By unbounded hope controlled,
Thy seven gifts.”[1130]
Thesis IV: The process of justification reaches its climax in the personal indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the soul of the just.
This thesis embodies what is technically called a propositio certa.
Proof. There are two ways in which God may dwell in the soul, either by virtue of His created grace (inhabitatio per dona accidentalia, ἐνοίκησις κατ᾽ ἐνέργειαν) or by virtue of His uncreated substance (inhabitatio substantialis sive personalis, ἐνοίκησις κατ᾽ οὐσίαν). The personal indwelling of the Holy Ghost, therefore, may consist in a twofold grace: gratia creata and gratia increata, of which the former is the groundwork and necessary condition of the latter, while the latter may be described as the climax and consummation of the former.[1131] The indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the souls of the just is taught by Holy Scripture and attested by the Fathers.
a) Holy Scripture draws a clear-cut distinction between the accidental and the substantial indwelling of the Holy Ghost.
α) Our Lord Himself, in addition to the charismata, promised His Apostles the Holy Ghost in Person. John XIV, 16 sq.: “... the Father ... shall give you another Paraclete, that he [pg 372] may abide with you for ever, ... but you shall know him, because he shall abide with you, and shall be in you.”[1132] This promise was made to all the faithful. Cfr. Rom. V, 5: “... the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us.”[1133] Hence the Holy Ghost abides in the just and sets up His throne in their souls. Cfr. Rom. VIII, 11: “And if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; he that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”[1134] By His indwelling our souls become temples of God. 1 Cor. III, 16 sq.: “Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?... For the temple of God is holy, which you are.”[1135] 1 Cor. VI, 19: “Or know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God; and you are not your own?”[1136]
β) Agreeable to this teaching of Scripture the Fathers, especially those of the East, assert the substantial indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the souls of the just.
The fact that no one but God can dwell substantially and personally in a creature was cited by the Greek Fathers in their controversies with the Pneumatomachians to prove the divinity of the Holy Ghost. St. Athanasius writes to Serapion:[1137] “If we by receiving the Holy Ghost are allowed to participate in the Divine Nature, no one but a fool will assert that the Holy Ghost is not of divine but of human nature. For all those in whom He abides become deified[1138] for no other reason. But if He constitutes them gods, there can be no doubt that His nature is divine.” St. Basil comments as follows on Ps. LXXXI, 6 (Ego dixi, dii estis): “But the Spirit that causes the gods to be gods, must be divine, and from God, ... and God.”[1139] St. Cyril of Alexandria[1140] glowingly describes the soul inhabited by the Holy Ghost as inlaid with gold, transfused by fire, filled with the sweet odor of balsam, and so forth.
The Latin Fathers, with one exception, are less definite on this point. St. Augustine says that the Holy Ghost “is given as a gift of God in such a way that He Himself also gives Himself as being God,”[1141] and that “the grace of God is a gift of God, but the greatest gift is the Holy Spirit Himself, who therefore is called a grace.”[1142] Again: “... the Holy Spirit is the gift of [pg 374] God, the gift being Himself indeed equal to the giver, and therefore the Holy Ghost also is God, not inferior to the Father and the Son.”[1143]