The Spirit in Creation.

For the Cappadocian Fathers, the Trinitarian interpretation of all the acts of God implies the participation of the Spirit in the act of creation. When Genesis mentions, “the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters” (Gn 1:2), patristic tradition interprets the passage in the sense of a primeval maintenance of all things by the Spirit which makes possible the subsequent appearance of a created logical order through the Word of God. No chronological sequence is implied here, of course; and the action of the Spirit is part of the continuous creative action of God in the world: “The principle of all things is one,” writes Basil, “which creates through the Son and perfects in the Spirit.”³

Basil identifies this function of “perfecting” creation as “sanctification” and implies that not only man but nature as a whole is perfectly itself only when it is in communion with God and when it is “filled” with the Spirit. The “secular” is always imperfect; or rather, it exists only as a fallen and defective state of creation. This is particularly true of man whose nature consists precisely in his being “theocentric.” He received this “theocentricity” which the Greek Fathers always understood as a real “participation” in the life of God, when he was created and when God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gn 2:7). This “breath” of God’s life identified with the Holy Spirit on the basis of the Septuagint version is what makes man to be “God’s image.” “A being taken from the earth,” writes Cyril of Alexandria, “could not be seen as an image of the Most High, if he had not received this [breath].”⁴ Thus, the “perfecting” action of the Spirit does not belong to the category of the “miraculous” but forms a part of the original and natural plan of God. It assumes, inspires, and vivifies everything which is still fundamentally good and beautiful, in spite of the Fall, and maintains in creation the first fruits of the eschatological transfiguration. In this sense, the Spirit is the very content of the Kingdom of God. Gregory of Nyssa reports the ancient variant for the text of the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy Kingdom come,” in Luke 11:2, as “May Thy Holy Spirit come upon us and cleanse us.”⁵ And the Byzantine liturgical tradition maintains the same tradition when it starts every single office with an eschatological invocation of the Spirit addressing Him as “Heavenly King.”

The liturgical offices of Pentecost, though centred mainly on the role of the Spirit in redemption and salvation, also glorify the Spirit as “the One who rules all things, who is Lord of all, and who preserves creation from falling apart.”⁶ Popular Byzantine customs associated with Pentecost suggest that the outpouring of the Spirit is indeed an anticipation of cosmic transfiguration; the traditional decoration of churches with greens and flowers on that day reflects the experience of new creation. The same idea dominates the “Great Blessing of Water” celebrated with great solemnity on the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6). Water, the primeval cosmic element, is sanctified “by the power, effectual operation [“energy”] and descent of the Holy Spirit” (Great Litany of the Day). Since the Fall, the cosmic elements are controlled by the “prince of this world,” and the action of the Spirit must have a purifying function: “Thou didst hallow the streams of Jordan,” says the priest, “in that Thou didst send down from heaven Thy Holy Spirit, and didst crush the heads of serpents which lurked there.”

The full significance of this rite of exorcism becomes evident when one recalls that, in Biblical categories, water is a source of life for the entire cosmos over which man is called to rule. Only through the Fall, nature did become subject to Satan. But the Spirit liberates man from dependence upon nature. Instead of being a source of demonic power, nature receives “the grace of redemption, the blessing of Jordan,” and becomes a “fountain of immortality, a gift of sanctification, a remission of sins, a healing of infirmities, and a destruction of demons.”⁷ Instead of dominating man, nature becomes his servant since he is the image of God. The original paradisaic relationship between God, man, and the cosmos is proclaimed again: the descent of the Spirit anticipates the ultimate fulfilment when God becomes “all in all.”

This anticipation however is not a magical operation occurring in the material universe. The universe does not change in its empirical existence. The change is seen only by the eyes of faith — i.e., because man has received in his heart the Spirit which cries, “Abba, Father” (Ga 4:6), he is able to experience, in the mystery of faith, the paradisaic reality of nature serving him and to recognize that this experience is not a subjective fancy but one which reveals the ultimate truth about nature and creation as a whole. By the power of the Spirit, the true and natural relationship is restored between God, man, and creation.

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 530