On Faith and the Creed 19–25

But concerning the Holy Spirit, learned and great interpreters of the divine Scriptures have not yet discussed him so fully and carefully that what is proper to him can easily be understood—that property by which we can call him neither Son nor Father, but only Holy Spirit—except that they proclaim him to be the gift of God, so that we believe God does not give a gift inferior to himself. They are careful, however, not to proclaim the Holy Spirit as begotten of the Father like the Son (for Christ is the only one), nor as begotten of the Son, as a grandson of the supreme Father; and yet not to say that what he is he owes to no one, but that he owes it to the Father, from whom are all things, lest we set up two principles without a principle, which is utterly false and absurd and proper not to the catholic faith but to the error of certain heretics. Some, however, have dared to believe that the Holy Spirit is the very communion of the Father and the Son and, so to speak, the deity, which the Greeks call theotēs: so that, since the Father is God and the Son is God, the very deity by which they are joined to each other—the one by begetting the Son, the other by cleaving to the Father—is made equal to him by whom the Son is begotten. This deity, then, which they also want to be understood as the mutual love and charity of both toward each other, they say is called the Holy Spirit; and they support this opinion of theirs with many proofs from the Scriptures: whether with the saying, “For the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us,” or with many other such testimonies; and with the very fact that through the Holy Spirit we are reconciled to God. Hence also, when he is called the gift of God, they hold it sufficiently indicated that the love of God is the Holy Spirit. For we are reconciled to him only through love, by which we are also called children of God, no longer under fear as slaves, since “perfect love casts out fear,” and we have received the spirit of freedom, in which we cry, “Abba, Father.” And because, reconciled and called back into friendship through love, we shall be able to know all the secrets of God, therefore it is said of the Holy Spirit, “He will lead you into all truth.” Therefore also the boldness in proclaiming the truth, with which the apostles were filled at his coming, is rightly attributed to love, since lack of confidence is assigned to fear, which the perfecting of love excludes. And he is called the gift of God because no one enjoys what he knows unless he also loves it. To enjoy the Wisdom of God is nothing else than to cleave to it by love, and no one remains in what he grasps except by love. And he is called the Holy Spirit because whatever is hallowed is hallowed in order to remain, and there is no doubt that holiness (sanctitas) is named from hallowing (sanciendo). The proponents of this view make most use of this testimony, where it is written: “What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit, for God is spirit.” For here he speaks of our regeneration, which is not according to Adam from the flesh but according to Christ from the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if the Holy Spirit is mentioned in this passage, where it is said, “for God is spirit,” they say we should notice that it is not said, “for the Spirit is God,” but, “for God is spirit,” so that the very deity of the Father and the Son is here called God, which is the Holy Spirit. To this is added another testimony, where the apostle John says, “God is love.” For here too he does not say, “Love is God,” but, “God is love,” so that the deity itself is understood as love. And the fact that in that enumeration of things linked with one another, where it is said, “All things are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's,” and “The head of the woman is the man, the head of the man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God,” no mention is made of the Holy Spirit, they say is relevant to this, because the link itself is not usually counted among the things linked together. Hence those who read more attentively seem to recognize the Trinity itself also in that passage where it is said, “For from him and through him and in him are all things”: “from him,” as from him who owes what he is to no one; “through him,” as through a mediator; “in him,” as in him who holds together, that is, joins by linking.

This view is contradicted by those who think that this communion, whether we call it deity or love or charity, is not a substance; they ask that the Holy Spirit be explained to them in terms of substance, and they do not understand that it could not have been said, “God is love,” unless love were a substance. They are led, of course, by their habit with bodily things: if two bodies are joined so as to be placed next to each other, the joining itself is not a body, since when the bodies that had been joined are separated, it is nowhere found; yet it is not understood to have departed and moved away, as those bodies do. But let such people make their hearts pure, as far as they can, so that they may be able to see that in God's substance there is nothing of this kind, as though there the substance were one thing and what happens to the substance another, which is not substance; rather, whatever can be understood there is substance. These things, however, can easily be said and believed; but how they are can in no way be seen except with a pure heart. Therefore, whether this view is true or something else is, the faith must be held unshaken, that we call the Father God, the Son God, the Holy Spirit God, and not three gods, but this Trinity one God; not different natures, but of the same substance; not so that the Father is at one time the Son, at another the Holy Spirit, but the Father always Father, the Son always Son, and the Holy Spirit always Holy Spirit. Nor let us affirm anything rashly about invisible things as though we knew, but as believing, since they cannot be seen except by a cleansed heart. And if anyone sees them in this life “in part,” as it is said, and “in an enigma,” he cannot bring it about that the one to whom he speaks also sees, if that person is hindered by the filth of his heart. “But blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” This is the faith concerning God our maker and renewer.

But love is commanded of us not only toward God, when it is said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” but also toward our neighbour—for “You shall love,” it says, “your neighbour as yourself”—and this faith is less fruitful unless it holds together a gathering and fellowship of human beings in which brotherly love is at work. Therefore we believe also in the holy church, the catholic church certainly. For heretics and schismatics too call their congregations churches. But heretics violate the faith itself by thinking falsely about God; schismatics, though they believe what we believe, break away from brotherly love by wicked divisions. Therefore neither do heretics belong to the catholic church, since it loves God, nor schismatics, since it loves its neighbour. And therefore it readily forgives its neighbour's sins, because it prays to be forgiven by him who reconciled us to himself, blotting out all the past and calling us to a new life. Until we attain that life in its perfection, we cannot be without sins; but it matters what kind they are.

Nor must we treat now of the difference between sins; but we must believe that the sins we commit will in no way be forgiven us if we are unrelenting in forgiving sins. And so we believe also in the forgiveness of sins.

And since there are three things of which a human being consists—spirit, soul, and body—which again are spoken of as two, because the soul is often named together with the spirit (for a certain rational part of it, which the beasts lack, is called spirit), our chief part is the spirit; next, the life by which we are joined to the body is called the soul; last, the body itself, since it is visible, is our lowest part. Now “this whole creation groans and is in labour until now”; yet it has given the firstfruits of the spirit, because it has believed God and is already of good will. For this spirit is also called the mind, of which the apostle says, “With the mind I serve the law of God”; and he also says in another place, “For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit.” But the soul, while it still desires fleshly goods, is called flesh, and resists the spirit, not by nature but by the habit of sins. Hence it is said, “With the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” This habit has been turned into nature, through mortal generation, by the sin of the first man. And therefore it is written, “And we too were once by nature children of wrath,” that is, of punishment, through which it has come about that we serve the law of sin. The nature of the soul is perfect when it is subject to its own spirit and when it follows the spirit as the spirit follows God. That is why “the animal man does not perceive the things of the Spirit of God.” But the soul is not subdued to the spirit for good action as quickly as the spirit is to God for true faith and good will; sometimes its impulse, by which it flows away into fleshly and temporal things, is reined in more slowly. But since the soul too is being cleansed, recovering the stability of its nature under the rule of the spirit, which is its head—and the head of that head is Christ—we must not despair that the body too will be restored to its own nature; but certainly not as quickly as the soul, just as the soul is not restored as quickly as the spirit, but at the proper time, “at the last trumpet, when the dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” And therefore we believe also in the resurrection of the flesh: not only because the soul is restored, which is now called flesh because of its fleshly affections, but also this visible flesh, which is flesh by nature, from which the soul took its name not by nature but because of fleshly affections—this visible flesh, then, which is properly called flesh, must without doubt be believed to rise. For the apostle Paul seems to point to it as with a finger when he says, “This corruptible must put on incorruption.” For when he says “this,” he points, as it were, his finger at it. And what is visible can be pointed to with a finger; this is needed because the soul too can be called corruptible, for it is corrupted by vices of conduct. And when we read, “and this mortal must put on immortality,” the same visible flesh is meant, because the finger is again, as it were, pointed at it. For the soul too, just as it can be called corruptible because of vices of conduct, can also be called mortal. For the death of the soul is to apostatize from God: this was its first sin in paradise, as the sacred writings contain.

The body, then, will rise, according to the Christian faith, which cannot deceive. Whoever finds this incredible attends to what the flesh is now but does not consider what it will be; for at that time of angelic change it will no longer be flesh and blood, but only body. For when the apostle was speaking of flesh, he said, “There is one flesh of beasts, another of birds, another of fish, another of serpents; and there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies.” He did not say, “and heavenly flesh,” but he said, “both heavenly and earthly bodies.” For all flesh is also body, but not every body is also flesh: first among these earthly things, since wood is a body but not flesh, whereas a man or a beast has both body and flesh; but in the heavenly things there is no flesh, but simple and shining bodies, which the apostle calls spiritual and some call ethereal. And therefore the saying, “Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God,” does not contradict the resurrection of the flesh, but proclaims what that which is now flesh and blood will be. Whoever does not believe that this flesh can be turned into such a nature must be led to faith by steps. For if you ask him whether earth can be turned into water, it does not seem incredible to him, because they are neighbours. Again, if you ask whether water can be turned into air, he answers that this too is not absurd, for they are neighbours. And if you ask of air whether it can be changed into an ethereal, that is, a heavenly body, the very nearness already persuades him. What, then, he grants can happen by these steps, that earth be turned into an ethereal body, why does he not believe that, when the will of God is added—by which a human body could walk on the waters—it can happen very quickly, as it is said, “in the twinkling of an eye,” without any such steps, as smoke is often turned into flame with astonishing speed? For our flesh certainly comes from earth; and the philosophers, with whose arguments the resurrection of the flesh is often resisted, and by which they assert that no earthly body can be in heaven, grant that every body can be turned and changed into every body. When that resurrection of the body has taken place, freed from the condition of time, we shall enjoy eternal life in ineffable love and stability. For then will come to pass what is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your sting? Where, O death, is your contention?”

This is the faith which is given in the Creed to new Christians, to be held in a few words. These few words are known to the faithful, so that by believing they may be made subject to God, being subject they may live rightly, living rightly they may cleanse the heart, and with the heart cleansed they may understand what they believe.