Post on 29-Jan-2023
A BRIEF STUDY ON PNEUMATOLOGY ACCORDING TO THE EASTERNFATHERS
The Communion of Man with God in the Holy SpiritIntroduction
One of God’s greatest
gifts to us is the Holy Spirit, whom He in His greatest love
has bestowed so generously upon us. Yet, the sad fact is
that God’s most precious Gift to us, the Holy Spirit, is
often not acknowledged; indeed, He is often unknown. He has
for this reason so frequently been referred to us as the
“forgotten God” among the Three Divine Persons of the
Blessed Trinity. Certainly this remark is applicable to
western Christianity, but not to the eastern Christian
thought. This phenomenon is due to the fact that the
personal existence of the Holy Spirit remains a mystery,
even if He is active at every great step of divine activity:
creation, redemption and ultimate fulfillment. As Saint
Basil writes “the principle of all things is one, which
creates through the son and perfects in the Spirit”.1 The
Holy Spirit is the heart of the mystery of the Christian
idea of god: Spirit as person. The Holy Spirit is a co-agent
in the salvation-event and dispenses grace. “This is a
straightening up of the warped human being entrance into
God’s intimacy, inner life prayer divine wisdom, that union
1 BASIL, De Spiritu Sancto, 16, 38: PG 32;136B, as quoted by Constantine N. Tsirpanlis, Introduction To Eastern Ptristic Thought and Orthadox Theology, (Liturgical Press, Minnesota, 1991) 84
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with God whose first fruit was Christ, guaranty of
beatitude”2
The idea of grace as a participation of
the human spirit in the divine and as a living indwelling of
the divine in the human spirit is the main concentration of
this short study based on the teachings of the eastern
fathers. That is the communion of man with God in the Holy
Spirit is a question of deification for the eastern fathers.
Communion of Man, with God in the Holy Spirit
St. Paul writes, “The love of God flowed in to the hearts of
the faithful through the Holy Spirit.” (Rom.5: 5). Basil the
great observes that, “creation receives no gift with out the
Holy Spirit”.3 Gregory of Palamas teaches, that it is
through the Holy Spirit within us we do achieve the
experience of love and the gifts of it bestows. The Holy
Spirit spoke through the prophets of Israel and prepared the
way for the advent of Christ. The highest and final form of
the divine revelation, the incarnation of the logos of God,
which deified human nature, was brought to fulfillment
through the Holy Spirit. Again it was in the Holy Spirit
that Christ entered the Church after His ascension, there to
2 HANS URS VON BALTHASAR, Origen, Spirit and Fire: A Thematic Anthology of Hiswritings, (The Catholic University of American Press, Washington, 1956)1833 On the Holy Spirit 24, 55, Patrologia Graeca, ed. J. P. Migne (Paris, 1857-66)
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remain forever. The Holy Spirit within the Church “does not
speak of Himself,” but receives from Christ and transmits to
man what He has received.” (Jn 4:24.) The Spirit of God
residing in the spirit of man makes him a participant of
God’s grace. Gregory Palamas says, “As the beam of the eye,
uniting with the sun’s rays, becomes actual light and thus
sees sensible things, so the intellect, become one spirit
with the Lord, clearly perceives spiritual realities”4
Worship in “Spirit and in Truth”: Communion of Man with God
in Spirit.
The Spirit of God help us to makes
possible the true worship and adoration of God. Worship “ in
spirit and in truth,” as proclaimed by Christ (Jn 4:24) is
no abstract spiritual demonstration on the part of man.
Spirit and Truth, through which God is worshiped, are,
according to the teaching of Gregory Palamas and the
Orthodox tradition, specific hypostases of the Trinitarian
God: Truth is the only-begotten Son of the Father, and the
Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. The doxology and
theology leads in the Holy Spirit through the Son to the
Father. In the light of the Holy Spirit, man contemplates
the true light of God.5
The orientation of man towards the Father
and his deification is the common accomplishment of the4 Plamas, Defence of Hesychasts 1, 3, 17 Works 1,p.4275 Florovsky, G., St Gregory Plamas and the tradition of Fathers, in Collected Works, vol.1 Bible ,Church and Tradition: an Eastern Orthadox View (Nordland, Belmont, MA,1972)
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Trinity, brought about through the love of the Father by the
Son in the Holy Spirit. Man’s Deification would be an
impossibility, not only if the Son were a created being, but
also if the same were true if the Spirit. Gregory of Nyssa
asks, “ how could we be united with Christ, if the Holy
Spirit did not effect the connection, and how could the Holy
Spirit do this if he were a created being”.6
Pneumatomachoi:
According to Church Fathers
Pneumatomachoi, reducing the Holy Spirit to the level of
created being, was as dangerous for Christianity as the
Arian teaching. In fact, Athanasius the Great had perceived
from the first the close relation ship that existed between
these two heresies, and he said that since the Arians denied
the divinity of Christ, it must follow that they also denied
the divinity of the Holy Spirit.7
The Greek Fathers combated
the Pneumatomachoi, and all heretics generally, on the
grounds, which were supported not only by revealed theology,
but also by the whole living-out of the dispensation
accomplished in Christ. By proclaiming the uncreated nature
of the Holy Spirit, they asserted the truth of the Trinity6 Aginst the Pneumatomachoi 22, Patrologia Graeca 45, 1328CD7 Athanasius the Great, Letter to Serapion 1,1, Patrologia Graeca, ed J. P Migne (Paris,1857-66), as quoted by Georgios I, Mantzaridis, The deification of Man(St. Vladimir” seminary press,1984.
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and also that of the divine dispensation, through which man
has been regenerated and deified. Accoring to Eastern
Fathers if the Holy Spirit is a created being it will
dissolved the triadic nature of God and so also the
possibility of man’s deification, union with God. Gregory of
Palamas says, The Sprit of God accomplishes man’s
deification by means of the energy and grace natural to him,
and not by created means or through His own essence.8 The
energy of the Holy Spirit, though it differs from the divine
essence, is not separated from it; on the contrary, it
brings man in to union with God.
Work of the Holy Spirit for the Deification of Man (Union
with God)
It is the Holy Spirit, who
recalls the meaning of the salvation event to the liturgical
assembly, so that, it may be lived out by the community. As
salvation is the joint work of the Trinity the whole of the
history can seen as one movement. In this movement the
reception of the Holy Spirit by the first community, is the
climax. The fraternal communion, which they had experienced
in their life, is the natural consequence of the salvific
intervention of the three persons in the history of man. So
the church is the natural development of this salvific
event.
8 Answer to Akindnos 5, 24,96, Works 3, p. 359.
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The salvific work of God in the
history is turned towards the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit acts from within by giving power to witness
risen Christ. The grace of the Holy Spirit penetrates the
soul of man because it is uncreated. For Gregory of Palamas
and the Fathers the term spiritual does not denote an
abstraction, but characterizes the new man, born through the
regenerative grace of the Holy Spirit. Christ ascends to the
Father and sends upon His Church the Holy Spirit so that His
ecclesia may continue in time and space and by the power of
the Holy Spirit, his redeeming work. To the Father through
the Son and in the Holy Spirit is the underlying pattern of
the history of salvation, union with God.
For the Fathers, the Holy Spirit,
through Liturgy of the Church, this experience of salvation
is made possible to man. “ The liturgy (sacraments) of the
Church make it possible for man to enter freely and
personally in to communion with the divinizing grace which
the Logos of God bestowed upon human nature in assuming
it”.9 Gregory of Palamas says, “ Through the Liturgy of the
Church corrupt man, sprung from the corrupt root of Adam, is
united with new root, that is with Christ, and partakes of
incorruptibility and divine life. The uncreated and
imperishable, grace of God dwelling in man renders him, too.
9 Homily 5, Patrologia Graeca 151 64D; also Homily 60, 11, Oikonomos, p. 258
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Imperishable, eternal, and unoriginate”.10 The presence of
the Holy Spirit especially in the Eucharist can be traced in
all its great phases. The people are called and become the
‘oikos pneumatikos’ (, the spiritual house, or
perhaps the house of the spirit, and here they are to offer
‘pneumatikas thusias’
. He is
present in the prayers which so often end with the phrase
‘in the unity of the holy Spirit’, a reminder at least that
the Spirit is prompting the prayer of the community.
It is very interesting to note that
the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) lists the four
works by which we can know the Holy Spirit, is really based
on the teachings of the Fathers.11
1. Holy Spirit prepares men for the encounter with Christ
1.1. The Holy Spirit makes Universal the redemption by
completing it from within
1.2. The Holy spirit gives delight to all who consent
to believe in the ‘Truth’
2. Holy Spirit Recalls the Mystery of Christ
2.1. Christ’s entire life unfolded in the presence of
the spirit
2.2. Holy spirit gives life to the word of God
10 Answer to Akindynos 3, 6, 15 Works 3, p.17211 C. Schonborn, Living the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Vol.2, The sacraments, (Igatius press, San Francisco, 1996), p. 17
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3. Holy Spirit makes present the Mystery of Christ
3.1. Through the invocation of the Holy Spirit what the
word of the liturgy call to mind happens here and
now
3.2. Holy Spirit makes present the union with God and
the consummation of the mystery of salvation
4. Holy Spirit forms the Church, the Body of Christ
I hope that it is very
useful to study these points in CCC on the background of the
teachings of the fathers. So I wish to present this short
study on the basis of the salvation approach of the CCC in
the background of the Eastern Fathers.
1. Holy Spirit prepares man for the encounter with Christ
Since a true human being is one who is in Christ, and since
the spiritual life is the life in Christ, the living of such
a life cannot be realized except by the union and communion
which in its fullness called ‘Theosis’ ( or
deification or divinization. It is the work of the Holy
Spirit to make possible to man, this encounter. “The Holy
Spirit through baptism entered into human nature at this
point not as in the first creation but in a personal manner.
In the beginning, Scripture says, ‘He breathed into him the
breath of life’ (Gen 2:7), but now He communicates his
Spirit to us (Jn 20:22). “If Christ is ‘Head of the Church
which is his body’ the Holy spirit is ‘He that fillets all
in all’ (Eph. 1,23). The Church is body in so far as Christ
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is her head; she is fullness in so far as the Holy Spirit
quickens her and fills her with divinity, for the God-head
dwells within her badly,
as it dwelt in the deified humanity of Christ. CCC says “The
mission of the Holy Spirit in the liturgy of the church is
to prepare the assembly to encounter Christ; to recall and
manifest Christ to the faith of the assembly; to make the
saving work of Christ present and active by his transforming
power; and to make the gift of communion bear fruit in the
Church”12. The salvation of man is actualized not in some
principles of ideas but in the very event of paschal
mystery, in which he unites everything, “both Heaven and
earth in him”. As the instrument of the salvation the most
blessed Trinity is already present in the Church. So the
specific work of the Holy Spirit is to prepare the People of
God for the reception of their savior, the Christ. Through
the deification of Christ’s human nature, the “first- fruits
of our substance” where deified, and a “new root” was
created, capable of instilling life and incorruptibility in
to its shoots. Possessing as it does the fullness of divine
grace, it imparts this to man. For as Palamas says, no one
among created being can contain the infinite power of the
Spirit except He who was conceived in the virginal womb,
through the coming of the Holy Spirit and the overshadowing
12 CCC 1112
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of the Most High13. In CCC 1098, expands on this notion of
sacramental encounter by nothing that it is the action of
the Spirit that prompts us to a deepening faith, conversion
of heart and commitment to God’s will. Equally important is
the Catechism’s refreshing emphasis on the role of the Holy
Spirit in enabling Christians, individually and communally,
to become a “living sacrifice”(CCC 1105-1109) by a spiritual
transformation. In speaking of the Spirit as preparing the
Church to welcome Christ, the fathers of the Church have in
mind the abiding way in which the Spirit actualizes the
intrinsic part of the message of the gospel, as we see in
CCC.
As Trinity builds the house, the
body of Christ, the Church, Holy Spirit is actively present
subjectively and objectively, Subjectively, by preparing the
person and community for the reception of Christ, and
objectively as receivable to the worshiping person and
community. In the theology of the Eastern Fathers the Person
of the Holy Spirit is distinguished from the gifts which He
bestows upon man. The distinction is founded on the words of
Jesus Christ: ‘he shall glorify me: for he shall take of
mine, and shall declare it unto you. All things whatsoever
13 Defence of the Hesychasts 3,1,33 Works 1, p.645; Homily 52,2, Oikonomos, p.122, as quoted by Georgios I. Mantzaridis, The deification of Man, (New York, 1984) 30
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the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he taketh
of mine’ (Jn 16, 14-15)14.
1.1. The Holy Spirit Makes Universal the Redemption by
Completing from Within
If the Son becomes incarnate in history, it is the Spirit
who opens history to eschatology by making Christ the
eschatological being, the last Adam. Thus by the
operation of the Spirit, the unique event of Christ
acquires an abiding pleasantness; his saving power
crosses every latitude and extends to every hour of
history. It is not something added from outside, for
nothing is lacking to the work of Christ, and “in Him all
has been performed to perfection”( John,19:20); the Holy
Spirit makes universal the redemption by completing it
from within, that is by interiorizing it. To accomplish
this goal [the universal spreading of salvation to the
ends of the earth and the end of time], Christ sent the
Spirit from the Father. The Spirit was to carry out his
saving work inwardly [Intus]. This work of the Holy Spirit
is actualized in and through the liturgy of the Church.
Holy Spirit offers everyone the possibility of sharing in
the Paschal Mystery in a manner known to God15. The Holy
Spirit, source of all uncreated and infinite gifts, while
Himself remaining anonymous and unrevealed yet receives
14 Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theolgy of the Eastern Fathers, (London 1973) 16215 A.E Nachef, B.S.O, The Mystery of the Trinity in the Thological thought of Pope John Paul II, (New York,1999) 207
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all the multiplicity of names which can be attributed to
grace.
1.2. Holy Spirit Gives Delight to all who Consent to
and Believe in the ‘Truth’
To give delight to the faithful is the work of the
Holy Spirit. So we read, “And no one can say, Jesus is
Lord, except by the Holy Spirit”. (1 Cor 12:3)
According to Eastern Fathers deification of man
through Christ is possible only through the work of
the Holy Spirit because Holy Spirit gives ‘delight’ to
the believers to receive Christ as the Savior.
Catechism says, “The grace of the Holy Spirit seeks to
awaken faith, conversion of heart and adherence to the
Father’s will. These dispositions are the precondition
both for the reception of other graces conferred in
the celebration itself and the fruits of new life,
which the celebration is intended to produce
afterward”(CCC 1098).
According to patristic teaching, the Church is the
‘orgaum’ of the Spirit, as by analogy, the human
nature of the Logos is the organ into which flows the
dynamis, the energia of the second person. For the
Spirit, existing as one and the same being in the head
and the members, vivifies, unifies, and moves the
whole body. This he does in such a way that his work
could be compared by the holy fathers with the
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function which the soul fulfills in the human body,
whose principle of life the soul is”(LG 7)16. So His
work of giving delight to the heart of the people is a
constant reality in the Church.
2. The Holy Spirit Recalls The Mystery of Christ
In the biblical concept of remembering events are not
simply the object of mental recall. Rather they are by
the divine action called up, evoked, into the present
in all their saving significance and power. It is the
Spirit, the Church’s living memory (CCC 1099) who
recalls the meaning of salvation event to the
liturgical assembly, so that it may be lived out by the
community. (CCC 1100) The sacraments are created media
which transmit the uncreated grace of God. Man as a
created being has need of these created means if he is
to approach and receive the uncreated grace of the Holy
Spirit17. Catechism calls the Spirit, the Church’ living
memory, because, The advocate, the Holy Spirit that the
Father will sent in my name- he will teach you
everything and remind you of all that [I] told you
(John 14:26) Anamnesis, it is the widely maintained
nowadays, means much more than just remembering a past
event. It often indicates the actualization of a past
salvific event in the present. The basic meaning of the
16 F. Lambiasi, Holy Spirit: Dictionary of Fundamental Theology (New York, 1994) 46017 Homily 56, 5, Oikonomos, p. 205
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root ‘zkr’ or [ Zakar] is usually given as to ‘remember’
‘to commemorate’ ‘to call to mind’ ‘to remind’. It is
then usually pointed out that the words derived from
this root have a meaning that is considerably broader
than that of our translations. Particularly, to
remember must not be understood as that introvert
process by which we recall a past event or person with
out any commitment on our side to such an event or
person. It is true that in Hebrew, too the word
indicates that we bridge a certain distance in time and
space. But there too remember is never limited to a
casting back of one’s mind to something of the past or
an absent person, still less to a losing of oneself in
that past or that distant place. The sacraments of the
Church make it possible for man to enter freely and
personally into communion with the divinizing grace,
which Logos of God bestowed upon human nature in
assuming it.18 This entrance of man, freely and
personally, is not bridged in a purely mental fashion.
It is rather bridged in actual reality through things
that are happening here and now. If the Hebrew
‘remembers’, it means that the past is brought up to
the present, and as such provides the impulse to do
something now19. It is by the power of the Holy
18 Homily 5, PG 151, 64D19 E. Schillebeeckk, O. P., B. Wllems, O.P., (eds), Some Biblical Roots of Christian sacrament, in Concilium,Vol.31, 1968, p.6
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Spirit, and its relation to the salvific event, the
past event becomes an actual event in the present. So
the mystery of Christ becomes an act of salvation in
the life of the person who participates in liturgy, by
the work of the Holy Spirit.
Through the work of the Holy Spirit the Trinity dwells
within us and deifies us; confers upon us the uncreated
energies, Its glory, and Its deity which is the eternal
light of which we must partake20. The Holy Spirit
extends in the life of the Church the salvific work of
Christ because He is the divine agent who links
Incarnation to Pentecost. Although the filiation of
divine adoption is born in man on the basis of the
mystery of incarnation, this rebirth happens only when
the Father sends the Holy Spirit of His Son in to our
hearts. Hence the divine filiation planted in the human
soul through sanctifying grace is the work of the Holy
Spirit21.
2.1. Christ’s Entire Life Unfolded in the Presence of
the Holy Spirit
The Manifestation of Christ event for deification of
man in the life of the Church is not as a historical
narration, or to give some information, but as an
encounter of Christ in the personal life situation for
20 Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of The Eastern Church, (London 1973) 171.21 A. Nichols, O.P, The Service of Glory, (Edinburgh, 1997) 16
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transformation ‘so that it may be received and
lived’(CCC 1100). The entire life of Christ, the
mystery of salvation is become unfolded and
experienced through the work of the Spirit. To receive
Christ through the sacraments becomes a personal
experience by the work of the Spirit. Unfolding or
manifesting the meaning of salvation in Jesus Christ
to each person is the wonderful work of the Holy
Spirit. Thus, the Holy Spirit ensures a fruitful
listening to and understanding of God’s word, so that
it might then be lived out by the hearers of that word
in a historical and cultural situation22. The work of
Christ and of the Spirit are inseparable from each
other in the divine economy, through which every human
person in the Church is recreated in the image and
likeness of God. However, the restoration of the
likeness is a work proper to the Holy Spirit23. Thus,
by this work of the Spirit Christ becomes receivable
to all in any life context. “ But you will receive the
power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea
and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
The creature has become fit to receive the Holy Spirit
22 R.A DUFFY, The Sacramental Economy, in Michael J. Walsh,(ed.), Commentary on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, (Lonon,1994) 23323 DR. JOSEKUTTY PUTHIAPARAMBIL, In the Image and Likeness of God, Unpublished Doctrinal Thesis, Faculty of Theology, Pontifical University of Gregoranam (Rome, 1992) 193.
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and He descends into the world and fills with His
presence the Church has been redeemed, washed and
purified by the blood of Christ24. Catechism says: “The
Holy Spirit gives a spiritual understanding of the
word of God to those who read or hear it, according to
the dispositions of their hearts. By means of the
words action and symbols that form the structure of a
celebration, the Spirit puts both the faithful and the
ministers into a living relationship with Christ, the
Word and image of the Father, so that they can live
out the meaning of what they hear, contemplate and do
in the celebration25.
2.2. Holy Spirit Gives life to the Word of God
In the beginning God speaks out of silence to create
heaven and earth by the power of His Word. Divine
speech has a dynamic, creative quality that may be
termed sacramental, in that it accomplishes what it
signifies. This power of the word is the means by
which the saving event of the past become actualized
in each present moment within the life and experience
of the Church. So Catechism says: “The Holy Spirit
recalls the meaning of the salvation event to the
liturgical assembly by giving life to the Word of
God”(CCC 1100). So we can say that after Pentecost His
24 VLADIMIR LOSSKY, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, (Cambridge, London,1973)15925 CCC 1101
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activity in human life was inward where before it had
been outward, permanent where before it had been
spasmodic, corporate where before it had been
individual and universal where before it had been
national.26 By giving life to the word, we mean, an act
of the Spirit who leads to actualize the power of the
Word in the ordinary life situation of man, “ so that
it may be received and lived”. So the Catechism is very
clear with the patristic tradition, about the
stressing need with in the Church today to recover the
patristic vision of the dynamic quality of the word as
the instrument of God’s self disclosure and self
communication. It is very important to note this
stress of the Church on the prayers. Prayers are not
of the composition of human skill. It is the Holy
Spirit who compose the prayers for man as we read, “
In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of
our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we
ought, but the Holy Spirit itself intercedes with
inexpressible groaning” (Rom 8:26). It is the Holy
Spirit who moves the Church to its goal, the father.
Within the life and experience of the Church, the word
is confirmed and actualized by the ritualized sign-act
of the sacrament.
3. The Holy Spirit makes present The Mystery of Christ.
26 CONSTANTINE N. TSIRPANLIS, Introduction to Eastern Patristic Thought and Orthodox Theology, (Cllegeville, 1991) 86
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Mysteries of Christ becomes a present reality by the
work of the Holy Spirit, which is the moving love force
in the inner Trinitarian life as well as in the
Trinitarian life of the Church. The sanctification or
the purification and illumination which leads to
Deification of man is a Trinitarian act of God, is
actualized by the work of the Spirit. The paschal
mystery of Christ becomes a present reality through the
work of the Holy Spirit. “The Son has become man by
incarnation, Man becomes like the Son deification, by
partaking the divinity of the Holy spirit who
communicates His nature to each human person in
particular”27. “The salvific work of Christ and of the
Spirit are inseparable from each other in the divine
economy, through which every human person in the Church
is recreated in the image and likeness of God. However,
the restoration of the likeness is a work proper to the
Holy Spirit”28.
3.1. Through The Invocation of the Holy Spirit what the
Words Call to Mind Happens here and Now
The original Syriac and Greek liturgical traditions
when the priest begs to the Father to send the Holy
Spirit, the sanctifier make actual what the words of
the liturgy call to mind. Catechism stresses the27 Dr. JOSEKUTTY PUTHIAPARAMBIL, In the Image and Likeness of God, Unpublished Doctrinal Thesis, Pontifical University of Gregorianam (Rome 1992) 192.28 Dr. JOSEKUTTY PUTHIAPARAMBIL, In the Image and Likeness of God, Unpublished Docrinal Thesis, Pontifical University of Gregorianam (Rome, 1992) 193.
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importance of the epiclesis by quoting the words of
St. John Damascne. He says, “The Holy Spirit comes
upon them (bread and wine) and accomplishes what
surpasses every word and though… let be enough for you
to understand that it the Holy Spirit, just as it was
of the Holy Virgin and by the Holy Spirit that the
Lord, through and in himself, took flesh”29The
transforming power of the Spirit “causes us to
anticipate the fullness of the communion with the Holy
Trinity”(CCC 1107). So through the liturgy of the
Church, by the reception of the Holy Spirit, we get
the ‘guarantee’ of our inheritance as we read in
Ephesians, “Which is the first installment (guarantee)
of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s
possession, to the praise of His glory”(Eph 1:14).
3.2. Holy Spirit makes present the Kingdom and the
consummation of the Mystery of Salvation
The kingdom experience is made possible through the
work of the Holy Spirit. It is the aftereffect of the
consummation of the salvation mystery. The Church is
the spiritual koinonia, the kingdom of God, according to
one of the key notions in St. Basil’s treatise on the
Holy Spirit. She is the koinonoa in God and with God, a
Trinitarian koinonia.30 Through the sacraments, we are
29 St. JOHN DAMASCENE, De Fede Orth., 4.13: Ptrologiae Graeca 94,1142a.30 De Spiritus Sancto, 1,3: PG 32, 9, 10, 69-73.5 PG 32, 26, 84; 61, 62; PG 32, 184A-184
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challenged and empowered by the Spirit, the
preparation and reception of the kingdom experience is
made possible to every person, here and now.
“Sacramental deification leads the human person
towards a new mode of existence by way of partaking in
the divine life. This new way of personal existence in
God is the result of a new birth which is the work of
the Holy Spirit which is necessarily oriented towards
the regeneration of the fallen and weak human person
by an incorporation in to the divine nature of
Christ”31. This is really an experience of consummation
of the mystery of salvation in human life. Catechism
is more specific to the present dimension of salvific
act of Triune God in our midst by the transforming
power of the Holy Spirit through the sacramental
liturgy. Through the sacraments we are challenged and
empowered by the Spirit to live lives reflective of
God32. So the kingdom experience in human life is the
work of the Holy Spirit. It is by the empowering of
the Holy Spirit, the preparation and reception is made
possible. The Holy Spirit transforms the human person
in God’s own image and likeness. The Holy Spirit
31 Dr. CHERIAN JOHN KOTTAYIL, Sacramental deification AS Gift and Task, in Questions Liturgiques, Studies in Liturgy, (Leuven 2007) 99.32 J.E REGAN, Exploring the Catechism, (Liturgical press, Collegeville, 1995)103
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transforms us from ‘biological hypostasis’ to
‘ecclesial hypostasis)33.
4. The Holy Spirit Forms The Body, The Church
It is by the work of the Holy Spirit, the community is
formed. The community of believers is basically a
worshiping community. The uniting force in this community
is the Holy Spirit. For by the saving word of God faith
is aroused in the heart of unbelievers and is nourished
in the believers by the power of the Holy Spirit. “The
gifts of the Holy Spirit, which marked the beginning of
the Church, are not things of the past nor the monopoly a
particular Church. The Pneuma operates in all men and
institutions as long as they confess that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh, while remaining God”34. Catechism
says, “In every liturgical action the Holy spirit is sent
in order to bring us in to communion with Christ and form
his body”(CCC 1108). Bringing communion with Christ and
forming of Christ’s body is the work of the Holy Spirit.
The communion with Christ leads the person to form the
community, which is the body of Christ. The communion
with Christ is to participate in the life of the Triune
God. The communion is made possible through the liturgy
of the Church. So the Holy Spirit is to send in order to
33 JOHN D. ZIZIOULAS, Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church(Chrestwood,1985) as quoted by Cerian Kottayil, in Questions Liturgiques(Leuven 2007) 9834 COSTANTINE N. TSIRPANLIS, Introduction to Eastern Patristic Thought and Orthodox Theology, (Collegeville, 1991) 86
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make the communion. However this community presupposes
the sacraments as the medium of historical divine action
as the body of the Christ is constituted through the
sacraments. The sacraments are the source especially
Eucharist, help us to experience redemption through the
relational character of the community. Cabasilas points
out this intrinsic relationship as sharing the flesh. He
says, “He who seeks to be united with him must therefore
share with Him in His flesh, partake of deification, and
share in His death and resurrection. So are baptized in
order that we may die that death and rise again in that
resurrection. We are Christi mated in order that we may
become partakers of the royal anointing of His
deification By feeding on the most sacred bread and
drinking cup we share in the very Flesh and Blood which
the Savior assumed35. Lossky vividly shows the co-
operation between the divine and human wills in view of
deification. He says, “ In him [The Holy Spirit] the will
of God is no longer external to ourselves: it confers
grace inwardly, manifesting itself within our very person
in so far as our human will remains in accord with the
divine will and co-operates with it in acquiring grace,
in making it ours. This is the way of deification leading
to the Kingdom of God which is introduced in to our
35 NICHOLAS CABASILAS, The Life in Christ, trans. Carmino J. de Catanzaro (NewYork,1974) 65-66.
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hearts by the Holy Spirit, even in this present life”36.
So Catechism says that through the Holy Spirit liturgy
becomes the common work of the Holy Spirit and the
Church. (CCC 1092).
The Church is filled with the Holy Spirit as the house of
the blessed Trinity. This Spirit moves the entire Church
towards the fullness of Christ. The ‘spiritual
transformation’ (CCC1109) of the Church by the power of
the Spirit is actualized in and through the liturgy of
the Church. The triune God is present in the Church
through the Holy Spirit, shaping the Church in the image
of the Trinity. Quoting the words of St. Augustine,
Catechism says, “sacraments makes the Church”37. Through
the sacraments, the Holy Spirit moves the Church towards
the mystery of communion with God who is love, one in
three persons (CCC 1118). This movement is the fruit of
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit”, which remain with
the worshiping community of our Lord.
Conclusion
As conclusion we can say the it is the will of the
father that the work of the Holy Spirit, a new humanity
has been regenerated, a humanity that has returned to the
love that was betrayed by the sin of Adam. The Holy
Spirit is considered as the link between the humanity of36 LOSSKY, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, (London, 1973) 173.37 ST. AGUSTINE, De civ, 22,177: PL 41,779.
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Adam and the humanity of Christ. Humanity that was
subjected to sin in the descendants of Adam was restored
in Jesus Christ and become subjected to God. The Holy
Spirit came down on the Apostles on the day of Pentecost
bringing to fulfillment the new era of the history of
salvation. The mutual love and gift of self between the
father and the Son, which is the Holy Spirit, is
expressed in creating the world and saving humanity.
Eastern theology emphatically speaks of the participation
in the divine energies. The human participation in the
divine energies ultimately result in particular
experience of transformation towards deification. Gregory
of Nyssa speaks of the act of sanctification by the Holy
Spirit as essentially a transformatory act.38In the
summary statement there is an excellent and concise
recapitulation of the Catechism’s pneumatology: “ The
mission of the Holy Spirit in the liturgy of the Church
is to prepare the assembly to encounter Christ; to recall
and manifest Christ to the faith of the assembly; to make
the saving work of Christ present and active by the
transforming power; to make the gift of communion bear
fruit in the Church” (CCC 1112). It is the Holy Spirit by
whom this great work of God is moved for the salvation of
man in the Church. As a conclusion I would like to say
that, we can’t divide and separate, the work of the
38 GREGORY OF NYSSA, On the baptism of Christ, V. 519
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Triune God in the liturgy as well as in life. But each
person has his own role in the work of deification of
man. And again every liturgical celebrations are the work
of trinity and is directed towards the Father through the
Son in the Holy Spirit and it is ‘font from which all her
powers flows’ (CCC 1074). As the third Eucharistic Prayer
proclaims: “All life, holiness comes from you through
your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, by the working of the
Holy Spirit”. In the theology of the Eastern Church the
person of the Holy Spirit is distinguished from the gifts
he gives to man. The Spirit communicates divinity, which
is common to the father and the Son, to those who are
members of the Body of Christ, making them partakes of
the divine nature and conferring uncreated grace upon
them39. So the Holy Spirit gives us this transforming
power of being united in Christ through the sacraments.
This transformation is ultimately participation in the
Trinitarian communion.
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39 Dr. JOSEKUTTY PUTHIAPARABIL, In the image and likeness of God, Unpublished Doctrinal Thesis, University of Gregoriam,(Rome, 1992)199.
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