Divine Life and the Holy Spirit.
According to Basil, in every action the Spirit is united with
and indivisible from the Father and the Son. The Spirit "perfects" or
"completes." He is the ineffable third of the Trinity. "He is recognized after
the Son and with the Son, and has His Being from the Father." Scripture teaches
us that the Only-Begotten is the Source and Cause of all good things which are
revealed in us by the activity of the Spirit," for everything comes to be
through Him and everything exists in Him. Therefore, "everything has an
irrepressible desire to return to Him, and strives towards the Source and
Provider of life with boundless love." The Only-Begotten brings everything from
nonbeing into being without another source," but through Him we receive grace
from God, from the Father.
The mystery of the Trinity is reflected in the movement of
Divine actions from the Father through the Son in the Spirit to creation. We
know and contemplate the Father in the Spirit through the Son. The Spirit
proceeds and is sent from the Father, the single eternal source, through the
Son. The Spirit contains the glory of the Only-Begotten within Himself, and
within Himself He communicates the knowledge of God the Father to those who
truly worship. Therefore, the "path to the knowledge of God is from the one
Spirit, through the Only-Begotten Son, to the one Father. Conversely, natural
grace and sanctification and the worthiness of the kingdom extend from the
Father through the Only-Begotten to the Spirit.
Basil developed and defended his doctrine of the Holy Spirit in
polemic against Eunomius and the Pneumatomachi. According to the evidence that
Gregory the Theologian has left about this controversy, Basil "turned aside from
the direct path" and avoided openly confessing the Spirit of God. He testified
to Divinity of the Spirit descriptively, by means of quotations from Scripture.
Many people condemned him for this, but his silence was only a temporary device
which enabled him to maintain his pastorate. It was Basil who first developed an
integral doctrine of the Spirit. In doing this he followed Athanasius, who set
forth the Divinity of the Spirit in his Letters to Serapion.
Athanasius bases his dogma on soteriological premises. His
doctrine of the Son is developed from the image of Christ as the God-man and as
the manifestation of the Word, and his doctrine of the Spirit is founded on the
Spirit's manifestation in His sanctifying activity. Only the Father's
consubstantial Word can give life and save creation and unite it with God. The
reality of the salvation which God has sent to us enables us to reach the
conclusion that the Savior and Comforter are Divine. Because Basil reasons in
this way, his treatise on the Holy Spirit is primarily concerned with
sanctification.
Basil had to prove and defend the Divinity of the Spirit. At
this time the opinion of theologians was divided on this question, and Gregory
the Theologian has described this era by saying that "some have conceived of the
Spirit as an activity, some as a creature, some as God, and some cannot decide
on anything. Even many of those who consider Him God are orthodox in mind only,
while others have decided to honor Him with their lips as well." In order to
resolve these contradictions and arguments Basil relied on Scripture and
tradition, especially the tradition of prayer.
Basil's teaching is based on the baptismal invocation. The Lord
Himself taught us about baptism and "united the Spirit with the Father as a
necessary dogma for our salvation." In the baptismal invocation the Spirit is
named with the Father and the Son. "He is not added to these two, but He is
perceived within the Trinity." Although the Spirit is named in the third place
and "is Third by order and dignity," He is not third by nature. "The Holy Spirit
is one and He is proclaimed separately," says Basil. "He is not one out of many,
but simply one. In the same way that the Father is one and the Son is one, the
Spirit is also one. Therefore He is as far from created nature as any integral
whole is not similar to that which is composed from many things. He is united
with the Father and the Son because all things that are one are related." The
Spirit is holy by nature, and this is the cause of His natural unity with the
Father and the Son. "He is called holy just as the Father is holy and the Son is
holy, and the Spirit's nature is filled with sanctity." Thus the "natural
Sanctifier can be recognized and contemplated in the Three Hypostases." The same
must be said about the other properties of the Divinity. "The Spirit's names are
common to the Father and the Son, and He has these names because of His natural
unity with Them." To diminish the dignity of the Spirit is to destroy the
Trinity and to negate the truth of the Trinitarian dogma.
The first day of Christian life, the day of salvation and
resurrection through baptism, is sanctified by the invocation and confession of
the Spirit with the Father and the Son. In baptism we die so that we may have
new life, and "the pledge of life is given by the Spirit." In the Holy Spirit we
are united with God, and "God lives in us through the Spirit." Basil asks, "How
can that which makes others into gods not be Divine itself?" Furthermore, "there
is no gift which descends to creation without the Spirit."
The Spirit is the "source and principle of sanctification," and
creation "partakes of salvation" in Him. He is a source which never runs dry, is
never divided, and is "never exhausted by those who come to it." His essence is
simple but his powers are many. He is entirely present everywhere and in each of
us. He is never divided, and when we join Him we do not cease to be whole. His
action is like the rays of the sun. It seems to everyone who enjoys the sun's
warmth that he is the only one receiving it, but the sun's radiance lights up
the whole earth and sea and dissolves together with the sky. In the same way the
Spirit seems to be unique to everyone in whom He abides, but all of His grace
pours down on everyone. Everyone enjoys this grace to the greatest degree he is
capable of, and not to the greatest degree which is possible for the Spirit.
This indivisible wholeness is proof that the Spirit is divine.
Basil says that "the Spirit is the Sovereign of sanctification." He is an
"intellectual being, endless in His strength and boundless in His greatness. He
cannot be measured by time or by all the ages." The Holy Spirit is sought by
"everything which needs sanctification. Everything which lives virtuously
desires Him, is wished by His inspiration, and is enabled to achieve its proper
and natural end. He perfects others and Himself needs nothing. He lives without
renewal and is the giver of life. He does not grow by addition but has always
been whole. He is complete in Himself and He is everywhere."
"The Spirit has existed before the ages together with the
Father and the Son. You will find that anything which may stand beyond the
boundary of the ages came into existence only after the Spirit. At creation the
heavenly powers were established by the Spirit. The Spirit gives to these powers
communion with God, ability to resist sin, and eternal blessedness." They are
holy because they participate in the Spirit. "If we in our speculations remove
the Spirit, we upset the assembly of angels, destroy the authority of the
archangels, throw everything into confusion and make their life disordered,
indefinite, and outside of any law." The wisdom and the harmony of the host of
angels is from the Spirit, and "it can only be preserved through the direction
of the Spirit." The Spirit works in a similar way among visible creatures. It
seems that Basil, possibly under the influence of Origen, limits the action of
the Spirit to the sphere of intellectual creatures." In any event this is all he
has written about.
The activity of the Spirit is evident in the Old Testament in
the blessing of the patriarchs, the law, the miracles, the prophecies, and the
heroic deeds. The Spirit is even more active in the New Testament. "The coming
of Christ was preceded by the Spirit. Christ appeared in the flesh and the
Spirit was also there. His powers of healing were from the Holy Spirit. Demons
were driven out by the Spirit of God, and the Devil was rendered helpless in the
presence of the Spirit. Sins were forgiven by the grace of the Spirit. The
Spirit was present at Christ's temptation, and He was present when Christ
performed miracles. The Spirit did not leave Christ even after He rose from the
dead."
Even the Church's administration is achieved through the Spirit
because its "order" has been "established by the distribution of the gifts of
the Spirit." The Spirit is especially active in spiritual life. "Although the
Spirit fills everything with His strength, He is communicated only to those who
are worthy. The Spirit is assimilated by the soul only when passions are cast
out, since passions attain mastery over the soul because of its attachment to
the body and separate it from God. He who has cleansed himself from the
shamefulness that evil has produced in him returns to his natural beauty, and by
his purity he restores the original aspect of the regal image. Only such a man
can approach the Comforter. And He, like the sun when it meets a clear eye, will
show you the Image of the Invisible One in Himself. In the blissful
contemplation of the Image, one will see the ineffable beauty of its Archetype.
Through the Spirit our hearts are uplifted, the weak are guided, and we are made
perfect. When a ray of light falls on shining and transparent bodies, those
bodies also become radiant and return a new light from themselves. In this same
way souls which are illuminated by the Spirit become spiritual and pour their
grace on others. From the Spirit we receive foreknowledge of the future,
understanding of the mysteries, apprehension of what is hidden, distribution of
gifts, life in heaven, a place in the chorus of angels, unending joy, eternal
life in God, similarity to God, and the highest of all our desires: we are
deified." Basil's ascetic ideal is charismatic. The Spirit purifies and gives
knowledge. He is the "intellectual light which gives to every reasoning creature
who desires it the power to see." By the grace of the Spirit the mind becomes
capable of perceiving the Divinity. We know God with the help of the Spirit, and
"our knowledge of God is possible only in the light of the Spirit."
Finally, the grace of the Spirit will be revealed at the last
resurrection, when "that which has been destroyed will be given new life." Even
now the Spirit resurrects and renews, "restoring our souls for spiritual life."
The "crown of the righteous" is the grace of the Spirit and the "cutting off" of
the impious (Luke 12:46) is their final estrangement from the Spirit. Thus the
activity of the life-giving Spirit is manifest in everything, from the beginning
to the end, from eternity and creation to the last judgment. Life is God, and
the Spirit, as the source of life, must also be God. Outside the Spirit there is
darkness, death, and hell. Basil's doctrine of the Spirit is based on the
experience of spiritual life, on the mystery of baptism, and on the mystical
concepts of similarity to God and deification. It represents his personal
religious ideal. Gregory has recorded his answer to the ruler who demanded that
he obey the orders of the Arian Valens: "I cannot bow to a creature since I have
been created by God and have commanded to become a god."
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