CHAPTER I. — That today's solemnity, dearly beloved, is to be venerated among the chief of feasts, the hearts of all Catholics acknowledge: nor is there any doubt how great a reverence is owed to this day, which the Holy Spirit consecrated by the most excellent miracle of His own gift. For from that day on which the Lord ascended, to sit above all the height of the heavens at the right hand of God the Father, this is the tenth, which, from His resurrection, is the fiftieth to us, having shone forth on the very day on which it began, containing in itself great mysteries both of the old sacraments and of the new: by which it is most manifestly declared that grace was foretold through the law, and the law was fulfilled through grace.
For as to the Hebrew people, formerly delivered from the Egyptians, on the fiftieth day after the immolation of the lamb the law was given on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19); so after the passion of Christ, wherein the true Lamb of God was slain, on the fiftieth day from His resurrection the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles and the multitude of believers (Acts 2:3): that the diligent Christian might readily recognise that the beginnings of the Old Testament ministered to the beginnings of the Gospel, and that the second covenant was founded by the same Spirit by whom the first had been instituted. CHAPTER.
II. — For, as the apostolic history testifies, when the days of Pentecost were being accomplished, and all the disciples were together in the same place, there was made suddenly a sound from heaven as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, according as the Holy Spirit gave them to speak (ibid. 1-4). O how swift is the word of wisdom, and where God is the master, how quickly is that learned which is taught!
There was no interpretation employed for hearing, no habit for practice, no time for study, but, the Spirit of truth breathing where He would (John 3:8), the proper voices of the several nations became common in the mouth of the Church. From this day, therefore, the trumpet of evangelical preaching sounded aloud; from this day the showers of graces, the rivers of blessings, watered every desert and all the dry land; for, to renew the face of the earth, the Spirit of God was borne over the waters (Genesis...
...1:2), and to drive away the old darkness, the flashes of a new light gleamed forth, when, with the brightness of the shining tongues, both the lucid word of the Lord and a fiery utterance was conceived, which had, for creating understanding and consuming sin, both the efficacy of enlightening and the force of burning. CHAPTER III. — But although, dearly beloved, the very form of the thing done was greatly wondrous, and there is no doubt that in that exultant concord of all human voices the majesty of the Holy Spirit was present, yet let no one esteem that in those things which were seen by bodily eyes His divine substance had appeared.
For that nature, invisible and common to the Father and the Son, showed the quality of His gift and of His work by what signification He willed, but kept the property of His essence within His own Godhead: because, as neither the Father nor the Son, so neither can human sight attain to the Holy Spirit. For in the divine Trinity nothing is unlike, nothing unequal; and all things which can be conceived of that substance are separated neither in power, nor in glory, nor in eternity. And though, in the properties of the persons, the Father is one, the Son is another, the Holy Spirit is another, yet the Godhead is not other, nor is the nature diverse.
Since indeed, seeing that the Son is the Only-begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, not as any creature which is both the Father's and the Son's, but as living and powerful with both, and everlastingly subsisting from that which is the Father and the Son. Whence, when the Lord, before the day of His passion, promised to His disciples the coming of the Holy Spirit, He says: I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when that Spirit of truth shall come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, He shall speak, and the things that are to come He shall show you. All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine: therefore I said that He shall receive of mine, and shall show it to you (John...
...16:12-15). Not, therefore, are some things the Father's, others the Son's, others the Holy Spirit's; but all things whatsoever the Father hath, the Son also hath, and the Holy Spirit also hath; nor was there ever in that Trinity a time when this communion was not, since to have all things there is the same as always to exist. Let no times, no degrees, no differences there be conceived: and if no one can explain concerning God what He is, let no one dare to affirm what He is not. For it is more excusable, concerning the ineffable nature, not to utter worthy things, than to define contrary ones. Whatsoever, therefore, godly hearts can conceive concerning the everlasting and unchangeable glory of the Father, let them understand this at the same time, inseparably and without difference, both of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
For to this end we confess this blessed Trinity to be one God, because in these three persons there is no diversity of substance, nor of power, nor of will, nor of operation. CHAPTER IV. — As therefore we detest the Arians, who will have some distance to be between the Father and the Son, so likewise do we equally detest the Macedonians, who, although they attribute equality to the Father and the Son, yet think the Holy Spirit to be of an inferior nature: not considering that they fall into that blasphemy which shall be remitted neither in the present age, nor in the future by any judgment, the Lord saying: Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him;
...but he that shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come (Matthew 12:32). Remaining, therefore, in this impiety, he is without pardon, because he has shut out from himself the One through whom he might have confessed; nor will he ever come to the remedy of indulgence, who has not the Advocate to plead for him. For from Him is the invocation of the Father, from Him are the tears of the penitent, from Him are the groanings of the suppliants; and no one can say the Lord Jesus, but in the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3); whose omnipotence, equal with the Father and the Son, and one Godhead, the Apostle most evidently proclaims, saying: There are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit.
And there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but the same God, who worketh all in all (ibid. 4-6). CHAPTER V. — By these, dearly beloved, and other proofs, wherewith the authority of the divine oracles innumerably flashes, let us be unanimously incited to the veneration of Pentecost, exulting in honour of the Holy Spirit, through whom the whole Catholic Church is sanctified, every rational soul is imbued; who is the inspirer of faith, the teacher of knowledge, the fountain of love, the seal of chastity, and the cause of all virtue. Let the minds of the faithful rejoice, that throughout the whole world one God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is praised by the confession of all tongues;
And that signification which appeared in the form of fire endures both in its working and in its office. For the Spirit of truth Himself makes the house of His glory to shine with the brightness of His light, and in His temple He wills that nothing be dark and nothing lukewarm. From this same help and teaching there has also been conferred upon us the purification of fastings and of almsgivings. For upon this venerable day there follows a most salutary custom of observance, which all the saints have ever found most useful to themselves, and to whose diligent celebration we exhort you with pastoral solicitude; so that if in the days just past any stains have been contracted through heedless negligence, they may both be chastened by the discipline of the fast and amended by the devotion of piety. On the fourth day of the week, therefore, and on the sixth, let us fast;
but on the Sabbath let us keep vigil in that same accustomed devotion. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns one God for ever and ever. Amen.