According to the
apostle, Lord, your Holy Spirit fully understands and penetrates
your inmost depths; he also intercedes on my behalf, saying
to you things for which I cannot find the words.
Nothing
can penetrate your being but what is divine already; nor
can the depths of your immense majesty be measured by any
power which itself is alien or extrinsic to you.
So, whatever
enters into you is yours already, nor can anything which
has the power to search your very depths ever have been other
than your own.
Your Holy Spirit proceeds through your Son from you; though I may fail to grasp
the full meaning of that statement, I give it nonetheless the firm assent of
my mind and heart.
I may indeed show dullness and stupidity in my understanding of these spiritual
matters; it is as your only Son has said: “Do not be surprised if I have said
to you: You must be born again. Just as the wind blows where it pleases and you
hear the sound of it without knowing where it is coming from or going to, so
will it be with everyone who is born again of water and the Holy Spirit.”
By
my regeneration I have received the faith, but I am still ignorant; and yet I
have a firm hold on something which I do not understand. I am born again, capable
of rebirth but without conscious perception of it.
The Spirit abides by no rules;
he speaks when he pleases, what he pleases, and where he pleases. We are conscious
of his presence when he comes, but the reasons for his approach or his departure
remain hidden from us.
John tells us that all things came into being through the Son who is God the
Word abiding with you, Father, from the beginning.
Paul in his turn enumerates
the things created in the Son, both visible and invisible, in heaven and on earth.
And
while he is specific about all that was created in and through Christ, of the
Holy Spirit he considers it enough simply to say that he is your Spirit.
Therefore I concur with those chosen men in thinking that just as it is not expedient
for me to venture beyond my mental limitation and predicate anything of your
only begotten Son save that, as those witnesses have assured us, he was born
of you, so it is not fitting for me to go beyond the power of human thought and
the teaching of those same witnesses by declaring anything regarding the Holy
Spirit other than that he is your Spirit.
Rather than waste time in a fruitless
war of words, I would prefer to spend it in the firm profession of an unhesitating
faith.
I beg you therefore, Father, to preserve in me that pure and reverent faith and
to grant that to my last breath I may testify to my conviction.
May I always
hold fast to what I publicly professed in the creed when I was baptized in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
May I worship you,
the Father of us all, and your Son together with you and may I be counted worthy
to receive your Holy Spirit who through your only Son proceeds from you.
For
me there is sufficient evidence for this faith in the words: “Father, all
that I have is yours, and all that is yours is mine,” spoken by Jesus Christ
my Lord who remains, in and from and with you, the God who is blessed for endless
ages. Amen.
(The
Trinity XII, 55-56: PL 10, 468-472)
Hilary (315-367)
was elected bishop of Poitiers in 353. Because of his struggles
with the Arians and his treatise on the Trinity, for which
he was exiled, he has been called “the Athanasius of the West.” He
also wrote a commentary on Saint Matthew’s gospel and another
on a selection of the psalms. His style is difficult and
obscure and he makes much use of allegory.
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