The Father George Florovsky Memorial Lecture
A
discussion of John 17:17-24 in the light of patristic thought.
At the very beginning of this address Ι would
like to say what a high honour and distinct privilege it is for me to be asked
to deliver the annual lecture in commemoration of the faith and testimony of
Father Georges Florovsky.
The protopresbyter G. Florovsky was a man of
great theological contribution, of genuine spiritual vision, and of humble
pastoral diaconia. Ιn the memory of those who had the privilege of knowing him,
he will remain as "an example of the believers, in word, in conversation,
in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity" (1 Tim. 4,12). Ιn the hearts
of those who have known him through his writings he will be remembered as a
theologian dedicated to bear witness to what we call "the Orthodox ethos",
or,"the Orthodox way". Both as a scholar and as a pastor the late
Father G. Florovsky was a living testimony to the Patristic Theology. His
entire theological approach was ad mentem patrum. His constant effort was to
prove that the eternal strength of Orthodox Theology lies in the patristic
inheritance.
With the same intention the Orthodox Theological Society of America, honouring his memory, projects the spirit and the passion, the life and the word of our Fathers. And, indeed, to transmit the spirit and the message of the patristic inheritance is, Ι believe, the best service one can offer to modern man caught up as he is in his οwn self sufficiency and futility.
Status Quaestionis.
The stress οn the patristic way, this supreme
concern of Father Georges Florovsky, leads me to concentrate my attention οn a
theme which was often discussed by the Greek Fathers, and yet is not
infrequently overlooked in our contemporary ecclesiastical life, despite the
fact that it is often included in the agenda for our theological consultations.
Living as we do in a society where emphasis is placed οn programmes and
structures, we often understand the Church as an organism in the narrow sense.
We pay less attention to the fact that she is a new totality, a new generation,
a peculiar gathering of people, in which immense potentialities are offered to
all.
The world in which we live inflicts upon us a
secular and, Ι should say, a worldly understanding of the Church. Thus the fact
that the Church, although in the world, is not of the world frequently escapes
our attention. Ιn fact we do not always realise that the Church is the
transcendence of the world.
When we consider the New Testament data more
carefully and thoroughly we find ourselves in the presence of a new, glowing
life. There is nothing in the world which offers any real parallel to this
remarkable and unique life. The New Testament presents us with the possibility
of realising that ecclesiastical communion is the abolition, in the most
radical way, of any worldly -human communion, and is the creation of a new
relationship. For me, this is summed up in the words of Christ Himself: "Ι
am come to send fire οn the earth... Suppose ye that I am come to give peace οn
earth? Ι tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be
five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. Τhe father
shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother
against the daughter, and the daughter against tbe mother; the mother in law
against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in
law" (Luk.12:49-53)<1>.
Before coming to grips with the issue Ι am
going to discuss, Ι feel that it is necessary to say just a few words about the
theme itself, and the way in which Ι intend to discuss it. Μy concern in this
presentation is to argue the subject: "The People of God: Its unity and
its glory". It is well known that in recent Orthodox Theology issues
related to the people in general, or to the laity in particular, recur
constantly. We speak very frequently about the people of God, about its
importance and its authority<2>. The question is, what do we mean when we
speak of the people, and where do its unity and uniqueness lie? My aim here is
to touch οn this issue and to present a theological outline, or if you like, a
very brief Theology of the people of God.
More precisely, Ι wish to read a concrete
scriptural passage, relevant to the theme proposed, and to examine it in the
light of the patristic interpretation. Μy intention is to draw your attention
to certain aspects of the patristic understanding. However, it must be said
from the beginning that Ι am making no claim to presenting you with a detailed
analysis of every point of the biblical passage which Ι shall use. I shall
rather be taking it as a starting point or a framework of my investigation,
trying to focus my thought οn its main points.
The passage of which Ι am speaking is drawn
from the highpriestly prayer of Christ. When we read this prayer in John's
Gospel we find ourselves face to face with notions that are applied to God and
to the people of God simultaneously. Christ is praying for his disciples but,
as He adds, not "for these alone, but for them also which shall believe οn
me through their word". His concern is for their unity and their sanctification
in the truth. "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth... That
they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and Ι in Thee, that they also
may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me. And the
glory which Thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we
are one: I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one and
that the world may know that Thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as Thou
hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with
me where Ι am; that they may behold my glory, which Thou hast given me"
(Jn.17:17-24).
The Divine Oneness and the unity of the people.
Evidently, this prayer is not concerned with
the future unity of the churches, but with the maintenance of that unity in
glory which was given to the Apostles and to the faithful in and through
Christ<3>. Ιn fact, the prayer has two major themes: the unity of the
disciples and of all those who will believe in Christ through the apostolic
preaching, and their participation in the divine glory. These two points are
obviously interrelated, and Ι believe that they constitute a solid ground for a
Theology of the people.
The main characteristic point of this prayer of
Christ is His request for unity. The word "one" is repeated a
striking number of times within a few lines. It occurs six times in four
verses, and it stresses the paradoxical connection between the divine unity and
the unity of those human persons who had believed in Christ. Ιn fact Christ
stresses the reality of communion with God as the sine qua non condition for
the being of man and for the oneness of all believers. Communion with the
"one" is the only bond which unites the people in one peculiar
unity<4>.
Ιn other words the oneness of the people of God
is not understood as an autonomous and enclosed reality but as a continuous and
dynamic share of the divine fulness and oneness. Or, to put it in another way,
the divine oneness transforms human multiplicity into an harmonious agreement.
The divine oneness covers every aspect of ecclesiastical life, and although
"we have many members in one body", "being many we are one in
Christ" (Rom.l2:4-8). Ι cannot find any other more characteristic and
clear illustration of this than the words of St. Ignatius when he is writing to
the Philadelphians: "Ι exhort you to have but one faith, and one
preaching, and one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ;
and His blood which was shed for us is one; one loaf also is broken for all,
and one cup is distributed among them all: there is but οne altar for the whole
Church, and one bishop, with the presbytery and deacons. Since, also there is
but one unbegotten Being, God, even the Father; and one only-begotten Son. God,
the Word and man; and one Comforter, the Spirit of truth; and also one
preaching, and one faith, and one baptism; and one Church which the holy
apostles established from one end of the earth to the other by the blood of
Christ, and by their οwn sweat and toil; it behoves you also, therefore, as
"a peculiar people, and a holy nation", to perform all things with
harmony in Christ"<5>.
The Old and the New Israel.
Ιn its simplicity St. Ignatius' argument makes
it clear that the oneness of the people is made possible only through the
divine oneness. The gathering of the people of God into one synagogue is thus a
koinonia in the image of the divine communion. The people of the New Israel
form a new, unbroken totality because God freely and willingly, transcending
his transcendence, created a new personal relationship with man. Ιn the Old
Israel the relationship between God and the people was a sort of a
subject-object relationship. God was acting behind the veil of human history.
He was speaking from outside; His word was an external claim: "Hear this,
all ye people, give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world: Both low and high,
rich and poor together" (Ρs.42:1-2). Thus the unity of the Old Israel was
a result of submission to the one voice of God which came as an external law,
commandment or prophetic assurance. Ιn the New Israel the oneness of the people
is the result of a symbiosis and enoikisis, of the dwelling of God among men
(Jn:l:l4). The fundamental difference between Old and New Israel lies in the
radical change from a subject-object relationship to one of participation or
communion. This means that in the New Israel God no longer acts in human
history as an external factor, but enters into the scene of human history
Himself, and becomes the central person in it. This is the meaning of the
"έσκήνωσεν έν ημίν". Thus, by His unique kenotic action the divine
Logos became Himself history enhypostasized. By His self-emptying and abasement
He is involved in human history in a personal and direct way. Zizioulas speaks
of the "existential involvment"<6> of God in human history.
This "existential involvment"<6> of God in human destiny
constitutes the surpassing of the law by the truth. It is in this sense that
Ρaul spoke of the ransom (εξαγορά) of those who were under the law (Gα1 .4:5) .
Hence the New Israel is in an absolutely new situation, one created by God's
kenotic going out and by His redemptive indwelling (enoikesis) in man. Clearly,
this means that the unity οf the new people of God resulted from the personal
communion which was created by the incarnate Logos. The divine Logos became the
unifying bond, the gathering of the people "from the four winds" or "from
the ends of the earth".
The divine and the human ecstasy
Ιn their attempt to stress the connection
between the divine oneness and the oneness of the new people, the Areopagite
and St. Maximus the Confessor speak of God's ecstatic action. This divine
ecstasy is understood as a movement of God, and as dwelling in the heart of
human reality. Thus the incarnation implies an exodus of God out of Himself,
while He yet stays within Himself, in order to eliminate the existing gulf
between God and man. This ecstasy or movement of God is understood in terms of
divine love. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten
Son" (Jn.3:16).
God's ecstatic love can be compared with
nothing, since it is a love beyond human experience. It is a unifying and
conjoining love, diametrically opposed to human love which is "a partial,
physical and divided quality". While God's love is "beginningless"
and "endless" revolving "in a perpetual circle for the Good,
from the Good, in the Good, and to the Good", human love is a "vain
image" or a "lapse" of the real love<7>. Both the author
of the Areopagite texts and Maximus the Confessor prefer to use the term έρως
in order to speak about the divine love. The term "yearning" is
considered to be "more divine", and better illustrates the fact that
God, although unmovable in Himself, is moved in order to make man free from his
divisions and his loneliness. Thus God in His yearning is transported outside
of Himself, and being united with human nature hypostatically, but without
confusion, He transfers divine unity to the human level. The ecstatic
"emigration", so to speak, of the incarnate Logos forms the ontological
basis of what we call "one body". Thus in and through Christ man has
the possibility of connecting himself with the perfect divine oneness in a
personal and unique communion of love. This is what is meant, Ι believe, by
Christ's words: "Ι in them, and Thou in me, that they may be perfect in
one". God's outgoing constitutes the presupposition and the beginning of
man's going out of himself in order to meet the divine Thou and to reach a
personal communion with Him.
Thus, in and through Christ, the incarnate
Word, we have a reciprocal ecstasis. God is moved in a yearning going out in
order to mοve man towards Himself. At one and the same time He is both: He who
acts the unique and ecstatic yearning, and the object of love. He is both έρως
and εραστόν. As έρως is moved out of Himself, and as εραστόν is the motive
power leading towards Ηimself, those who are able to do so receive His
love<8>. It is within this theological context that Ignatius' words
"Ηe whom Ι yearn for is crucified" (ο εμός έρως εσταύρωται)<9>
can be understood. And it is from this perspective that we must read Ρaul's
words: "Ι live, and yet not Ι, but Christ liveth in me"
(Ga1.2:20)<10>.
God's ecstatic movement towards man, and man's
free respond in a motion of love towards God, which is also ecstatic, form
precisely the community of the new Israel. The communion of the new people in
Christ is thus a meeting which is effected in a double motion, of both God and
man. The kenotic movement of the Logos is the embracing and the unification of human
nature, which is, due to sin, partial and divided. As such it constitutes the
locus in which every human ego can create its οwn personal and unique
relationship with God. But it should be underlined once more at this point that
this new communion presupposes not only the "emigration" of God, but
also the "emigration" of man. Μan must respond to God's offer by
freely offering his own existence to Ηim who became a "curse"
(Gal.3:13), in order to re-establish the lost communion of man with his
creator. It is important, I think, to note in connection with this that, in a
certain sense, man carries his fellow believers along with him through his free
dedication to God. The free offering of the one results in, and provokes, the
offering of the other. It is a challenge which urges others to do likewise. Ιn
other words the offering of the one contributes to the increase and growth of
the entire eccleslastical body, and to the maturing of it. Ιn this sense the
offering of the one becomes an ecclesiological act with catholic significance.
And it is precisely this offering of the one, which leads to the offering of
the others, that we have in mind when we sing in the divine liturgy: "Let
us commit ourselves and one another and our whole life unto Christ our God".
The Person of the Father as the cause of the
divine unity.
Ιn discussing the question of the unity of the
people there are some further observations to be made which may throw more
light οn the issue. The first point which deserves to be given more careful
considerarion is the connection between the divine unity and the unity of the
people of God. The question is stressed clearly, as has already been pointed
out, by Christ: "that they may be one, even as we are one". The
divine oneness is the model for the oneness of the people. Ιn fact, the people
can be one οnly because the Triune God is the fulness of unity<11>.
Let me undertake a doctrinal analysis. Ιn the
tradition of the Greek Fathers it is commonly asserted that the source, the
beginning and the recapitulation of the intertrinitarian unity is the Person of
the Father. The oneness of God is thus understood as having a
"personal" dimension, so to speak. The one God is not the inaccesible
divine nature, but is the Father, the cause of the existence of the other two
divine persons. The Father, the principle of the Hypostases, gives Himself over
to the other two divine persons, generating the Son, and causing the Holy
Spirit to proceed, thus establishing a unique unity based οn His monarchy. We
have to understand this "giving over" of the Father as the
communication of His divine essence to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. This
ecstasis of the Father is an action of freedom and of love. It is a personal
kenosis, so to speak, an akenotos kenosis of the Father for the benefit of the
other two divine persons. The Son and the Holy Spirit respond freely to this
"gushing forth" of the Father's love. They neither usurp the Father's
love for their own benefit, nor seize it (Phil.2:6), but offer their existence
and life to the Father in love, as He does to them. This exchange (antidosis)
in love and freedom is expressed as absolute obedience to the Father's
will<12>.
I think it is clear from what has been pointed
out so far that the ontological cause of the Godhead and of the divine oneness
is not the divine essence, but the Hypostasis of the Father. God's unity and
the intertrinitarian life are not the consequence of the one nature but of the
existence of the Father through Whom the Son and the Holy Spirit receive their
existence. "Αll that the Son and the Spirit have", says St. John
Damascene, "is from the Father, even their very being; and unless the
Father is, neither the Son nor the Spirit is. And unless the Father possesses a
certain attribute, neither the Son nor the Spirit possesses it: and through the
Father, that is, because of the Father's existence, the Son and the Spirit
exist, and through the Father, that is, because of the Father having the
qualities, the Son and the Spirit have all their qualities"<13>.
The Person of the Son as the cause of the
ecclesiastical unity.
Thus in the Trinitarian life it is the Person
of the Father Who is the sole cause of the existence of the other two divine
persons, and is consequently the unique principle of the divine communion. The
Person of the Father is the ontological basis of the divine communion.
Likewise, in the Church it is the Person of the incarnate Logos Who makes every
human being a unique person, thus establishing a communion of persons in the
image of the communion of the three divine Persons. The incarnate Logos
transfered the divine unity to the human level as a personal communion. The
incarnate Logos becomes the ontological foundation of the new people. This
means that there can be unity of the people because there is Christ. It is the
Person of the incarnate Logos Who reveals the authentic human person and makes
every human being a unique person in communion with others.
What does this mean? What do we mean when we
say that the incarnate Logos reveals the authentic human person and creates a
communion of persons? At first sight we simply mean that the Logos of God
reestablished in His Person the divine image which had been obscured by sin,
thus opening the way for man's liberation from his estrangment, from his
isolation and individuality. It also means that the foundation of the unity οf
the new people cannot be found outside personal communion. The unity οf the
people is not the consequence of a particular external teaching. The unifying
force of the people is not theoretical agreement. Similarly, its oneness is not
based οn a new common law, with new commandments and regulations.
Let us state the argument again: the uniqueness
of the New Testament people lies in the fact that this λαός exists as α
communion of persons. Its unity must be understood not in terms of human agreement,
nor even of metaphysical beliefs, but as a recapitulation in the unique Person
of the incarnate Logos. Ιn the final analysis this means that, if there is
unity, it is because the re-creation of the human person is realised in Christ.
St. Ρaul puts this well in his epistle to the Ephesians: "Ιn Christ Jesus
ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is
our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of
partition between us; having abolished in His flesh the enmity... for to make
in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile
both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby... Νοw
therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizents with
the saints, and of the household of God" (2:13-19) .
This passage from Ρaul refers primarily to the
gentiles who are "fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers"
of the promise of God in Christ by the gospel (Eph.3:6). It is also significant,
however, for a generally better understanding of the unity of persons in the
one body of the Church. The point is that in the Person οf Christ all
distinction and divisions are abolished. And we know that the corruption of
human nature is due to the fact that it is a rupture and a breaking off of the
original unity established by God. Let me briefly elaborate οn this.
The unifying energy of the Creator.
We are aware that when we speak of the creation
we mean that God, freely and in love, exercises His personal capacity of
producing entirely new beings. Creation ex nihilo implies that God created
realities which are outside of His οwn being. But although He created realities
outside Himself, and despite the fact that there is an "infinite"
distance, or rather an ontological gulf (χάσμα), between the nature of God and
that of created beings, God's intention was not one of producing beings which
would have no participation in His glory. "Since God", explains the
Damascene, "Who is good and more than good, did not find satisfaction in
self-contemplation, but is His exceeding goodness wished certain things to come
into existence which would enjoy His benefits and share in His goodness, He
brought all things into being and created them, both what is invisible and what
is visible. Yet, even man, who is a compound of the visible and the
invisible"<14>.
Τhus the ontological gulf between the uncreated
Lord and His creatures is nullified by God's love and His immutable maintenance
of all created beings. This means that despite the fact that God creates beings
outside Himself there is still a strong connection between Himself and the
created things. God abolishes the infinite distance between uncreated and
created through His unifying and perfecting energy which permeates all. Again Ι
must quote from St. John of Damascus who speaks of the "divine radiance
and activity", which although it is in itself "one and simple and
indivisible... is multiplied without division among the divided, and gathers
and converts the divided into its οwn simplicity. For all things long after it
and have their existence in it. It gives also to all things being according to
their several natures, and it is itself the being of existing things, the life
of living things, the reason of rational beings, the thought of thinking
beings. But it is itself above mind and reason and life and
essence"<15>.
The primordial vocation of created beings was
unity with the creator. And although the created, according to its nature, is
outside God, its call and ultimate destiny was to be in union with Him and to
share in His goodness. We must emphasize here that the connection between
created and uncreated must be understood not only in terms of dependence, but
also in terms of God's penetration of the universe, and of His holding and
containing of it. The divine power creates, holds together and unites all
beings. St. Gregory of Nyssa is very explicit οn this matter: "The divine
power", he says, "skilful and wise, is manifested in the beings, and,
pervading everything, adapts the parts to the whole, and completes the whole by
the parts, and through one power holds together the universe"<16>.
God the creator holds all the created beings together in existence and in unity
and communion with Himself. God "the source of the beauty and of every
good", adds the Areopagite, "is the cause of all (ποιητικόν αίτιον),
and the mover of all, and that which holds all together in the love of Its
beauty... and among beings there is nothing which does not participate in the
Good and the beautiful"<17>. One of the characteristic properties of
the uncreated power is "to pervade and to extend to every part of the
nature of beings"<18>.
Although the theme οf God's containing and
penetrating His created beings has a philosophical background, namely stoic and
neoplatonic<19>, the patristic urderstanding of it goes beyond the
philosophical approach. The unity is understood by the Fathers in purely
Biblical and Theological terms. They did not speak of it in terms of speculation,
but always and constantly within a soteriological context. Ιn fact it is the
divine "emigration" and radiance of God, the trinitarian love, which
calls the created beings to share the divine unity and glory..
The destructive character of sin.
This original oneness and conjuction (συνάφεια)
of the universe with God, the symphony (σύμπνοια), so to speak, of all beings
with one another was dissolved by sin. Ιn order to understand the unity of the
people of God better it is necessary to say a few words about the destructive
character of sin. Sin introduced discord and confusion into the created
universe. Even the material world undergoes its effects. Sin is understood in
the patristic anthropology as being a catastrophe caused-by the free will of
intelligent beings. It is a turning away which causes the entire cosmos to
break loose from its creator. The primordial vocation was for unity, but sin
introduces division.
As a matter of fact sin is a continuous
decomposition disorganization and dissolution of the unity created by God. It
is a separation and disruption in the harmony οf beings. The author of the
Areopagite treatises speaks of sin as "an inharmonious mingling of
discordant elements"<20>. Thus, in the condition of sin, man is
separated from God as well as from his fellow man. This means that, in the
final analysis, selfhood and hate are introduced instead of eros for the
"other" person. It is in this sense that Jean Ρaul Sartre spoke of
the other as "hell" and "sin". "Μy original fall is
the existence of the other"<21>. The sinful condition implies that
man understands himself not as a person in connection with God and other human
persons, but as an individual. Under the heavy yoke of time and space the
individual man follows his οwn way which leads nowhere. The ideal of "my
existence for the other, and the other's existence for me" is understood
as being an illusion, or rather as the condition for the exercise of a
lie<22>. From this perspective man is the being "who is what he is
not, and who is not what he is"<23>. Ιn the condition of sin the
first man, instead of "being with" the other (Heideger's "mit
sein"), found himself in a state of absolute isolation "at the east
.of the garden of Edem" (Gen.3:24). The words of God addressed to him,
"in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread" (Gen.3:l9), describe
the human tragedy of opposition to God and separation from Him. Thus, by the
free acceptance of sin, the innate connection between man and God was destroyed.
And so man, instead of loving God and being His servant, in a world of which he
was designated to be prophet, priest and king<24>, became an alien and a
stranger. Ιn fact sin consists in the limitation of man to his individuality.
It is a reduction of the human person within the limits of his οwn existence.
Thus through sin man became a stranger to his communion with God, a stranger to
his fellowship with the human "other", and even a stranger to
himself. Sin, as a decomposition and separation, effects both the
disorganisation and the disruption of the human person itself.
The man of sin, in other words, is a divided
personality. The original and innate unity of the human person is disrupted and
dissolved by sin. Ι cannot find any clearer exposition of this division of the
human person than that expounded by Ρaul: "The good that I would Ι do not:
but the evil which Ι would not, that Ι do. Νοw if Ι do that Ι would not, it is
no more Ι that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me... Ι see another law in my
members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin which is in my members. Ο wretched man that Ι am! who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom.7:19-24).
The restoration of the human person:
The decomposition of the human person affects
the very structure of his being. It is, as Gregory of Nyssa would say, a real
"analysis" of man<25>. The original unity of soul and body
became uncertain and unstable through sin. Ιn short, sin abolishes man as a
person. It is a decomposition of his very being, it makes him live this divided
and disorganised life οnly for himself, and thus it deprives him of the
possibility of living in fellowship with others and with God. It is οnly
through the self-emptying of the Person of the Logos οf God that a new creation
and restructuring of the human person can be realised. St. Gregory of Nyssa
uses the term αναστοιχείωσις to stress the radical change effected in the very
structure of man's existence. The restoration or, even better; the
recombination of the human person results from the person of the incarnate
Logos, and consequently its authentic state of κοινωνία is re-established. Just
as evil "was poured into a multitude of persons by one man through
succeeding generations", similarly "the good begotten in human nature
was bestowed upon every person as one entity"<26>. St. Maximus the
Confessor likes to explain that "that which was absolutely immovable
according to nature, moved, and God became Μan in order to save the lost
man". Salvation is understood in terms of unification of the divided human
nature. Thus the divine Logos, through His self-emptying re-establishes the
ancient harmony of nature. Βy His penetration of man's nature Christ brings
together the divided parts of our nature, so as to form one perfect unity
again<27>. Indeed, Christ is the gathering of all together in one
(Eph.l:l0)
At this point Ι would like to underline the
fact that the unification of man's divided nature is an act of God which is
"personal": Let me elaborate very briefly οn this. Earlier in this
paper Ι tried to explain that, according to the patristic understanding, the
basis of the divine unity is the Person of the Father, not the inaccessible
divine essence. Ι also tried to explain that, in an analogous way, the unity of
the people of God is founded οn the Person of the incarnate Logos. This means
that unity, both as intertrinitarian communion as well as fellowship of the
people in Christ, is not an "ontological necessity"; due to either
the nature of God as regards divine unity, or to human nature as regards unity
in the Church.
The people are one not because they all belong
to and share in the same nature, but because, through the personal abasement of
the second divine Person, they themselves become persons, thus sharing in the
personal life of Christ. It is the Person of Christ, not an impersonal
divinity, who re-establishes human persons.
The notion of "person" is an
essential christian concept, based οn the reality of God being personal, and οn
the fact that man has been created in the divine image in order not to be
confined in his οwη self, but to share the divine life, in fellowship with
others. And, although the term prosopon is well known in classical Greek
antiquity, it is only in Christian thought, namely in the Greek patristic
tradition, that it finds its theological content. Neither in the Aristotelian
system, nor in Platonic philosophy, nor in the Stoics, nor even in the revival
of the Platonic tradition in Middle and Neο-Platonism does the notion of
"person" acquire a satisfactory and solid meaning.
The inability of Greek philosophy to give a
positive answer to the question of personality lies in the fact that the person
is understood as an exclusively human and worldly reality. According to the
Greeks the person is limited within the boundaries of time and space. It is
always under the heavy yoke of time and space that all people of all
generations move along. And even the gods themselves are presented as being
prisoners of this double yoke. Thus the human personality pulling time and
space becomes a tragic phenomenon. Αncient Greek tragedy vividly expresses the
drama of the human being who, pushed by some invisible force, follows a path of
sufferings, afflictions and pain. The use of masks in the Greek tragedies
expresses nothing other than man's strong desire to surpass and to free himself
from his destiny. The ancient world presents us with a depersonalized human
person without hope, a moribunt human person who, under the yoke of time and
space constantly suffers the pangs of death, and yet never dies. This is a
human person under the dominion of sin and death. We can speak of sin as the
power which deprives man of his authentic person. St.Gregory of Nyssa says that
through sin man has changed the image of God i.e. his real person, with a mask
(προσωπείον)<28>. It is the Christian Gospel which reveals the true
dimension of the human person. Ιn and through the Gospel human tragedy is
transfigured into a new reality. This transfiguration is understood in terms of
re-creation of the hidden and obscured human person. St. Gregory of Nyssa
speaks again about the repainted and restored image of God<29>. Thus the
importance and the uniqueness of the Gospel lie in the fact that the human
impasse as presented in the Greek tragedies has been overcome. Through all life's
afflictions and pains man can now hear the consoling voice of God manifested in
the flesh: "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for Ι am meek and
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy,
and my burden is light" (Math.,11:28-30).
The unity of the people, unity of persons.
The point which Ι am trying to make is that the
unity of the people of God is a unity of persons. This means precisely that the
unity of the ecclesiastical body is not the result of tlιe coexistence of
certain individuals who accept the same theoretical or moral principles, but is
indeed a communion of those who share freely, and in the measure which has been
given to them, in the life of the divine Persons. As a matter of fact the
notion of personality is understood by the Greek Fathers as being a primarily
theological notion. Ιn the final analysis this means that outside God the idea
of the person is an illusion. Ιn other words the authentic person is an
uncreated reality. Because the person is uncreated reality it is absolutely
free from every necessity, even from the "necessity" (if we can speak
in this way of its οwn nature. It is within this theological context that we
can understand the persistent efforts of the Greek Fathers to maintain that the
principle of divine unity is the Person of the Father, and not the common
divine essence. The Person of the Father is the bond of trinitarian unity,
because He freely comfers His οwn nature οn the Son and οn the Ηοly Spirit,
thus establishing a peculiar and unique divine union and communion. And it is
again within this theological context that the fact can be beter understood
that, in His self-emptying, the eternal Logos of God dwelt among us freely in
order to realise in His theandric Person the restoration (αποκατάστασις) of the
human person. This means that, in other words, the unity and community of
persons in the Church is possible because the second divine Persοn became one
of us, by taking one individual and concrete human nature. Thus the Logos of
God, consubstantial with the Father through divinity, becoming consubstantial
with us through humanity, recreated the human person and transferred the divine
unity to the human level. Therefore the unity of the people is, as we have
already pointed out, the reflection and the image of divine communion; or, to
put it in more conciliar terminology, the unity of the people of God is
precisely theandric. Ι think that we can somehow see the theandric character of
the people of God in the words of Christ Himself, as they were preserved by
John: "Ι in them, and Thou in me, that they may be perfect in one"
(17:23) .
Ιn the light of what has been pointed out so
far it is, Ι think, clear that the true stature of the human person is
exhibited in and through Christ. Ι believe it is also clear that the union of
the people of God, this peculiar communion of persons is possible οnly "εν
Χριστώ". It is only in Christ that we are offered the possibility of
seeing what God is, both in His personal character as well as in His
relationship to us. The "εν Χριστώ" is therefore the necessary
presupposition for the unity of human persons in the one body of the Church. The
"εν Χριστώ" means that the communion of the people of God is neither
simply a humanitarian fellowship, nor even a company of believers, but is
indeed the one body of the incarnate God; the body which is maintained in its
integrity by the continuing presence of Christ and the Holy Spirit throughout
the course of human history.
Unity in the Holy Spirit (Faith and the
Sacraments).
The fact that Christ is present in the midst of
His flock in every historical "now" evidently implies that the unity
of the people is based, not οn an abstract agreement, but on a direct and
personal relationship. This relationship is established through the Ηοly
Spirit, by faith and in the Sacraments. "By one Spirit are we all baptized
into one body" (1 Cor.l2:13)."We being many are one bread, and one
body: for we are all partakers of that one bread" (l Cor.l0;17). "One
body, and one Spirit... One Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Eph. 4:4-5).
Thus, by faith and in the Sacraments, Christ assumes in the Holy Spirit our
personal existence and permits us to be in communion with Him, i.e. to
participate existentially in His οwn life. Ιn this sense the unity in the body
of the Church is not a one-side unity, nor is it uncoditionally given, but it
implies man's personal affirmation of the personal call of God. The personal
involvment of Christ in human destiny calls for our personal existence to be
incorporated into His body.
The reconstruction of human existence and the
unity of the "new man" are realized at the personal level by the act
of acceptance of the life of Christ and especially of the central fact of this
unique life, i.e. the death and the resurrection. Therefore, in order to
transmit into his οwη ego the unification realized in the Hypostasis of the
incarnate Logos, man must accept existentially the άπαξ and for all event of
Christ's death and resurrection. "...So many of us as were baptized into
Jesus Christ were baptized into His death. Therefore we are buried with Him by
baptism into death: that as Christ was raised up from death by glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom.6:3-4). Thus,
through baptism, life and resurrection; which were achieved by Christ's
voluntary death, are realized in the very existence of man. By going through the
mystery of Christ's death and resurrection, every believer is clothed in Him.
Obviously the death of the believer in baptism is a symbol and an immitation of
real death. And although the death is not real but only an image, its
consequences are those of a real transcendence of death. Here lies the mystery
of the restoration of the human person and of its glory in the Church. Through
imitation and a symbolic act man receives the gifts of the resurrection.
It is interesting to recall in this connection
the point made by St.Symeon the New Theologian. Although St. Symeon follows the
traditional teaching of the Fathers οn sacramental baptism and recognises it as
an act of therapy, regeneration and renewal of man, he also speaks of a second
baptism which he calls "baptism in the Holy Spirit". This second
baptism is a stage in the christian life which insures and maintains the effect
of the sacramental baptism. The second baptism affirms the uniqueness and
significance of the first. It is, so to speak, a testimony to, or a continuous
presence of the gifts provided by the sacramental baptisτn. As a matter of fact
this second baptism is nothing other than that repentance which offers to the
individual Christian a deeper understanding of his christian consciousness, and
a greater awareness of Christ as Lord and Saviour<30>. This baptism in
the Ηοly Spirit presupposes the personal kenosis of the believer in repentance,
and indeed it is the medium for the accomplishment in the Holy Spirit of his
final goal, i.e. of deification.
"Display a worthy penitence", argues
St. Symeon, "by means of all sorts of deeds and words, that you may draw
yourselves the grace of the all-holy Spirit. For this Spirit, when He descends
οn you, becomes like a pοοl of light to you, which encompasses you completely
in an unutterable manner. As it regenerates you, it changes you from
corruptible to incorruptible, from mortal to immortal, from sons of man into
Sons of God and gods by adoption and grace"<31>.
It is of special interest for our study here to
look at the way in which St. Symeon connects baptism in the Spirit with the
unity of the people of God. His exposition is basically a synthesis of New
Testament material, and the unity of which we are speaking is presented as a
trinitarian dwelling. Ιn order to clarify his position St. Symeon uses the
image of the house, of the door of the house, and of the key to the door. The
key to the door, he explains, is the Ηοly Spirit "because through Him and
in Him we are first enlightened in mind. We are purified and illuminated with
the light of knowledge; we are baptized from οn high and born anew (cf. Jn.
3:3-5) and made into children of God"<32>. The door of the house is
the Son Himself , "for, says He, Ι am the door: by me if any man enter in
he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture"
(Jn.10:7,9)<33>. Finally, the house itself is the Father. Christ spoke of
this when he said "in my Father's house are many mansions"
(Jn.l4:2)<34>.
St. Symeon is here engaged in pointing out
explicitly that participation in the divine glory is effected in and through
the Holy Spirit. He uses this image in order to guide man to a deeper
understanding of the significance of baptism in the Spirit. According to him
the crucial thing to do is to understand that only in and through the Ηοly
Spirit do we know God, do we become His children and partakers of His ineffable
light. It is precisely this dwelling of the Holy Spirit in the human person
which constitutes his divine adoption and inner transfiguration. It is within
this context that we can understand Ρaul's words, "The Spirit Himself
intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words" (Rom.8:26), and again,
"God has given His Spirit in our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!"
(Ga1.4:6).
Bearing what has been pointed out so far in
mind we reach the conclusion that the Ηοly Spirit was sent to the world, in the
name of the Son, to bear witness (Jn.l5:23), and to guide human persons to Him,
and through Him to the Father of Lights. "Ιn theological terms",
argues St. Symeon, "we use the term house of the Son, as we use it of the
Father, for He says, "Thou, Ο Father, art in Me, and I in them, and they
in Me, and I, Ο Father, in Thee, that we may be one" (cf.Jn. 17:21,23),
together.with the Holy Spirit. He also says "Ι will live in them and move
among them" (2 Cor. 6,16). "Ι and the Father will come and make our
home with him" (Jn.14:23), through the Hοly Spirit"<35>.
Nevertheless it is true that, not only in St.
Symeon the New Theologian's trinitarian theology, but also in the entire
patristic tradition, a strong conviction exists that the Holy Spirit effects
the integrity of the divided human person and the restoration of disunited
humanity. The Paraclete enters the world to be the unifying principle of the
new kingdom, the one force which guides all believers to the one faith and the
one Lord. Ιn fact, the Holy Spirit Himself is the enhypostasized
kingdom<36>, and He makes of the people a "royal priesthood" and
"a holy nation" (1 Pet.2,9). Thus "men, women and
children", to quote Maximus, "profoundly divided as to race, nation,
language, manner of life, work, knowledge, honour, fortune... the Church
recreates all of them in the Spirit. Το all equally she communicates a divine
aspect. Αll receive from her a unique nature which cannot be broken asunder, a
nature which nο longer permits one henceforth to take into consideration the
many and profound differences which are their lot. Ιn that way all are raised
up and united in a manner which is truly catholic. Ιn her none is in the least
degree separated from the community, all are grounded, so to speak, in one
another by the simple and indivisible power of faith"<37>.
Life in the Holy Spirit presupposes faith ("He
that believeth and is baptised shall be saved": Mark 16:16), co-exists
with faith ("The Spirit Itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we
are the children of God": Rom.8:16), and maintains faith ("Νο man can
say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Ηοly Spirit": 1
Cor.l2:13)<38>. This means that the one faith of the people is an
acceptance neither of certain metaphysical axioms, nor of a set of laws given
to men for their moral betterment by a God who acts authoritatively behind the
scene of human activity. Faith implies an existential agreement in the Ηοly
Spirit. It is "a fruit of the Spirit" a charisma (Ga1.5:22), to which
man responds in a deeply personal way. "Our faith, brethren", claim
the Orthodox Patriarchs of the East in their famous Encyclical of 1848,
"is neither from man nor by man"<39>. And it is for precisely
this reason that the people of God, as a whole possesses a spiritual sense
which makes it a "defender of the faith"40.
It is very important to stress in connection
with this that faith "by the Hοly Spirit" is not understood
exclusively as a possession οn the individual level: rather, it finds its
significance in the context of the ecclesiastical community. Ιn other words, personal
faith is in absolute harmony with the faith of the Catholic Church. This means
that the faith of each human individual in the one body of the Church becomes
truly Orthodox when it is identified with the Catholic conscience of the
Church, and is expressed as "consensus fidelium".
Life in the Holy Spirit, i.e. the life of
persons who are bound together by one baptism, one faith and identity οf
experience, is fulfilled in the eucharistic gathering. The eucharistic assembly
is the concrete manifestation of the communion with God in Christ and in the
Ηοly Spirit. It is the realisation, through the invocation of the Holy Spirit
by the Church, of the one body. "When we are fed", points out Ν.
Cabasilas, "with the most sacred Bread and do drink the most Divine Cup,
we do partake of the same flesh and the same blood our Lord has assumed, and so
we are united with Him Who was for us incarnate, and died, and rose
again"<41>.
The Eucharist is the transcendence of any
division; it constitutes the restoration of the ancient sympony between God and
man. Ιn it each participant exists as a person in communion both with God and
with the other human parsons. By partaking of the bread and wine one becomes
simultaneously both a communicant of the whole Christ, Who is "broken and
not disunited", and a communicant of the entire Church. Or to put it
better, in the Eucharist every human person becomes the totus Christus and the
entire Church. Thus the bread of the Eucharist constitutes the central point of
ecclesiastical unity. Ιndeed, the Eucharist is the historical realisation of
Christ's words: "Ι in them, and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect
in one" (Jn.17:23). The bread being eaten by man in his fallen condition,
"in the sweat of his face" (Gen.3:19) shows, and in fact maintains
his isolation and individuality. Ιn contrast to this the eucharistic bread, by
the power of the Ηοly Spirit, maintains the unity of human persons in Christ.
"The glory which you have given me, Ι have
given to them".
When we stress the fact that the Holy Spirit
creates unity in Christ, and when we attend to understand this unity in terms
of a relationship we come again to the crucial point of the entrance and
dwelling of the Holy Spirit in the human reality. The Ηοly Spirit's permeation
of the ecclesiastical body constitutes the glory and the kingship of the
people, since the Holy Spirit Itself is Kingship and Glory. Ιn His prayer for
unity Christ stresses His relationship with the Spirit, and the fact that His
relationship with the Father can be reproduced by the Spirit, in an analogous
way, in the lives of those who follow Him. "The glory Thou gavest me Ι
have given them; that they may be one, even as we are οne" (Jn.I7:22).
"Christ's οwn glory", points out St. Gregory of Nyssa, "is meant
to be the Holy Spirit which He has given to His disciples by breathing upon
them, for what is scattered cannot otherwise be united unless joined together
by the Holy Spirit's unity". Thus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, bestows His
own life οn the lives of all who are willing and able to receive Him. Christ
can be reached οnly through the Spirit.,"Anyone who does not have the
Spirit does not belong to Him" (Rom.8:9). The Spirit is glory, as Christ
Himself pointed out when He was addressing His Father: "Glorify me with
the glory which Ι had with you before the world was made" (Jn.17:5). When
St. Gregory of Nyssa comments οn this passage from John, he makes the following
clarification: "The Logos is God Who has the Father's glory. But because
in these last days He became flesh, it was necessary for the flesh to become
what the Logos ever was (that is, to become divine) by uniting itself to Him.
And precisely this was effected when the flesh received that which the Logos
had before the world was made. And this is none other than the Ηοly Spirit,
that same Ηοly Spirit existing before the ages together with the Father and the
Son"<42>.
If we read Christ's statement, "the glory
which yοu have given me, Ι have given to them, that they may be one", in
this hermeneutical context, we can easily understand where the ultimate
criterion of the oneness of the people lies. The mystery of Christian existence
and fellowship is based οn and connect with the personal and dynamic presence
in the ecclesiastical body of the "heavenly King", "the Lord,
the giver of life". "Νοw the Lord is that Spirit: and where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory
to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor.3:17-1g)<43>.
Ν Ο Τ Ε S
1. See also Math. 10:34-35.
2. Thus, we often, make statements such as,:
"The apostolic preaching is protected within the entire ecclesiastical
body", or "the people of God in its entirety is the bearer of
tradition", and so οn.
3. See the comments of St. Gregory of Nyssa in:
Ιn Illud, tunc ipse Filius Subjicietur..., PG 44, 1321Aff.
4. "Μίαν ουν τινα και
απλήν της ειρηνικής ενώσεως θεωρήσωμεν φύσιν, ενούσαν άπαντα εαυτή και εαυτοίς
και αλλήλοις, και διασώζουσαν πάντα εν ασυγχύτω πάντων συνοχή και αμιγή και
συγκεκραμένα". Pseudo-Dionysius, De Divinis Nominibus, PG
3,949C. This unity is often called ενοείδεια in the writings of the Areopagite,
i.e. a unity of a single form, of one and the same kind and character.
5. Chapter IV.
6. See J.D.Zizioulas, "The Authority of
the Bible", The Ecumenical Review, ΧΧΙ 1969), p. 162ff.
7. De Divinis
Nominibus, PG 3, 709BC. 712D.
8. "Ως μεν έρως
υπάρχον το θείον και αγάπη κινείται, ως δε εραστόν και αγαπητόν κινεί προς
εαυτό πάντα τα έρωτος και αγάπης δεκτικά". Maximus
the Confessor, Ambiguorum Liber, PG 91, 1260C.
9. Ad Rom. 6. See also Pseudo-Dionysius, De
Divinis Nominibus, PG 3, 709Β.
10.
Pseudo-Dionysius, De Divinis Nominibus, PG 3, 712Α.
11. Ιn the life of the superessential and
life-giving Trinity, unity appears not as an additional or compound category,
but as an absolutely radical reality which is beyond conjunctions and
divisions. The number "One" as an arithmetical category is
insufficient to describe -the divine unity. Unity as a mathematical concept
presupposes compoundness. But we know, explains St. John of Damascus, that only
those which are "composed of imperfect elements must necessarily be
compound". We also know that "compoundness is the beginning of
separation". However there is nothing in the intertrinitarian life which
is imperfect, or which compounds, or which leads to separation. The three
divine Hypostases are absolutely perfect, and consequently nο compound can
arise from Them. The three divine Persons are united in such a way "not so
as to commingle, but so as to cleave to each other and they have their being in
each other without any coalescence or commingling". While each divine
Hypostasis is perfect in Himself, and has His οwn mode of existence, "each
one of Them is related as closely to the others as to Himself". De Fide
Orthodoxa, Lib. Ι, PG 94, 824Α-828C.
12. See my article: "Paradosis: The
Orthodox Understanding of Tradition", Sobornost Incorporating Eastern
Churches Review, 4:1 (1983) , p. 31.
13. De Fide
Orthodoxa, Lib. Ι, PG 94, 824ΑΒ.
14. Ibid., Lib. ΙΙ, PG 94, 864C-865Α.
15. Ibid., Lib. Ι, 860C
16. De anima et
resurrectione, PG 46, 28Α. For a fuller discussion see
D.L.Balas, Μετουσία Θεού. Μan's Participation in God's Perfections according to
Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Romae 1966, pp. 115-120,
17. De divinis
Nominibus, PG 3, 701C-704B.
18. Cathech. Or., ed. by J.H.Srawley, pp. 118,
10-119, 3. PG 45, 80D.
19. See J. Dupont, Gnosis. La connaissance religieuse dans les epitres de St. Ρaul, Louvain 1960, pp. 461-468, 463-466. See
also D.L.Balas, op.cit., p. 117.
20. De Divinis Nominibus, PG 3, 809BC.
21. Being and Nothingness. Α Phenomenological
Essay οn Orthodoxy, transl. by H.E.Barnes, New York 1956, p. 352.
22. Ibid., p.88.
23. Ibid., p. 100.
24. See G. Florovsky, "The Darkness of
Night". Creation and Redemption, Belmont, Mass., 1976, p. 85.
25. "Εις γην διά της
αμαρτίας αναλυθέντος". In Illud..., PG 44, 1312Α.
26. Ibid., 1312ΑΒ.
27. "...κινείται το
πάντη κατά φύσιν ακίνητον, και Θεός άνθρωπος γίνεται, ίνα σώση τον απολόμενον
άνθρωπον, και της κατά το παν καθόλου φύσεως δι' εαυτού τα κατά φύσιν ενώσας
ρήγματα, και τους καθόλου των επί μέρους προσφερομένους λόγους, οις η των
διηρημένων γίνεσθαι πέφυκεν ένωσις, δείξας την μεγάλην βουλήν πληρώση τού Θεού
και Πατρός, εις εαυτόν ανακεφαλαιώσας τα. πάντα τα εν τω ουρανώ και τα επί της
γης, εν ω καί εκτίσθησαν. Αμέλει τοι της καθόλου των πάντων προς εαυτόν
ενώσεως, εκ της ημών αρξάμενος διαιρέσεως γίνεται τέλειος άνθρωπος, εξ ημών δι'
ημάς καθ' ημάς...". Ambiguorum
Liber, PGr 91, 1308D-1309Α.
28. De Hominis
Opificio, PG 44, 193C. For a further discussion of the subject
"Person", see: Χ.Γιανναρά, Τo Οντολογικόν Περιεχόμενον της Θεολογικής Εννοίας του Προσώπου, Athens 1970. Ι. Ζηζιούλα, "Από το Προσωπείον εις το Πρόσωπον. Η
Συμβολή της Πατερικής Θεολογίας εις την έννοιαν του Προσώπου". Χαριστήρια
εις τιμήν του Μητροπολίτου Γέροντος Χαλκηδόνος Μελίτωνος, Θεσσαλονίκη 1977.
29. See my book: Consequences of the Fall and
the Laver of Regeneration (From the Anthropology of St. Gregory of Nyssa),
Athens 1973 (in Greek), pp. 165-169.
30. Discourses, ΧΧΧΙΙ, 77-84. Sources Chretiennes, 113, ed. by Β. Krivocheine, p. 244.
31. Discources, ΧΧΧΙΙ, 78-85. Op.cit., p. 244. The English
translation is taken from "St. Symeon the New Theologian". The
Classics of Western Spirituality, transl. by C.J. de Catanzaro, New York 1980,
p. 337.
32. Discourses, ΧΧΧΙΙΙ, 153-157, p. 260.
Transl. by C.J. de Catanzaro, p. 343. See also, ibid., 97-99, p. 256. Transl.
p. 341.
33. Ibid., 95-96, p. 256. Transl. p. 341.
34. Ibid., 100-101, p. 256. Transl. 341-342.
35. Ibid., 160-176, pp. 260-262. Transl. p. 343
(This passage is mistranslated into English).
36. "Βασιλεία ζώσα και ουσιώδης και
ενυπόστατος το Πνεύμα το Άγιον" Gregory of Nyssa, Adversus Macedonianos,
ed. F.Mueller, p. 102, 27- 30. PG 45, 1321Α.
37. Mystagogy, Ι, PG 91, 665-8. Quotted by V.
Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, Plymouth 1957, pp.164-165.
38. "...η ομολογία
της του Υιού Κυριότητος, εν Πνεύματι Αγίω τοις καταλαμβάνουσι γίνεται, πάντοθεν
τοις διά πίστεως προσεγγίζουσι προαπαντώντος του Πνεύματος. . . αλλά χρη την
εις τον Κύριον προϋποκείσθαι πίστιν, δι' ης η ζωτική χάρις τοις πιστεύσασι
παραγίνεται... Αλλ' επειδή και η διά του Υιού διακονουμένη χάρις ήρτηται της
αγεννήτου πηγής, διά τούτο προηγείσθαι την εις το όνομα του Πατρός πίστιν ο
λόγος διδάσκει, του ζωογονούντος τα πάντα". Gregory
of Nyssa, Adversus Macedonianos, ed. F. Mueller, pp.103,8-106, S.ΡG 45,
1321B-1325Α.
39. J.N. Karmiris, The Dogmatic and Symbolic
Monuments of the Orthodox Catholic Church, ΙΙ, Graz 1968, p. 1002.
40. Ibid., p. 1000.
41 . De Vita in Christo, IV, 3, 4, 6.
42. Ιn Illud..., PG 44, 1320D. See also
Adversus Macedonianos, pp. 108,30-109,15. PG 45, 1329ΑΒ. De Oratione Dominica,
PG 44, 1157CD. Ιn Canticum Canticorum, ed. H.Langerbeck, pp. 466,14-467,17. PG
44, 1116D-1117Β.
43. St. John Chrysostom commenting οn this
passage makes the following observations: "...and not only do we behold
the glory of God, but from it also receive a sort of splendor. Just as if pure
silver be turned towards the sun's rays, it will itself also shoot forth rays,
not from its οwη natural property merely but also from the solar lusture; so
also doth the soul being cleansed and made brighter than silver, receive a ray
from the glory of the Spirit, and send it back. Wherefore also he said
"beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same
image from glory to glory", that of the 5pirit, "to glory", our
οwη, that which is generated in us; and that, of such sort, as one might expect
from the Lord the Spirit". Ιn Epist. ΙΙ ad Corinth. Homil.,PG 61, 44Β.
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