Gregory the Great, on 1John 1:8

“Finally, it must be asked why in our Redeemer Himself, the Mediator between God and men, the Spirit appeared through a dove, but in the disciples through fire? Certainly the only-begotten Son of God is the judge of the human race. But who could endure His justice if, before gathering us through gentleness, He had wished to examine our faults through zeal for righteousness? Therefore, made man for men, He showed Himself gentle to men. He did not wish to strike sinners, but to gather them. First He wished to correct gently, so that He might have those whom He would afterward save in judgment. Therefore the Spirit ought to have appeared over Him in a dove, since He was not coming to strike sins now through zeal, but still to tolerate them through gentleness. But on the contrary, the Holy Spirit ought to have been shown over the disciples in fire, so that those who were simply men, and therefore sinners, He might kindle as spiritual servants against themselves, and the sins which God would spare through gentleness, they themselves might punish in themselves through repentance. For neither could they themselves be without sin who were clinging to the heavenly teaching, as John attests, who says: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Therefore He came in fire upon men, but appeared in a dove upon the Lord, because the sins which the Lord piously tolerates through gentleness, we ought to carefully observe through zeal for righteousness, and always burn away with the fire of repentance.”

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