A reading from the treatise of Irenaeus Against the Heresies, 2nd
century
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Painting of The Pentecost
by Titian, 16th c. |
The Sending of the Holy Spirit
When the Lord gave to the disciples power to confer rebirth into the life
of God, he said: "Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit".
He promised through his prophets that he would pour out this spirit
in the last times on his servants and handmaidens so that they would prophesy.
And so the Spirit came down on the Son of God, who became the Son of man,
and with him became accustomed to dwell in the human race and to abide
in God's creation, within men, working the Father's will among them and
making their old natures new with the newness of Christ.
Luke says that at Pentecost, after the ascension of the Lord, the Spirit
came down on the disciples with power to grant all nations entry into life,
and to open the new testament. And so in every language they sang a hymn
to God in unison; for the Spirit brought the scattered races together into
a unity, and offered to the Father the first-fruits of all the nations.
Therefore the Lord promised to send us the Holy Spirit to make us fit
for God's purposes. Just as dry flour cannot coalesce into a lump of dough,
still less a loaf, without moisture, so we, who to begin with are dry wood,
can never bear the fruit of life unless the rain from heaven falls upon
our wills.
For our bodies through the water of baptism have received the unity
which leads to freedom from corruption; but our souls have received it
through the Spirit.
The Spirit of God came down on the Lord, "the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and devotion,
the Spirit of fear of the Lord". He gave the same Spirit again to the Church,
sending the Counselor to every nation from heaven, from which the Lord
said "the devil was cast down like lightning". Accordingly we need God
's dew, so as not to be burnt up and made unfruitful but rather to have
a Counselor when we have an accuser. For the Lord entrusts to the Holy
Spirit his man who had fallen among thieves. Taking pity on him he has
bound up his wounds, and given two imperial coins, stamped with the image
of the Spirit and the inscription of the Father and the Son. We are to
accept them, and make the coin entrusted to us bear fruit and multiply
for the Lord.
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