Holy Trinity, Rublev
As we considered Pentecost and the Feast of the Holy Trinity, we thought a little about the Filioque. In the original, Greek version of the Creed, they said the Holy Spirit, “proceeds from the Father; with the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.” But in the Latin Church we add Filioque, and the Son: “proceed from the Father and from the Son.”
Today we can consider how this Latin-Church insight goes together with the Sacred Heart.
The simple point is this: the Holy Spirit pours out to us from the Heart of Jesus.
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Consider some really simple line-drawings of the Trinity. Sometimes people seem to think the Trinity is kind of like this:
Father
/ \
Son Holy Spirit
Sometimes people seem to think that the Holy Spirit is an alternate way to God. Then we sort of end up with a “conservative” Son-religion and a “liberal” Spirit-religion, in tension with one another. There are those who think you need the Son, and all the dogmatic baggage he brings with him – and those who think you just need the Holy Spirit, who frees us from the Son.
This can cut various ways. For some people, the Son-religion seems to be the religion of judgment and rules, and the Spirit-religion is the religion of no rules. But an interesting reverse side of this is that sometimes the Son-religion seems like the religion of mercy, and the Spirit-religion leaves you to do it yourself.
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Well, neither of these are right. (And I don’t think the Eastern Orthodox who deny Rome’s right to add the Filioque to the Creed would be happy with these alternatives, either.)
First, the Holy Trinity is inseparable. That’s kind of the central point of the Trinity: not three gods but one. You cannot have the Son without the Spirit, or the Spirit without the Son, or the Father without both. Thinking through the details of this is tricky, but basic simple orthodoxy has to realize that Father-Son-Holy Spirit is a package deal.
Second, the Son and the Spirit are inseparable. In fact, we don’t follow the Son-religion or the Spirit-religion, we follow the Christian religion. But in the early Church (especially the Greek-speaking Church: “Christos” is a Greek word) it was clear that the “Christ” is the “anointed one” (in Hebrew, Messiah), and what he is anointed with is the Holy Spirit. This is one of the main points of John Paul II’s encyclical on the Holy Spirit Dominum et Vivificantem. To call him Christ is to see the Holy Spirit as the one who dwells on the Incarnate Son, and the Incarnate Son as the one on whom the Holy Spirit dwells.
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So our picture could instead be something like:
Father -> Son -> Holy Spirit
This still isn’t exactly right, but it’s a lot better. (And again, it’s something the Eastern Orthodox would be perfectly happy with.)
The Holy Spirit is our gift from the Son – poured out from the pierced Heart of Jesus – and what the Holy Spirit does is to draw us into union with the Son. And this is the only path to the Father: we know the Father precisely and only by receiving the Spirit from the Son, and receiving union with the Son through union with the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the outpouring of the heart of Christ. He is the Spirit of Christ. We could even in a sense say the Holy Spirit is the heart of Christ.
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The Incarnation, particularly the Sacred Heart of Jesus, shows us the glory of the Spirit. Without the Sacred Heart, Spirit-religion can be a bit vague. But the glory of the Spirit is precisely that he can make us as deeply human as the Son. The heart of Jesus is the pattern that the Holy Spirit works in us, the image of our own “spiritual” transformation. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just make us vaguely “spiritual”; he makes our hearts like unto Jesus’s.
And the Holy Spirit shows us the glory of the Sacred Heart. Jesus is not just a guy who loves a lot. Without the Holy Spirit, or at least, without a clear sense divinity resting on Jesus, we can fall into the mirror heresies of Arianism and Pelagianism. Arianism means Jesus isn’t really God – orthodox people know that’s not right.
But Pelagianism is the sneaking suspicion that we’re supposed to make ourselves righteous (with its own converse, that Jesus is somehow an excuse that we don’t have to be righteous); I think orthodox people are much more susceptible to this heresy. Thinking of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Heart of Jesus, reminds us that it is only God who makes us holy. It is always a gift of God.
At least for us, the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father, but also from the Son, Filioque. To perfect our understanding of this, we need only to add that so it was in the beginning, and ever shall be.
Do you ever find yourself thinking of Jesus without the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit without Jesus?
