HOMILY 30. Delivered to the people in the basilica of Saint Peter the Apostle, on the holy day of Pentecost.
READING OF THE HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and we will make our dwelling with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words. And the word which you have heard is not mine, but the Father's who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while remaining with you. But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will bring to your remembrance all things whatsoever I shall have said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. You have heard that I said to you: I go away and I come to you. If you loved me, you would indeed rejoice, because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you. For the prince of this world comes, and in me he has nothing. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father has given me commandment, so I do.
Beloved brothers, it is fitting to pass through the words of the Gospel reading briefly, so that afterward we may be permitted to linger longer in the contemplation of so great a solemnity. For today the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples with a sudden sound, and changed the minds of carnal men into love of Him, and while tongues of fire appeared outwardly, their hearts were made flaming within, because as they received God in the vision of fire, they burned sweetly through love. For the Holy Spirit Himself is love. Hence John also says: "God is love." Therefore whoever desires God with a whole heart already has Him whom he loves. For no one could love God if he did not have Him whom he loves. But behold, if any one of you were asked whether he loves God, he would respond with full confidence and a secure mind: "I love." Yet in the very beginning of the reading you heard what the Truth says: "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word." The proof of love, therefore, is the showing forth of works. Hence the same John says in his epistle: "He who says, 'I love God,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar." For we truly love God if we restrain ourselves from our own pleasures for the sake of His commandments. For he who still flows away through illicit desires certainly does not love God, because he contradicts Him by his own will.
"And my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him." Consider, dearly beloved brothers, how great a solemnity this is: to have the coming of God as a guest in the lodging of the heart. Certainly if some wealthy and very powerful friend were to enter your house, the whole house would be cleaned with all haste, lest perhaps there be anything that might offend the eyes of the entering friend. Let him therefore wipe away the filth of wicked deeds who prepares the house of his mind for God. But see what the Truth says: "We will come, and we will make our abode with him." For He comes into the hearts of some and does not make His abode, because through compunction they indeed receive God's regard, but in the time of temptation they forget that very thing for which they had been moved to compunction; and so they return to committing sins as if they had never lamented them at all. Therefore he who truly loves God, who keeps His commandments, in his heart the Lord both comes and makes His abode, because the love of divinity so penetrates him that he does not depart from this love in the time of temptation. He therefore truly loves whose mind wicked delight does not overcome through consent. For each person is separated from heavenly love to the extent that he delights in lower things. Hence it is still added: "He who does not love me does not keep my words." Return therefore inwardly to yourselves, dearly beloved brothers; examine whether you truly love God; yet let no one believe himself, whatever his mind has answered him without the testimony of works. Concerning love of the Creator, let tongue, mind, and life be examined. The love of God is never idle. For it works great things, if it exists; but if it refuses to work, it is not love. "And the word which you have heard is not mine, but the Father's who sent me." You know, dearly beloved brothers, that He who speaks, the only-begotten Son, is the Word of the Father, and therefore the word which the Son speaks is not the Son's but the Father's, because the Son Himself is the Word of the Father. "These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you." When would He not abide with them, who, about to ascend to heaven, promises, saying: "Behold, I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world"? But the incarnate Word both abides and departs: He departs in body, He abides in divinity. He declares therefore that He then abided with them, because He who was always present by invisible power was already departing from corporeal sight.
But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things whatsoever I have said to you. Most of you know, my brothers, that in Greek speech "paraclete" is called in Latin "advocate" or "consoler." He is called advocate because he intercedes with the justice of the Father for the error of sinners. He who is of one substance with the Father and the Son is said to entreat for sinners, because those whom he has filled, he makes into those who entreat. Hence Paul also says: For the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. But he who entreats is less than he who is entreated; how then is the Spirit said to entreat, who is not less? But the Spirit himself entreats because he inflames those whom he has filled to entreat. Moreover, the same Spirit is called Consoler because for those who grieve over the commission of sin, while he prepares the hope of pardon, he lifts the mind from the affliction of sorrow. Of him it is rightly promised: He himself will teach you all things. Because unless the same Spirit is present in the heart of the hearer, the word of the teacher is useless. Therefore let no one attribute to the human teacher what he understands from the mouth of the teacher, because unless there is one within who teaches, the tongue of the teacher labors outwardly in vain. Behold, you all equally hear the one voice of the speaker, yet you do not equally perceive the meaning of the voice heard. Since therefore the voice is not different, why is the understanding of the voice different in your hearts, unless because through that which the voice of the speaker commonly admonishes, there is an interior master who specially teaches certain ones about the understanding of the voice? Concerning this anointing of the Spirit, it is again said through John: As his anointing teaches you concerning all things. Therefore one is not instructed by voice when the mind is not anointed by the Spirit. But why do we speak these things about human teaching, when even the Creator himself does not speak for the instruction of man, if he does not speak to that same man through the anointing of the Spirit? Certainly Cain, before he perpetrated fratricide in deed, heard: You have sinned; be still. But because, his sins demanding it, he was admonished by voice, not by the anointing of the Spirit, he was able to hear the words of God but scorned to keep them. But we must inquire why it is said of the same Spirit: He will bring all things to your remembrance, since to suggest is usually characteristic of an inferior. But because we sometimes say "to suggest" means "to supply," the invisible Spirit is said to suggest, not because he brings knowledge to us from below, but from what is hidden. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Here "I leave," there "I give." I leave to those who follow, I give to those who arrive.
Behold, dearest brothers, we have briefly discussed the words of the sacred reading; now let us turn our mind to contemplation of so great a feast. But since the reading from the Acts of the Apostles was also recited to you along with the Gospel reading, let us therefore draw something from it for the use of our contemplation. For you have heard that the Holy Spirit appeared upon the disciples in tongues of fire and gave them knowledge of all languages. What indeed was signified by this miracle, except that the holy Church, filled with the same Spirit, would speak with the voice of all nations? Those who attempted to build a tower against God lost the communion of one language, but in these who humbly feared God all languages were united. Here therefore humility merited virtue; there pride earned confusion.
But we must ask why the Holy Spirit, coeternal with the Father and the Son, appeared in fire; why in fire and tongues together; why He is shown sometimes in a dove, sometimes in fire; why He appeared over the only-begotten Son in the form of a dove, and over the disciples in fire—so that He neither came upon the Lord in fire nor was shown over the disciples in a dove. Let us therefore return by solving these four questions we have proposed. For the Spirit, coeternal with the Father and Son, is shown in fire because God is incorporeal, ineffable, and invisible fire, as Paul attests: "Our God is a consuming fire." God is indeed called fire because through Him the rust of sins is consumed. Of this fire the Truth says: "I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what do I desire except that it burn?" For earthly hearts are called earth, which, while they always heap up base thoughts within themselves, are trampled by malignant spirits. But the Lord casts fire upon the earth when He kindles the hearts of carnal people with the breath of the Holy Spirit. And the earth burns when the carnal heart, cold in its wicked pleasures, abandons the desires of the present age and is set ablaze with love of God. Rightly therefore the Spirit appeared in fire, because from every heart He fills He shakes off the torpor of coldness and kindles it with desire for His eternity. Moreover He was shown in tongues of fire because the same Spirit is coeternal with the Son, and tongue has the greatest kinship with word. For the Son is the Word of the Father. And because the Spirit and the Word are of one substance, the same Spirit had to be shown in a tongue. Or certainly, because word proceeds through the tongue, the Spirit appeared in tongues because whoever is touched by the Holy Spirit confesses God's Word, that is, the only-begotten Son, and cannot deny God's Word because he now has the tongue of the Holy Spirit. Or certainly the Spirit appeared in tongues of fire because all whom He fills He makes both burning and speaking at once. Teachers have tongues of fire because, when they preach that God is to be loved, they set the hearts of their hearers aflame. For the speech of a teacher is idle if it cannot provide the fire of love. Those who said had conceived this fire of teaching from the very mouth of Truth: "Was not our heart burning within us while He spoke on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?" For from the word heard the soul is set ablaze, the cold of torpor recedes, the mind becomes anxious with heavenly desire, estranged from earthly concupiscences. True love, when it has filled the soul, torments it with tears; but while it is tormented by such burning, it is fed by its very torments. It delights to hear heavenly precepts, and by as many commandments as it is instructed, it is inflamed as if by so many torches; and the soul that was formerly torpid through desires afterward burns through words. Hence it is well said through Moses: "In His right hand was a fiery law." For the reprobate, who are also to be placed on the left, are indeed the left hand; but the elect are called the right hand of God. Therefore in God's right hand is the fiery law, because the elect by no means hear heavenly commandments with a cold heart, but are set ablaze toward them with the torches of inward love. The word is brought to the ear, and their mind, angry at itself, is consumed by the flame of inward sweetness. Now the Holy Spirit was shown both in a dove and in fire because all whom He fills He makes both simple and ardent: simple in purity, ardent in zeal. For neither can simplicity without zeal please God, nor zeal without simplicity. Hence the Truth Himself says: "Be wise as serpents and simple as doves." In this matter it should be noted that the Lord wished to admonish His disciples neither about the dove without the serpent nor about the serpent without the dove, so that both the cunning of the serpent might sharpen the simplicity of the dove and the simplicity of the dove might temper the cunning of the serpent. Hence Paul says: "Do not become children in understanding." Behold, we have heard of the prudence of the serpent; now let us be admonished about the simplicity of the dove: "But in malice be infants." Hence it is said of blessed Job: "He was a simple and upright man." But what is uprightness without simplicity, or what is simplicity without uprightness? Therefore, because this Spirit teaches both uprightness and simplicity, He had to be shown both in fire and in a dove, so that every heart touched by His grace may become both tranquil with the gentleness of meekness and inflamed with zeal for justice.
Finally, it must be asked why in our Redeemer Himself, the Mediator between God and men, the Spirit appeared through a dove, but in the disciples through fire? Certainly the only-begotten Son of God is the judge of the human race. But who could endure His justice if, before gathering us through gentleness, He had wished to examine our faults through zeal for righteousness? Therefore, made man for men, He showed Himself gentle to men. He did not wish to strike sinners, but to gather them. First He wished to correct gently, so that He might have those whom He would afterward save in judgment. Therefore the Spirit ought to have appeared over Him in a dove, since He was not coming to strike sins now through zeal, but still to tolerate them through gentleness. But on the contrary, the Holy Spirit ought to have been shown over the disciples in fire, so that those who were simply men, and therefore sinners, He might kindle as spiritual servants against themselves, and the sins which God would spare through gentleness, they themselves might punish in themselves through repentance. For neither could they themselves be without sin who were clinging to the heavenly teaching, as John attests, who says: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Therefore He came in fire upon men, but appeared in a dove upon the Lord, because the sins which the Lord piously tolerates through gentleness, we ought to carefully observe through zeal for righteousness, and always burn away with the fire of repentance. Therefore the Spirit was shown through a dove in the Redeemer, but through fire in men, because the more the severity of our Judge has been tempered toward us, the more our weakness ought to become enkindled toward ourselves. Therefore, having completed the explanation of the four propositions, let us pass on to contemplate the gifts of the same Spirit.
Concerning this Spirit it is written: "His Spirit has adorned the heavens." For the ornaments of the heavens are the virtues of those who preach. Paul enumerates these ornaments, saying: "To one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another the grace of healing in one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of speeches. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills." Therefore, as many as are the gifts of those who preach, so many are the ornaments of the heavens. Hence it is written again: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were established." For the Word of the Lord is the Son of the Father. But concerning these same heavens, namely the holy apostles, so that the entire holy Trinity might be shown to have worked together, it is suddenly added concerning the divinity of the Holy Spirit: "And by the breath of His mouth is all their power." Therefore the power of the heavens was received from the Spirit, because they would not have presumed to oppose the powers of this world unless the strength of the Holy Spirit had made them firm. For we know what kind of teachers of the holy Church they were before the coming of this Spirit, and we observe how great in strength they became after His coming.
Certainly, this very pastor of the Church, at whose most sacred body we are seated, let the servant girl who was the doorkeeper, when questioned, tell how great was his weakness and how great his fear before the coming of the Spirit. For struck by the voice of one woman, while he feared to die, he denied the Life. And then Peter denied on earth, while the thief confessed on the cross. But let us hear what kind of man this person of such great fear became after the coming of the Spirit. A meeting of magistrates and elders takes place, and after being beaten the apostles are ordered not to speak in the name of Jesus: Peter responded with great authority: "We must obey God rather than men." And again: "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard." And they went rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were counted worthy to suffer insults for the name of Jesus. Behold, Peter rejoices in beatings, who before was afraid at mere words. And he who previously feared when questioned by the voice of a servant girl, after the coming of the Holy Spirit, though beaten, tramples down the powers of rulers. It is fitting to raise the eyes of faith to the power of this craftsman, and to consider here and there the Fathers of the new and old testament. Behold, with these same eyes of faith opened, I gaze upon David, Amos, Daniel, Peter, Paul, Matthew, and I wish to consider what kind of craftsman this Holy Spirit is, but in my very consideration I fall short. For he fills a boy who plays the harp, and makes him a psalmist. He fills a herdsman shepherd picking sycamore figs, and makes him a prophet. He fills an abstinent boy, and makes him a judge of elders. He fills a fisherman, and makes him a preacher. He fills a persecutor, and makes him a teacher of the Gentiles. He fills a tax collector, and makes him an evangelist. O what a craftsman this Spirit is! There is no delay in learning whatever he wills. As soon as he touches the mind, he teaches, and merely to have touched is to have taught. For as soon as he illuminates the human soul, he transforms it; he suddenly takes away what it was, and suddenly produces what it was not.
Let us consider what kind of men our holy preachers were when this day found them, and what kind it made them. Certainly those who were sitting in one room out of fear of the Jews knew each one the language of their birth, and yet they did not presume to speak openly of Christ even in that language which they knew. The Spirit came, and in their mouths taught them through the diversity of tongues, while in their minds he strengthened them with authority. They began to speak of Christ in foreign tongues, who before were afraid to speak of him even in their own language. For the inflamed heart despised the torments of the body which it had feared before; it conquered the force of carnal dread through love of the Creator. And those who before had succumbed to their adversaries through fear now surpassed them in authority. He who raised them to the height of such eminence, what else should I say, except that he made the minds of earthly men into heavens? Consider, dearest brothers, after the incarnation of the only-begotten Son of God, what manner of solemnity this day is concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit. For just as that feast is honorable, so also is this one. In that feast, indeed, God remaining in himself took on man; in this one, men received God coming from above. In that feast, God was naturally made man; in this one, men were made gods through adoption. If therefore we do not wish to remain carnal in death, let us love this life-giving Spirit, dearest brothers.
But because the flesh does not know the spirit, perhaps someone may say to himself with carnal thinking: How am I able to love one whom I do not know? This we also concede, because the mind, intent upon visible things, does not know how to see the invisible. For it thinks of nothing except visible things, and even when it is not acting upon them, it draws their images inward; and while it lies among corporeal images, it cannot rise to incorporeal things. Hence it happens that the more familiarly it carries corporeal creation in its thought, the worse it fails to know the Creator. But since we cannot see God, we have something we can do, whereby a path may be made by which the eye of our understanding may come to him. Certainly, he whom we are in no way able to see in himself, we can now see in his servants. While we behold them doing wondrous things, it becomes certain to us that God dwells in their minds. In an incorporeal matter, let us draw a practice from corporeal things. For none of us is able to gaze upon the rising sun clearly by looking into its sphere, because our eyes, strained by its rays, are beaten back; but we look upon mountains illuminated by the sun, and we see that the sun has now risen. Therefore, since we cannot see the Sun of Justice in himself, let us see the mountains illuminated by his brightness, namely the holy apostles, who shine forth with virtues and flash with miracles, whom the brightness of the risen Sun has flooded, and though he is invisible in himself, through them, as through illuminated mountains, he has shown himself visible to us. For the power of divinity in itself is like the sun in heaven; the power of divinity in human beings is the sun on earth. Therefore let us gaze upon the Sun of Justice on earth, whom we cannot see in heaven, so that while we walk by him on earth with unoffending foot of work, we may sometime lift our eyes to heaven to behold him. But our journey on earth is made with unoffending foot if God and neighbor are loved with an undivided mind. For neither is God truly loved without neighbor, nor is neighbor truly loved without God. Hence it is that, as we have already said in another sermon, the same Spirit is read to have been given to the disciples twice: first by the Lord while dwelling on earth, afterward by the Lord presiding from heaven. On earth, indeed, he is given that neighbor may be loved; from heaven, truly, that God may be loved. But why first on earth, afterward from heaven, unless it is plainly given to understand that, according to John's voice, "He who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see?" Therefore let us love our neighbor, brothers; let us love him who is near us, that we may be able to arrive at the love of him who is above us. Let the mind meditate on what it may offer to God in its neighbor, so that it may perfectly deserve to rejoice in God with its neighbor. Then we shall arrive at that joy of the heavenly company, of which we have now received the pledge of the Holy Spirit. Let us strive with all love toward that end, in which we shall rejoice without end. There is the holy fellowship of the citizens above; there is certain festivity; there is secure rest; there is true peace, which is no longer left to us but is given through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, through all ages of ages. Amen.