The Catechism of the Council of Trent/Part 1: Article 8
ARTICLE VIII.
"I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST."
HITHERTO we have expounded, as far as the nature of the subject seemed to require, what regards the first and second Persons of the Holy Trinity. It now remains to explain what the Creed contains with regard to the third Person, the Holy Ghost. On this subject, also, the pastor will omit nothing that study and assiduity can effect; for on this, and the preceding Articles, error were alike unpardonable. Hence, the Apostle is careful to instruct some amongst the Ephesians, with regard to the Person of the Holy Ghost. [1] Having asked if they had received the Holy Ghost, and having received for answer, that they did not so much as know the existence of the Holy Spirit, he immediately subjoins: " In whom, therefore, were you baptised?" to signify that a distinct knowledge of this Article is most necessary to the faithful. From it they derive this special fruit considering, attentively, that whatever they possess, they possess through the bounty and beneficence of the Holy Spirit they learn to think more modestly and humbly of themselves and to place all their hopes in the protection of God, which is the first step towards consummate wisdom and supreme happiness
The exposition of this Article, therefore, should begin with the meaning here attached to the words, Holy Ghost; for, as this appellation is equally true when applied to the Father and the Son, (both are spirit, both holy,) and also includes angels, and the souls of the just; care must be taken that the faithful be not led into error by the ambiguity of the words. The pastor, then, will teach, in this Article, that by the words Holy Ghost, is understood the third Person of the blessed Trinity; a sense in which they are used, sometimes in the Old, and frequently in the New Testament. Thus David prays: " Take not thy Holy Spirit from me;" [2] and in the Book of Wisdom, we read: " Who shall know thy thoughts, except thou give wisdom, and send thy Holy Spirit from above?" [3] And in another place: " He created her in the Holy Ghost." [4] We are also commanded, in the New Testament, to be baptised, "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:"* [5]we read that the most holy Virgin conceived of the Holy Ghost; [6] and we are sent by St. John to Christ, " who baptiseth us in the Holy Ghost;" [7] with a variety of other passages in which the words Holy Ghost occur.
Now should it be deemed matter of surprise, that a proper name is not given to the third, as to the first and second Persons: the second Person is designated by a proper name, and called Son, because, as has been explained in the preceding Articles, his eternal birth from the Father is properly called generation. As, therefore, that birth is expressed by the word generation; so the Person, emanating from that generation, is properly called Son, and the Person, from whom he emanates, Father. But as the production of the third Person is characterised by no proper name, but is called spiration and procession; the Person produced is, consequently, characterised by no proper name. As, however, we are obliged to borrow, from created objects, the names given to God, and know no other created means of communicating nature and essence than that of generation; we cannot discover a proper name to express the manner in which God communicates himself entire, by the force of his love. Unable, therefore, to express the emanation of the third Person, by a proper, we have recourse to the common name of Holy Ghost; a name, however, peculiarly appropriate to him who infuses into us spiritual life, and without whose holy inspiration, we can do nothing meritorious of eternal life But the people, when once acquainted with the import of the name, should, first of all, be taught that he is equally God with the Father and the Son, equally omnipotent, eternal, perfect, the supreme good, infinitely wise, and of the same nature with the Father and the Son. All this is, obviously enough, implied by the force of the word "in," when we say: "I believe in the Holy Ghost;" which, to mark the particularity of our faith, is prefixed to each Person of the Trinity; and is also clearly established by many passages of Scripture: when, in the Acts of the Apostles, St. Peter says: " Ananias! why hast thou conceived this thing in thy heart?" he immediately adds: "thou hast not lied to men but to God;" [8] calling him, to whom he had before given the name Holy Ghost, immediately after, God.
The Apostle, also, writing to the Corinthians, interprets what he says of God, as said of the Holy Ghost: "There are," says he, " diversities of operations, but the same God, who worketh all in all;" " but," continues he, " all these things one and the same spirit worketh, " dividing to every one according as he will." [9] In the Acts of the Apostles, also, what the prophets attribute to one God, St. Paul ascribes to the Holy Ghost; thus Isaias had said: " I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send? and who shall go for us? and I said: Lo! here am I, send me. And he said: Go, and thou shalt say to this people: Blind the heart of this people, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes: lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears:" [10] Having cited these words, the Apostle adds: "Well did the Holy Ghost speak to our fathers, by Isaias the prophet." [11]
Again, the Sacred Scriptures, by annexing the Person of the Holy Ghost to those of the Father and the Son; as when baptism is commanded to be administered, " in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," leaves no room whatever to doubt the truth of this mystery: for if the Father is God, and the Son God, why not confess that the Holy Ghost, who is united with them in the same degree of honour, is also God? Besides, baptism administered in the name of any creature, can be of no effect: "Were you baptised in the name of Paul?" [12] says the Apostle, to show that such baptism could have availed them nothing to salvation. Having, therefore, been baptised in the name of the Holy Ghost, we must acknowledge the Holy Ghost to be God.
But this same order of the three Persons, which proves the divinity of the Holy Ghost, is observable in the epistle of St. John: " There are three who give testimony in heaven; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one;" [13] and, also, in that noble eulogy, or form of praise to the Trinity: " Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," which closes the psalms and divine praises.
Finally, not to omit an argument which goes, most forcibly to establish this truth, the authority of Holy Scripture proves, that whatever faith attributes to God, belongs equally to the Holy Ghost: to him is ascribed, in Scripture, the honour of temples: "Know you not," says the Apostle, "that your members are the temple of "the Holy Ghost;" [14] and also sanctification. [15] vivification, [16] to search the depths of God, [17] to speak by the prophets, [18] and to be present in all places; [19] all of which are attributed to God alone.
The pastor will, also, accurately explain to the faithful, that the Holy Ghost is God, so as to be the third Person in the divine nature, distinct from the Father and the Son, and produced their will. To say nothing of other testimonies of Scripture, the form of baptism, taught by the Redeemer, [20] furnishes an irrefragable proof that the Holy Ghost is the third Person, self-existent in the divine nature, and distinct from the other Persons: a doctrine taught, also, by the Apostle, when he says: " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God, and the communication of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen." [21] This same truth, is still more explicitly declared in the word. which were here added by the Fathers of the first Council of Constantinople, to refute the impious folly of Macedonius: " And in the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, and the Son: who, together with the Father and the Son, is adored and glorified; who spoke by the prophets." Thus, by confessing the Holy Ghost to be " Lord," they declare, how far he excels the angels, who are the perfection of created intelligence; for, " they are all," says the Apostle, " ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation." [22]
They, also, designate the Holy Ghost: "The giver of life," because the soul lives more by an union with God, than the body is nurtured and sustained by an union with the soul. As, then, the Sacred Scriptures ascribe to the Holy Ghost this union of the soul with God, with great propriety, is he denominated "the giver of life."
With regard to the words immediately succeeding: " who proceedeth from the Father and the Son," the faithful are to be taught, that the Holy Ghost proceeds by eternal procession, from the Father and the Son, as from one principle: a truth propounded to us by an ecclesiastical rule, from which the least departure is unwarrantable, confirmed by the authority of the Sacred Scriptures, and defined by the Councils of the Church. Christ himself, speaking of the Holy Ghost, says: " He shall glorify me, because he shall receive of mine;" [23] and we, also, find that the Holy Ghost is, sometimes, called, in Scripture, "the Spirit of Christ," sometimes, " the Spirit of the Father;" is, one time, said to be sent by the Father, [24] another time, by the Son; [25] thus signifying, in unequivocal terms, that he proceeds alike from the Father and the Son. " He," says St. Paul, who has not the Spirit of Christ belongs not to him." [26] In his epistle to the Galatians, he also calls the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Christ: " God," says he, " hath sent the Spirit of his Son into^your hearts, crying: Abba, Father." [27] In the Gospel of St. Matthew, he is called the Spirit of the Father: " It is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you;" [28] and our Lord himself said, at his last supper: " When the Paraclate cometh, whom I will send you, the Spirit of Truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall give testimony of me." [29] On another occasion, he declares, that he is to be sent by the Father: " whom," says he, " the Father will send in my name." [30] Understanding by these words, the pro cession of the Holy Ghost, we come to the inevitable conclusion, that he proceeds from the Father and the Son. This exposition embraces the doctrine to be taught with regard to the Person of the Holy Ghost.
It is, also, the duty of the pastor to teach that there are certain admirable effects, certain exalted gifts of the Holy Ghost, which are said to originate and emanate from him, as from a perennial fountain of goodness. Although the extrinsic works of the most Holy Trinity are common to the three Persons, yet many of them are attributed, specially to the Holy Ghost; giving us to understand that they arise from the boundless love of God towards us: for as the Holy Ghost proceeds from the divine will, inflamed, as it were, with love, we can comprehend that these effects which are referred, particularly, to the Holy Ghost, are the result of the boundless love of God towards us.
Hence it is, that the Holy Ghost is called A GIFT; for by a gift we understand that which is kindly and gratuitously be stowed, without reference to anticipated remuneration. What ever gifts and graces, therefore, have been bestowed on us, by Almighty God, and " what have we," says the Apostle, " that we have not received from God?" [31] we should piously and gratefully acknowledge, as bestowed by the grace and gift of the Holy Ghost.
These gifts are numerous: not to mention the creation of the world, the propagation and government of all created beings, as noticed in the first Article; we proved, a little before, that the giving of life is, particularly, attributed to the Holy Ghost, and the propriety of this attribution is further confirmed by the testimony of the prophet Ezekiel: " I will give you spirit and you shall live." [32] The prophet Isaias, however, enumerates the effects peculiarly attributed to the Holy Ghost: " The spirit of wisdom, and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord:" [33] effects which are called the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and, sometimes, the Holy Ghost. Wisely, therefore; does St. Augustine admonish us, whenever we meet the word Holy Ghost, in Scripture, to distinguish whether it means the third Person of the Trinity, or his gifts and operations: [34] they are as distinct as the Creator is from the creature. The diligence of the pastor, in expounding these truths, should be the greater, as it is from these gifts of the Holy Ghost that we derive rules of Christian life, and are enabled to know if the Holy Ghost dwells within us.
But the grace of justification, " which signs us with the holy spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance," [35] transcends his highest gifts: it unites us to God, in the closest bonds of love lights up within us the sacred flame of piety Ghost. " forms us to newness of life renders us partakers of the divine nature and enables us "to be called and really to be the sons of " God." [36] [37]
- ↑ Acts xix. 2.
- ↑ Ps. 1. 12, 13.
- ↑ Wis. ix. 17.
- ↑ Eccles. i. 9.
- ↑ Matt xxviii. 19
- ↑ Matt. i. 20. Luke i. 35.
- ↑ John i. 33.
- ↑ Acts v. 3, 4.
- ↑ 1 Cor. xii. 6, 11.
- ↑ Isaias vi. 8-10.
- ↑ Acts xxviii. 25.
- ↑ 1 Cor. i. 13.
- ↑ 1 John v. 7
- ↑ Cor. vi. 19.
- ↑ 2Thess. ii. 13. 1 Petr. i. 2.
- ↑ John vi. 64.
- ↑ 2 Cor. iii. 6; 1 Cor. ii. 10.
- ↑ 2 Petr. i. 21.
- ↑ Wis. i. 7.
- ↑ Matt. xxviii. 1 9.
- ↑ 2 Cor. xiii. 13.
- ↑ Heb. i. 14.
- ↑ John xvi. 14.
- ↑ John xiv. 26.
- ↑ John xv. 26.
- ↑ Rom. viii. 9.
- ↑ Gal. iv. 6.
- ↑ Matth. x. 20.
- ↑ John xv. 26.
- ↑ John xiv. 26.
- ↑ 1 Cor. iv. 7.
- ↑ Ezek. xxxvii. 6.
- ↑ Isaias xi. 3.
- ↑ D. August lib. 15. de Trinit. cap. xviii. 19.
- ↑ Eph i. 13
- ↑ 1 John iii. 1. 2 Peter i. 4
- ↑ Council Trid. Sess. 6.