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Oration
XXXIX.
Oration on the Holy Lights.
The Oration on the
Holy Lights was preached on the Festival of the Epiphany 381, and was
followed the next day by that on Baptism. In the Eastern Church
this Festival is regarded as more particularly the commemoration of our
Lord’s Baptism, and is accordingly one of the great days for the
solemn ministration of the Sacrament. It is generally called
Theophania, and the Gospel
in the Liturgy is S. Matthew iii. 13–17. The Sunday in the
Octave is called μετὰ τὰ
φῶτα (After The Lights), pointing to
a time when the Feast was known as the “Holy Lights,” as
seems to have been the case in S. Gregory’s day. This name
is derived from Baptism, which was often in ancient days called
Illumination, in reference to which name (derived from the spiritual
grace of the Sacrament) lighted torches or candles were carried by the
neophytes. It would appear that the solemnites of the Festival
lasted two days, of which the second was devoted to the solemn
conferring of the Sacrament. Accordingly we find two Orations
belonging to the Festival. In the first, delivered on the Day
itself he dwells more especially on the Feast and the Mystery of our
Lord’s Baptism therein commemorated; and proceeds to speak of the
different kinds of Baptism, of which he enumerates Five,
viz.:—
1. The figurative Baptism of Israel by Moses in
the cloud and in the Sea.
2. The preparatory Baptism of repentance
ministered by S. John the Baptist.
3. The spiritual Baptism of water and the Holy
Ghost given us by our Lord.
4. The glorious Baptism of Martyrdom.
5. The painful Baptism of Penance.
In speaking of this last he takes occasion to refute the
extreme rigorism of the followers of Novatus, who denied absolution to
certain classes of sins committed after Baptism.
In the second Oration, delivered next day, he dwells on
the Sacrament of Baptism and its spiritual effects; and takes occasion
to reprove the then still prevalent practice of deferring Baptism till
the near approach of death. He likewise dwells on the truth that
the validity and spiritual effect of the Sacrament is wholly
independent of the rank or worthiness of the Priest who may minister
it; and he concludes with a sketch of the obligations which its
reception involves, with a very valuable exposition of the Creed, and
of the Ceremonies which accompanied the administration of the
Sacrament.
I. Again My Jesus,
and again a mystery; not deceitful nor disorderly, nor belonging to
Greek error or drunkenness (for so I call their solemnities, and so I
think will every man of sound sense); but a mystery lofty and divine,
and allied to the Glory above. For the Holy Day of the Lights, to
which we have come, and which we are celebrating to-day, has for its
origin the Baptism of my Christ, the True Light That lighteneth every
man that cometh into the world,3909
and effecteth
my purification, and assists that light which we received from the
beginning from Him from above, but which we darkened and confused by
sin.
II. Therefore listen to the Voice of God,
which sounds so exceeding clearly to me, who am both disciple and
master of these mysteries, as would to God it may sound to you; I Am
The Light Of The World.3910
Therefore
approach ye to Him and be enlightened, and let not your faces be
ashamed,3911
being signed with
the true Light. It is a season of new birth,3912
let us be born again. It is a time of
reformation, let us receive again the first Adam.3913
| 3913 I.e., the condition of
man before the fall. | Let us not remain what we are, but let
us become what we once were. The Light Shineth In
Darkness,3914
in this life and in
the flesh, and is chased by the darkness, but is not overtaken by
it:—I mean the adverse power leaping up in its shamelessness
against the visible Adam, but encountering God and being
defeated;—in order that we, putting away the darkness, may draw
near to the Light, and may then become perfect Light, the children of
perfect Light. See the grace of this Day; see the power of this
mystery. Are you not lifted up from the earth? Are you not
clearly placed on high, being exalted by our voice and meditation? and
you will be placed much higher when the Word shall have prospered the
course of my words.
III. Is there any such among the shadowy
purifications of the Law, aiding as it did with temporary sprinklings,
and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean;3915
| 3915 This is the same word
which in S. John i.
5., is rendered by
“comprehend.” | or do the gentiles celebrate any such thing
in their mysteries, every ceremony and mystery of which to me is
nonsense, and a dark invention of demons, and a figment of an unhappy
mind, aided by time, and hidden by fable? For what they worship
as true, they veil as mythical. But if these things are true,
they ought not to be called myths, but to be proved not to be
shameful;3916
and if they are
false, they ought not to be objects of wonder; nor ought people so
inconsiderately to hold the most contrary opinions about the same
thing, as if they were playing in the market-place with boys or really
ill-disposed men, not engaged in discussion with men of sense, and
worshippers of the Word, though despisers of this artificial
plausibility.
IV. We are not concerned in these mysteries
with birth of Zeus and thefts of the Cretan Tyrant3917
| 3917 I.e. Zeus, who was
said by some to be a deified man, once tyrant of Crete, where his tomb
was shown. | (though the Greeks may be displeased at such
a title for him), nor with the name of Curetes, and the armed dances,
which were to hide the wailings of a weeping god, that he might escape
from his father’s hate. For indeed it would be a strange
thing that he who was swallowed as a stone should be made to weep as a
child.3918
| 3918 The allusion is to the
birth of Zeus. Kronos the Titan, father of the gods, was the
husband of Rhea, who bore him children. But an oracle having
declared that Kronos should be dethroned by his children, he swallowed
them immediately after they were born. Rhea, however, on the
birth of Zeus, aided by the Curetes, a wild band of Cretan Priests,
concealed the child, and substituted a stone, which Kronos swallowed in
his haste without perceiving the difference. The stone made him
very sick, and he vomited forth the children whom he had previously
swallowed; and by them and Zeus the prophecy was fulfilled.
Kronos was deposed and imprisoned in Tartarus. | Nor are we
concerned with Phrygian mutilations and flutes and Corybantes,3919
| 3919 There was a temple of
Rhea in Phrygia, in which at her festivals people mutilated themselves
to do her honour. The flutes alluded to served to turn the
thoughts of the sufferers from the pain of the operation. The
Corybantes were the ministers of the goddess, who led the wild orgies
of her worship. It is believed that there is an allusion to this
practice of self-mutilation in Galat. v. 12. So at least S. Jerome, S.
Ambrose, and all the Greek Fathers take the passage. S. Thomas
Aquinas, understanding the word in the same sense, applies it
mystically; and Estius, who here follows Erasmus, refers the
“cutting off” merely to excommunication, a sense which he
calls “Apostolico sensu dignior,” though why
“dignior” it is not easy to see. Yet he
acknowledges that those who interpret it literally do so “non
immerito.” | and all the ravings of men concerning Rhea,
consecrating people to the mother of the gods, and being initiated into
such ceremonies as befit the mother of such gods as these. Nor
have we any carrying away of the Maiden,3920
| 3920 The mythus of the Rape
of Persephone and its consequences. |
nor wandering of Demeter, nor her intimacy with Celei and Triptolemi
and Dragons; nor her doings and sufferings…for I am ashamed to
bring into daylight that ceremony of the night, and to make a sacred
mystery of obscenity. Eleusis knows these things, and so do those
who are eyewitnesses of what is there guarded by silence, and well
worthy of it. Nor is our commemoration one of Dionysus, and the
thigh that travailed with an incomplete birth, as before a head had
travailed with another;3921
| 3921 Dionysus was said to
have been born from the thigh of Zeus, as Athene to have sprung
full-grown and armed at all points from his head. | nor of the
hermaphrodite god, nor a chorus of the drunken and enervated host; nor
of the folly of the Thebans which honours him; nor the thunderbolt of
Semele which they adore. Nor is it the harlot mysteries of
Aphrodite, who, as they themselves admit, was basely born and basely
honoured; nor have we here Phalli and Ithyphalli,3922
| 3922 These myths and
practices are too shameful to be described. | shameful both in form and action; nor
Taurian massacres of strangers;3923
| 3923 See the Iphigenia In
Tauris of Euripides. | nor blood of
Laconian youths shed upon the altars, as they scourged themselves with
the whips;3924
| 3924 It was a custom of the
Spartans that at their great festival of Artemis the youths who were
just coming of age (Ephebi) should scourge themselves cruelly on her
altar in honour of the goddess, and to prove their manhood. | and in this case
alone use their courage badly, who honour a goddess, and her a
virgin. For these same people both honour effeminacy, and worship
boldness.
V. And where will you place the butchery of
Pelops,3925
| 3925 The gods came to dine
with Tantalus, and he, to do them honour, boiled his son Pelops for
their food. They, however, found it out, and restored him to
life; not, however, before Demeter had unwittingly eaten his shoulder,
in the place of which they substituted one of ivory. | which feasted
hungry gods, that bitter and inhuman hospitality? Where the
horrible and dark spectres of Hecate, and the underground puerilities
and sorceries of Trophonius, or the babblings of the Dodonæan Oak,
or the trickeries of the Delphian tripod, or the prophetic draught of
Castalia, which could prophesy anything, except their own being brought
to silence?3926
Nor is it the
sacrificial art of Magi, and their entrail forebodings, nor the
Chaldæan astronomy and horoscopes, comparing our lives with the
movements of the heavenly bodies, which cannot know even what they are
themselves, or shall be. Nor are these Thracian orgies, from
which the word Worship (θρησκεία)
is said to be derived; nor rites and mysteries of Orpheus, whom the
Greeks admired so much for his wisdom that they devised for him a lyre
which draws all things by its music. Nor the tortures of
Mithras3927
| 3927 These Mysteries were
of Persian origin, connected it is said with the worship of the
Sun. The neophytes were made to undergo twelve different kinds of
torture. | which it is just
that those who can endure to be initiated into such things should
suffer; nor the manglings of Osiris,3928
another
calamity honoured by the Egyptians; nor the ill-fortunes of
Isis3929
| 3929 Zeus fell in love with
Isis, and carried her off in the form of a heifer. Here,
discovering the fraud, sent a gadfly, which drove Isis mad. | and the goats more venerable than the
Mendesians, and the stall of Apis,3930
| 3930 Apis, the sacred bull,
worshipped at Memphis. | the calf that
luxuriated in the folly of the Memphites, nor all those honours with
which they outrage the Nile, while themselves proclaiming it in song to
be the Giver of fruits and corn, and the measurer of happiness by its
cubits.3931
| 3931 i.e., that the
prosperity of the country was proportionate to the annual rise of the
River. |
VI. I pass over the honours they pay to
reptiles, and their worship
of vile things, each of which has its peculiar cultus and festival, and
all share in a common devilishness; so that, if they were absolutely
bound to be ungodly, and to fall away from honouring God, and to be led
astray to idols and works of art and things made with hands, men of
sense could not imprecate anything worse upon themselves than that they
might worship just such things, and honour them in just such a way;
that, as Paul says, they might receive in themselves that recompense of
their error which was meet,3932
in the very objects
of their worship; not so much honouring them as suffering dishonour by
them; abominable because of their error, and yet more abominable from
the vileness of the objects of their adoration and worship; so that
they should be even more without understanding than the objects of
their worship; being as excessively foolish as the latter are
vile.
VII. Well, let these things be the amusement
of the children of the Greeks and of the demons to whom their folly is
due, who turn aside the honour of God to themselves, and divide men in
various ways in pursuit of shameful thoughts and fancies, ever since
they drove us away from the Tree of Life, by means of the Tree of
Knowledge unseasonably3933
| 3933 cf. Orat. in Theoph.
c. 12. The explanation seems to be, that the “Knowledge of
good and evil” was a necessary part of the development of
man’s intellect, but that a premature attempt to attain it per
saltum instead of by a gradual progress would prove fatal.
Had human nature gone through its originally intended educational
stages, it might have reached to the knowledge of evil without having
that knowledge alloyed and deteriorated by the experience of evil, but
might have known it, as God does, without taint. (Blount, Ann.
Bible on Gen. ii. 7.) | and improperly
imparted to us, and then assailed us as now weaker than before;
carrying clean away the mind, which is the ruling power in us, and
opening a door to the passions. For, being of a nature envious
and man-hating, or rather having become so by their own wickedness,
they could neither endure that we who were below should attain to that
which is above, having themselves fallen from above upon the earth; nor
that such a change in their glory and their first natures should have
taken place. This is the meaning of their persecution of the
creature. For this God’s Image was outraged; and as we did
not like to keep the Commandments,3934
we were given
over to the independence of our error. And as we erred we were
disgraced by the objects of our worship. For there was not only
this calamity, that we who were made for good works3935
to the glory and praise of our Maker, and to
imitate God as far as might be, were turned into a den of all sorts of
passions, which cruelly devour and consume the inner man; but there was
this further evil, that man actually made gods the advocates of his
passions, so that sin might be reckoned not only irresponsible, but
even divine, taking refuge in the objects of his worship as his
apology.
VIII. But since to us grace has been given
to flee from superstitious error and to be joined to the truth and to
serve the living and true God, and to rise above creation, passing by
all that is subject to time and to first motion; let us look at and
reason upon God and things divine in a manner corresponding to this
Grace given us. But let us begin our discussion of them from the
most fitting point. And the most fitting is, as Solomon laid down
for us; us; The beginning of wisdom, he says, is to get
wisdom.3936
And what this
is he tells us; the beginning of wisdom is fear.3937
For we must not begin with
contemplation and leave off with fear (for an unbridled contemplation
would perhaps push us over a precipice), but we must be grounded and
purified and so to say made light by fear, and thus be raised to the
height. For where fear is there is keeping of commandments; and
where there is keeping of commandments there is purifying of the flesh,
that cloud which covers the soul and suffers it not to see the Divine
Ray. And where there is purifying there is Illumination; and
Illumination is the satisfying of desire to those who long for the
greatest things, or the Greatest Thing, or That Which surpasses all
greatness.
IX. Wherefore we must purify ourselves
first, and then approach this converse with the Pure; unless we would
have the same experience as Israel,3938
who could not
endure the glory of the face of Moses, and therefore asked for a
veil;3939
or else would feel and say with Manoah
“We are undone O wife, we have seen God,”3940
although it was God only in his fancy; or
like Peter would send Jesus out of the boat,3941
as
being ourselves unworthy of such a visit; and when I say Peter, I am
speaking of the man who walked upon the waves;3942
or
like Paul would be stricken in eyes,3943
as he was
before he was cleansed from the guilt of his persecution, when he
conversed with Him Whom he was persecuting—or rather with a short
flash of That great Light; or like the Centurion3944
would seek for healing, but would not,
through a praiseworthy fear, receive the Healer into his house.
Let each one of us also speak so, as long as he is still uncleansed, and is a
Centurion still, commanding many in wickedness, and serving in the army
of Cæsar, the World-ruler of those who are being dragged down;
“I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my
roof.” But when he shall have looked upon Jesus, though he
be little of stature like Zaccheus3945
of old, and
climb up on the top of the sycamore tree by mortifying his members
which are upon the earth,3946
and having risen
above the body of humiliation, then he shall receive the Word, and it
shall be said to him, This day is salvation come to this
house.3947
Then let him
lay hold on the salvation, and bring forth fruit more perfectly,
scattering and pouring forth rightly that which as a publican he
wrongly gathered.
X. For the same Word is on the one hand
terrible through its nature to those who are unworthy, and on the other
through its loving kindness can be received by those who are thus
prepared, who have driven out the unclean and worldly spirit from their
souls, and have swept and adorned their own souls by self-examination,
and have not left them idle or without employment, so as again to be
occupied with greater armament by the seven spirits of
wickedness…the same number as are reckoned of virtue (for that
which is hardest to fight against calls for the sternest
efforts)…but besides fleeing from evil, practise virtue, making
Christ entirely, or at any rate to the greatest extent possible, to
dwell within them, so that the power of evil cannot meet with any empty
place to fill it again with himself, and make the last state of that
man worse than the first, by the greater energy of his assault, and the
greater strength and impregnability of the fortress. But when,
having guarded our soul with every care, and having appointed goings up
in our heart,3948
and broken up our
fallow ground,3949
and sown unto
righteousness,3950
as David and
Solomon and Jeremiah bid us, let us enlighten ourselves with the light
of knowledge, and then let us speak of the Wisdom of God that hath been
hid in a mystery,3951
and enlighten
others. Meanwhile let us purify ourselves, and receive the
elementary initiation of the Word, that we may do ourselves the utmost
good, making ourselves godlike, and receiving the Word at His coming;
and not only so, but holding Him fast and shewing Him to
others.
XI. And now, having purified the theatre by
what has been said, let us discourse a little about the Festival, and
join in celebrating this Feast with festal and pious souls. And,
since the chief point of the Festival is the remembrance of God, let us
call God to mind. For I think that the sound of those who keep
Festival There, where is the dwelling of all the Blissful, is
nothing else than this, the hymns and praises of God, sung by all who
are counted worthy of that City. Let none be astonished if what I
have to say contains some things that I have said before; for not only
will I utter the same words, but I shall speak of the same subjects,
trembling both in tongue and mind and thought when I speak of God for
you too, that you may share this laudable and blessed feeling.
And when I speak of God you must be illumined at once by one flash of
light and by three. Three in Individualities or Hypostases, if
any prefer so to call them, or persons,3952
| 3952 The sense of Person
(here πρόσωπον), which
is the usual post-Nicene equivalent of ὑπόστασις, was by
no means generally attached to that word during the first Four
Centuries, though here and there there are traces of such a use.
Throughout the Arian controversy a great deal of trouble and
misunderstanding was caused by the want of a precise definition of the
meaning of ὑπόστασις.
It seems to have been at first understood by the Eastern Church to mean
Real Personal Existence—Reality being the fundamental idea.
In this fundamental sense it was used in Theology as expressing the
distinct individuality and relative bearing of the Three
“Persons” of the Blessed Trinity to each other (τὸ ἴδίον
πὰρα τὸ
κοινόν, Suidas). But Arius
gave it a heretical twist, and said that there are Three Hypostases, in
the sense of Natures or Substances; and this doctrine was anathematized
by the Nicene Council, which, apparently regarding the term ὑπόστασις as
exactly equivalent to οὐσία (as Arius tried to make
it) condemned the proposition that the Son is ἐξ
ἑτέρας
ὑποστάσεως ἢ
οὐσίας (Symb. Nic.).
Similar is the use of the word in S. Athanasius. As against
Sabellius, however, who taught that in the Godhead there are
τρία
πρόσωπα (using this word in
the sense of Aspects only) but would not allow τρεῖς
ὑποστάσεις
(i.e., Self-existent Personalities), the post-Nicene Church regarded
ὑπόστασις as
designating the Person, and spoke freely of τρεῖς
ὑποστάσεις.
The Western Church increased the confusion by continuing to regard
ὑπόστασις as
equivalent to οὐσία, and translating it by
Substantia or Subsistentia. It was not till the word Essentia
came into use to express οὐσία that the Western Church
grasped the difference, so long accepted in the East, so as to use the
words accurately. Meantime, however, there would seem to have
grown up a difference in the use of the two words supposed to represent
ὑπόστασις, of the
same kind as that between ὑπόστασις and
οὐσία;
Substantia being appropriated to the Essence of a thing, that which is
the foundation of its being; while Subsistentia came rather to connote
a limitation, i.e., Personality. Thus the West also became
confused, and Substantia was held to be the true equivalent of
ὑπόστασις.
Hence the condemnation at Sardica (a.d. 347)
by the Western Bishops of the doctrine of Three Hypostases as
Arian. The confusion lasted long, but in 362 a Council was held
at Alexandria, when this difference was seen to be a mere logomachy,
and it was pronounced orthodox to confess either τρεῖς
ὑποστάσεις
in the sense of “Persons,” or μἰαν
ὑπόστασιν in that
of “Substance.” Our author in his Oration to the
Fathers of the Council of Constantinople fully acknowledges this.
“What do you mean,” he says, “by ὑποστάσεις or
πρόσωπα? You
mean that the Three are distinct, not in Nature, but in
Personality.” And in the Panegyric on S. Athanasius (Or.
xxi. c. 35), he remarks on the orthodoxy of the phrase μία οὐσία,
τρεῖς
ὑποστάσεις,
that the first expression refers to the Nature of the Godhead, the
second to the special properties of the Persons. With this, he
says, the Italians agree, but the poverty of their language is such
that it does not admit of the distinction between οὐσία and ὑπόστασις, and
therefore has to call in the word πρόσωπον, which
if misunderstood is liable to be charged with Sabellianism. |
for we will not quarrel about names so long as the syllables amount to
the same meaning; but One in respect of the Substance—that is,
the Godhead. For they are divided without division, if I may so
say; and they are united in division. For the Godhead is one in
three, and the three are
one, in whom the Godhead is, or to speak more accurately, Who are the
Godhead. Excesses and defects we will omit, neither making the
Unity a confusion, nor the division a separation. We would keep
equally far from the confusion of Sabellius and from the division of
Arius, which are evils diametrically opposed, yet equal in their
wickedness. For what need is there heretically to fuse God
together, or to cut Him up into inequality?
XII. For to us there is but One God, the
Father, of Whom are all things, and One Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom are
all things; and One Holy Ghost, in Whom are all things;3953
yet these words, of, by, in, whom, do not
denote a difference of nature (for if this were the case, the three
prepositions, or the order of the three names would never be altered),
but they characterize the personalities of a nature which is one and
unconfused. And this is proved by the fact that They are again
collected into one, if you will read—not carelessly—this
other passage of the same Apostle, “Of Him and through Him and to
Him are all things; to Him be glory forever, Amen.”3954
The Father is Father, and is
Unoriginate, for He is of no one; the Son is Son, and is not
unoriginate, for He is of the Father. But if you take the word
Origin in a temporal sense, He too is Unoriginate, for He is the Maker
of Time, and is not subject to Time. The Holy Ghost is truly
Spirit, coming forth from the Father indeed, but not after the manner
of the Son, for it is not by Generation but by Procession (since I must
coin a word for the sake of clearness3955
| 3955 The Coining is simply of the adverbial form;
the Substantive is found in earlier writings. S. Gregory himself
uses it Orat. Theol. V. He uses other words also, as ἔκπεμψις,
πρόοδος, and the verbs
προέρχεσθαι,
προϊέναι.
As to the question of the Double
Procession (Filioque) see Introd. to Orat. Theol. V. Dr. Swete
(Doctr. of H. S. p. 118) says, “It is instructive to notice how
at this period the two great Sees of Rome and Constantinople seem to
have agreed in abstaining from a minuter definition of the
Procession. Both in East and West the relations of the Spirit to
the Son were being examined by individual theologians; but S. Gregory
and S. Damasus appear to have alike refrained from entering upon a
question which did not touch the essentials of the Faith.”
He adds in a note “This is the more remarkable because Damasus
was of Spanish origin.” | );
for neither did the Father cease to be Unbegotten because of His
begetting something, nor the Son to be begotten because He is of the
Unbegotten (how could that be?), nor is the Spirit changed into Father
or Son because He proceeds, or because He is God—though the
ungodly do not believe it. For Personality is unchangeable; else
how could Personality remain, if it were changeable, and could be
removed from one to another? But they who make
“Unbegotten” and “Begotten” natures of
equivocal gods would perhaps make Adam and Seth differ in nature, since
the former was not born of flesh (for he was created), but the latter
was born of Adam and Eve. There is then One God in Three, and
These Three are One, as we have said.
XIII. Since then these things are so, or
rather since This is so; and His Adoration ought not to be rendered
only by Beings above, but there ought to be also worshippers on earth,
that all things may be filled with the glory of God (forasmuch as they
are filled with God Himself); therefore man was created and honored
with the hand3956
| 3956 “The rest of the Creation was made by
the command of God, but Man was formed by the hand of God.”
(Wordsworth in Gen. ii. 7.)
“There was a peculiar glory in the
creation of Man, distinguishing him from the rest of the
creatures. The creatures inferior to man were called into being
by a simple act of the Divine Will; but in the case of man, bearing as
he does the nature and the form which God was about to assume as His
own, and which, once assumed, was never again to be laid aside, the
process of creation was markedly different. Then for the first
time the Most Holy Persons of the Blessed Trinity appear upon the
scene. They are manifested as in mutual consultation and common
action personally engaged.…‘Let Us make Man in Our Image
after Our Likeness’…Then followed the exercise of creative
power as a personal act, the putting forth the Hand of God to fashion
the body of Man; ‘The Lord God formed Man of the dust of the
earth.’ Afterwards came the yet higher work in the infusion
of the immaterial invisible life enshrined in the body, perfecting the
work of God; ‘He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life
and Man became a living soul.’” (T. T. Carter, The
Divine Dispensations, p. 44.) | and Image of
God. But to despise man, when by the envy of the Devil and the
bitter taste of sin he was pitiably severed from God his
Maker—this was not in the Nature of God. What then was
done, and what is the great Mystery that concerns us? An
innovation is made upon nature, and God is made Man. “He
that rideth upon the Heaven of Heavens in the East”3957
of His own glory and Majesty, is glorified
in the West of our meanness and lowliness. And the Son of God
deigns to become and to be called Son of Man; not changing what He was
(for It is unchangeable); but assuming what He was not (for He is full
of love to man), that the Incomprehensible3958
| 3958 Ullman comments on
this passage as follows: There is in it, as follows especially
from what comes after, the double sense that the Infinite Godhead
entered in Christ into the limitations of a finite human life; and in
consequence of this, since otherwise as an infinite Being it was not
fully cognisable by the finite human soul, became in this limitation
cognisable in some degree to it, as it was not before this special
manifestation in Christ. |
might be comprehended, conversing with us through the mediation of the
Flesh as through a veil; since it was not possible for that nature
which is subject to birth and decay to endure His unveiled
Godhead. Therefore the Unmingled is mingled; and not only is God
mingled with birth and Spirit3959
| 3959 “In this and
several places πνεῦμα and νοῦς evidently denote the
Divine the Spiritual, taken in the highest and purest sense, in which
it is lifted above the σάρξ, and generally above all that is
material; in which sense S. John says, πνεῦμα ὁ
θεός.” Ullmann. | with flesh, and the
Eternal with time, and the Uncircumscribed with measure;
but also Generation with
Virginity, and dishonour with Him who is higher than all honour; He who
is impassible with Suffering,3960
| 3960 “In a double
sense;—either that the Godhead is, in union with the Man Jesus,
subjected to suffering (cf. Or. XXI. 24), or that the Divine Substance,
which is unapproachable by any passion or suffering, combined itself
with a Man, whose nature cannot be free from such
emotions.” Ullmann. | and the Immortal
with the corruptible. For since that Deceiver thought that he was
unconquerable in his malice, after he had cheated us with the hope of
becoming gods, he was himself cheated by God’s assumption of our
nature; so that in attacking Adam as he thought, he should really meet
with God, and thus the new Adam should save the old, and the
condemnation of the flesh should be abolished, death being slain by
flesh.
XIV. At His birth we duly kept Festival,
both I, the leader of the Feast, and you, and all that is in the world
and above the world. With the Star we ran, and with the Magi we
worshipped, and with the Shepherds we were illuminated, and with the
Angels we glorified Him, and with Simeon we took Him up in our arms,
and with Anna the aged and chaste we made our responsive
confession. And thanks be to Him who came to His own in the guise
of a stranger, because He glorified the stranger.3961
| 3961 i.e., human nature,
which was severed from and made hostile to God by sin. | Now, we come to another action of
Christ, and another mystery. I cannot restrain my pleasure; I am
rapt into God. Almost like John I proclaim good tidings; for
though I be not a Forerunner, yet am I from the desert.3962
Christ is illumined, let us shine
forth with Him. Christ is baptized, let us descend with Him that
we may also ascend with Him. Jesus is baptized; but we must
attentively consider not only this but also some other points.
Who is He, and by whom is He baptized, and at what time? He is
the All-pure; and He is baptized by John; and the time is the beginning
of His miracles. What are we to learn and to be taught by
this? To purify ourselves first; to be lowly minded; and to
preach only in maturity both of spiritual and bodily stature. The
first3963
has a word especially for those who rush to
Baptism off hand, and without due preparation, or providing for the
stability of the Baptismal Grace by the disposition of their minds to
good. For since Grace contains remission of the past (for it is a
grace), it is on that account more worthy of reverence, that we
return not to the same vomit again. The second speaks to those
who rebel against the Stewards of this Mystery, if they are their
superiors in rank. The third is for those who are confident in
their youth, and think that any time is the right one to teach or to
preside. Jesus is purified, and dost thou despise
purification?…and by John, and dost thou rise up against thy
herald?…and at thirty years of age, and dost thou before thy
beard has grown presume to teach the aged, or believe that thou
teachest them, though thou be not reverend on account of thine age, or
even perhaps for thy character? But here it may be said, Daniel,
and this or that other, were judges in their youth, and examples are on
your tongues; for every wrongdoer is prepared to defend himself.
But I reply that that which is rare is not the law of the Church.
For one swallow does not make a summer, nor one line a geometrician,
nor one voyage a sailor.
XV. But John baptizes, Jesus comes to
Him3964
…perhaps to sanctify the
Baptist himself, but certainly to bury the whole of the old Adam in the
water; and before this and for the sake of this, to sanctify Jordan;
for as He is Spirit and Flesh, so He consecrates us by Spirit and
water.3965
John will not
receive Him; Jesus contends. “I have need to be baptized of
Thee”3966
says the Voice to
the Word, the Friend to the Bridegroom;3967
he
that is above all among them that are born of women,3968
to Him Who is the Firstborn of every
creature;3969
he that leaped in
the womb,3970
to Him Who was
adored in the womb; he who was and is to be the Forerunner3971
to Him Who was and is to be
manifested. “I have need to be baptized of Thee;” add
to this “and for Thee;” for he knew that he would be
baptized by Martyrdom, or, like Peter, that he would be cleansed not
only as to his feet.3972
“And
comest Thou to me?” This also was prophetic; for he knew
that after Herod would come the madness of Pilate, and so that when he
had gone before Christ would follow him. But what saith
Jesus? “Suffer it to be so now,” for this is the time
of His Incarnation; for He knew that yet a little while and He should
baptize the Baptist. And what is the “Fan?” The
Purification. And what is the “Fire?” The
consuming of the chaff, and the heat of the Spirit. And what the
“Axe?” The excision of the soul which is incurable
even after the dung.3973
And what the
Sword? The cutting of the Word, which separates the worse from
the better,3974
and makes a
division between the faithful and the unbeliever;3975
and stirs up the son and the daughter and
the bride against the father and the mother and the mother in
law,3976
the young and fresh against the old and
shadowy. And what is the Latchet of the shoe, which thou John who
baptizest Jesus mayest not loose?3977
thou who art
of the desert, and hast no food, the new Elias,3978
the more than Prophet, inasmuch as thou sawest Him of Whom thou didst
prophesy, thou Mediator of the Old and New Testaments. What is
this? Perhaps the Message of the Advent, and the Incarnation, of
which not the least point may be loosed, I say not by those3979
| 3979 One important
ms. reads “Us Who.” | who are yet carnal and babes in Christ, but
not even by those who are like John in spirit.
XVI. But further—Jesus goeth up out of
the water…for with Himself He carries up the world…and sees
the heaven opened which Adam had shut against himself and all his
posterity,3980
as the gates of
Paradise by the flaming sword. And the Spirit bears witness to
His Godhead, for he descends upon One that is like Him, as does the
Voice from Heaven (for He to Whom the witness is borne came from
thence), and like a Dove, for He honours the Body (for this also was
God, through its union with God) by being seen in a bodily form; and
moreover, the Dove has from distant ages been wont to proclaim the end
of the Deluge.3981
But if you
are to judge of Godhead by bulk and weight, and the Spirit seems to you
a small thing because He came in the form of a Dove, O man of
contemptible littleness of thought concerning the greatest of things,
you must also to be consistent despise the Kingdom of Heaven, because
it is compared to a grain of mustard seed;3982
and you must exalt the adversary above the Majesty of Jesus, because he
is called a great Mountain,3983
and
Leviathan3984
| 3984 The word
Leviathan does not occur in the LXX., though
it is found twice in other Greek Versions of the Book of Job,
viz.:—iii. 8 and xl. 20. | and King of that
which lives in the water, whereas Christ is called the Lamb,3985
and the Pearl,3986
and the Drop3987
and similar
names.
XVII. Now, since our Festival is of Baptism,
and we must endure a little hardness with Him Who for our sake took
form, and was baptized, and was crucified; let us speak about the
different kinds of Baptism, that we may come out thence purified.
Moses baptized3988
but it was in
water, and before that in the cloud and in the sea.3989
This was typical as Paul saith; the
Sea of the water, and the Cloud of the Spirit; the Manna, of the Bread
of Life; the Drink, of the Divine Drink. John also baptized; but
this was not like the baptism of the Jews, for it was not only in
water, but also “unto repentance.” Still it was not
wholly spiritual, for he does not add “And in the
Spirit.” Jesus also baptized, but in the Spirit. This
is the perfect Baptism. And how is He not God, if I may digress a
little, by whom you too are made God? I know also a Fourth
Baptism—that by Martyrdom and blood, which also Christ himself
underwent:—and this one is far more august than all the others,
inasmuch as it cannot be defiled by after-stains. Yes, and I know
of a Fifth also, which is that of tears, and is much more laborious,
received by him who washes his bed every night and his couch with
tears;3990
whose bruises stink
through his wickedness;3991
and who goeth
mourning and of a sad countenance; who imitates the repentance of
Manasseh3992
and the humiliation
of the Ninevites3993
upon which God had
mercy; who utters the words of the Publican in the Temple, and is
justified rather than the stiff-necked Pharisee;3994
who like the Canaanite woman bends down and
asks for mercy and crumbs, the food of a dog that is very
hungry.3995
XVIII. I, however, for I confess myself to
be a man,—that is to say, an animal shifty and of a changeable
nature,—both eagerly receive this Baptism, and worship Him Who
has given it me, and impart it to others; and by shewing mercy make
provision for mercy. For I know that I too am compassed with
infirmity,3996
and that with what
measure I mete it shall be measured to me again.3997
But what sayest thou, O new Pharisee
pure3998
| 3998 The Novatians were
known as Cathari or Puritans. | in title but not in intention, who
dischargest upon us the sentiments of Novatus,3999
| 3999 In a.d. 251 Novatus, a Presbyter of the Church of Carthage,
who with others had formed a party against S. Cyprian, their Bishop,
came to Rome, and excited Novatian to become leader in a similar schism
against Cornelius, the recently elected Bishop of the Apostolic
See. The plea urged on behalf of the schism was that Cornelius,
who was of one accord with Cyprian, had lapsed in the time of the
persecution under Decius, a.d. 250, and that
he had relaxed the discipline of the Church by admitting to Communion
on too easy terms those who had been guilty of a similar offence; and
that therefore he ought not to be recognized as a true Bishop of the
Church, but a faithful Pastor should be chosen in his place.
Consequently Novatian was elected by some who held these views, and was
consecrated by three Bishops. There seem to have been a good many
of his followers in Constantinople at this time. There had been
at one time a disposition among them to reunite themselves to the
Catholic Church, for they were orthodox in faith; but it had been
hindered by the malevolence of their party leaders; so that the schism
continued, and the Novatians must be added to the opponents with whom
S. Gregory had to deal. |
though thou sharest the same infirmities? Wilt thou not
give any place to weeping? Wilt thou shed no tear? Mayest
thou not meet with a Judge like thyself? Art thou not ashamed by
the mercy of Jesus, Who took our infirmities and bare our
sicknesses;4000
Who came not to
call the righteous but sinners to repentance;4001
Who will have mercy rather than sacrifice; who forgiveth sins till
seventy times seven.4002
How blessed
would your exaltation be if it really were purity, not pride, making
laws above the reach of men, and destroying improvement by
despair. For both are alike evil, indulgence not regulated by
prudence, and condemnation that will never forgive; the one because it
relaxes all reins, the other because it strangles by its
severity. Shew me your purity, and I will approve your
boldness. But as it is, I fear that being full of sores you will
render them incurable. Will you not admit even David’s
repentance, to whom his penitence preserved even the gift of prophecy?
nor the great Peter himself, who fell into human weakness at the
Passion of our Saviour? Yet Jesus received him, and by the
threefold question and confession healed the threefold denial.4003
Or will you even refuse to admit that
he was made perfect by blood (for your folly goes even as far as
that)? Or the transgressor at Corinth? But Paul confirmed
love towards him when he saw his amendment, and gives the reason,
“that such an one be not swallowed up by overmuch
sorrow,”4004
being overwhelmed
by the excess of the punishment.4005
| 4005 “This too often
ignored page gives a solemn contradiction to those who, falsifying
history as well as theology, pretended two centuries ago to revive by
their extravagant rigour the spirit of the primitive Church. The
spirit of the Church never changes. Inflexible against error, it
is full of gentleness and kindliness for repentant sinners. The
spirit of the Church is that of the Saints of all times; or rather it
is that of the Divine Shepherd, Who made Himself known above all by His
unspeakable tenderness and His inexhaustible mercy to lost
sheep.” (Benoit S. G. de N.) | And will
you refuse to grant liberty of marriage to young widows on account of
the liability of their age to fall? Paul ventured to do so; but
of course you can teach him; for you have been caught up to the Fourth
heaven, and to another Paradise, and have heard words more unspeakable,
and comprehend a larger circle in your Gospel.
XIX. But these sins were not after Baptism,
you will say. Where is your proof? Either prove it—or
refrain from condemning; and if there be any doubt, let charity
prevail. But Novatus, you say, would not receive those who lapsed
in the persecution. What do you mean by this? If they were
unrepentant he was right; I too would refuse to receive those who
either would not stoop at all or not sufficiently, and who would refuse
to make their amendment counterbalance their sin; and when I do receive
them, I will assign them their proper place;4006
| 4006 i.e., their proper
class among the Penitents. |
but if he refused those who wore themselves away with weeping, I will
not imitate him. And why should Novatus’s want of charity
be a rule for me? He never punished covetousness, which is a
second idolatry; but he condemned fornication as though he himself were
not flesh and body. What say you? Are we convincing you by
these words? Come and stand here on our side, that is, on the
side of humanity. Let us magnify the Lord together. Let
none of you, even though he has much confidence in himself, dare to
say, Touch me not for I am pure, and who is so pure as I? Give us
too a share in your brightness. But perhaps we are not convincing
you? Then we will weep for you. Let these men then if they
will, follow our way, which is Christ’s way; but if they will
not, let them go their own. Perhaps in it they will be baptized
with Fire, in that last Baptism which is more painful and longer, which
devours wood like grass,4007
and consumes the
stubble of every evil.
XX. But let us venerate to-day the Baptism
of Christ; and let us keep the feast well, not in pampering the belly,
but rejoicing in spirit. And how shall we luxuriate?
“Wash you, make you clean.”4008
If ye be scarlet with sin and less
bloody, be made white as snow; if ye be red, and men bathed in blood,
yet be ye brought to the whiteness of wool. Anyhow be purified,
and you shall be clean (for God rejoices in nothing so much as in the
amendment and salvation of man, on whose behalf is every discourse and
every Sacrament), that you may be like lights in the world, a
quickening force to all other men; that you may stand as perfect lights
beside That great Light, and may learn the mystery of the illumination
of Heaven, enlightened by the Trinity more purely and clearly, of Which
even now you are receiving in a measure the One Ray from the One
Godhead in Christ Jesus our Lord; to Whom be the glory and the might
for ever and ever. Amen.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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