Слово в день Св. Пятидесятницы (О благодатной перемене, совершаемой в человеке дарованием Святого Духа). Блаженного Августина, епископа Иппонийского

After that extraordinary and glorious victory that the Champion for all gained in the world - after He not only brought our weak nature out of the underworld, but also raised it to the heights of His kingdom: on this day He gave the Holy Spirit, about whom He had previously spoken to His apostles: I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (John 14:16), - different, and not less, that is, having the same glory and the same being. How great and inexpressible is the love of the Redeemer! He raised man to heaven and sent God to earth. How great is the Creator’s concern for the restoration of His creation! Again a new medicine is sent from above; again the King deigns to visit His sick; again the Divinity unites with man in order, with the special power of the Holy Spirit, to complete those good deeds that the Lord the Redeemer began: to sanctify what He redeemed, to preserve what He acquired, and thus, by the unity of grace and gift, to show the unity of the Divine. So, the Holy Spirit descended into the churches prepared for Himself - the holy apostles, and not as a temporary Visitor, but as a permanent Comforter and eternal Cohabitant. For, just as Jesus Christ said about Himself to the apostles: Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20), so about the Holy Spirit: He will give you the Comforter, that He may be with you forever (John 14:16). Let us consider here what could be added to the perfection of the apostles through the reception of the Holy Spirit. There was faith in them, but there was not yet firm confidence; they could preach Christ in the universe, but did not yet have the power to fight for Christ to the point of death. The Lord Jesus was already taken out of their sight, Who strengthened them with His word, speaking mouth to mouth, and edified them with the power of miracles. When they were with Him, they easily believed what was visible: for faith was aided by sight, found confirmation in the deeds being done, and was nourished by signs and powers. But when the Lord Jesus, taken from their eyes, ascended into heaven, their confused minds could not worthily reflect on the heavenly and eternal, and their cramped hearts were not able to contain within themselves the greatness of the Divine meaning, which the Lord Himself, while still in the body, inspired in them, saying: “The Imam has spoken many things to you, but you cannot bear them now: when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth” (Jn. 16:12). You see that after the descent of this venerable and highest Power, the hearts of the disciples were expanded to accept the greatness of the Divine Light and understand the truth! For before, when they saw that He was walking on the rising waves of the angry sea, and that the fickle water path was becoming solid under His Divine feet, (the apostles) were embarrassed, saying, “As if there is a ghost” (Matthew 14:26). After the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they no longer said: there is a ghost, but: in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was to God, and God was the Word (John 1:1); and again: this is the true light, which enlightens every man who comes into the world (John 1:9). One of the disciples, not yet enriched by the blessing of this gift, sought God through fleshly ulcers in an already glorified and heavenly body, and had a need for ulcerative signs of nails in order to believe in the incomprehensible Divinity. But, having been filled with teaching from the Holy Spirit, the other exclaimed with confidence: from the first, from the very beginning, from the hearing, from the sight, our eyes have seen, and our hands have touched, about the Word of the living:... and we proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father, and was revealed to us (John 1:1-2). And the Apostle Paul, enriched by the sending down of such greatness, testified with faith: even though we understood according to the flesh of Christ, now we do not understand anyone (2 Cor. 5:16). Blessed Peter, just before the onset of the Lord's suffering, not wanting to be separated from Christ physically, but not yet filled with the inspiration of the Divine Comforter, drew his sword against the traitor and the soldiers, and thought that it was necessary to repel force with force. But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, no longer sought Christ on earth, but saw the glory of God in the open heaven, and did not think about revenge, but prayed and cried out for his persecutors: Lord, do not put this sin on them (Acts 7:60). Before the coming of the Holy Spirit, at the very time of the cross, some of the disciples run away, others are afraid of the voice of the slave, and in the fear that filled their hearts, they renounce their Lord; but after enlightenment and confirmation from the Holy Spirit, when they were tormented in prison and suffered wounds, I walked rejoicing, as for the name of the Lord Jesus was deemed worthy to receive dishonor (Acts 5:41). And those who rejected Christ with an oath now rejoice in the suffering they endured for Him. Those who were previously afraid of words are now strengthened in suffering and torment, confess Christ not only in words, but also in deeds, testifying to the power of their love by blood, and, being warmed and ignited by the wine of the Lord's love, they exclaim: we are unworthy of the passion of this present time for the glory that desires to appear in us (Rom. 8:18). Let us not think that only the apostles accepted this new wine at that time: the hearts of believers and the souls of those turning to God will be watered with it every day. Thus, we see that often, out of a desire for salvation, many leave their parents and fatherland, unprompted by anyone, they leave their homeland and relatives, and, having become dead to the world, they look for other spiritual parents, and, having previously been high and proud, they love humility, turn away from pride, wanting to be what they previously despised, and, hating what they previously were; they do not like the present and desire the future - despising the vanity of the temporal, they sigh for their heavenly fatherland. Souls intoxicated with this spiritual wine are changed in everything - they oppose abstinence to luxury, vigil to sweet sleep, poverty to wealth, undertake difficult feats against sin, cut off the most desirable pleasures, love their enemies and bless those who hate, do not slander those who offend, are not irritated by those who insult them, are not offended by reproach - in a word, they do not feel anything like that, for the sake of the ardent love of the Holy Spirit and eternal reward. So, we, who annually celebrate the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, will call on Him daily, and, desiring to be worthy of such a visit, we will cleanse, first of all, the church of our soul from unworthy carnal lusts, from the dominion of pride, from the stench of vanity, from the intolerable state of the soul, neither warm nor cold. Let us daily prepare this house for the reception of the Heavenly King, we will decorate it with flowers of good morals, we will fill it with the pleasant and precious aroma of purity, faith and heartfelt contrition, having kindled the incense of love, and having destroyed the abode of the devil in ourselves, we will change into the church of God - and the Divine Guest, pleased with the magnificent treat, will create in us a permanent and unchangeable dwelling. For this reason the Holy Spirit descended to us, so that we could ascend to the Lord Jesus, to Him be glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen 116. In short. Word 185; Wed Sunday Read XVIII (1854–55), pp. 71–73. You might be interested in: