“I will ask the Father and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you always: the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot accept, since it neither sees him nor recognizes him: but you can recognize him because he remains in you and will be within you….he will instruct you in everything, and remind you of all that I told you” 9John 14:16f., 26). These words were not only spoken to the Apostles; they were verified in them on Pentecost, and are now renewed for us in Baptism and Confirmation.
Saint John writes: “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.” (1John 4:16) The just one posses God in his heart; but still more God possesses him and holds him, preserving not only his natural existence, but the life of grace and charity in him. Saint Paul speaks of the love of God which is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5)
We have received not only the virtue of Charity, but the Holy Spirit himself who has been given to us.
Saint Paul speaks of him especially, because charity likens us more to the Holy Spirit, who is personal love. On several different occasions Saint Paul refers to this consoling doctrine: “Are you not aware that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1Cor.3:16) “You must know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is within, the Spirit you have received from God. You are not your own. You have been purchased, and at a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1Cor.6:19f). Scripture thus teaches explicitly that the three divine persons dwell in every just soul in the state of grace. Sanctifying grace is intended to be permanent, and the presence of the Trinity is permanent in just souls, in souls alive with the life of grace.
The Testimony of Tradition
At the beginning of the second century, Saint Ignatius of Antioch declares in his letters that true Christians bear God in themselves; he calls them “God bearers.” This doctrine was widespread in the primitive Church. Among the Greek Fathers, Saint Athanasius says that the three divine persons are in us. Saint Basil declares that the Holy Spirit, by his Presence, makes us more and more spiritual and like to the image of the only Son. Saint Cyril of Alexandria speaks of the intimate union between the just soul and the Holy Spirit. Among the Latin Fathers, Saint Ambrose teaches that we receive the Holy Spirit in Baptism and even more in Confirmation. Saint Augustine shows that, according to the testimony of the early Fathers, not only grace was given us, but God himself, the Holy Spirit and his seven gifts.
In the Creed of Saint Epiphanius, which adults were obliged to recite before receiving Baptism, we read: The Holy Spirit who….spoke in the Apostles and dwells in the saints.” The Council of Trent declares also: “The efficient cause of our justification is the merciful God, who washes and sanctifies gratuitously, signing and anointing with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance.” (Ephesians 1:13)
