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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