On Whitsuntide, I.
I. The Giving of the Law by Moses Prepared the Way for the Outpouring
of the Holy Ghost.
The hearts of all catholics, beloved, realize that to-day's solemnity
is to be honoured as one of the chief feasts, nor is there any doubt that
great respect is due to this day, which the Holy Spirit has hallowed by
the miracle of His most excellent gift. For from the day on which the Lord
ascended up above all heavenly heights to sit down at God the Father's
right hand, this is the tenth which has shone, and the fiftieth from His
Resurrection, being the very day on which it began, and containing in itself
great revelations of mysteries both new and old, by which it is most manifestly
revealed that Grace was fore-announced through the Law and the Law fulfilled
through Grace. For as of old, when the Hebrew nation were released from
the Egyptians, on the fiftieth day after the sacrificing of the lamb the
Law was given on Mount Sinai, so after the suffering of Christ, wherein
the true Lamb of God was slain on the fiftieth day from His Resurrection,
the Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles and the multitude of believers,
so that the earnest Christian may easily perceive that the beginnings of
the Old Testament were preparatory to the beginnings of the Gospel, and
that the second covenant was rounded by the same Spirit that had instituted
the first.
II. How Marvellous Was the Gift of "Divers Tongues."
For as the Apostles' story testifies: "while the days of Pentecost were
fulfilled and all the disciples were together in the same place, there
occurred suddenly from heaven a sound as of a violent wind coming, and
filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them
divided tongues as of fire and it sat upon each of them. And they were
all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues,
as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance." Oh! how swift are the words of
wisdom. and where God is the Master, how quickly is what is taught, learnt.
No interpretation is required for understanding, no practice for using,
no time for studying, but the Spirit of Truth blowing where He wills, the
languages peculiar to each nation become common property in the mouth of
the Church. And therefore from that day the trumpet of the Gospel-preaching
has sounded loud: from that day the showers of gracious gifts, the rivers
of blessings, have watered every desert and all the dry land, since to
renew the face of the earth the Spirit of God "moved over the waters,"
and to drive away the old darkness flashes of new light shone forth, when
by the blaze of those busy tongues was kindled the Lord's bright Word and
fervent eloquence, in which to arouse the understanding, and to consume
sin there lay both a capacity of enlightenment and a power of burning.
III. The Three Persons in the Trinity are Perfectly Equal in All
Things.
But although, dearly-beloved, the actual form of the thing done was
exceeding wonderful, and undoubtedly in that exultant chorus of all human
languages the Majesty of the Holy Spirit was present, yet no one must think
that His Divine substance appeared in what was seen with bodily eyes. For
His Nature, which is invisible and shared in common with the Father and
the Son, showed the character of His gift and work by the outward sign
that pleased Him, but kept His essential property within His own Godhead:
because human sight can no more perceive the Holy Ghost than it can the
Father or the Son. For in the Divine Trinity nothing is unlike or unequal,
and all that can be thought concerning Its substance admits of no diversity
either in power or glory or eternity. And while in the property of each
Person the Father is one, the Son is another, and the Holy Ghost is another,
yet the Godhead is not distinct and different; for whilst the Son is the
Only begotten of the Father, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father
and the Son, not in the way that every creature is the creature of the
Father and the Son, but as living and having power with Both, and eternally
subsisting of That Which is the Father and the Son. And hence when the
Lord before the day of His Passion promised the coming of the Holy Spirit
to His disciples, He said, "I have yet many things to say to you, but ye
cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of Truth shall have come,
He shall guide you into all the Truth. For He shall not speak from Himself,
but whatsoever He shall have heard, He shall speak and shall announce things
to come unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine: therefore said
I that He shall take of Mine, and shall announce it to you." Accordingly,
there are not some things that are the Father's, and other the Son's, and
other the Holy Spirit's: but all things whatsoever the Father has, the
Son also has, and the Holy Spirit also has: nor was there ever a time when
this communion did not exist, because with Them to have all things is to
always exist. In them let no times, no grades, no differences be imagined,
and, if no one can explain that which is true concerning God, let no one
dare to assert what is not true. For it is more excusable not to make a
full statement concerning His ineffable Nature than to frame an actually
wrong definition. And so whatever loyal hearts can conceive of the Father's
eternal and unchangeable Glory, let them at the same time understand it
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost without any separation or difference.
For we confess this blessed Trinity to be One God for this reason, because
in these three Persons there is no diversity either of substance, or of
power, or of will, or of operation.
IV. The Macedonian Heresy is as Blasphemous as the Arian.
As therefore we abhor the Arians, who maintain a difference between
the Father and the Son, so also we abhor the Macedonians, who, although
they ascribe equality to the Father and the Son, yet think the Holy Ghost
to be of a lower nature, not considering that they thus fall into that
blasphemy, which is not to be forgiven either in the present age or in
the judgment to come, as the Lord says: "whosoever shall have spoken a
word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him, but he that shall
have spoken against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him either
in this age or in the age to come." And so to persist in this impiety is
unpardonable, because it cuts him off from Him, by Whom he could confess:
nor will he ever attain to healing pardon, who has no Advocate to plead
for him. For from Him comes the invocation of the Father, from Him come
the tears of penitents, from Him come the groans of suppliants, and "no
one can call Jesus the Lord save in the Holy Ghost," Whose Omnipotence
as equal and Whose Godhead as one, with the Father and the Son, the Apostle
most clearly proclaims, saying, "there are divisions of graces but the
same Spirit; and the divisions of ministrations but the same Lord; and
there are divisions of operations but the same God, Who worketh all things
in all."
V. The Spirit's Work is Still Continued in Thechurch.
By these and other numberless proofs, dearly-beloved, with which the
authority of the Divine utterances is ablaze, let us with one mind be incited
to pay reverence to Whitsuntide, exulting in honour of the Holy Ghost,
through Whom the whole catholic Church is sanctified, and every rational
soul quickened; Who is the Inspirer of the Faith, the Teacher of Knowledge,
the Fount of Love, the Seal of Chastity, and the Cause of all Power. Let
the minds of the faithful rejoice, that throughout the world One God, Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, is praised by the confession of all tongues, and that
that sign of His Presence, which appeared in the likeness of fire, is still
perpetuated in His work and gift. For the Spirit of Truth Himself makes
the house of His glory shine with the brightness of His light, and will
have nothing dark nor lukewarm in His temple. And it is through His aid
and teaching also that the purification of fasts and alms has been established
among us. For this venerable day is followed by a most wholesome practice,
which all the saints have ever found most profitable to them, and to the
diligent observance of which we exhort you with a shepherd's care, to the
end that if any blemish has been contracted in the days just passed through
heedless negligence, it may be atoned for by the discipline of fasting
and corrected by pious devotion. On Wednesday and Friday, therefore, let
us fast, and on Saturday for this very purpose keep vigil with accustomed
devotion, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who with the Father and the Holy
Ghost lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
