What role does the Holy Spirit play in the life of the Church after the ascension of the Lord Christ to heaven?

“Pentecost [the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Church] resolves the tension between Christ elevated to heaven, sitting at the Right Hand of the Father, and His promise, ‘and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age’ (Matt 28:20) … St. Macarius said that when Christ and the Spirit come in us, we experience this in various ways—in joy or in tears—in silence or in rapture. There are numerous forms of the presence of God, but the fruit of the Spirit is always the unifying presence of Christ who lives hypostatically in the Church and in the heart of the believer.”⁸⁴⁶

St. Augustine says that the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Church bestowed the ability to witness to the Lord Christ upon the disciples who had followed Him from the beginning of His ministry. This ability was something they lacked in their conversations with the Lord Christ, for the fullness of the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon them. But when they had received the Holy Spirit, He granted them the faith that works through love, and perfect love casts out fear. Before receiving the Holy Spirit the apostle Peter denied the Lord Christ just before the crucifixion; but after he received the Spirit, he witnessed to His name with joy, even at the cost of pain and persecution. St. Augustine says, “For He, in bearing witness Himself, and inspiring such witnesses with invincible courage, divested Christ’s friends of their fear, and transformed into love the hatred of His enemies.”⁸⁴⁷

He also says, “In the words preceding this chapter of the Gospel, the Lord strengthened His disciples to endure the hatred of their enemies, and prepared them also by His own example to become the more courageous in imitating Him: adding the promise, that the Holy Spirit should come to bear witness of Him, and also that they themselves could become His witnesses, through the effectual working of His Spirit in their hearts. For such is His meaning when He says, ‘He shall bear witness of me, and you also shall bear witness.’ That is to say, because He shall bear witness, you also shall bear witness: He in your hearts, you in your voices; He by inspiration, you by utterance: that the words might be fulfilled, ‘Their sound has gone forth into all the earth’ (see Ps. 19:4). For it would have been to little purpose to have exhorted them by His example, had He not also filled them with His Spirit.”⁸⁴⁸

The disciples, the apostles, and all the faithful were waiting for the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of their Bridegroom, to betroth them as His bride. He did not send them a servant or an angel — the one who came was the Spirit of God Himself. As Abraham’s servant took “ten of his master’s camels and departed, for all his master’s goods were in his hand ” (Gen. 24:10), so also the Holy Spirit demonstrated to humanity the riches of her Bridegroom and His

846 Boris Bobrinskoy, The Mystery of the Trinity: Trinitarian Experience and Vision in the Biblical and Patristic Tradition , trans., Anthony P. Gythiel (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1999): pp. 72–73.

847 St. Augustine of Hippo, Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 92.2 (NPNF I/7:364).

848 St. Augustine of Hippo, Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 93.1 (NPNF I/7:364) amended.

greatness. His work is not exhausted by this demonstration and invitation to the wedding; He offers the bride the token of our Bridegroom : “he brought out jewelry of silver, jewelry of gold, and clothing and gave them to Rebekah” (Gen. 24:53). He urges us to travel on the Bridegroom’s road, saying, ‘Do not hinder me’(Gen. 24:56). And He accompanies us on the journey, never leaving us alone on the road, until we come face to face with the Bridegroom of our souls. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in us:

The day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended, is the day the Church, the Body of Christ, was born. We enter into communion with Christ the Head, for He is our Head and we are members of His body. In the Church, through the Holy Spirit, we enter into communion with the Holy Trinity. We experience the fatherhood of the Father, for He has granted us the Spirit of being His children. We experience Christ as the Head, the Bridegroom, and the firstborn Brother. And we experience the Holy Spirit who dwells within us; who is at the same time both the Spirit of our Father and the Spirit of our Bridegroom, and who proceeds from the Father. His main work in our lives is our continual renewal. With every morning we count ourselves as having been granted the token of heaven as if for the first time. We are granted continuous sanctification that we may bear the image of the Holy One. And we partake of heavenly consolation and uninterrupted joy and experience the life of love and oneness with God, the heavenly hosts, and humanity.

St. Basil the Great says, “This is our renewal: He makes us the image of God anew by the washing of renewal and the Holy Spirit who renews us, so that we become children of God, a new creation once more by the communion of the Spirit, and He saves us from our old state.”⁸⁴⁹

The Holy Spirit grants us talents whose purpose is the fulfilment of the free salvation of humanity, so that we may enjoy it and live in it, and progress along the path of salvation towards this aim, which is to become the icon of Christ. By His work in the soul, its path is cleared and its journey becomes fruitful until the day of its departure, when it will receive its inheritance of eternal glory.

He grants us divine truth, growth in knowledge, and access to divine mysteries.