but rather for us in him.
In a plan of surpassing beauty, the Creator of the universe decreed the
renewal of all things in Christ. In his design for restoring human nature to
its original condition, he gave the promise that he would pour out on it the Holy
Spirit, along with his gifts, for otherwise our nature could not enter
once more into the peaceful and secure possession of those gifts.
He therefore appointed a time for the Holy Spirit to come upon us, namely, the time of Christ’s coming. He gave this promise when he said: In those
days, that is, the days of the Savior, I will pour out a share of my Spirit on
all mankind.
When the time came for this great act of unrestrained generosity—which revealed in our midst the only-begotten Son, clothed with flesh on this earth, a man born of woman, in accordance with Holy Scripture—God the Father gave the Spirit once again. Christ, as the first-fruits of our restored nature, was the first to receive the Spirit. John the Baptist bore witness to this when he said: I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven, and it rested on him.
Christ received the Spirit insofar as he was man, and insofar as
man could receive the Spirit. He did so in such a way that, though he is the
Son of God the Father, begotten of his substance even before the incarnation,
indeed before all ages, yet he was not offended at hearing the Father say to
him after he had become man: You are my son; today I have begotten you.
The Father says of Christ, who was God begotten of him before the ages,
that he has been "begotten today" because the Father is to accept us in Christ as
his adopted children. The whole of our nature is present in Christ, insofar
as he is man. Thus can the Father be said to give the Spirit again to the Son even though the Son possesses the Spirit as his own, in order namely that we may receive
the Spirit in Christ. Therefore did the Son take to himself the seed of Abraham, as
Scripture says, and became like his brothers in all things.
The only-begotten Son does receive the Spirit, however not for his own advantage, for the Spirit is his and is given in him and through him, as we have already said. He receives it to renew our nature in its entirety and to make it whole again, for in becoming man he took our entire nature to himself. If we reason correctly and also use the testimony of Scripture, we can see that Christ received the Spirit not for himself, but rather for us in him, for it is through him that all gifts come down to us.
Thursday after Epiphany Sunday