I.
Again My Jesus, and
again a mystery; not deceitful nor disorderly, nor belonging to
Greek error or drunkenness (for so I call their solemnities, and
so I think will every man of sound sense); but a mystery lofty
and divine, and allied to the Glory above.
For the Holy Day of the Lights, to which we have
come, and which we are celebrating to-day, has for its
origin the Baptism of my Christ, the True Light That
lighteneth every man that cometh into the world,1
and effecteth my purification, and assists that
light which we received from the beginning from Him from
above, but which we darkened and confused by sin.
See a collection of papers on the fall of
mankind by the use of music.
II. Therefore listen to the Voice of God, which sounds
so exceeding clearly to me, who am both disciple and master of
these mysteries, as would to God it may sound to you; I Am The
Light Of The World.2
Therefore approach ye to Him and be enlightened, and
let not your faces be ashamed,3
being signed with the true Light. It is a season of new
birth,4
let us be born again. It is a time of
reformation, let us receive again the first Adam.5
Let us not remain what we are, but let us become what we once
were. The Light Shineth In Darkness,6
in this life and in the flesh, and is chased by the darkness,
but is not overtaken by it:-I mean the adverse power leaping
up in its shamelessness against the visible Adam, but
encountering God and being defeated;-in order that we, putting
away the darkness, may draw near to the Light, and may then
become perfect Light, the children of perfect Light. See the
grace of this Day; see the power of this mystery. Are you not
lifted up from the earth? Are you not clearly placed on high,
being exalted by our voice and meditation? and you will be
placed much higher when the Word shall have prospered the
course of my words.
III. Is there any such among the shadowy purifications
of the Law, aiding as it did with temporary sprinklings,
and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean;7
or do the gentiles celebrate any such thing in their
mysteries, every ceremony and mystery of which to me is nonsense,
and a dark invention of demons, and a figment
of an unhappy mind, aided by time, and hidden by fable?
For what they worship as true, they veil as
mythical. But if these things are true, they ought not
to be called myths, but to be proved not to be
shameful;8
and if they are false, they ought not to be objects of
wonder; nor ought people so inconsiderately to hold the
most contrary opinions about the same thing, as
if they were playing in the market-place with boys
or really ill-disposed men, not engaged in discussion
with men of sense, and worshippers of the Word, though
despisers of this artificial plausibility.
The Jewish clergy hoped
that Messiah would be Dionysus. If so, he would join in
their perverted singing and dancing when the flutes began
to play. Of course, Jesus refused to "bow down" and they
killed Him."
They are like unto
children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to
another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have
not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.
Lu.7:32
7 This is the same word which
in S. John i. 5., is rendered by "comprehend."
Gen. 1:3 And God SAID, Let there be light: and
there was light.
Gen. 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God
divided the light from the darkness.
LIGHT:
Lux B. Light,
encouragement, help, succor: lux quaedam videbatur oblata, non modo regno, sed etiam regni timore sublato, Cic. Phil. 1, 2, 40:
E. That which enlightens, the source of
illumination: ratio quasi quaedam lux lumenque vitae.
Cic. Ac. 2, 8, 26; cf.: ego sum lux mundi, Vulg.
John, 8, 12; id. ib. 12,
26.
Hebrew including lightnings, happiness, bright,
clear.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.
John 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was
not any thing made that was made.
John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men
John 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness;
and the
darkness comprehended it not.
DARKNESS:
tĕnēbrae ,
1. The darkness of night, night
II. Trop., darkness, gloom,
obscurity of the mind, of fame, of fortune, fate,
etc. (class.):
Hebrew: figuratively misery,
destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.
John 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was
not any thing made that was made.
John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
John 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness
comprehended it not.
Phaos , phaeos 2. In
partic., the light of day, daylight, day: b.
in Poets, freq. in phrases concerning the life of
men, zōei kai hora ph. ēelioio Il.18.61, cf. Od.4.540, etc.;
II. light, as a metaph. for deliverance,
happiness, victory, glory, etc., kai tō men phaos ēlthen Il.17.615;
2.
[with reference to illumination of the
mind, tēs alētheias to phōs E.IT1026;
Skotia darkness, gloom
8 Heb. vii. 13.
IV. We are not concerned in these
mysteries with birth of Zeus and thefts of the Cretan Tyrant9
(though the Greeks may be displeased at such a title for him),
nor with the name of Curetes, and the armed dances, which were
to hide the wailings of a weeping god, that he might escape
from his father's hate. For indeed it would be a strange thing
that he who was swallowed as a stone should be made to weep as
a child.10
Nor are we concerned with Phrygian mutilations
and flutes and Corybantes,11
11 There was a temple of
Rhea in Phrygia, in which at her festivals
people mutilated themselves to do her honour. The
flutes alluded to served to turn the thoughts
of the sufferes from the pain of the operation.
The Corybantes were the ministers of
the goddess, who led the wild orgies of
her worship. It is believed that there is an allusion to
this practice of self-mutilation in Galat. v. 12.
So at least S. Jerome, S. Ambrose, and all the Greek
Fathers take the passage. S. Thomas Aquinas, understanding
the word in the same sense, applies it mystically; and
Estius, who here follows Erasmus, refers the "cutting
off" merely to excommunication, a sense which he
calls "Apostolico sensu dignior,"through why "dignior"
it is not easy to see. Yet he acknowledges that those who
interpret it literally do so "non immerito."
and all the ravings of men concerning Rhea,
[ZOE] consecrating people to the mother of the gods, and
being initiated into such ceremonies as befit the
mother of such gods as these. Nor have we any carrying away of
the Maiden,12
12 The mythus of
the Rape of Persephone and its consequences.
nor wandering of Demeter, nor her intimacy with Celei and
Triptolemi and Dragons; nor her doings and sufferings
... for I am ashamed to bring into daylight that ceremony of
the night, and to make a sacred mystery of obscenity.
Eleusis knows these things, and so do those who are
eyewitnesses of what is there guarded by silence, and well
worthy of it. Nor is our commemoration one of Dionysus,
and the thigh that travailed with an incomplete birth,
as before a head had travailed with another;13
13 Dionysus
was said to have been born from the thigh of Zeus, as
Athene to have sprung full-grown and armed at all points
from his head
nor of the hermaphrodite god, nor a chorus of the
drunken and enervated host; nor of the folly of the Thebans
which honours him; nor the thunderbolt of Semele which
they adore. Nor is it the harlot mysteries of Aphrodite,
who, as they themselves admit, was basely born and basely
honoured; nor have we here Phalli and Ithyphalli,14
14 These myths and
practices are too shameful to be described. [ men dressed as women] See 1911 Encyclopedia
shameful both in form and action; nor Taurian massacres of strangers;15
nor blood of Laconian youths shed upon the altars, as they
scourged themselves with the whips;16
15 See the Iphigenia In Tauris
of Euripides.
Eur. IT 1234 Euripides, Iphigenia
in Tauris
Chorus
Lovely is the son
of Leto, [1235] whom
she, the Delian, once bore in the fruitful valleys,
golden-haired, skilled at the lyre; and also the
one who glories in her well-aimed arrows. [1240] For the mother,
leaving the famous birth-place, brought him from the
ridges of the sea to the heights of Parnassus,
with its gushing waters, which celebrate the revels
for Dionysus. Here the dark-faced serpent [1245] with brightly
colored back, his scales of bronze in
the leaf-shaded laurel, huge monster of the earth,
guarded Earth's prophetic shrine. You killed
him, o Phoebus, [Apollo] while still a
baby, [1250] still
leaping in the arms of your dear mother, and you entered
the holy shrine, and sit on the golden tripod,
on your truthful throne [1255]
distributing prophecies from the gods to mortals, up
from the sanctuary, neighbor of Castalia's streams, as
you dwell in the middle of the earth
Eur. IT 1259 Chorus
But when he came and sent Themis,
[1260] the child of Earth, away from the holy
oracle of Pytho,
Earth gave birth to dream visions of the night; and they
told to the cities of men the present, [1265] and what
will happen in the future, through dark beds of sleep on
the ground; and so Earth took the office of prophecy away
from Phoebus, in envy, because of her daughter. The lord
made his swift way to Olympus
[1270] and wound his baby hands around the throne of Zeus,
to take the
wrath of the earth goddess from the Pythian home. Zeus
smiled,
that the child so
quickly came [1275] to ask for worship that pays in
gold.
He shook his locks of hair, to put an end to the night
voices,
and took away from
mortals the truth that appears in darkness,
[1280] and gave the
privilege back again to Loxias,
and to mortals
confidence in the songs of prophecy at the throne
visited by many men.
thesphatōn aoidais.
thespha^t-os
,
on,
(
theos,
phēmi)
A.spoken by God,
decreed,
moros
A.Ag.1321;
hēkei
th.
biou
teleutē
S.OC1472:
mostly in phrase
thesphaton
esti,
it is
ordained,
hōs
gar
th.
esti
Il.8.477,
cf.
E.IA1556:
c. dat. pers. et inf.,
soi
d'
ou
th.
esti
. . thaneein
Od.4.561,
cf.
10.473,
Pi.P.4.71,
Orac.in
Ar.Pax1073;
so
ei
ti
th.
patri
. . hikneith',
hōste
pros
paidōn
thanein
S.OC969.
II. generally,
wonderful,
mighty,
aēr
Od.7.143.Cf.
thespesios,
theskelos.
theskelos ,
on, Ep. Adj. perh.
A.set in
motion by God (
kellō), and so
marvellous,
wondrous, always of things,
th. erga deeds or works
of wonder,
Il.3.130,
Od.11.610;
theskela eidōs
Call.Fr.anon.385: neut. Adv.,
eikto de theskelon autō it was
wondrous
like him,
Il.23.107;
prob. taken by later poets as,=
God-inspired
(
keleuō）
, th. Hermēs
Coluth.126.
and in this case alone use their courage
badly, who honour a goddess, and her a virgin. For these same
people both honour effeminacy, and worship boldness.
V. And where will you place the butchery of Pelops,17
17 The gods came
to dine with Tantalus, and he, to do them honour, boiled his
son Pelops for their food. They, however, found it out, and
restored him to life; not, however, before Demeter had
unwittingly eaten his shoulder, in the place of which they
substituted one of ivory.
which feasted hungry gods, that bitter and inhuman
hospitality? Where the horrible and dark spectres of Hecate,
and the underground puerilities and sorceries of
Trophonius, or the babblings of the Dodonaean
Oak, or the trickeries of the Delphian tripod, or the
prophetic draught of Castalia, which could prophesy
anything, except their own being brought to silence?18
18 S.
Jerome, commenting on Isaiah xli. 22, says:
"Why could they never predict
anything concerning Christ and His Apostles, or the ruin
and destruction of their own temples? If then they could
not foretell their own destruction, how can they foretell
anything good or bad?"
Nor is it the sacrificial art of Magi, and their
entrail forebodings, nor the Chaldaean astronomy and
horoscopes, comparing our lives with the movements of the
heavenly bodies, which cannot know even what they are
themselves, or shall be.
Nor are these
Thracian orgies, from which the word
Worship
(threskia) is said
to be derived; nor
rites and
mysteries of
Orpheus,
whom the Greeks admired so much for his wisdom that they devised
for him a
lyre which draws all things by its music.
"Singing served as a means of inducing ecstatic prophecy (speaking in tongues).
Thus the essential
relationship between music and prophecy can be clearly seen.
This relationship also explains why the expression for "making music" and "prophesying" was often identical in
the ancient tongues. origen contra celsum 8.67.
The Hebrew word Naba signifies not only "to prophesy" but also "to make music." (Quasten, Johannes,
Music and Worship in Pagan and Christian Antiquity, p.
39)
Nor the tortures of Mithras19
18 S.
Jerome, commenting on Isaiah xli. 22, says:
"Why could they never predict
anything concerning Christ and His Apostles, or the ruin
and destruction of their own temples? If then they could
not foretell their own destruction, how can they foretell
anything good or bad?"
which it is just that those who can endure to be initiated
into such things should suffer; nor the manglings of
Osiris,20
20
The Egyptian Mysteries.
another calamity honoured by the Egyptians; nor the
ill-fortunes of Isis21
21 Zeus
fell in love with Isis, and carried her off in the form of
a heifer. Here, discovering the fraud, sent a gadfly,
which drove Isis mad.
and the goats more venerable than the Mendesians,
and the stall of Apis,22
22 Apis,
the sacred bull, worshipped at Memphis.
the calf that luxuriated in the folly of the Memphites,
nor all those honours with which they outrage the Nile,
while themselves proclaiming it in song to be the Giver of
fruits and corn, and the measurer of happiness by its
cubits.23
23 i.e., that the
prosperity of the country was proportionate to the annual
rise of the River.
VI. I pass over the honours they pay to reptiles, and
their worship of vile things, each of which has its peculiar
cultus and festival, and all share in a common devilishness;
so that, if they were absolutely bound to be ungodly, and to
fall away from honouring God, and to be led astray to idols
and works of art and things made with hands, men of sense
could not imprecate anything worse upon themselves than that
they might worship just such things, and honour them in just
such a way;
that, as Paul says,
they might receive
in themselves that recompense
of their error which
was meet,24
i
n the very objects of
their worship; not so much honouring them as suffering
dishonour by them; abominable because of their error,
and yet more abominable from the vileness of the objects of
their adoration and worship; so that they should be even
more without understanding than the objects of their
worship; being as excessively foolish as the latter are
vile.
Rom. 1:27 And likewise also the men,
leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust
one toward another; men with men working that which is
unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of
their error which was meet.
Rom. 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in
their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind,
to do those things which are not convenient;
VII. Well, let these things be the amusement of the children
of the Greeks and of the demons to whom their folly is due,
who turn aside the honour of God to themselves,
and divide men in various ways in pursuit of shameful
thoughts and fancies,
ever since they drove us away from the Tree of Life,
by means of the Tree of Knowledge unseasonably25
25 cf. Orat. in Theoph. c. 12. The explanation
seems to be, that the "Knowledge of good and evil" was a
necessary part of the development of man's intellect, but that a premature
attempt to attain it per
saltum instead of by a
gradual progress would prove fatal. Had human nature
gone through its originally intended educational stages, it might have reached to the knowledge of
evil without having that knowledge alloyed and
deteriorated by the experience of evil, but might have
known it, as God does, without taint. (Boount, Ann.
Bible on Gen. ii. 7.)
and improperly imparted to us, and then assailed us as now
weaker than before; carrying clean away the mind,
which is the ruling power in us, and opening a door to the passions.
For, being of a nature envious and man-hating, or rather
having become so by their own wickedness, they could neither
endure that we who were below should attain to that which is
above, having themselves fallen from above upon the earth;
nor that such a change in their glory and their
first natures should have taken place.
This is the meaning of their persecution of the creature.
For this God's Image was outraged; and as we did not like to
keep the Commandments,26
we were given over to the independence of our error. And as
we erred we were disgraced by the objects of our
worship. For there was not only this calamity, that we who
were made for good works27
to the glory and praise of our Maker, and to imitate God as
far as might be, were turned into a den of all sorts of
passions, which cruelly devour and consume the inner man;
but there was this further evil, that man actually made gods
the advocates of his passions, so that sin might be reckoned
not only irresponsible, but even divine, taking refuge in
the objects of his worship as his apology.
VIII. But since to us grace has been given to flee from
superstitious error and to be joined to the truth and to serve
the living and true God, and to rise above creation,
passing by all that is subject to time and to first motion;
let us look at and reason upon God and things divine
in a manner corresponding to this Grace given us.
But let us begin our discussion of them from the most
fitting point. And the most fitting is, as Solomon laid down
for us; us; The beginning of wisdom, he says, is to get
wisdom.28
And what this is he tells us; the beginning of wisdom is fear.29
For we must not begin with contemplation and leave off with
fear (for an unbridled contemplation would perhaps push us
over a precipice), but we must be grounded and purified and so
to say made light by fear, and thus be raised to the height.
For where fear is there is keeping of commandments; and where
there is keeping of commandments there is purifying of the
flesh, that cloud which covers the soul and suffers it not to
see the Divine Ray. And where them is purifying there is
Illumination; and Illumination is the satisfying of desire to
those who long for the greatest things, or the Greatest Thing,
or That Which surpasses all greatness.
IX. Wherefore we must purify ourselves first, and
then approach this converse with the Pure;
unless we would have the same experience as Israel,30
who could not endure the glory of the face of Moses, and
therefore asked for a veil;31
or else would feel and say with Manoah "We are undone O wife,
we have seen God,"32
although it was God only in his fancy; or like Peter
would send Jesus out of the boat,33
as being ourselves unworthy of such a visit; and when I say
Peter, I am speaking of the man who walked upon the
waves;34
or like Paul would be stricken in eyes,35
as he was before he was cleansed from the guilt of his
persecution, when he conversed with Him Whom he was
persecuting-or rather with a short flash of That great Light;
or like the Centurion36
would seek for healing, but would not, through a praiseworthy
fear, receive the Healer into his house. Let each one of us
also speak so, as long as he is still uncleansed, and is a
Centurion still, commanding many in wickedness, and serving in
the army of Caesar, the World-ruler of those who are being
dragged down; "I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under
my roof." But when he shall have looked upon Jesus, though he
be little of stature like Zaccheus of old, and climb up on the
top of the sycamore tree by mortifying his members which are
upon the earth,37
and having risen above the body of humiliation, then he shall
receive the Word, and it shall be said to him, This day is
salvation come to this house.38
Then let him lay hold on the salvation, and bring forth fruit
more perfectly, scattering and pouring forth rightly that
which as a publican he wrongly gathered.
X. For the same Word is on the one hand terrible
through its nature to those who are unworthy, and on the other
through its loving kindness can be received by those who are
thus prepared,
who have driven out the unclean and worldly spirit from
their souls, and have swept and adorned
their own souls by self-examination, and have not left them
idle or without employment, so as again to be occupied with
greater armament by the seven spirits of wickedness
...
the same number as are reckoned of virtue (for that which
is hardest to fight against calls for the sternest efforts)
... but besides fleeing from evil, practise virtue, making
Christ entirely, or at any rate to the greatest extent
possible, to dwell within them, so that the power of evil
cannot meet with any empty place to fill it again with
himself, and make the last state of that man worse than the
first, by the greater energy of his assault, and the greater
strength and impregnability of the fortress.
But when, having guarded our soul with every care,
and having appointed goings up in our heart,39
and broken up our fallow ground,40
and sown unto righteousness,41
as David and Solomon and Jeremiah bid us, let us enlighten
ourselves with the light of knowledge, and then let us
speak of the Wisdom of God that hath been hid
in a mystery,42
and enlighten others.
Meanwhile let us purify ourselves, and
receive the elementary initiation of the Word,
that we may do ourselves the utmost good, making ourselves
godlike, and receiving the Word at His coming; and not only
so, but holding Him fast and shewing Him to others.
XI. And now, having purified the theatre by what has
been said, let us discourse a little about the Festival, and
join in celebrating this Feast with festal and pious souls.
And, since the chief point of the Festival is the remembrance
of God, let us call God to mind. For I think that the sound of
those who keep Festival There, where is the dwelling
of all the Blissful, is nothing else than this, the hymns
and praises of God, sung by all who are counted
worthy of that City. Let none be astonished if what I have to
say contains some things that I have said before; for not only
will I utter the same words, but I shall speak of the same
subjects, trembling both in tongue and mind and thought when I
speak of God for you too, that you may share this laudable and
blessed feeling.
And when I speak of God you must be illumined at once by one
flash of light and by three. Three in Individualities
or Hypostases, if any prefer so to call them, or persons,43
for we will not quarrel about names so long as the syllables
amount to the same meaning; but One in respect
of the Substance-that is, the Godhead.
For they are divided without division, if I may so say; and
they are united in division. For the Godhead is one in
three, and the three are one, in whom the Godhead is, or to
speak more accurately, Who are the Godhead. Excesses and
defects we will omit, neither making the Unity a confusion,
nor the division a separation. We would keep equally
far from the confusion of Sabellius and from the division of
Arius, which are evils diametrically opposed, yet equal in
their wickedness. For what need is there heretically to fuse
God together, or to cut Him up into inequality?
XII. For to us there is but One God, the Father, of Whom are
all things, and One Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom are all
things; and One Holy Ghost, in Whom are all things;44
yet these words, of, by, in, whom,
do not denote a difference of nature (for if this were the
case, the three prepositions, or the order of the
three names would never be altered), but they characterize the
personalities of a nature which is one and unconfused.
And this is proved by the fact that They are again collected
into one, if you will read-not carelessly-this other passage
of the same Apostle,
"Of Him and through Him and to Him
are all things; to Him be glory forever, Amen."45
The Father is Father, and is Unoriginate, for He is of no
one; the Son is Son, and is not unoriginate, for He is of
the Father.
But if you take the word Origin in a temporal
sense, He too is Unoriginate, for He is the Maker of
Time, and is not subject to Time.
The Holy Ghost is truly Spirit, coming forth from
the Father indeed, but not after the manner of the Son, for
it is not by Generation but by Procession (since I
must coin a word for the sake of clearness46
);
for neither did the Father cease to be Unbegotten because
of His begetting something, nor the Son to be begotten
because He is of the Unbegotten (how could that be?), nor is
the Spirit changed into Father or Son because He proceeds,
or because He is God-though the ungodly do not believe
it.
For Personality is unchangeable; else how could
Personality remain, if it were changeable, and could be
removed from one to another? But they who make "Unbegotten"
and "Begotten" natures of equivocal gods would perhaps make
Adam and Seth differ in nature, since the former was not
born of flesh (for he was created), but the latter was born
of Adam and Eve. There is then One God in Three, and These
Three are One, as we have said.
XIII. Since then these things are so, or rather since This is
so; and His Adoration ought not to be rendered only by Beings
above, but there ought to be also worshippers on earth, that
all things may be filled with the glory of God (forasmuch as
they are filled with God Himself); therefore man was created
and honored with the hand47
and Image of God. But to despise man, when by the
envy of the Devil and the bitter taste of sin he was pitiably
severed from God his Maker-this was not in the Nature of God.
What then was done, and what is the great Mystery that
concerns us? An innovation is made upon nature, and God is
made Man. "He that rideth upon the Heaven of Heavens in the
East"48
of His own glory and Majesty, is glorified in the West of our
meanness and lowliness.
And the Son of God
deigns to become and to be called Son of Man; not
changing what He was (for It is unchangeable); but assuming
what He was not (for He is full of love to man), that the
Incomprehensible49
might be comprehended, conversing with us through the mediation
of the Flesh as through a veil; since it was not possible for
that nature which is subject to birth and decay to endure
His unveiled Godhead. Therefore the Unmingled is
mingled; and not only is God mingled with birth and Spirit50
with flesh, and the Eternal with time, and the Uncircumscribed
with measure; but also Generation with Virginity, and
dishonour with Him who is higher than all honour; He who is
impassible with Suffering,51
and the Immortal with the corruptible. For since that Deceiver
thought that he was unconquerable in his malice, after he had
cheated us with the hope of becoming gods, he was himself
cheated by God's assumption of our nature; so that in
attacking Adam as he thought, he should really meet with God,
and thus the new Adam should save the old, and the
condemnation of the flesh should be abolished, death being
slain by flesh.
XIV. At His birth we duly kept Festival, both I, the leader
of the Feast, and you, and all that is in the world and above
the world. With the Star we ran, and with the Magi we
worshipped, and with the Shepherds we were illuminated, and
with the Angels we glorified Him, and with Simeon we took Him
up in our arms, and with Anna the aged and chaste we made our
responsive confession. And thanks be to Him who came to His
own in the guise of a stranger, because He glorified the
stranger.52
Now, we come to another action of Christ, and another mystery.
I cannot restrain my pleasure; I am rapt into God. Almost like
John I proclaim good tidings; for though I be not a
Forerunner, yet am I from the desert.53
Christ is illumined, let us shine forth with Him.
Christ is baptized, let us descend with Him that we
may also ascend with Him. Jesus is baptized; but we
must attentively consider not only this but also some other
points. Who is He, and by whom is He baptized, and at what
time? He is the All-pure; and He is baptized by John; and
the time is the beginning of His miracles. What are we to
learn and to be taught by this? To purify ourselves first;
to be lowly minded; and to preach only in maturity both of
spiritual and bodily stature.
The first54
has a word especially for those who rush to Baptism off hand,
and without due preparation, or providing for
the stability of the Baptismal Grace by the disposition of
their minds to good. For since Grace contains remission of
the past (for it is a grace), it is on that
account more worthy of reverence, that we return not to the
same vomit again. The second speaks to those who rebel against
the Stewards of this Mystery, if they are their superiors in
rank. The third is for those who are confident in their youth,
and think that any time is the right one to teach or to
preside. Jesus is purified, and dost thou despise
purification? ... and by John, and dost thou rise up against
thy herald? ... and at thirty years of age, and dost thou
before thy beard has grown presume to teach the aged, or
believe that thou teachest them, though thou be not reverend
on account of thine age, or even perhaps for thy character?
But here it may be said, Daniel, and this or that other, were
judges in their youth, and examples are on your tongues; for
every wrongdoer is prepared to defend himself. But I reply
that that which is rare is not the law of the Church. For one
swallow does not make a summer, nor one line a geometrician,
nor one voyage a sailor.
XV. But John baptizes, Jesus comes to Him55
... perhaps to sanctify the Baptist himself, but certainly to
bury the whole of the old Adam in the water; and before this
and for the sake of this, to sanctify Jordan; for as He is
Spirit and Flesh, so He consecrates us by Spirit and water.56
John will not receive Him; Jesus contends. "I have need to be
baptized of Thee"57
says the Voice to the Word, the Friend to the Bridegroom;58
he that is above all among them that are born of women,59
to Him Who is the Firstborn of every creature;60
he that leaped in the womb,61
to Him Who was adored in the womb; he who was and is to be the
Forerunner62
to Him Who was and is to be manifested. "I have need to be
baptized of Thee;" add to this "and for Thee;" for he knew
that he would be baptized by Martyrdom, or, like Peter, that
he would be cleansed not only as to his feet.63
"And comest Thou to me?"
This also was prophetic; for he knew that after
Herod would come the madness of Pilate, and so that when he
had gone before Christ would follow him. But what saith
Jesus? "Suffer it to be so now," for this is the time of His
Incarnation; for He knew that yet a little while and He
should baptize the Baptist.
And what is the "Fan?" The Purification. And what is the
"Fire?" The consuming of the chaff, and the heat of
the Spirit. And what the "Axe?" The excision of the
soul which is incurable even after the dung.64
And what the Sword? The cutting of the Word, which separates
the worse from the better,65
and makes a division between the faithful and the
unbeliever;66
and stirs up the son and the daughter and the bride against
the father and the mother and the mother in law,67
the young and fresh against the old and shadowy. And what is
the Latchet of the shoe, which thou John who baptizest Jesus
mayest not loose?68
thou who art of the desert, and hast no food, the new Elias,69
the more than Prophet, inasmuch as thou sawest Him of Whom
thou didst prophesy, thou Mediator of the Old and New
Testaments. What is this? Perhaps the Message of the Advent,
and the Incarnation, of which not the least point may be
loosed, I say not by those70
who are yet carnal and babes in Christ, but not even by
those who are like John in spirit.
.But further-Jesus goeth up out of the water ... for
with Himself He carries up the world ... and sees the heaven
opened which Adam had shut against himself and all his
posterity,71
as the gates of Paradise by the flaming sword. And the Spirit
bears witness to His Godhead, for he descends upon One
that is like Him, as does the Voice from Heaven (for
He to Whom the witness is borne came from thence), and like a
Dove, for He honours the Body (for this also was God, through
its union with God) by being seen in a bodily form; and
moreover, the Dove has from distant ages been
wont to proclaim the end of the Deluge.72
But if you are to judge of Godhead by bulk and weight, and the
Spirit seems to you a small thing because He came in the form
of a Dove, O man of contemptible littleness of thought
concerning the greatest of things, you must also to be
consistent despise the Kingdom of Heaven, because it is
compared to a grain of mustard seed;73
and you must exalt the adversary above the Majesty of Jesus,
because he is called a great Mountain,74
and Leviathan75
and King of that which lives in the water, whereas Christ is
called the Lamb,76
and the Pearl,77
and the Drop78
and similar names.
XVII. Now, since our Festival is of Baptism,
and we must endure a
little hardness with Him
Who for our sake took
form, and was baptized, and was crucified;
let us speak about the
different kinds of Baptism,
that we may come out
thence purified.
Moses baptized79
but it was in water, and before that in the cloud and in the
sea.80
This was typical as Paul saith; the Sea of the water, and the
Cloud of the Spirit; the Manna, of the Bread of Life; the
Drink, of the Divine Drink.
John also baptized; but this was not like the baptism of the
Jews,
for it was not only in
water, but also "unto repentance."
Still it was not wholly
spiritual, for he does not add "And in the Spirit."
Jesus also baptized, but in the Spirit.
This is the perfect Baptism.
And how is He not God, if I may digress a little, by
whom you too are made God? I know also a Fourth Baptism-that
by Martyrdom and blood, which also Christ himself
underwent:-and this one is far more august than all the
others, inasmuch as it cannot be defiled by after-stains. Yes,
and I know of a Fifth also, which is that of tears, and is
much more laborious, received by him who washes his bed every
night and his couch with tears;81
whose bruises stink through his wickedness;82
and who goeth mourning and of a sad countenance; who imitates
the repentance of Manasseh83
and the humiliation of the Ninerites84
upon which God had mercy; who utters the words of the Publican
in the Temple, and is justified rather than the stiff-necked
Pharisee;85
who like the Canaanite woman bends down and asks for mercy and
crumbs, the food of a dog that is very hungry.86
XVIII. I, however, for I confess myself to be a man,-that is
to say, an animal shifty and of a changeable nature,-both
eagerly receive this Baptism, and worship Him Who has
given it me, and impart it to others; and by shewing mercy
make provision for mercy. For I know that I too am compassed
with infirmity,87
and that with what measure I mete it shall be measured to me
again.88
But what sayest thou, O new Pharisee pure89
in title but not in intention, who dischargest upon us the
sentiments of Novatus,90
though thou sharest the same infirmities? Wilt thou not give
any place to weeping? Wilt thou shed no tear? Mayest thou not
meet with a Judge like thyself? Art thou not ashamed by the
mercy of Jesus, Who took our infirmities and bare our
sicknesses;91
Who came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance;92
Who will have mercy rather than sacrifice; who forgiveth sins
till seventy times seven.93
How blessed would your exaltation be if it really were purity,
not pride, making laws above the reach of men, and destroying
improvement by despair. For both are alike evil, indulgence
not regulated by prudence, and condemnation that will never
forgive; the one because it relaxes all reins, the other
because it strangles by its severity. Shew me your purity, and
I will approve your boldness. But as it is, I fear that being
full of sores you will render them incurable. Will you not
admit even David's repentance, to whom his penitence preserved
even the gift of prophecy? nor the great Peter himself, who
fell into human weakness at the Passion of our Saviour? Yet
Jesus received him, and by the threefold question and
confession healed the threefold denial.94
Or will you even refuse to admit that he was made perfect by
blood (for your folly goes even as far as that)? Or the
transgressor at Corinth? But Paul confirmed love towards him
when he saw his amendment, and gives the reason, "that such an
one be not swallowed up by overmuch sorrow,"95
being overwhelmed by the excess of the punishment.96
And will you refuse to grant liberty of marriage to young
widows on account of the liability of their age to fall? Paul
ventured to do so; but of course you can teach him; for you
have been caught up to the Fourth heaven, and to another
Paradise, and have heard words more unspeakable, and
comprehend a larger circle in your Gospel.
XIX. But these sins were not after Baptism, you will say.
Where is your proof? Either prove it-or refrain from
condemning; and if there be any doubt, let charity prevail.
But Novatus, you say, would not receive those who lapsed in
the persecution. What do you mean by this? If they were
unrepentant he was right; I too would refuse to receive those
who either would not stoop at all or not sufficiently, and who
would refuse to make their amendment counterbalance their sin;
and when I do receive them, I will assign them their proper
place;97
but if he refused those who wore themselves away with weeping,
I will not imitate him. And why should Novatus's want of
charity be a rule for me? He never punished covetousness,
which is a second idolatry; but he condemned fornication as
though he himself were not flesh and body. What say you? Are
we convincing you by these words? Come and stand here on our
side, that is, on the side of humanity. Let us magnify the
Lord together. Let none of you, even though he has much
confidence in himself, dare to say, Touch me not for I am
pure, and who is so pure as I? Give us too a share in your
brightness. But perhaps we are not convincing you? Then we
will weep for you.
Let these men then if they will, follow our way, which is
Christ's way; but if they will not, let them go their own.
Perhaps in it they will be baptized with Fire, in
that last Baptism which is more painful and longer, which
devours wood like grass,98
and consumes the stubble of every evil.
XX. But let us venerate to-day the Baptism of Christ; and let
us keep the feast well, not in pampering the belly, but rejoicing
in spirit. And how shall we luxuriate? "Wash you, make
you clean."99
If ye be scarlet with sin and less bloody, be made white as
snow; if ye be red, and men bathed in blood, yet be ye brought
to the whiteness of wool. Anyhow be purified, and you shall be
clean (for God rejoices in nothing so much as in the amendment
and salvation of man, on whose behalf is every discourse and
every Sacrament), that you may be like lights in the world, a
quickening force to all other men; that you may stand as
perfect lights beside That great Light, and may learn the
mystery of the illumination of Heaven, enlightened by the
Trinity more purely and clearly, of Which even now you are
receiving in a measure the One Ray from the One Godhead in
Christ Jesus our Lord; to Whom be the glory and the might for
ever and ever. Amen.
Resource
1 John i. 9.
2 John viii. 12.
3 Ps. xxxiv. 5.
4 John iii. 3.
5 I.e., the condition
of man before the fall.
6 Ib. i. 5.
7 This is the same
word which in S. John i. 5., is rendered by "comprehend."
8 Heb. vii. 13.
9 I.e. Zeus, who was
said by some to be a deified man, once tyrant of Crete, where
his tomb was shown.
10 The allusion is to
the birth of Zeus. Kronos the Titan, father of
the gods, was the husband of Rhea, who bore him
children. But an oracle having declared that Kronos should be
dethroned by his children, he swallowed them immediately after
they were born. Rhea, however, on the birth of Zeus, aided by
the Curetes, a wild band of Cretan Priests, concealed the
child, and substituted a atone, which Kronos swallowed in his
haste without perceiving the difference. The stone made him
very sick, and he vomited forth the children whom he ad
previously swallowed; and by them and Zeus the prophecy was
fulfilled. Kronos was deposed and imprisoned in Tartarus.
11 There was a temple
of Rhea in Phrygia, in which at her festivals
people mutilated themselves to do her honour. The flutes
alluded to served to turn the thoughts of the sufferes
from the pain of the operation.
The Corybantes were the ministers of the goddess, who
led the wild orgies of her worship. It is believed
that there is an allusion to this practice of self-mutilation
in Galat. v. 12. So at least S. Jerome, S. Ambrose, and
all the Greek Fathers take the passage. S. Thomas Aquinas,
understanding the word in the same sense, applies it
mystically; and Estius, who here follows Erasmus, refers the "cutting
off" merely to excommunication, a sense which he calls
"Apostolico sensu dignior,"through why "dignior" it is
not easy to see. Yet he acknowledges that those who interpret
it literally do so "non immerito."
12 The mythus
of the Rape of Persephone and its consequences.
13 Dionysus was said
to have been born from the thigh of Zeus, as Athene to have
sprung full-grown and armed at all points from his head
14 These myths and
practices are too shameful to be described. [ men dressed as women] See 1911 Encyclopedia
15 See the Iphigenia
In Tauris of Euripides.
16 It was a custom of
the Spartans that at their great festival of Artemis the
youths who were just coming of age (Ephebi) should scourge
themselves cruelly on her altar in honour of the goddess, and
to prove their manhood.
17 The gods came to
dine with Tantalus, and he, to do them honour, boiled his son
Pelops for their food. They, however, found it out, and
restored him to life; not, however, before Demeter had
unwittingly eaten his shoulder, in the place of which they
substituted one of ivory.
18 S. Jerome,
commenting on Isaiah xli. 22, says:
"Why could they never predict anything concerning Christ and
His Apostles, or the ruin and destruction of their own
temples? If then they could not foretell their own
destruction, how can they foretell anything good or bad?"
19 These Mysteries
were of Persian origin, connected it is said with the
worship of the Sun. The neophytes were mad to undergo twelve
different kinds of torture.
20 The
Egyptian Mysteries.
21 Zeus fell in love
with Isis, and carried her off in the form of a heifer. Here,
discovering the fraud, sent a gadfly, which drove Isis mad.
22 Apis, the sacred
bull, worshipped at Memphis.
23 i.e., that the
prosperity of the country was proportionate to the annual rise
of the River.
24 Rom. i. 27.
25 cf. Orat. in
Theoph. c. 12. The explanation seems to be, that the
"Knowledge of good and evil" was a necessary part of the
development of man's intellect, but that a premature
attempt to attain it per saltum instead of by a
gradual progress would prove fatal. Had human nature gone
through its originally intended educational stages, it
might have reached to the knowledge of evil without having
that knowledge alloyed and deteriorated by the
experience of evil, but might have known it, as God does,
without taint. (Boount, Ann. Bible on Gen. ii. 7.)
26 Ibid. i. 28.
27 Eph. ii. 10; Phil.
i. 11.
28 Prov. iv. 7.
29 Ib. i. 7 sq.
30 Exod. xxxiv. 30.
31 2 Cor. iii. 7.
32 Judg. xiii. 23.
33 Luke v. 8.
34 Matt. xiv. 29.
35 Acts ix. 3-8.
36 Luke xix. 3.
37 Col. iii. 5.
38 Luke xix. 9.
39 Ps. lxxxiv. 5.
40 Jer. iv. 3.
41 Prov. xi. 18.
42 2 Cor. ii. 6.
43 The sense of Person
(here prospron which is the usual
post-Nicene equivalent of hypostasis
was by no means generally attached to that word during
the first Four Centuries, though here and there there
are traces of such a use. Throughout the Arian controversy a
great deal of trouble and misunderstanding was caused by the
want of a precise definition of the meaning of
upo/stasij.
It seems to have been at
first understood by the Eastern Church to mean Real
Personal Existence - Reality being the
fundamental idea. In this fundamental sense it was used in
Theology as expressing the distinct individuality and relative
bearing of the Three "Persons" of the Blessed
Trinity to each other (to\ i!di/on pa\ra
to\ koino/n, Suidas).
But Arius gave it a heretical twist, and said
that there are Three Hypostases, in the sense
of Natures or Substances: and this doctrine
was anathematized by the Nicene Council, which, apparently
regarding the term u 9po/stasij
as exactly equivalent to ou'si/a
(as Arius tried to make it) condemned the proposit on that the
Son is e'c e 9te/raj u 9posta/sewj h@ ou
9si/aj (Sybm. Nic.).
Similar is the use of the word in S. Athanasius. As
against Sabellius, however, who taught that in the Godhead
there are tpia psoswpa (using
this word in the sense of Aspects only) but
would not allow trei=j u 9posta/seij
(I. e., Self-existent Personalities),
the post-Nicene Church regarded u
9po/stasij as designating the Person, and spoke
freely of trei!j u 9posta/seij.
The Western Church increased the confusion by continuing to
regard u 9po/stasij as equivalent
to ou'si/a, and translating it by
Substantia or Subsistentia. It was not till the word Essentia
came into use to express ou'si/a
that the Western Church grasped the difference, so long
accepted in the East, so as to use the words accurately.
Meantime, however, there would seem to have grown up a
difference in the use of the two words supposed to represent u 9po/stasij, of the same kind as
that between u 9po/stasij and ou'si/a; Substantia being appropriated
to the Essence of a thing, that which is the foundation of its
being; while Subsistentia came rather to connote a limitation,
i.e., Personality. Thus the West also became confused,
and Substantia was held to be the true equivalent of u 9po/stasij. Hence the condemnation
at Sardica (A.D. 347) by the Western Bishops of the doctrine
of Three Hypostases as Arian. The confusion lasted
long, but in 362 a Council was held at Alexandria, when this
difference was seen to be a mere logomachy, and it was
pronounced orthodox to confess either trei=j
u 9posta/seij in the sense of "Persons," or mi/an u 9po/stasin in that of
"Substance." Our author in his Oration to the Fathers of the
Council of Constantinople fully acknowledges this. "What do
you mean," he says, "by u 9posta/seij
or pro/swpa: You mean that the
Three are distinct, not in Nature, but in Personality"
And in the Panegyric on S. Athanasius (Or. xxi. c. 35), he
remarks on the orthodoxy of the phrase mi/a
ou'si/a, trei=j u 9posta/seij, that the first
expression refers to the Nature of the Godhead, the second to
the special properties of the Persons. With this, he says, the
Italians agree, but the poverty of their language is such that
it does not admit of the distinction between ou'si/a and u
9po/stasij, and therefore has to call in the word pro/swpon, which if misunderstood is
liable to be charged with Sabellianism.
44 2 Cor. viii. 6.
45 Rom. xi. 36.
46 The Coining is
simply of the adverbial form; the Substantive is found in
earlier writings. S. Gregory himself uses it Orat. Theol. V.
He uses other words also, as e!kpemyij,
pro/odoj, and the verbs proerxesqai,
proi!e/nai.
A to the question of the Double Procession (Filioque) see
Introd. to Orat. Theol. V. Dr. Swete (Doctr. of H. S. p. 118)
says, "It is instructive to notice how at this period the two
great Sees of Rome and Constantinople seem to have agreed in
abstaining from a minuter definition of the Procession. Both
in East and West the relations of the Spirit to the Son were
being examined by individual theologians but S. Gregory and S.
Damasus appear to have alike refrained from entering upon a
question which did not touch the essential of the Faith." He
adds in a note "This is the more remarkable because Damasus
was of Spanish origin."
47 "The rest of the
Creation was made by the command of God, but Man was
formed by the hand of God." (Wordsworth in Gen ii. 7.)
"There was a peculiar glory in the creation of Man,
distinguishing him from the rest of the creatures. The
creatures inferior to man were called into being by a simple
act of the Divine Will; but in the case of man,
bearing as he does the nature and the form which God was about
to assume as His own, and which, once assumed, was never again
to be laid aside the process of creation was markedly
different.
Then for the first time the Most Holy Persons sf the Blessed
Trinity appear upon the scene. They are manifested as
in mutual consultation and common action personally
engaged. . . . `Let Us make Man in Our Image
after Our Likeness 0'. . . Then followed the exercise of
creative power as a personal act, the putting forth the Hand
of God to fashion the body of Man; `The Lord God formed Man of
the dust of the earth. 0' Afterwards came the yet higher work
in the infusion of the immaterial invisible life enshrined in
the body, perfecting the work of God; `He breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life and Man became a living
soul. 0'" (T. T. Carter, The Divine Dispensations, p. 44)
48 Ps. lxviii. 4.
49 Ullman comments on
this passage as follows: There is in it, as follows especially
from what come after, the double sense that the Infinite
Godhead entered in Christ into the limitations of a finite
human life; and in consequence of this, since otherwise
as an infinite Being it was not fully cognisable by the finite
human soul, became in this limitation cognisable
in some degree to it, as it was not before this special
manifestation in Christ.
50 "In this and
several places pneu!ma and nou=j evidently denote the Divine the
Spiritual, taken in the highest and purest sense, in which it
is lifted above the sa/rc, and
generally above all that is material; in which sense S John
says, pneu=ma o 9 qeo/j."
Ullmann.
51 "In a double
sense; -either that the Godhead is, in union with the Man
Jesus, subjected to suffering (cf. Or. XXI. 24), or that the
Divine Substance, which is unapproachable by any passion or
suffering, combined itself with a Man, whose nature cannot be
free from such emotions." Ullmann.
52 i.e., human
nature, which was severed from and made hostile to God by sin.
53 i.e., Sasima.
54 That the All-pure
was baptized is to remind us of our need of preparation. That
He was baptized by John is to teach us humility towards the
Priesthood, even if the Priest be socially our inferior. That
He was baptized at thirty years of age shews that the Teachers
and Rulers of the Church ought not to be very young men.
Scholiast.
55 Matt. iii. 14.
56 John v. 35.
57 Matt. iii. 17.
58 John iii. 39.
59 Matt. xi. 11.
60 Col i. 5.
61 Luke i. 41.
62 "He who was the forerunner
on earth, and was to be the forerunner in Hades of Christ, Who
manifested Himself on earth, and manifested Himself also in
Hades." Elias Cretensis.
63 John xiii. 9.
64 Luke xiii. 8.
65 Heb. iv. 12.
66 Matt. x. 35.
67 Micah vii. 6.
68 John i. 27.
69 Luke vii. 26.
70 One important Ms.
reads "Us Who."
71 Gen. iii. 24.
72 Ib. viii. 11.
73 Matt. xiii. 31.
74 Zech. iv. 7.
75 The word Leviathan
does not occur in the LXX., though it is found twice in other
Greek Versions of the Book of Job, viz.: - iii. 8 and xl. 20.
76 Isa. liii. 7.
77 Matt. xiii. 46.
78 Ps. lxxii. 6.
79 Lev. xi.
80 1 Cor. x. 2.
81 Ps. vi. 6.
82 Ib. xxxviii. 5.
83 2 Chron. xxxviii.
12.
84 Jon. iii. 7-10.
85 Luke xviii. 13.
86 Matt. xv. 27.
87 Heb. v. 2.
88 Matt. vii. 2.
89 The Novatians were
known as Cathari or Puritans.
90 In A.D. 251
Novatus, a Presbyter of the Church of Carthage, who with
others had formed a party against S. Cyprian, their Bishop,
came to Rome, and excited Novatian to become leader in a
similar schism against Cornelius, the recently elected Bishop
of the Apostolic See. The plea urged on behalf of the schism
was that Cornelius, who was of one accord with Cyprian, had
lapsed in the time of the persecution under Decius. A.D. 250.
and that he had relaxed the discipline of the Church by
admitting to Communion on too easy terms those who had been
guilty of a similar offence; and that therefore he ought not
to be recognized as a true Bishop of the Church, but a
faithful Pastor should be chosen in his place. Consequently
Novatian was elected by some who held these views, and was
consecrated by three Bishops. There seem to have been a good
many of his followers in Constantinople at this time. There
had been at one time a disposition among them to reunite
themselves to the Catholic Church, for they were orthodox in
faith; but it had been hindered by the malevolence of their
party leaders; so that the schism continued, and the Novatians
must be added to the opponents with whom S. Gregory ad to
deal.
91 Matt. viii. 17.
92 Ib. ix. 13.
93 Ib. xviii. 22.
94 John xxi. 15. sq.
95 2 Cor. ii. 7.
96 "This too often
ignored page gives a solemn contradiction to those who,
falsifying history as well as theology, pretended two
centuries ago to revive by their extravagant rigour the spirit
of the primitive Church. The spirit of the Church never
changes. In flexible against error, it is full of gentleness
and kindliness for repentant sinners. The spirit of the Church
is that of the Saints of all times; or rather it is that of
the Divine Shepherd, Who made Himself known above all by His
unspeakable tenderness and His inexhaustible mercy to lost
sheep." (Benoit S. G. de N.)
97 i.e., their proper
class among the Penitents.
98 1 Cor. iii. 12-19.
99 Isa. i. 17, 18.
1 Enlightenment (fwtismo/j) is one of the most ancient
names for Holy Baptism; the name, in fat, which S. Gregory
uses throughout this Oration, and which his Latin translator
almost invariably renders by Baptismus
2 This Veil is
Original Sin, by which the soul is darkened and
as it were covered
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