|
The Holy Orthodox Church confesses
the Holy Spirit as the True God, the Third Person (Hypostasis) of the Holy,
Consubstantial, Life-Giving and Indivisible Trinity. The Church confirmed her
hope and faith in the Holy Spirit as God in the definition of the Second
Ecumenical Council (Constantinople, 381), which was convened to condemn, among other things, the
heresy of Macedonius who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit. This
definition entered into the Creed as the eighth article.
Holy Scripture testifies to the Holy
Spirit while speaking of the very beginning of Creation: The earth was without
form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of
God was moving over the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2). Further in Holy
Scripture the Holy Spirit is mentioned frequently, disclosing His divine
attributes. The Holy Spirit is the True God (Acts 5:3-4). He is glorified
equally with the Father and the Son (Matt. 28:19), He is All-Knowing (John 14:26;
1 Cor. 2:10-11), Everywhere-Present (Rom. 8:9), Eternal (John 14:6), and Omnipotent
(1 Cor.12:7-11). Creative activity is inherent in Him (Gen. 1:2; Ps. 32:6; Job
33:4), He regenerates souls, cleanses men of their sins and sanctifies them
(John 3:5-6; 1 Cor. 6:11), and is the world's Providence (Ps. 104:30). The Creed calls the Holy Spirit the Giver of Life, because
through His activity man becomes a partaker in life eternal in God.
The distinctive property of the
Third Person of the Trinity — the Holy Spirit — is that He proceeds from God
the Father, Who, according to St. Maximus the Confessor, “confers His one
nature upon the Son and upon the Holy Spirit alike, in Whom it remains one and
undivided, not distributed, while being differently conferred; for the
procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father is not identical with the
generation of the Son by the same Father.” The procession of the Holy Spirit
from the Father is eternal and comprises the Spirit's personal property,
belonging to Him alone as the Third Person of the Trinity.
The Orthodox Church has always
preserved and will continue to preserve unaltered the Undivided Church's
teaching on the Holy Spirit's personal property — the eternal procession of the
Spirit from the Father — the definition of the Second Ecumenical Council and
the teaching of the Church Fathers in the spirit and power of Holy Scripture.
She preserves untouched the formulation of the Creed as set out by the first
two Ecumenical Councils. The Fathers of the following Ecumenical Councils
forbade any alterations in the Creed through addition or deduction of any new
words.
As Holy Scripture teaches, the
Father creates everything by the Son in the Holy Spirit. According to St. Cyril
of Alexandria, “it is the Father Who acts, but by the Son in the Spirit; the Son
also acts, but as the power of the Father, inasmuch as He is from Him and in
Him according to His own Person. The Spirit also acts, for He is the
All-Powerful Spirit of the Father and of the Son.”
The Holy Spirit participated with
the Father and the Son in the creation of the world, for by the word of the
Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth
(Ps. 33:6), and of man (Gen. 1:26-27) .The Holy Spirit bore witness of Himself
through the Prophets and the chosen men of God, proclaimed the Lord's Truth and
Will to God's people, and disclosed the coming Messiah in the prototypes: No
prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men, moved by the Holy Spirit,
spoke from God (2 Pet. 1:21).
The action of the Holy Spirit never
ceased in the world, but it was only with the coming of Christ the Savior into
the world that the fullness of God's saving grace was made accessible to men.
And from His fullness have we all received, grace upon grace (John 1:16).
The Holy Spirit was revealed to the
world in a special way on the day of the founding of Christ's Church — Pentecost
— when He descended upon the Holy Apostles in the form of tongues of fire (Acts
2). From that charismatic moment to the present the Holy Spirit abides in the
Church as Christ Himself bears witness: And I will pray the Father, and He will
give you another Comforter, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth
(John 14:16).
Everything in the Church is filled
with the Holy Spirit. The action of His grace abides in every sacrament of the
Church and extends to all forms of divine service. In the Holy Eucharist, the
supreme sanctifying moment in the Church's daily liturgical service, the
prayers and rites are linked, above all, with the invocation of the Holy
Spirit. The Church prays that through Holy Communion we may commune with the
Holy Spirit; that we, having partaken of the Holy Gifts, may bear the living
Christ in our hearts and be temples of the Holy Spirit.
|