Its Unity And Its Glory
The Father George Florovsky Memorial Lecture
A discussion of John 17:17-24 in the light of patristic thought.
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.