A according to our ability. We shall speak, however, not of how great God is, but of how much we can attain. For just as, because we are unable to scan with our eyes the entire space between heaven and earth, we do not therefore refuse to see as much as we are able; so too, let us now satisfy piety with a few words, while conceding to the majesty of [His] nature the victory over every discourse. For not even the tongues of angels B—whatever they may be—nor those of archangels, gathered together with the entire rational nature, will be able to attain even a minute part [of His nature], much less be sufficient to explain the whole. But you, if you wish to speak or hear something about God, leave behind your body, leave behind your bodily senses, leave the earth, leave the sea, place the air beneath yourself, hasten past the ages, the appointed orders of times, the adornments of the earth; rise above the ether, pass beyond the stars, the wonders concerning them, their beautiful order, their magnitudes, the uses they provide for the whole, the good order, the splendor, the position, the motion—how they hold a relationship or distance toward one another. Having passed by everything with your discourse, having leaned over above the heaven and having become superior to it, look around with your mind alone at the beauties there: the heavenly hosts, the choirs of angels, the leaderships C of the archangels, the glories of the lordships, the thrones’ presiding ranks, the powers, the principalities, the authorities. Having run past all things, and having raised your thoughts back up above every creature, and having lifted your mind beyond these, contemplate the divine nature: standing, immutable, unchangeable, impassible, simple, uncompounded, indivisible, light inaccessible D, power ineffable, magnitude boundless, glory outshining, goodness worthy of desire, beauty beyond measure—which strongly strikes the wounded soul, but which is impossible to be revealed in words according to its worth.
2. There the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the uncreated nature, the sovereign dignity, the natural goodness. The Father: the principle of all things, the cause of existence for those things that exist, the root of the living. Whence proceeded the fount of life, the wisdom, the power, the image most similar in all things to the invisible God, the Son begotten from the Father, the living Word, being God, and being with God: existing, not adventitious; existing before the ages, not acquired D later; Son, not a possession; Maker, not a thing made; Creator, not a creature.
A Son, I say, and Father. Guard for me these properties. Remaining, therefore, in that which is Son, He is all things which the Father is, according to the voice of the Lord Himself, saying: All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine. For in truth, all things that belong to the archetypal pattern belong to the image. For we have beheld, says the evangelist, His glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father; that is to say, the miracles were not given to Him by gift and grace, but the Son possesses the majesty of the Father’s divinity from communion of nature. For to receive is something common even to the creature, but to have from nature is proper to the Begotten. Therefore, as Son, He possesses naturally the things of the Father; as Only-begotten, He contains all things in Himself, having grasped them so that nothing is divided among another. From the very appellation of Son, therefore, we learn that He is a sharer of the nature, B not created by command, but shining forth from the substance without any interval, joined to the Father without any space of time, equal in goodness, equal in power, a sharer of the majesty. For what is He, if not a seal and an image, showing in Himself the whole Father? But whatever things after this He discusses, C dispensing the salvation of men, which He manifested to us having appeared through the flesh, saying that He is sent, and that He can do nothing of Himself, and that He received a commandment, and such like—let not these provide you with occasions to diminish the divinity of the Only-begotten. For that humble approach to your infirmity ought not to become a diminishment of the dignity of the Almighty; but understand the nature in a manner becoming to God, and receive the humbler words as spoken in the economy of salvation. Concerning these, if we wished to treat them accurately at present, we would find ourselves piling up a great, or rather an infinite, abundance of words onto the subject. D 3. Let us return to the proposed subject. A mind which has been able to be pure from earthly passions, and to leave behind all intelligible creation, and, like some fish from the depth, to swim up toward the upper surface, having been set in the purity of creation, there will behold the Holy Spirit, where the Son is, and where the Father is: Who also Himself has all things coessentially according to nature—goodness, rectitude, holiness, life. For, He says, Thy Spirit is good;
and again, A right Spirit; and again, The Holy Spirit. And the Apostle says A: The law of the Spirit of life. Nothing of these is acquired by Him, nor does anything adventitious come to Him subsequently; but just as heating cannot be separated from fire, nor splendor from light, so too is sanctification, vivification, goodness, and rectitude to the Spirit. There, then, the Spirit stands; there, in the blessed nature, not numbered with a multitude, but beheld in the Trinity; declared essentially as one, not contained within systems. For as the Father is one, and the Son is one, so also is the Holy Spirit one. But the ministering spirits, by each order, show us a multitude that can scarcely be numbered. Do not, therefore, seek in the creature that which is above the creature; do not bring down that which sanctifies together with those who are sanctified. This Spirit fills the angels, fills the archangels, sanctifies the powers, B vivifies all things. This Spirit, being distributed to every creature, and participated in differently by different beings, is in no way diminished by those who participate. He gives to all the grace that is from Himself; yet He is not consumed by those who participate, but even those who have received are filled, and to Him there is nothing lacking. And just as the sun, shining upon bodies and being participated in varied ways by them, is in no way diminished by those who participate, so also the Spirit, providing to all the grace from Himself, remains undiminished and indivisible. He illumines all for the understanding of God, inspires the prophets, makes legislators wise, perfects priests, strengthens kings, sets the righteous in order, renders the prudent honorable, works gifts of healings, vivifies the dead, looses those who are bound, adopts as sons those who are alienated. These things He works through the generation from above. If He takes a publican who believes, He C proves him an evangelist; if He finds a fisherman, He makes him a theologian; if He finds a persecutor repenting, He renders him an apostle of the Gentiles, a herald of the faith, a vessel of election. Through Him the weak become strong, the poor grow rich, the unlearned in speech are wiser than the wise. Paul was weak, yet because of the presence of the Spirit, the handkerchiefs from his body gave healing to those who received them. Peter also was encompassed by bodily infirmity, yet through the indwelling grace of the Spirit, the shadow cast from his body put to flight the diseases of the afflicted. Poor were Peter and John; for they had no silver, neither gold; yet they granted a health more D precious than many gold pieces. For the lame man, who had received gold from many, was still a beggar; but having received the grace from Peter, he stopped
A begging, leaping like a deer and praising God. John did not know the wisdom of the world, but he uttered words by the power of the Spirit, which no wisdom can look upon. He stands also in heaven, and has filled the earth, and is present everywhere, and is contained nowhere. He indwells in each one entirely, and is entirely with God. He does not minister gifts in the manner of a servant, but distributes them by his own authority. For he says, it distributes them specifically to each one, as it wills. It is sent, indeed, after the manner of a steward and manager, but it acts by its own power. Let us pray that it may be present to our souls, and may never leave us, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
HOMILY XVI.
On the text, “In the beginning was the Word.”
1. The voice of the Gospels is more magnificent and excellent than the rest of the teachings handed down by the Spirit, for this reason: that in those others He spoke to us through servants, the prophets, but in the Gospels, the Master spoke to us in His own person. But the most vocal among these evangelic heralds, who spoke things greater than any hearing and higher than any understanding, is John, that son of thunder, whose exordium we have just heard read from the book of the Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” C I know that many even of those who are strangers to the doctrine of the truth, and who pride themselves on worldly wisdom, have admired these words and dared to intermix them with their own compositions. For the devil is a thief, and being a narrator of fables, he carries off our treasures to his own prophets. If, then, fleshly wisdom has so greatly admired the power of these words, what shall we do, we who are disciples of the Spirit, if we listen to them inattentively, and think there is only a small power within them? D And who could be so stupid as not to marvel at such beauty of thought and such depth of dogmas, so incomprehensible, and not to desire the true understanding of them? But indeed, it is not difficult to admire beautiful things; but to arrive at an accurate understanding of what has been admired, this is arduous and very difficult. For there is no one who does not praise this sensible sun, seeing that by its magnitude and beauty and the equality of its rays