Vigils Reading – St Bede the Venerable

YOU TOO WILL BEAR WITNESS

A homily from St Bede the Venerable7

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We find from many places in the holy gospel that before the coming of the

Holy Spirit, the disciples were less capable of understanding the hidden

mysteries of the divine sublimity and were less brave in tolerating the

adversities brought on by human depravity. When the Spirit came upon them

with an increase of divine insight, there was given them the constancy [needed]

to overcome human persecution as well. Hence it is said to them now, in the

Lord’s promise, ‘When the Paraclete comes, whom I shall send you from the

Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness

about me; and you too will bear witness’…

The Spirit, upon his coming, bore witness concerning the Lord. Breathing

into the hearts of the disciples, he revealed to them by his bright light everything

about which mortals were to have knowledge concerning [the Lord], namely,

that he was equal and of the same substance with the Father before the ages;

that he became of the same substance as we at the end of the ages; that he was

born of a virgin and lived in the world without sin; that he went forth from the

world when he wished and by the kind of death that he wished; that by rising

from the dead he truly destroyed death and raised up the true flesh in which he

had suffered, and at his ascension took it up into heaven, and established it at

the right hand of his Father’s glory; that all the writings of the prophets bear

witness to him; that the confession of his name was to be extended even to the

end of the earth, and that the rest of the mysteries of his faith were unlocked for

his disciples by the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Nor was whatever they

7 Bede the Venerable. Homilies on the Gospels: Book Two – Lent to the Dedication of

the Church. Trans. Lawrence T. Martin and David Hurst, OSB. Kalamazoo, MI:

Cistercian Publications, 1991. 149-151.15

correctly discerned conceded to them alone by the gift of the Spirit, but also to

all who believe in the Lord through their word.

‘He’, Jesus says, ‘will bear witness concerning me, and you will bear

witness’. Once they had put aside their initial fear, they ministered outwardly

by telling others what they had received inwardly by the Spirit’s teaching. The

Spirit himself both illumined their hearts by knowledge of the truth, and by the

preeminence of his power roused them to teach what they knew. Hence in

Isaiah the Spirit is rightly called ‘of strength and knowledge’. He is indeed the

Spirit of knowledge, since it is by his help that we rightly acknowledge what we

must do and even think; he is also the Spirit of strength, since it is by his help

that we receive [the strength] to carry out what we know well that we should do,

lest we be driven away by some adversity from the good deeds we have begun…

He who warned them ahead of time that the hour of persecution would

come is the one who, a little later, pledged his help to his faithful in the

persecution, saying, ‘You will have distress in the world; but have confidence;

I have overcome the world’. He elsewhere promised the crown of life to those

who are sincerely engaged in strife, saying, ‘Blessed are those who suffer

persecution for the sake of justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’.