Office Of Readings | Pentecost | A Reading From The Treatise Of Saint Irenaeus Against The Heresies | The Sending Of The Holy Spirit

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Office Of Readings | Pentecost | A Reading From The Treatise Of Saint Irenaeus Against The Heresies | The Sending Of The Holy Spirit

‘The sending of the Holy Spirit.’

Sending Of The Holy Spirit At Pentecost

This passage from Saint Irenaeus’ Against the Heresies provides a foundational second-century witness to the Church’s understanding of Pentecost, the role of the Holy Spirit, and the renewal of humanity through divine grace. Writing in a time when the Church faced doctrinal challenges—particularly from Gnostic sects that denied the goodness of creation—Irenaeus offers a vision of salvation that is incarnational, communal, and cosmic in scope.

Historical And Patristic Context

Saint Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons and a disciple of Saint Polycarp (himself a disciple of Saint John), lived during a period of persecution and theological uncertainty. His chief opponent was Gnosticism, a set of beliefs that claimed a secret knowledge for salvation and rejected the material world as evil. Against these views, Irenaeus affirmed the goodness of creation, the full humanity of Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit in redeeming both soul and body.

This Pentecost reflection fits squarely into his broader theological aim: to show that salvation is holistic and open to all. Where Gnosticism was exclusive and esoteric, Irenaeus proclaims a Gospel that is universal, embodied, and historical. The descent of the Holy Spirit, then, is not a private mystical event but a public, ecclesial, and redemptive act that restores creation and unites scattered humanity.

Scriptural Deepening

Irenaeus’ reflection is saturated with scriptural allusions. When he speaks of the Spirit descending and giving life to ‘men who had grown old in sin’, he evokes the dry bones of Ezekiel 37, which live again by the breath of God. His comparison of dry flour becoming one loaf through moisture recalls 1 Corinthians 10:17, where Paul speaks of many being one body through one bread. The descent of the Spirit at Pentecost also echoes Genesis 11:1–9—the Tower of Babel—where human pride fractured linguistic unity. Pentecost reverses this by enabling diverse nations to understand the one message of salvation.

Furthermore, Irenaeus likens the Spirit to dew from heaven, a poetic image drawn from Hosea 14:5 and Isaiah 45:8. This divine moisture enlivens parched ground, symbolising humanity’s spiritual sterility without grace. These biblical metaphors enrich our understanding of the Spirit not merely as power but as life-giving presence, echoing Genesis 1:2 where the Spirit hovers over the waters of creation.

Sacramental Theology

Irenaeus’ metaphor of flour becoming dough speaks directly to early Christian sacramental theology. Without the ‘moisture’ of the Spirit, the Church remains a collection of individuals; with the Spirit, she becomes one body in Christ. This links directly to the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist, which, for Irenaeus, are not mere symbols but real means of union with God. Baptism brings liberation from ‘change and decay’, while the Spirit makes us one in soul.

In his Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, Irenaeus ties the descent of the Spirit to the Church’s visible unity, suggesting that sacramental life is inseparable from the Spirit’s indwelling. Thus, Pentecost inaugurates not only missionary activity but also a new sacramental economy.

Image And Likeness Of God

A particularly rich theological symbol appears in the final paragraph: the ‘two coins bearing the royal image’. This alludes to Genesis 1:27 (‘in the image of God he created them’) and Matthew 22:21 (‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s’). Through the Spirit, believers receive anew the image and inscription of the Father and the Son.

This reflects Irenaeus’ central idea that salvation is the restoration of humanity’s original dignity. Against the Gnostic view that salvation is escape from the body, Irenaeus teaches that the Spirit re-inscribes divine likeness into every part of our being—body and soul, intellect and will.

Comparative Theology | Jesus Christ Today

Irenaeus’ vision resonates with later Eastern Christian theology, especially the concept of theosis—deification. Like the Cappadocian Fathers and St Gregory Palamas, Irenaeus sees the Spirit not just as sanctifier but as the one who divinises. Pentecost, then, is not only the birth of the Church but the beginning of humanity’s glorification.

In today’s context, Irenaeus’ insights bear deep relevance. The image of ‘scorched and unfruitful’ humanity without the dew of the Spirit echoes our ecological crisis and spiritual desolation. The global Church, with its linguistic and cultural plurality, can draw on this text to reflect anew on Pentecost’s call to unity-in-diversity. Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ and apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium both reflect a Pentecostal vision: creation healed, mission renewed, and the poor empowered.

In an age marked by polarisation, synodal discernment, and missionary urgency, Irenaeus reminds us that it is only by the Spirit that we can bear fruit, live in unity, and reflect the divine image entrusted to us.

Reflection | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ

Pentecost, for Irenaeus, is not just a past event but a continuing gift. The Spirit who descended like fire and dew continues to enliven the Church, sanctify her sacraments, and shape believers into the likeness of Christ. We are no longer dry flour or parched ground. We are one loaf, one body, one temple filled with divine presence.

Let us, then, offer ourselves as first-fruits of the new creation: reconciled, renewed, and ready to make the coin of the Kingdom yield a rich harvest.

A Reading From The Treatise Of Saint Irenaeus Against The Heresies | The Sending Of The Holy Spirit

When the Lord told his disciples to go and teach all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, he conferred on them the power of giving men new life in God.

He had promised through the prophets that in these last days he would pour out his Spirit on his servants and handmaids, and that they would prophesy. So when the Son of God became the Son of Man, the Spirit also descended upon him, becoming accustomed in this way to dwelling with the human race, to living in men and to inhabiting God’s creation. The Spirit accomplished the Father’s will in men who had grown old in sin, and gave them new life in Christ.

Luke says that the Spirit came down on the disciples at Pentecost, after the Lord’s ascension, with power to open the gates of life to all nations and to make known to them the new covenant. So it was that men of every language joined in singing one song of praise to God, and scattered tribes, restored to unity by the Spirit, were offered to the Father as the first-fruits of all the nations.

This was why the Lord had promised to send the Advocate: he was to prepare us as an offering to God. Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from heaven. And like parched ground, which yields no harvest unless it receives moisture, we who were once like a waterless tree could never have lived and borne fruit without this abundant rainfall from above. Through the baptism that liberates us from change and decay we have become one in body; through the Spirit we have become one in soul.

The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of God came down upon the Lord, and the Lord in turn gave this Spirit to his Church, sending the Advocate from heaven into all the world into which, according to his own words, the devil too had been cast down like lightning.

If we are not to be scorched and made unfruitful, we need the dew of God. Since we have our accuser, we need an advocate as well. And so the Lord in his pity for man, who had fallen into the hands of brigands, having himself bound up his wounds and left for his care two coins bearing the royal image, entrusted him to the Holy Spirit. Now, through the Spirit, the image and inscription of the Father and the Son have been given to us, and it is our duty to use the coin committed to our charge and make it yield a rich profit for the Lord.

Prayer With Jesus Christ

Come, Holy Spirit, Advocate and Dew from Heaven,
enliven our dry hearts, restore our faded image,
and inscribe upon us the likeness of the Son.
As you descended upon Christ and his Church,
so descend anew upon us, that we may bear fruit,
live in unity, and make a rich return for the gifts you entrust.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Glossary Of Christian Terms

• Pentecost: The Christian feast marking the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, fifty days after Easter.
• Gnosticism: An early heresy claiming salvation through secret knowledge and often denying the goodness of the material world.
• Theosis: The Eastern Christian doctrine of divinisation—becoming partakers of the divine nature.
• Image of God (Imago Dei): The theological belief that humans are created to reflect God’s nature and likeness.
• Sacramental Theology: The study of the sacraments as real means of grace and union with God.
• Ecclesiology: The theological study of the nature and structure of the Church.
• Synodality: A contemporary term for the Church’s process of communal discernment and decision-making.
• Advocate: A title for the Holy Spirit, derived from the Greek Parakletos, meaning counsellor or helper.