Tractates on the Gospel of John
TRACTATE 6 131 dove was sent and returned. Noe sent both the birds.^ Noe had the raven there; he also had the dove. That ark contained each kind.
(4) If the ark symbolized the Church, you see, of course, that it is necessary for the Church in this flood of the world to contain each kind, both the raven and the dove. Who are the ravens? They who seek the things that are their own.^ Who are the doves? They who seek the things that are Christ's.
3. Therefore when he sent the Holy Spirit, he showed him visibly in two ways, as a dove and as fire; as a dove upon the baptized Lord, as fire upon the assembled disciples. For when the Lord had ascended into heaven after the Resurrection, after he had spent forty days with his disciples, when the day of Pentecost had come, he sent the Holy Spirit to them as he had promised.
(2) And so, the Spirit came at that time and filled that place; and when at first, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, there came a sound from heaven as though a violent wind were blowing, [Scripture] says, "There appeared to them parted tongues as of fire, and it sat upon every one of them; and they began to speak in tongues, as the Holy Spirit gave them to speak." ^ Here we saw a dove upon the Lord; there parted tongues upon the assembled disciples; in the one, simplicity is shown, in the other, fervor. For there are those who are said to be simple and they are indolent; they are called simple, but they are lazy.
(3) Not such a one was Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit.' He was simple, because he harmed no one; he was fervent, because he reproached the impious. For he did not keep silence before the Jews; his are those fiery words: "Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you have always resisted the Holy Spirit."^ Great vehemence! He rages, but [he is] a dove without bile. For, that you may know that he raged without bile, they who were ravens, when they heard these words, immediately ran for stones [to use] against the dove. Stephen be-
4. Cf. Gn 8.6-9. 6. Cf. Acts 2.1-4. 8. Cf. Acts 7.51.
5. Cf. Phil 2.21. 7. Cf. Acts 6.5.