Vigils Reading – St Bede the Venerable

AND YOU TOO WILL BEAR WITNESS

A homily from St Bede the Venerable5 ◊◊◊

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 Fathers’ 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 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 ofknowledge, 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’