Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/433



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 427

and more inculcated upon the Christian people, We now turn to the exposition of the power of the Holy Ghost. And, first of all, we must look to Christ, the Founder of the Church and Redeemer of our race. Among the ex- ternal operations of God, the highest of all is the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, in which the splendor of the divine perfections shines forth so brightly that nothing more sublime can even be imagined, nothing else could have been more salutary to the human race. Now this work, although belonging to the whole Trinity, is still appropriated especially to the Holy Ghost, so that the gospels thus speak of the Blessed Virgin: She was found with child of the Holy Ghost,^ and that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost} And this is rightly attributed to Him who is the Love of the Father and the Son, since this great mystery of piety ^ proceeds from the infinite love of God towards man, as St. John tells us: God so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son.^ Moreover, human nature was thereby elevated to a personal union with the Word; and this dignity is given, not on account of any merits, but entirely and absolutely through grace, and therefore, as it were, through the special gift of the Holy Ghost. On this point St. Augustine wTites: "The manner in which Christ was born of the Holy Ghost indi- cates to us the grace of God, by which humanity, with no antecedent merits, at the first moment of its existence, was united with the Word of God by so intimate a per- sonal union that He who was the Son of man was also the Son of God, and He who was the Son of God was also the Son of man." * By the operation of the Holy Spirit, not only was the conception of Christ accomplished, but also the sanctification of His soul, which, in Holy Scrip- ture is called His anointing.^ Wherefore all His actions were performed in the Holy Ghost, ^ and especially the sac-


 * Matt. i. 18, 20. * Enchir.,c. xl.; St. Th. 3a., q. xxxii., a. 1.

' 1 Tim. iii. 16. ' Acts x. 38.

' John iii. 16. * St. Basil de Sp. S., c. xvi.