"God does not ration his gift of the Spirit"

Saint Aphraates (c.345), monk and Bishop at Nineveh,

"God does not ration his gift of the Spirit"

If from one fire you light other fires in a great many different places, the first fire is not lessened in the least… It is just the same with God and his Christ: although they are one, yet they dwell within each of the great multitude of men. In the same way the sun is not a bit diminished in heaven because its power is poured out on the earth.

How much greater, then, is God’s power, since it is by the power of God that the sun itself subsists.

When it was a grievous burden to Moses to lead the camp alone, the Lord said to him: “I will take some of the spirit that is on you and will bestow it on the seventy elders of Israel” (cf. Nb 11,17). But when He took away some of Moses’ spirit and the seventy men were filled with it, was Moses deprived in any way? Did anyone notice that he had less spirit?

Moreover the blessed apostle Paul also said: God distributed the Spirit of his Christ and sent it into the [New Testament] prophets (cf. 1Cor 12,11.28). But Christ was not in any way hurt by this, for his Father did not ration his gift of the Spirit.

It is in this sense… that Christ dwells in faithful men. And he suffers no loss though He is divided among so many. For the Prophets received of the Spirit of Christ, each as much as he was able to bear. And today, too, it is the same Spirit of Christ who is poured forth upon all flesh so that sons and daughters, old men and youths, menservants and maidservants might prophesy (Jl 3,1; Acts 2,17).

Something of Christ is in us, yet he is in heaven at the right hand of his Father. And Christ did not receive the Spirit by measure, but his Father loved him and delivered all things into his hands, and gave him authority over all his treasure... And also our Lord said: “All things have been handed over to me by my Father” (Mt 11,27)… And finally the apostle Paul said: “Everything will be subjected to Christ excluding the Father who subjected everything to him. When everything is subjected to him then he himself will be subjected to God his Father who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all” (1Cor 15,27-28).