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Office Of Readings | 10th January | A Reading From The Commentary Of Saint Cyril Of Alexandria On Saint John’s Gospel | The Outpouring Of The Holy Spirit On All Flesh
‘The gift of the Holy Spirit to all mankind.’
Saint Cyril of Alexandria considers how the Holy Spirit is given to humanity through Christ. Saint Cyril’s central point is that the renewal of human nature is inseparable from the gift of the Spirit. Without the Spirit, humanity cannot return to the peace and stability intended by God from the beginning.
Cyril places this gift firmly within the incarnation. The Spirit is poured out at the time of Christ’s coming, not earlier, because it is through the incarnate Son that human nature is restored. Jesus Christ receives the Spirit at his baptism, not because he lacks the Spirit as the eternal Son, but because he receives it as man. In doing so, Jesus receives it on behalf of the whole human race.
This distinction is essential for Cyril. As the Son of God, Christ possesses the Spirit eternally. As the Son of Man, he receives the Spirit within human history. The baptism in the Jordan is therefore not about Christ’s sanctification, but about humanity’s renewal. What happens to Christ as man is meant to extend to all who belong to him.
In this light, Cyril also explains the Father’s words, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you.’ These words do not refer to the eternal generation of the Son, but to the moment when humanity is accepted in Christ. Because Christ carries the fullness of human nature, what is said to him as man can be understood as spoken to humanity restored in him.
The idea of Christ as ‘first-fruits’ is important. Jesus Christ is the beginning of a renewed humanity, the first to receive the Spirit in a restored human nature. Through him, the Spirit is then given to others. This preserves both Christ’s uniqueness and the generosity of salvation: Christ alone is Son by nature, but many become sons by adoption.
Throughout the reading, Cyril insists that the Spirit is given ‘in Christ’ and ‘through Christ’. Salvation is not an abstract gift, but a sharing in what Christ himself has received in his humanity. The gift of the Spirit is therefore both personal and communal, restoring individuals while renewing human nature as a whole.
A Reading From The Commentary Of Saint Cyril Of Alexandria On Saint John’s Gospel | The Outpouring Of The Holy Spirit On All Flesh
In a plan of surpassing beauty, the Creator of the universe decreed the renewal of all things in Christ. In his design for restoring human nature to its original condition, he gave a promise that he would pour out on it the Holy Spirit along with his other gifts, for otherwise our nature could not enter once more into the peaceful and secure possession of those gifts.
He therefore appointed a time for the Holy Spirit to come upon us: this was the time of Christ’s coming. He gave this promise when he said: In those days, that is, the days of the Saviour, I will pour out a share of my Spirit on all mankind.
When the time came for this great act of unforced generosity, which revealed in our midst the only-begotten Son, clothed with flesh on this earth, a man born of woman, in accordance with Holy Scripture, God the Father gave the Spirit once again. Christ, as the first-fruits of our restored nature, was the first to receive the Spirit. John the Baptist bore witness to this when he said: I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven, and it rested on him.
Christ ‘received the Spirit’ in so far as he was man, and in so far as man could receive the Spirit. He did so in such a way that, though he is the Son of God the Father, begotten of his substance, even before the incarnation, indeed before all ages, yet he was not offended at hearing the Father say to him after he had become man: You are my son; today I have begotten you.
The Father says of Christ, who was God, begotten of him before the ages, that he has been ‘begotten today,’ for the Father is to accept us in Christ as his adopted children. The whole of our nature is present in Christ, in so far as he is man. So the Father can be said to give the Spirit again to the Son, though the Son possesses the Spirit as his own, in order that we may receive the Spirit in Christ. The Son therefore took to himself the seed of Abraham, as Scripture says, and became like his brothers in all things.
The only-begotten Son receives the Spirit, but not for his own advantage, for the Spirit is his, and is given in him and through him, as we have already said. He receives it to renew our nature in its entirety and to make it whole again, for in becoming man he took our entire nature to himself. If we reason correctly, and use also the testimony of Scripture, we can see that Christ did not receive the Spirit for himself, but rather for us in him, for it is also through Christ that all gifts come down to us.
Christian Prayer With Jesus Christ
Lord Jesus Christ,
You received the Holy Spirit in your humanity so that we might receive life in you.
Renew us by the same Spirit, heal what is wounded in us, and restore us to the peace you intend for all creation.
May we live as children adopted in you, through whom every good gift is given.
Amen
Glossary Of Christian Terms
The Holy Spirit | The third person of the Trinity, given to renew, sanctify, and restore human life in Christ.
Incarnation | The Son of God taking human nature in Jesus Christ.
First-fruits | Christ as the beginning of a renewed humanity, receiving the Spirit on behalf of all.
Adoption | The gift by which human beings become children of God through Jesus Christ, not by nature but by grace.
Baptism of Christ | The event in which Christ receives the Spirit as man, revealing the gift intended for all humanity.
Renewal | The restoration of human nature to its intended condition through Christ and the Spirit.
Only-begotten Son | Jesus Christ as Son of God by nature, eternally begotten of the Father.
Seed of Abraham | Christ’s true sharing in human descent, linking salvation to the history of God’s promises.
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