Theosis, Part 5 / The Economy of the Holy Spirit.
A new reality has entered the world! This new reality is the Church, the very body of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 1:23, we find a definition of the Church put forth by St. Paul, “And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” Revealed here in St. Paul’s definition of the Church is a two-fold economy. First, the economy of the Son is seen in the establishment of the Church as His Body, and secondly, the economy of the Holy Spirit is seen as the fullness of him who fills all in all.
According to the theology of the Orthodox Church the work of both the Son and the Holy Spirit is requisite to salvation. Our transfiguration, our theosis, the attainment of union with God, is the work of the Triune Godhead. St. Paul defines the Church as his body, in so far as she has Christ as her head, and she is the fullness in so far as the Holy Spirit quickens her and fills her with divinity–the Godhead dwells within her bodily as it dwells in the deified humanity of Christ.
Just as the Son ‘comes down’ to earth and accomplishes His work through the Holy Spirit, so the Person of the Holy Spirit comes into the world, being sent by the Son (Jn. 15:26). In our previous blog on the economy of the Son of God, we saw that the incarnation makes the creature fit to receive the Holy Spirit, by the deification of human nature. In our present blog we will see that Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit to the Church, is the sequal or result of the Son’s economy. The Church, redeemed by the Son, is now filled by the Holy Spirit, as He descends into the creation and fills her with His presence. In a certain sense, Christ was a preparation for the Holy Spirit–Pentecost was the object, the final goal of the divine economy on earth.
The Holy Spirit was sent into the world (to the Church), in the name of the Son, therefore it is needful to bear the name of the Son (a member of His body) in order to receive the Holy Spirit. Christ recapitulated humanity in Himself, and so became the principle, the hypostasis of a renewed human nature. In ‘putting on Christ ,’ through baptism, we have access to the unity of the ‘new man.’ In Christ, nature is one and undivided. Recreated in the Holy Spirit, we become His members and are included in His hypostasis. The Church is one nature, and we become one by becoming part of His nature.
(At this point it will be helpful to keep in mind the blog I wrote on Christian anthropology. More specifically, the distinction between nature and persons. Humanity is a nature, a nature that was unity in the beginning, now fragmented by sin. And it is our destiny for that nature to be made one once more, in Christ. But remember, that humanity, though still a unity, is also a diversity. Many persons, in fact billions of people, in all their diversity, each one unique, make up this unity. Humanity is a unity according to nature, and a diversity according to persons.)
In the Church we now are one renewed nature in Christ, but we are still multiple in persons. Human nature finds itself reunited in the hypostasis of Jesus Christ, but the work of the Holy Spirit concerns persons. The Holy Spirit communicates to human hypostases the fullness of deity after a manner which is unique, and ‘personal,’ partaking of Him according to the capacity of their nature. The Holy Spirit grants to each person created in the image of God the possibility of fulfilling the likeness of God in the common nature. As Christ lends His nature to us, so also the Holy Spirit gives His divinity to us personally. Therefore, the work of Christ unifies, while the work of the Holy Spirit diversifies. Neither the unity, nor the diversity of humanity is possible without the other. The Son creates the unity of His mystical Body through the Holy Spirit, while the Holy Spirit communicates Himself to persons through the Son.
This two-fold economy, the work of unity and of diversity, is further seen in a two-fold communication of the Holy Spirit when Christ establishes His Church. First, in the Gospel of St. John, chapter 20, Christ gives the Holy Spirit to the whole Church when He breathes upon the Apostles in the upper room. Here is a function of unity, giving priestly power to the college of the Apostles, in not so much a personal as a functional way, in relation to Christ, by whom the Holy Spirit is given. This is the bond of unity in the Church. Here the Holy Spirit is bestowed on all in common as the bond of unity and sacerdotal power, but still remains unknown to persons, and is not related to personal holiness.
When Christ ‘breathes,’ He creates the Church, the reconstitution of our nature in Christ. He does not create anew out of the same matter as in the beginning. He calls not upon dust, but rather, he uses His own flesh. He restores life not by forming anew a vital principle which He formerly maintained in the natural order. Now, by shedding His blood in the hearts of communicants, He may cause life to spring up in Him. The Church, as it is His body, relates to our nature.
The second communication of the Holy Spirit is a personal coming. The Holy Spirit appears as a Person of the Holy Trinity, independent of Christ as to His hypostatic origin. At Pentecost, the divided tongues of fire rested upon each one. This communication must not be considered corporately, as it is far from being a function of unity. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit communicated Himself to persons, giving Himself to us as a function of diversity. In this great mystery of kenosis, He remains hidden, unrevealed, so to speak, by the gift in order that this gift which He imparts may be fully ours, adopted to our persons.
This presence of the Holy Spirit, given to the Church at Pentecost, signifies both the end and final goal, and at the same time, marks the commencement of the spiritual life. In baptism, the Holy Spirit recreates our nature, purifying it and uniting it to the body of the Son. In chrismation, the Holy Spirit bestows deity, the common energy of divine grace, upon the baptized person. This baptismal grace is the foundation of all the Christian life, the Kingdom of God which the Holy Spirit prepares within us. He makes our being the throne of the Holy Trinity.
St. Symeon the New Theologian said, “We receive the naked fire of the Godhead, the fire of which our Lord said: I am come to cast fire upon the earth (Luke 12:49). What is this fire if not the Holy Spirit, consubstantial with the Son by His deity, the Holy Spirit with whom the Father and the Son enter into us and can be contemplated.”
The Holy Trinity dwells within us, confers the glory of divinity, the eternal light, of which we must partake. This grace cannot remain hidden within us. All believers who have received the Holy Spirit have also experienced Him, being conscious of His presence. At first we see it in order that afterwards we attain to it with pains and manifold labors.
Now we have the divine life which is opened up within us in the Holy Spirit. He mysteriously identifies Himself with human persons while still remaining incommunicable. He substitutes Himself, so to speak, for ourselves, for it is He who cries in our hearts. He effaces Himself, as Person, before the created person to whom He appropriates grace. In Him the will of God is no longer external to ourselves: it confers grace inwardly, manifesting itself within our very person, in so far as our human will remains in accord with divine will.
