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| On the Theophany, or Birthday of Christ.
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Oration XXXVIII.
On the Theophany, or Birthday of
Christ.
The Title of this
Oration has given rise to a doubt whether it was preached on Dec. 25,
380, or on Jan. 6, 381. The word Theophania is well known as a
name for the Epiphany; which, however, according to
Schaff,3842
| 3842 H. E., Nic. Per., p.
399. | was originally a
celebration both of the Nativity and the Baptism of our Lord. The
two words seem both to have been used in the simplest sense of the
Manifestation of God, and certainly were applied to Christmas
Day. Thus Suidas, “The Epiphany is the Incarnation of the
Saviour;” and Epiphanius (Hær., 53), “The Day of the
Epiphany is the day on which Christ was born according to the
flesh.” But S. Jerome applies the word to the Baptism of
Christ; “The day of the Epiphany is still venerable; not, as some
think, on account of His Birth in the flesh; for then He was hidden,
not manifested; but it agrees with the time at which it was said, This
is My beloved Son (In Ezech. I.). There is also a Sermon,
attributed to S. Chrysostom, “On the Baptism of Christ,” in
which it is expressly denied that the name Theophany applies to
Christmas. The Oration itself, however, contains evidence to shew
that the Festival of our Lord’s Birth was kept at the earlier
date; for in c. 16 the Preacher says, “A little later you shall
see Jesus submitting to be purified in the river Jordan for my
purification.” And another piece of evidence occurs in the
oration In Sancta Lumina, c. 14, “At His Birth we duly kept
festival, both I the leader of the feast, and you. Now we are come to another
action of Christ and another Mystery.”
The Oration is thus analysed by Abbe Benoît:
“After an exordium which is full of the enthusiasm
and joy which such a subject naturally inspires the Orator recommends
his hearers to celebrate the Festival by a pious gladness, and by
hearing the Word of God; and not as the heathen celebrated their
feasts, by profane amusements and all kinds of excess. He will
try to satisfy their desires by speaking to them of God. God is
infinite, ineffable, eternal, the Sovereign Good. He created the
Angels in the beginning out of goodness. The fall of the Angels
was followed by the creation of the material world. Man too fell,
and God shewed His mercy even in the punishment. He used various
means to raise him again; and at length He came Himself. Then the
speaker forcibly argues against those who misuse the infinite
condescension of the Word to contest His Godhead; he rapidly traces the
principal features of His Life—at once human and Divine; and ends
with a recommendation to his hearers to imitate in all things the Life
of Christ, so that they may have a share in His Kingdom in
Heaven.”
It is considered one of the best of Gregory’s
discourses. “By the grandeur of the plan,” says
Benoît, “the elevation of the ideas, and the rich fund of
doctrine, this discourse is incontestably one of S. Gregory’s
most remarkable efforts.”
I. Christ is born,
glorify ye Him. Christ from heaven, go ye out to meet Him.
Christ on earth; be ye exalted. Sing unto the Lord all the whole
earth;3843
and that I may join
both in one word, Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad,
for Him Who is of heaven and then of earth. Christ in the flesh,
rejoice with trembling and with joy; with trembling because of your
sins, with joy because of your hope. Christ of a Virgin; O ye
Matrons live as Virgins, that ye may be Mothers of Christ. Who
doth not worship Him That is from the beginning? Who doth not
glorify Him That is the Last?
II. Again the darkness is past; again Light
is made; again Egypt is punished with darkness; again Israel is
enlightened by a pillar.3844
The people
that sat in the darkness of ignorance, let it see the Great Light of
full knowledge.3845
Old things
are passed away, behold all things are become new.3846
The letter gives way, the Spirit comes
to the front. The shadows flee away, the Truth comes in upon
them. Melchisedec is concluded.3847
| 3847 The meaning clearly is
that the type presented by Melchisedec (Heb. vii. 3) is fulfilled in Christ. The
explanation here given by S. Gregory is the ordinary one found in the
Fathers. Thus, e.g., Theodoret says, “Christ our Lord is
without Mother as God, for He was begotten of the Father alone; and
without Father as Man, for He was born of a pure Virgin.”
Œcumenius has almost the exact words of Gregory. So also S.
Augustine (Tract in Joann, 8), “Christ was singularly born of a
Father without a Mother, of a Mother without a Father; without Mother
as God, without Father as Man.” | He that was without Mother becomes
without Father (without Mother of His former state, without Father of
His second). The laws of nature are upset; the world above must
be filled. Christ commands it, let us not set ourselves against
Him. O clap your hands together all ye people,3848
because unto us a Child is born, and a Son
given unto us, Whose Government is upon His shoulder (for with the
Cross it is raised up), and His Name is called The Angel of the Great
Counsel of the Father.3849
Let John cry,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord:3850
I too
will cry the power of this Day. He Who is not carnal is
Incarnate; the Son of God becomes the Son of Man, Jesus Christ the Same
yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.3851
Let the
Jews be offended, let the Greeks deride;3852
let heretics talk till their tongues ache. Then shall they
believe, when they see Him ascending up into heaven; and if not then,
yet when they see Him coming out of heaven and sitting as
Judge.
III. Of these on a future occasion; for the
present the Festival is the Theophany or Birth-day, for it is called
both, two titles being given to the one thing. For God was
manifested to man by birth. On the one hand Being, and eternally
Being, of the Eternal Being, above cause and word, for there was no
word before The Word; and on the other hand for our sakes also
Becoming, that He Who gives us our being might also give us our
Well-being, or rather might restore us by His Incarnation, when we had
by wickedness fallen from wellbeing. The name Theophany is given
to it in reference to the Manifestation, and that of Birthday in
respect of His Birth.
IV. This is our present Festival; it is this
which we are celebrating to-day, the Coming of God to Man, that we
might go forth,3853
or
rather (for this is the more
proper expression) that we might go back to God—that putting off
the old man, we might put on the New; and that as we died in Adam, so
we might live in Christ,3854
being born with
Christ and crucified with Him and buried with Him and rising with
Him.3855
For I must undergo the beautiful
conversion, and as the painful succeeded the more blissful, so must the
more blissful come out of the painful. For where sin abounded
Grace did much more abound;3856
and if a taste
condemned us, how much more doth the Passion of Christ justify
us? Therefore let us keep the Feast, not after the manner of a
heathen festival, but after a godly sort; not after the way of the
world, but in a fashion above the world; not as our own but as
belonging to Him Who is ours, or rather as our Master’s; not as
of weakness, but as of healing; not as of creation, but of
re-creation.
V. And how shall this be? Let us not
adorn our porches, nor arrange dances, nor decorate the streets; let us
not feast the eye, nor enchant the ear with music, nor enervate the
nostrils with perfume, nor prostitute the taste, nor indulge the touch,
those roads that are so prone to evil and entrances for sin; let us not
be effeminate in clothing soft and flowing, whose beauty consists in
its uselessness, nor with the glittering of gems or the sheen of
gold3857
or the tricks of colour, belying the beauty
of nature, and invented to do despite unto the image of God; Not in
rioting and drunkenness, with which are mingled, I know well,
chambering and wantonness, since the lessons which evil teachers give
are evil; or rather the harvests of worthless seeds are
worthless. Let us not set up high beds of leaves, making
tabernacles for the belly of what belongs to debauchery. Let us
not appraise the bouquet of wines, the kickshaws of cooks, the great
expense of unguents. Let not sea and land bring us as a gift
their precious dung, for it is thus that I have learnt to estimate
luxury; and let us not strive to outdo each other in intemperance (for
to my mind every superfluity is intemperance, and all which is beyond
absolute need),—and this while others are hungry and in want, who
are made of the same clay and in the same manner.
VI. Let us leave all these to the Greeks and
to the pomps and festivals of the Greeks, who call by the name of gods
beings who rejoice in the reek of sacrifices, and who consistently
worship with their belly; evil inventors and worshippers of evil
demons. But we, the Object of whose adoration is the Word, if we
must in some way have luxury, let us seek it in word, and in the Divine
Law, and in histories; especially such as are the origin of this Feast;
that our luxury may be akin to and not far removed from Him Who hath
called us together. Or do you desire (for to-day I am your
entertainer) that I should set before you, my good Guests, the story of
these things as abundantly and as nobly as I can, that ye may know how
a foreigner can feed3858
| 3858 Alluding to his own
recent arrival at Constantinople, after a life spent in the distant
country of Cappadocia, and in ministering in small and insignificant
places like Nazianzus. | the natives of the
land, and a rustic the people of the town, and one who cares not for
luxury those who delight in it, and one who is poor and homeless those
who are eminent for wealth?
We will begin from this point; and let me ask of you who
delight in such matters to cleanse your mind and your ears and your
thoughts, since our discourse is to be of God and Divine; that when you
depart, you may have had the enjoyment of delights that really fade not
away. And this same discourse shall be at once both very full and
very concise, that you may neither be displeased at its deficiencies,
nor find it unpleasant through satiety.
VII. God always was,3859
| 3859 The whole of this
passage occurs again verbatim in the second Oration for Easter Day, cc.
iii.–ix. |
and always is, and always will be. Or rather, God always
Is. For Was and Will be are fragments of our time, and of
changeable nature, but He is Eternal Being. And this is the Name
that He gives to Himself when giving the Oracle to Moses in the
Mount. For in Himself He sums up and contains all Being, having
neither beginning in the past nor end in the future; like some great
Sea of Being, limitless and unbounded, transcending all conception of
time and nature, only adumbrated by the mind, and that very dimly and
scantily…not by His Essentials, but by His Environment; one image
being got from one source and another from another, and combined into
some sort of presentation of the truth, which escapes us before we have
caught it, and takes to flight before we have conceived it, blazing
forth upon our Master-part, even when that is cleansed, as the
lightning flash which will not stay its course, does upon our
sight…in order as I conceive by that part of it which we can
comprehend to draw us to itself (for that which is altogether
incomprehensible is
outside the bounds of hope, and not within the compass of endeavour),
and by that part of It which we cannot comprehend to move our wonder,
and as an object of wonder to become more an object of desire, and
being desired to purify, and by purifying to make us like God;3860
so that when we have thus become like
Himself, God may, to use a bold expression, hold converse with us as
Gods, being united to us, and that perhaps to the same extent as He
already knows those who are known to Him. The Divine Nature then
is boundless and hard to understand; and all that we can comprehend of
Him is His boundlessness; even though one may conceive that because He
is of a simple nature He is therefore either wholly incomprehensible,
or perfectly comprehensible. For let us further enquire what is
implied by “is of a simple nature.” For it is quite
certain that this simplicity is not itself its nature, just as
composition is not by itself the essence of compound beings.
VIII. And when Infinity is considered from two
points of view, beginning and end (for that which is beyond these and
not limited by them is Infinity), when the mind looks to the depth
above, not having where to stand, and leans upon phenomena to form an
idea of God, it calls the Infinite and Unapproachable which it finds
there by the name of Unoriginate. And when it looks into the
depths below, and at the future, it calls Him Undying and
Imperishable. And when it draws a conclusion from the whole it
calls Him Eternal (αἴωνιος). For
Eternity (αἵων) is neither time nor part
of time; for it cannot be measured. But what time, measured by
the course of the sun, is to us, that Eternity is to the Everlasting,
namely, a sort of time-like movement and interval co-extensive with
their existence. This, however, is all I must now say about God;
for the present is not a suitable time, as my present subject is not
the doctrine of God, but that of the Incarnation. But when I say
God, I mean Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. For Godhead is neither
diffused beyond these, so as to bring in a mob of gods; nor yet is it
bounded by a smaller compass than these, so as to condemn us for a
poverty-stricken conception of Deity; either Judaizing to save the
Monarchia, or falling into heathenism by the multitude of our
gods. For the evil on either side is the same, though found in
contrary directions. This then is the Holy of Holies,3861
| 3861 The Holy of Holies
here means the Holy Trinity. | which is hidden even from the Seraphim, and
is glorified with a thrice repeated Holy,3862
| 3862 The reference is to
the Ter Sanctus or Triumphal Hymn, which is found in every
Liturgy. The previous writer referred to is thought by some to be
S. Athanasius, but by others S. Dionysius the Areopagite, who has some
words on this point in his treatise De Cœlest. Hier., c. 7.
But the most competent scholars deny the authenticity of the works
attributed to S. Dionysius, and place them from one hundred to one
hundred and fifty years later than S. Gregory’s time. |
meeting in one ascription of the Title Lord and God, as one of our
predecessors has most beautifully and loftily pointed out.
IX. But since this movement of
self-contemplation alone could not satisfy Goodness, but Good must be
poured out and go forth beyond Itself to multiply the objects of Its
beneficence, for this was essential to the highest Goodness, He first
conceived the Heavenly and Angelic Powers. And this conception
was a work fulfilled by His Word, and perfected by His Spirit.
And so the secondary Splendours came into being, as the Ministers of
the Primary Splendour; whether we are to conceive of them as
intelligent Spirits, or as Fire of an immaterial and incorruptible
kind, or as some other nature approaching this as near as may be.
I should like to say that they were incapable of movement in the
direction of evil, and susceptible only of the movement of good, as
being about God, and illumined with the first rays from God—for
earthly beings have but the second illumination; but I am obliged to
stop short of saying that, and to conceive and speak of them only as
difficult to move because of him,3863
| 3863 S. Thomas Aquinas
(Summa I., qu. 63, art. 7) gives reasons for thinking that Satan was
originally the highest of all the angelic hosts. This, however,
is an opinion in which many high authorities differ from him. At
any rate, Satan as Lucifer must have held a very high place. | who for his
splendour was called Lucifer, but became and is called Darkness through
his pride; and the apostate hosts who are subject to him, creators of
evil3864
| 3864 Evil, says Nicetas
here, has no positive existence, but is the negation of good.
“The faculties of mind and body which are used in a sinful action
are indeed things, and are the creatures of God; but the sin itself is
not a thing, and consequently not a creature. God is indeed the
Author of all that is, of every substance; but sin is not a substance,
and is not. It is a declination from substance and from being,
and not a part of it.” (Mozley, Treatise on the Augustinian
doctrine of predestination.) | by their revolt against good and our
inciters.
X. Thus, then, and for these reasons, He gave
being to the world of thought, as far as I can reason upon these
matters, and estimate great things in my own poor language. Then
when His first creation was in good order, He conceives a second world,
material and visible; and this a system and compound of earth and sky,
and all that is in the midst of them—an admirable creation
indeed, when we look at the fair form of every part, but yet more
worthy of admiration when we consider the harmony and the unison of the
whole, and how each part fits in
with every other, in fair order, and all with the whole, tending to the
perfect completion of the world as a Unit. This was to shew that
He could call into being, not only a Nature akin to Himself, but also
one altogether alien to Himself. For akin to Deity are those
natures which are intellectual, and only to be comprehended by mind;
but all of which sense can take cognisance are utterly alien to It; and
of these the furthest removed are all those which are entirely
destitute of soul and of power of motion. But perhaps some one of
those who are too festive and impetuous may say, What has all this to
do with us? Spur your horse to the goal. Talk to us about
the Festival, and the reasons for our being here to-day. Yes,
this is what I am about to do, although I have begun at a somewhat
previous point, being compelled to do so by love, and by the needs of
my argument.
XI. Mind, then, and sense, thus
distinguished from each other, had remained within their own
boundaries, and bore in themselves the magnificence of the
Creator-Word, silent praisers3865
and thrilling
heralds of His mighty work. Not yet was there any mingling of
both, nor any mixtures of these opposites, tokens of a greater Wisdom
and Generosity in the creation of natures; nor as yet were the whole
riches of Goodness made known. Now the Creator-Word, determining
to exhibit this, and to produce a single living being out of
both—the visible and the invisible creations, I
mean—fashions Man; and taking a body from already existing
matter, and placing in it a Breath taken from Himself3866
which the Word knew to be an intelligent
soul and the Image of God, as a sort of second world. He placed
him, great in littleness3867
on the earth; a new
Angel, a mingled worshipper, fully initiated into the visible creation,
but only partially into the intellectual; King of all upon earth, but
subject to the King above; earthly and heavenly; temporal and yet
immortal; visible and yet intellectual; half-way between greatness and
lowliness; in one person combining spirit and flesh; spirit, because of
the favour bestowed on him; flesh, because of the height to which he
had been raised; the one that he might continue to live and praise his
Benefactor, the other that he might suffer, and by suffering be put in
remembrance, and corrected if he became proud of his greatness. A
living creature trained here, and then moved elsewhere; and, to
complete the mystery, deified by its inclination to God. For to
this, I think, tends that Light of Truth which we here possess but in
measure, that we should both see and experience the Splendour of God,
which is worthy of Him Who made us, and will remake us again after a
loftier fashion.
XII. This being He placed in Paradise,
whatever the Paradise may have been, having honoured him with the gift
of Free Will (in order that God might belong to him as the result of
his choice, no less than to Him who had implanted the seeds of it), to
till the immortal plants, by which is meant perhaps the Divine
Conceptions, both the simpler and the more perfect; naked in his
simplicity and inartificial life, and without any covering or screen;
for it was fitting that he who was from the beginning should be
such. Also He gave him a Law, as a material for his Free Will to
act upon. This Law was a Commandment as to what plants he might
partake of, and which one he might not touch. This latter was the
Tree of Knowledge; not, however, because it was evil from the beginning
when planted; nor was it forbidden because God grudged it to
us…Let not the enemies of God wag their tongues in that
direction, or imitate the Serpent…But it would have been good if
partaken of at the proper time, for the tree was, according to my
theory, Contemplation, upon which it is only safe for those who have
reached maturity of habit to enter; but which is not good for those who
are still somewhat simple and greedy in their habit; just as solid food
is not good for those who are yet tender, and have need of
milk.3868
But when through the Devil’s
malice and the woman’s caprice, to which she succumbed as the
more tender, and which she brought to bear upon the man, as she was the
more apt to persuade, alas for my weakness! (for that of my first
father was mine), he forgot the Commandment which had been given to
him;3869
he yielded to the baleful fruit; and for his
sin he was banished, at once from the Tree of Life, and from Paradise,
and from God; and put on the coats of skins…that is, perhaps, the
coarser flesh, both mortal and contradictory. This was the first
thing that he learnt—his own shame;3870
and he hid himself from God. Yet here too he makes a gain, namely
death, and the cutting off of sin, in order that evil may not be
immortal. Thus his punishment is changed into a mercy; for it is
in mercy, I am persuaded, that God inflicts punishment.
XIII. And having been first chastened by
many means (because his sins
were many, whose root of evil sprang up through divers causes and at
sundry times), by word, by law, by prophets, by benefits, by threats,
by plagues, by waters, by fires, by wars, by victories, by defeats, by
signs in heaven and signs in the air and in the earth and in the sea,
by unexpected changes of men, of cities, of nations (the object of
which was the destruction of wickedness), at last he needed a stronger
remedy, for his diseases were growing worse; mutual slaughters,
adulteries, perjuries, unnatural crimes, and that first and last of all
evils, idolatry and the transfer of worship from the Creator to the
Creatures. As these required a greater aid, so also they obtained
a greater. And that was that the Word of God Himself—Who is
before all worlds, the Invisible, the Incomprehensible, the Bodiless,
Beginning of Beginning,3871
| 3871 Cf. Light of
Light begotten. Christ our Lord is called “The Beginning of
the Creation of God, because by Him all things were made; and He is of
the Beginning, inasmuch as God the Father is the Unoriginate Principle
of all, and the Origin and Fount of Godhead. The Scholiast here
refers to Ps. cx. 3, which in the Vulgate and LXX. runs “With Thee is the Beginning in the day of
Thy Power.” | the Light of Light,
the Source of Life and Immortality, the Image of the Archetypal Beauty,
the immovable Seal, the unchangeable Image, the Father’s
Definition3872
| 3872 Cf. Theol.: IV.
xx., where S. Gregory says “Perhaps this Relation might be
compared to that between the Definition and the thing
defined.” Nicetas remarks that, just as the definition
declares the nature of the defined, so the Personal Word shows forth
the Nature of the Father. Suidas (in voce ὃρος) says that the phrase is used to show
the Unity of Nature between the Father and the Son. It is not,
however, of frequent occurrence. | and Word, came to
His own Image, and took on Him flesh for the sake of our flesh, and
mingled Himself with an intelligent soul for my soul’s sake,
purifying like by like; and in all points except sin was made
man. Conceived by the Virgin,3873
who first in
body and soul was purified by the Holy Ghost3874
| 3874 S. Gregory does not
seem to have been aware of the doctrine of the “Immaculate
Conception.” |
(for it was needful both that Childbearing should be honoured, and that
Virginity should receive a higher honour), He came forth then as God
with that which He had assumed, One Person in two Natures, Flesh and
Spirit, of which the latter deified the former.3875
| 3875 See note on In
Sancta Lumina, c. xiv. | O new commingling; O strange
conjunction; the Self-Existent comes into being, the Uncreate is
created, That which cannot be contained is contained, by the
intervention of an intellectual soul, mediating between the Deity and
the corporeity of the flesh. And He Who gives riches becomes
poor, for He assumes the poverty of my flesh, that I may assume the
richness of His Godhead. He that is full empties Himself, for He
empties Himself of His glory for a short while, that I may have a share
in His Fulness. What is the riches of His Goodness? What is
this mystery that is around me? I had a share in the image; I did
not keep it; He partakes of my flesh that He may both save the image
and make the flesh immortal. He communicates a second Communion
far more marvellous than the first, inasmuch as then He imparted the
better Nature, whereas now Himself partakes of the worse. This is
more godlike than the former action, this is loftier in the eyes of all
men of understanding.
XIV. To this what have those cavillers to
say, those bitter reasoners about Godhead, those detractors of all that
is praiseworthy, those darkeners of light, uncultured in respect of
wisdom, for whom Christ died in vain, those unthankful creatures, the
work of the Evil One? Do you turn this benefit into a reproach to
God? Wilt thou deem Him little on this account, that He humbled
Himself for thee; because the Good Shepherd,3876
He
who lays down His life for His sheep, came to seek for that which had
strayed upon the mountains and the hills, on which thou wast then
sacrificing, and found the wanderer; and having found it,3877
took it upon His shoulders—on which He
also took the Wood of the Cross; and having taken it, brought it back
to the higher life; and having carried it back, numbered it amongst
those who had never strayed. Because He lighted a
candle—His own Flesh—and swept the house, cleansing the
world from sin; and sought the piece of money, the Royal Image that was
covered up by passions. And He calls together His Angel friends
on the finding of the coin, and makes them sharers in His joy,3878
whom He had made to share also the secret of
the Incarnation? Because on the candle of the Forerunner there
follows the light that exceeds in brightness; and to the Voice the Word
succeeds; and to the Bridegroom’s friend the Bridegroom; to him
that prepared for the Lord a peculiar people, cleansing them by water
in preparation for the Spirit? Dost thou reproach God with all
this? Dost thou on this account deem Him lessened, because He
girds Himself with a towel and washes His disciples’ feet, and
shows that humiliation is the best road to exaltation? Because
for the soul that was bent to the ground He humbles Himself, that He
may raise up with Himself the soul that was tottering to a fall under a
weight of sin? Why dost thou not also charge upon Him as a
crime the fact that He eats
with Publicans and at Publicans’ tables,3879
and that He makes disciples of Publicans, that He too may gain
somewhat…and what?…the salvation of sinners. If so,
we must blame the physician for stooping over sufferings, and enduring
evil odours that he may give health to the sick; or one who as the Law
commands bent down into a ditch to save a beast that had fallen into
it.3880
| 3880 S. Gregory is
referring to the provision of the Law, which orders a man, if he see
his friend’s or his enemy’s ox or ass fallen under a burden
or going astray, to lend assistance; but the terms of his reference are
rather to the reasoning of our Lord with the Pharisees about the
Sabbath. Luke xiii. 15 and xiv. 5. |
XV. He was sent, but as man, for He was of a
twofold Nature; for He was wearied, and hungered, and was thirsty, and
was in an agony, and shed tears, according to the nature of a corporeal
being. And if the expression be also used of Him as God, the
meaning is that the Father’s good pleasure is to be considered a
Mission, for to this He refers all that concerns Himself; both that He
may honour the Eternal Principle, and because He will not be taken to
be an antagonistic God. And whereas it is written both that He
was betrayed, and also that He gave Himself up3881
| 3881 Cf. ἐν
τῇ νυκτὶ ἐν ᾗ
παρεδίδοτο,
μᾶλλον δε
ἑαυτὸν
παρεδίδου.
Canon of Liturgy of S. Mark (Swainson p. 517). Ea nocte qua
tradidit seipsum. Lit. Copt. S. Basil (Ib.). Cum statuisset
se tradere. Coptic S. Basil (Hammond, p. 209) Rot. Vatic. and
Cod. Ross. of S. Mark, has only τ.
ν. ᾗ ἑαυτ,
παρεδ. (Swainson, 50); so too S.
Basil (Ib., 81) in Cod. B. M., 22749 and Barberini of S. Chrys. (Ib.,
91); but the whole expression is in Chrys. (cent. xi., ib., 129) and
Greek S. James (78. 272–3), but Syriac S. James has “in qua
nocte tradendus erat.” (Canon Univ., Æthiop. Hammond,
258). Pridie quam patereturis the form in the Canon
of the Roman, Ambrosian, and Sarum Missals; but the Mozarabic, which is
largely of an Eastern character, has in qua nocte
tradebatur. (Hammond, 333). |
and that He was raised up by the Father, and taken up into heaven; and
on the other hand, that He raised Himself and went up; the
former statement of each pair refers to the good pleasure of the
Father, the latter to His own Power. Are you then to be allowed
to dwell upon all that humiliates Him, while passing over all that
exalts Him, and to count on your side the fact that He suffered, but to
leave out of the account the fact that it was of His own will?
See what even now the Word has to suffer. By one set He is
honoured as God, but is confused with the Father,3882
| 3882 The Sabellian
heresy may be briefly described as the doctrine of One God exercising
three offices, as opposed to the Catholic Faith of One God in three
Persons. Sabellius himself was a Priest of the Libyan Pentapolis,
who at Rome in the time of Pope Zephyrinus embraced the heresy of
Notus, which maintained that God the Father suffered for us on the
cross in the form of Christ. His followers, who openly declared
themselves first about a.d. 357, thought that
God, to Whom as the Source of all things the name of Father is given,
is called the Son when He united Himself to the humanity of Jesus for
the work of our redemption; and in like manner He is the Holy Spirit
when manifested for the work of sanctification. Sabellius was
condemned by a Council held at Rome, probably in 258; again at
Nicæa, and again at Constantinople, where Sabellian Baptism was
pronounced invalid. | by another He is dishonoured as mere
flesh3883
| 3883 Arianism was the
result of a strong opposition to Sabellianism, coupled with a
misunderstanding of the argument against it. There was, no doubt,
a danger of falling into the opposite error of Tritheism, to avoid
which Arianism “divided the Substance” and
virtually—and in the end explicity—denied the Godhead of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Arius was a Priest of Alexandria, and it
was there that he began to publish his opinions, in the early years of
the Fourth Century (318); but Newman traces the origin of the heresy to
Antioch and its Judaizing tendency. At a meeting of the clergy in
Alexandria the Bishop, S. Alexander, gave an address on the coeternity,
and coequality of the Father and the Son, and used the expression
τὴν
αὐτὴν οὐσίαν
ἔχειν, that They had the same
Substance. Arius protested against this as a Sabellian statement,
and used the words κτίσμα (creature) and
ποίημα (a thing made) of
the Son, adding the sentence which became so famous, ἦν
ὅτε οὐκ
ἦν,—there was a time when the Son did not
exist. Having ineffectually tried private remonstrance, S.
Alexander brought the matter in 321 before his Provincial Synod, in
which were present about 100 Egyptian and Pentapolitan Bishops, who
after giving the matter a patient hearing, excommunicated Arius and his
principal adherents. But it was too late to undo the
mischief. The heresy spread widely, and the whole Eastern Church
was stirred by the controversy. At last a great Council of the
whole Church met at Nicæa in 325, summoned by the Emperor; and
there the heresy was unequivocally condemned, and the great Creed
propounded with its watchword, the Homoousion. The false teaching
had however struck its roots deep and wide; and though now banned by
the anathema of the Church, it was long in dying; and indeed at one
time, it seemed as if—humanly speaking—it must swamp the
whole Catholic Church. Under various forms the Semi-Arians who
claimed to differ from the faith of Nicæa only by a single letter,
the Aetians and Eunomians, who went to the furthest extreme of the
Falsehood (Anomœans), and many others, the heresy spread far and
wide: and when S. Gregory came to Constantinople there was not
one Catholic Church or Priest to be found in the place, and only a few
scattered folk who still held to the Faith of the Consubstantial.
Gregory’s wonderful discourses however came to their aid, and
partly under his presidency was held the Second Œcumenical Synod,
which condemned the heresy of Macedonius, a still further development
of Arianism, which denied also the Deity of the Holy Ghost.
Arianism survived for another two centuries among the Goths and
Vandals, the Burgundians and Lombards; but it never rose again as a
power in the Church. | and severed from the Godhead. With
which of them will He be most angry, or rather, which shall He forgive,
those who injuriously confound Him or those who divide Him? For
the former ought to have distinguished, and the latter to have united
Him; the one in number, the other in Godhead. Stumblest Thou at
His flesh? So did the Jews. Or dost thou call Him a
Samaritan, and…I will not say the rest. Dost thou
disbelieve in His Godhead? This did not even the demons, O thou
who art less believing than demons and more stupid than Jews.
Those did perceive that the name of Son implies equality of rank; these
did know that He who drove them out was God, for they were convinced of
it by their own experience. But you will admit neither the
equality nor the Godhead. It would have been better for you to
have been either a Jew or a demoniac (if I may utter an absurdity),
than in uncircumcision and in sound health to be so wicked and ungodly
in your attitude of mind.
XVI. A little later on you will see Jesus
submitting to be purified in the River Jordan for my Purification, or
rather, sanctifying the waters by His Purification (for indeed He had
no need of purification Who taketh away the sin of the world) and the
heavens cleft asunder, and
witness borne to him by the Spirit That is of one nature with
Him;3884
you shall see Him tempted and conquering and
served by Angels,3885
and healing every
sickness3886
and every
disease,3887
| 3887 Nicetas distinguishes
between Νόσος and Μαλακία, saying that
the first is actual disease, and the second the premonitory failing of
health which prognosticates a disease. And, so he says, in
reference to the soul, Νόσος is actual sin, while
Μαλακία is the
relaxation of the will which leads and assents to actual sin. | and giving life to
the dead (O that He would give life to you who are dead because of your
heresy), and driving out demons,3888
sometimes
Himself, sometimes by his disciples; and feeding vast multitudes with a
few loaves;3889
and walking dryshod
upon seas;3890
and being betrayed
and crucified, and crucifying with Himself my sin; offered as a Lamb,
and offering as a Priest; as a Man buried in the grave, and as God
rising again; and then ascending, and to come again in His own
glory. Why what a multitude of high festivals there are in each
of the mysteries of the Christ; all of which have one completion,
namely, my perfection and return to the first condition of
Adam.
XVII. Now then I pray you accept His
Conception, and leap before Him; if not like John from the
womb,3891
yet like David, because of the resting of
the Ark.3892
Revere the
enrolment on account of which thou wast written in heaven, and adore
the Birth by which thou wast loosed from the chains of thy
birth,3893
and honour little
Bethlehem, which hath led thee back to Paradise; and worship the manger
through which thou, being without sense, wast fed by the Word.
Know as Isaiah bids thee, thine Owner, like the ox, and like the ass
thy Master’s crib;3894
if thou be one of
those who are pure and lawful food, and who chew the cud of the word
and are fit for sacrifice. Or if thou art one of those who are as
yet unclean and uneatable and unfit for sacrifice, and of the gentile
portion, run with the Star, and bear thy Gifts with the Magi, gold and
frankincense and myrrh,3895
as to a King, and
to God, and to One Who is dead for thee. With Shepherds glorify
Him;3896
with Angels join in chorus; with Archangels
sing hymns. Let this Festival be common to the powers in heaven
and to the powers upon earth.3897
For I am
persuaded that the Heavenly Hosts join in our exultation and keep high
Festival with us to-day3898
…because they love men,
and they love God just like those whom David introduces after the
Passion ascending with Christ3899
and coming to meet
Him, and bidding one another to lift up the gates.
XVIII. One thing connected with the Birth of
Christ I would have you hate…the murder of the infants by
Herod.3900
Or rather you
must venerate this too, the Sacrifice of the same age as Christ, slain
before the Offering of the New Victim. If He flees into
Egypt,3901
joyfully become a
companion of His exile. It is a grand thing to share the exile of
the persecuted Christ. If He tarry long in Egypt, call Him out of
Egypt by a reverent worship of Him there. Travel without fault
through every stage and faculty of the Life of Christ. Be
purified; be circumcised; strip off the veil which has covered thee
from thy birth. After this teach in the Temple, and drive out the
sacrilegious traders.3902
Submit to be
stoned if need be, for well I wot thou shalt be hidden from those who
cast the stones; thou shalt escape even through the midst of them, like
God.3903
If thou be brought before Herod,
answer not for the most part.3904
He will
respect thy silence more than most people’s long speeches.
If thou be scourged,3905
ask for what they
leave out. Taste gall for the taste’s sake;3906
drink vinegar;3907
seek for spittings; accept blows, be crowned with thorns,3908
that is, with the hardness of the godly
life; put on the purple robe, take the reed in hand, and receive mock
worship from those who mock at the truth; lastly, be crucified with
Him, and share His Death and Burial gladly, that thou mayest rise with
Him, and be glorified with Him and reign with Him. Look at and be
looked at by the Great God, Who in Trinity is worshipped and glorified,
and Whom we declare to be now set forth as clearly before you as the
chains of our flesh allow, in Jesus Christ our Lord, to Whom be the
glory for ever. Amen.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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