The Spirit and the Bride by Vonier Dom Anscar

Author:Vonier, Dom Anscar [Vonier, Dom Anscar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Assumption Press
Published: 2013-04-04T00:00:00+00:00

XIII

The Beauty of

the Pentecostal Spirit

St. Peter, in his first Epistle, describes in the following terms the Christian’s relationship with Christ, “whom having not seen, you love: in whom also now, though you see him not, you believe and, believing, shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorified” (1 Pet 1:8). Of the Spirit he says in the same passage. “The Holy Ghost being sent down from heaven, on whom the angels desire to look” (1 Pet 1:12). The Christ is hidden in the heavens but the Spirit is sent from heaven, and the Spirit, thus sent, is not a Spirit in a state of humiliation but the Spirit in His full glory: He is the Spirit “on whom the angels desire to look.”

The coming of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost never leaves the mind of Peter; his descriptions of that sweet Spirit in this Epistle, written so many years after the event, is as beautiful as it is unexpected: the angels desire to look on that Spirit. He is therefore One who is full of beauty, He is One who fulfills the cravings of man, but who, bringing satisfaction to man’s desires, kindles them with a further craving.

The mighty angelic choirs are also animated by the Holy Ghost; He is the bond of union between choir and choir, between hierarchy and hierarchy, in the kingdom of glory: those mighty intelligences find in the Spirit their common center. What is the role of the Holy Ghost amongst the angels of God in heaven? The words of St. Peter certainly convey the idea that in some wonderful manner He is their particular glory. We must always remember that the existence of those holy beings is conditioned by their finiteness; none of them is infinite; therefore they are in need of the supernatural order, they are in need of the Holy Ghost, as man here on earth is in need of Him. The thought should give us endless joy, that the Spirit who fills with His breathings this immense angelic world, is also our Spirit.

The greatness and exaltation of our Christian life could hardly be stated in terms more astonishing than the words of Peter: “The Holy Ghost being sent down from heaven, on whom the angels desire to look.” Is this not a revelation on the part of Peter of what he knew and felt on the great day of Pentecost? Hardly anything is said, as we know, of the interior experience of those holy men on that occasion. How was each one of them affected in the depth of his soul in that moment? Holy writ just says that they were filled with the Holy Ghost, but how long did they remain in a state of passivity under that mighty inrush? No doubt it influenced each one of them in some peculiar and personal way. With wonder we ask the question, what were then the sensations of the ever-blessed Mother of God? It was her second great communion with the Spirit: the first time the Holy Ghost had come down upon her when she conceived in the womb the Son of God.

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