The Holy Spirit renews us
in baptism through his Godhead, which he shares with the Father and the
Son. Finding us in a state of deformity, the Spirit restores our original
beauty and fills us with his grace, leaving no room for anything unworthy
of our love.
Sharers in
divine glory
The Spirit frees us from sin and
death, and changes us from the earthly humans we were men and women of
dust and ashes, into spiritual humans, sharers in the divine glory, sons
and heirs of God the Father who bear a likeness to the Son and are his
co-heirs and brothers and sisters, destined to reign with him and to share
his glory.
In place of earth the Spirit reopens
heaven to us and gladly admits us into paradise, giving us even now greater
honor than the angels, and by the holy waters of baptism extinguishing
the unquenchable fires of hell.
Conceived twice
We humans are conceived twice –
to the human body we owe our first conception, to the divine Spirit our
second. John says: To all who received him, who believed in his name, he
gave power to become children of God. These were born not by human generation,
not by the desire of the flesh, not by the will of man, but of God.
All who believed in Christ, he says,
received power to become children of God, that is, of the Holy Spirit,
and to gain kinship with God. To show that their parent was God the Holy
Spirit, he adds these words of Christ: I give you this solemn warning,
that without being born of water and the Spirit, no one can enter the kingdom
of God.
Visibly, through the ministry of
priests, the font gives symbolic birth to our visible bodies. Invisibly,
through the ministry of angels, the Spirit of God, whom even the mind’s
eye cannot see, baptizes into himself both our souls and bodies, giving
them a new birth.
Made new by
fire and water
Speaking quite literally, and also
in harmony with the words of water and the Spirit, John the Baptist says
of Christ: He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Since we are only vessels of clay, we must first be cleansed in water and
then hardened by spiritual fire – for God is a consuming fire.
We need the Holy Spirit to perfect
and renew us, for spiritual fire can cleanse us, and spiritual water can
recast us as in a furnace and make us into new men and women.
Next Page >The
Work of the Holy Spirit by Basil the Great
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