.
Nevertheless the whole of our thoughts hitherto have shown us that we are in immediate union or contact, so to speak, with the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier. It is He who < filled the Apostles j'1 Peter was < filled with the Holy Ghost;'2 Stephen and Barnabas were * full of the Holy Ghost;'3 the » Acts ii. 4. * Ibid. iv. 8. • Ibid. vi. 5, xi. 24.
1 disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost.'4 It is through Him that we are the temple of God.5 It is He « Who is given to us.'8 It is He ' who maketh intercession' in us with pleas of supplication which no man can utter. 7 It is He by whom we say 'the Lord Jesus,'8 and without Him we should not know Jesus. It is He who abides upon us as the Unction that teacheth us all things.9 All this is in the office which has been appropriated or given to Him in the mystery of gathering out and sanctifying the elect. Therefore in this office, and as ever present with us in our hearts and in the Church of God, we offer Him our distinct adoration.
The reasons of this are many; but three *vill suffice.
- First it is due to Him for the glory of His Person. (1) He is God co-eternal, co-
« Actt xiii. 52. ' Rom. viii. 26.12
equal, co-infinite, consubstantial. He is uncreated Being, Wisdom, and Love. * The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten; the Son is of the Father alone, neither made nor created, but begotten; the Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding.'
And in this Trinity there is neither be fore nor after, neither greater nor less, but the whole Three Persons are co-eternal and co-equal. The Holy Ghost, then, is the eternal Beauty, Sweetness, and Truth. Such He is in Himself, but (2) He is the Bond of perfection in the Holy Trinity; the Terminus or Bound of all that is divine; the Love10 of the Father and the Son. (3) Lastly He is the Finger of God's right hand by which He wrote the witness of God upon all the world, and the laws of God on two tables of stone. The Finger which created all things by the lightest touch of almighty power, He is in immediate contact with 10 S. Thomse, Sum. Tlieol. 1. q. 37.
created things. He, the Uncreated, is in union, and, as S. Gregory of Nazianzum says, in substantial union, not consubstantial unity, with the just. His words are, the Holy Ghost ' is no longer present only in operation as heretofore; but He is with us, and converses with us, substantially,11 so to speak; for it was fitting that as the Son had dwelt amongst us bodily, so the Holy Ghost should be manifested bodily, Christ return ing to Himself, and the Holy Ghost descending to us.' That is, the Son was manifest in His natural body, the Holy Ghost is manifested by the mystical body. 1 Ubi Ecclesia, ibi Spiritus,' as S. Irenaeus says.
- But further we owe Him a distinct and special adoration for the glory of His work.
(1) That work is twofold,— in the old creation and in the new. God made all things by His Wisdom, which is the Son; but He
11 S. Greg. Naz. orat. xli. in Pentec, torn. i. p. 740; Tenywa.1 Mission of the Holy Ghost, p. 45.
accomplished what Wisdom designed by the power and efficacy of the Holy Ghost. It was by Him that all things which lay hid in the power of God came forth, each one clothed in its form and signed with the seal of the eternal Wisdom. In the great six days He was borne upon the face of the deep, brooding over all things as they arose each in succession. Everything was disposed and ordered and perfected by Him: the heaven and the earth; the waters above and below the firmament; the light and the changes of day and night; the earth with its growth of herbs and trees; and the off spring of the earth and sea and air — the beasts of the field, the fishes of the sea, the fowls of the air — all ascending in perfection in a scale of ever- expanding wisdom and beauty. All this was His work.
But all this was only the prelude to the greatest work of almighty power. There was no man to till the ground, no image of the Creator. On the sixth day He made the chief and crown of creation. And He fashioned him to the image and to the likeness of God. He made him of the slime or dust of the earth; but He breathed into his face the breath of life, the spiraculum vitce; and man became a living soul, a being earthly because of the dust, heavenly be cause spiritual, being not a reflection only, but a created image of the uncreated intelligence, memory, and will; with a freedom and a power to originate his own actions, perfect in body and soul, with a threefold perfection — natural, which belongs to humanity as such; supernatural, because when He breathed into the face of Adam He breathed also into the face of his soul; and he was constituted in grace — that is, the Sanctifier entered into him, and imparted to him not His own uncreated sanctity, which is incommunicable, but a created sanctity, which dwelt by infusion as a permanent quality in his soul, elevating him to a supernatural perfection of original justice, sonship, and inheritance. And from the unior of these two perfections arose a third, the preternatural; that is, immortality of the body and perfect order and harmony of the soul under the reign of a perfect and holy will. Such was man, the most perfect work of the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier, in the first creation.
(2) But the second creation is greater still, and for this we owe Him again a distinct love and adoration. The three great est works of God's omnipotence are the Divine Maternity, the Incarnation, and the union of the Saints with God.12 They all touch upon the infinite and uncreated. But the accomplishing of these three has been appropriated to the Sanctifier.
The first and, till then, the greatest work of the new creation was the singular and pre-eminent sanctification, or Immaculate Conception, of the Blessed Mother of God. She was the firstfruits of the Holy Ghost, the only soul, since the innocence of the first Adam and of the first Eve in Paradise, on whom original sin had never cast its sha- 18 S. Thomas, Sum. Theol. 1. q. 25, 6.
dow. In the moment of its creation the soul of the Blessed Virgin, as the soul of the first Eve, was replenished and invested with the grace of the Holy Ghost. It was therefore never, for a moment of time, in the state of privation in which original sin consists. And this singular sanctification was the work of the Sanctifier, and given for the foreseen merits of Jesus Christ. She was exempted from original sin, and prepared to be the sanctuary of God in the Incarnation. And surely the least grace proportionate to the Divine Maternity is that she should be without sin. No grace less than immense can be conceived which bears proportion to the dignity of Mother of God. The immensity of her second sanctification, and the glory of her third, do not transcend the measure of sanctity proportioned to the office and state of her who should bear into the world as her own Infant the Eternal Son of God. This was, then, the first work of the Sanctifier in preparing for the Incarnation.
And the second is the Incarnation itself. The words of the Archangel were, ' The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; therefore that Holy [One], which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.'13 He shall be called because He is; for all God's words are divine truth. There fore the Sacred Humanity — the body with all its perfections, the soul with all its powers — was created by the Holy Ghost and sanctified in the moment of creation, ' by the will of the Father,' as the priest says in the Holy Mass, ' and by the co-operation of the Holy Ghost.'14 The Son assumed our manhood. He clothed Him self in His sacerdotal raiment, the Father and the Holy Ghost assisting in His investiture. But the agency of the Holy Ghost wrought this creative act; and the Sancttfier replenished the Deified Humanity of Jesus with the plenitude of sanctifying u 8. Luke ii. 35.
14 Second collect before Communion.
grace. Therefore, as the Fathers say, the manhood of Jesus had a twofold unction, the one from the uncreated sanctity of the Son, and the other from the created and in fused grace of the Sanctifier. In Him there was not faith indeed, because there was vision; nor hope15 as a virtue; but there was charity, and the seven gifts, the fruits of the Holy Ghost — so far as they do not imply sin — and the perfections of the eight beatitudes.
Lastly, there is the creation of the mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church. The indissoluble union of the Head with the Body, and of the Body with Himself, is the work of the Sanctifier; so also is the unity of the members, the imperishable life, the perpetual illumination, the infallible guidance, the divine voice of the Church. And as with the Immaculate Conception, so with the Infallibility. To know the truth and not to err is surely the least endowment of the body which was created to
15 S. Thomae, Sum. Theol, p. iii. q. 7, art. 4.
teach all nations and to be ' the light of the world.' S. Irenaeus says, ' Ubi Spiritus ibi Ecclesia et omnis gratia.' From this creation of the visible Church springs the Communion of Saints, and the bliss of the just is made perfect in the Beatific Vision. Their union with God is through the indwelling of the Sanctifier, who has made them perfect and united them with Himself. Though the light of glory is not the Holy Ghost, it is His gift.
- Lastly, we owe Him love and devotion because of His work in each of us, one by one. The whole of this little book has spoken of this work, therefore our last words may be few.
We owe to Him our regeneration, which was the first resurrection, over which the second death, if we be faithful, can have no power. He raised us from death to life, from the natural to the supernatural order, and put upon us the glory to be the sons of God.
And though it may be that we have fallen, and perhaps again and again, from that spiritual life into spiritual death, He has raised us again and again, by absolution and restoration of His own indwelling presence.
In our confirmation He made us to be perfect Christians and good soldiers of Jesus Christ. In every Sacrament He gave us sacramental grace, especially in Holy Communion; that is, a radiance of light, and an effluence of grace through the most Precious Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
And out of the Holy Sacraments He has, all our life long, wrought within us, by actual graces, by preventing grace, by lights and impulses, inspirations and irradiations, by co-operating graces, liberating us from our evil habits and sustaining us in our weakness, restraining, guiding, and shelter ing us, always, everywhere, in everything, save only when we resisted or quenched Him, and sealing us with the signet of the Living God as heirs of His kingdom. What more could He do for us 1 And what have we done for Him?
How often have we quenched His light, or suffered it to die out, like the foolish virgins!
How often have we resisted Him, turning a blind eye to His light, a dull ear to His voice, a sluggish or a cold heart to His generous love!
How often we have grieved Him by manifold provocations, as by insincerities of word and deed; by insensibility in His very presence; by inconstancy after many restorations on His part, and many protestations on ours; by indifference in the midst of all His graces, gifts, warnings, and pleadings with our unloving and ungenerous hearts; by self-love, seeking our own things, even in His service; by meanness, tenderness to self; by a divided service and the kiss of Judas!
We owe Him two things so long as life lasts.
First, we owe Him daily a habitual adoration; that is, love, thanksgiving^ praise, worship. He dwells in us, and pervades our whole inward life. We have no need to seek Him abroad, for He is in our hearts. There is His altar, before which we should bow down. There is His throne, to which we owe the obedience of our inmost life.
We owe Him next a daily and habitual reparation for ourselves and for the sins of others. This latter is too large a subject, and we must leave it with few words.
The reparation we owe Him for ourselves will best consist in three things.
(1) First, in mortifying the particular sins by which we have quenched, resisted, or grieved Him; sins against the light of conscience and the law of God; sins of worldliness or of the animal life of reason and of will; sins against sincerity, sanctity, tho seven gifts, against charity or faith.
(2) Secondly, in avoidance, not only of the temptations by which we have fallen, but of the occasions of sin, which have, by our sinfulness, been turned into temptations to ourselves and to others.
(3) Thirdly, by practising, and praying every morning for, the graces most opposed to our known faults. Make a list of faults and ask forgiveness; and over against them a list of graces, and ask for them day by day. And for our adorations and prayers, the Veni Creator Spiritus, the Veni SancteSpirilus, the Litany of the Holy Ghost, the de votions of the Little Handbook of the Confraternity will suggest thoughts and affections enough for the longest life.
Give your whole heart to Him with simplicity, and trust Him with all confidence, for He is loving, generous, tender, and delicate in all His works. Res delicata Spiritu* Sanctum. He never calls you to any thing that lf<j will not strengthen you to do, nor asks of you anything which, if you be faithful 10 Him, He will not make you to will as freely as He has willed you to do it for His sake.
Make some prayers of your own, and in your own words. None are so real as those which spring from our own conscious need.
Some such words as these may express what you desire to obtain:
O God the Holy Ghost, whom I have slighted, grieved, resisted, from my child hood unto this day, reveal unto me Thy Personality, Thy Presence, Thy Power. Make me to know Thy sevenfold gifts: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and fortitude, of knowledge and piety, and of the fear of the Lord. Make me to be of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. 0 Thou who art the Spirit of the Father and of the Son,O Thou who art the Love of the Father and of the Son, O Thou who baptisest with fire and sheddest abroad the love of God in our hearts, shed abroad Thy love in my heart. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after: not wealth, rank, power, worldly home, worldly happiness, or any worldly good, but one drop of that holy flame, one drop of that heavenly fire to kindle me, and set me all on fire with the love of God. Let that holy flame burn up and consume in me every spot and soil of the flesh and of the spirit. Purify me sevenfold with the fire of Thy love. Consume me as a living sacrifice acceptable unto Thee. Kindle me with zeal, melt me with sorrow, that I may live the life and die the death of a fervent penitent.
Jesus, have mercy upon me.
Holy Mary, pray for me.
Footnotes
Chapter 18 of 18