Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/428

 THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Encyclical Letter Divinum Illud, May 4, 1897.

That divine office which Jesus Christ received from His Father for the welfare of mankind, and most per- fectly fulfilled, had for its final object to put men in pos- session of the eternal life of glory, and proximately dur- ing the course of ages to secure to them the life of divine grace, which is destined e\'entually to blossom into the life of heaven. Wherefore Our Saviour never ceases to in- vite, with infinite affection, all men, of every race and tongue, into the bosom of His Church: Come ye all to Me, I am the Life, I am the Good Shepherd. Nevertheless, according to His inscrutable counsels, He did not will to entirely complete and finish this office Himself on earth, but as He had received it from the Father, so He trans- mitted it for its completion to the Holy Ghost. It is consohng to recall those assurances which Christ gave to the body of His disciples a little before He left the earth: It is expedient to you that I go: for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you: hut if I go, I will send Him to you} In these words He gave as the chief reason of His departure and His return to the Father the advantage which would most certainly accrue to His followers from the coming of the Holy Ghost, and at the same time He made it clear that the Holy Ghost is equally sent by â€” and therefore proceeds from â€” HimseK and the Father; that He would complete, in His office of Intercessor, Consoler, and Teacher, the work which Christ Himself had begun in His mortal

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 * John xvi. 7.