And we believe in the Holy Spirit. With these words, the bishops who met at Nicaea ended their Creed. Fifty-six years later, in 381, a Council of bishops meeting in Constantinople clearly thought this was a bit abrupt, and added some more. What did they add?
The Spirit is Lord. The Jews of Jesus' time knew God as 'the Lord' - where God's name appeared in the Old Testament, readers would always replace it with adonai - meaning Lord (to the extent that we know longer know for certain the correct pronunciation of JHWH, the four consonants that comprised 'the Name'). Christians knew Jesus as 'the Lord' - more than just a title, more than 'sir' or 'master', it was an acknowledgement that Jesus was indeed God. The New Testament calls the Spirit 'Lord' as well (2 Cor 3:17-18, for example), and references there to Father, Son and Holy Spirit make it clear that early Christians saw God as Three-in-One.
In the fourth century, however, there were disputes about the precise way to understand this, and it was the Council of Constantinople which affirmed clearly that the Spirit was indeed a member of the Trinity, and not just a vague force. The Spirit, it was said, was God operating in the Church.
The Spirit gives life. We know this from Jesus' words in John 6:63, or Paul's in 2 Cor 3:6, or, perhaps more beautifully, from Rev 22:17. Our Creed draws attention to it, because it emphasizes what God is doing now, because it shows that without the Spirit, we are lifeless corpses. God may have created us, God's Son may have lived, died and been raised 'for our salvation', but this is nothing to us without the help of the God, the life-giving Spirit.
The Spirit proceeds from the Father. This recalls to us that the Son was 'begotten', while the Spirit was 'breathed'. I have written before about the Son's rôle in this 'breathing', which led to the Latin word filioque ('and the Son') being added in the western church. Christians everywhere agree, though, that the Spirit is the bond of unity within the Trinity - binding Father with Son, and Son with Father.
We worship and glorify the Spirit, together with the Father and the Son. Perhaps we worship the Spirit too little. We praise God for Creation, for Redemption, and perhaps we praise God too little for sustaining us in our faith, for breathing on the embers when the dull fire of our love is nearly out.
The Spirit spoke through the prophets. This seems like an afterthought, and perhaps it is. It was meant to stress that the Holy Spirit was not suddenly called into being when Jesus breathed on his disciples: "Receive the Holy Spirit." Nor was the Spirit first active at Pentecost. From the wind over the waters at the moment of Creation, the Spirit has breathed God's active being into hearts and minds everywhere, bringing gifts of wisdom and of faith, and allowing us to see God, not as a distant force, not as someone-to-be-obeyed, but as Abba, Father. Come, Holy Spirit, into our hearts today.
HD