Grace And The Spirit

Haec est, delictissimi, praesentis diei gratia. Convicti sumus de repina, et quod solvere non posuimus, solvit pro nobis Christus. Facti sumus liberi, sed nondum amici; evasimus de praeterito, sed securi non fuimus de futuro, et quis iterum adversus justitiam ejus stare poterit, si charitas ejus nihil remittit, quis eum celare poterit, si charitas non operit? Hoc totum quod tam prolixe tractamus, considerans popheta David, paucis absolvit: Ante faciem, inquit, frigoris ejus, id est ante rigorem inflexibilis justitiae ejus cuncta, observantis ac imputantis, quis sustinebit? Emittes, inquit, verbum suum, id est Christum, et liquefaciet, id est solvet ea. Chrsitus enim omnia solvit, qui opera diaboli solvere venit: Flabit, inquit, spiritus ejus, sicut hodie, cum factus est de coelo sonus, tanquam adventientis spiritus, id est venti, vehementis: et quae solutae erant aquae per Verbum, fluent sine impedimento in vitam aeternam. Datur itaque per Spiritum sanctum gratia post justitiam; et servus qui dimissus est liber per Filium, efficitur hodie amicus per Spiritum. Hodie post justitiam de injuria acceptam, osculatur Dominus servura, imo amicus amicum osculo oris sui. Si enim Filius os Patris recte intelligitur, recte Spiritus osculum oris dicitur. Osculum ergo signaculum est in posterum dilectionis et charitatis. Charitatis enim diffusa est in cordibus nostris per Spiritum sanctum, qui datus est nobis. Charitas omnia operit, nihil imputat, omnia portat, omnia excusat, omnia condonat. Septies in die cadit per seipsum justificatus per Christum; septies in die erigitur per Spiritum. Isaac, Cisterciensis Abbas, Sermo XLV In Die Pentecotes III Source: Migne PL 194. 1843

This is the grace of the present day, beloved. Convicted of theft and unable to release ourselves, Christ gives us release. We have been made free, then, but we are not yet friends. We have avoided the prison but we are not secure regarding the future, for who again will be able to stand against his justice if his charity he does not resend? Who will be able to hide us, if charity does not cover us? All this we have said with excessive words, which matter the prophet David considering with few resolved it, saying, 'Before the face of His cold,' 1 That is, the comprehensive rigor of His inflexible justice, whose observation and imputation, who can endure? Then he continues, 'You shall send forth your word,' that is, Christ, 'and He shall melt it,' that is, He shall provide release. Christ indeed gives release in all things, He who came to undo all the works of the devil. Then he says: 'He shall breathe out His Spirit,' as today, when came the sound from heaven, the loud coming of the Spirit, as a wind, and those things dissolved into water by the Word will flow without impediment into eternal life. Grace thus is given through the Holy Spirit after justice, and the released slave freed through the Son is today made a friend through the Spirit. Today after justice for a wound received, the Lord shall be kissed by those saved, for a friend is made a friend with the kiss of the mouth. Indeed if the Son is rightly understood as the mouth of the Father, rightly is the Spirit said to be the kiss of the mouth. The kiss is a sign that follows delight and love, and love is spread in our heart by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Love covers all things, imputes nothing, bears all, excuses all, suffers everything. Seven times a day he falls on account of himself who is justified by Christ, seven times a day he is lifted up by the Spirit. Isaac of Stella, from Sermon 45, For Pentecost III 1 Ps 147.17-18