But if the body has been tempered by the interposition of a fast, the soul, having recovered knowledge of itself, understands with what devotion it ought to render service to its Redeemer. To a great extent, therefore, fasts are necessary. Under Queen Esther, when the Jewish people was placed in peril, it was set free by fasts coming to its aid. And the Ninevites, when they had heard from the prophet the appointed day of their overthrow, by proclaiming a fast deserved to escape. And our just men and prophets, when they wished to obtain anything from God, humbled themselves with fasting, as David says: 'In fasting I humbled my soul.' For even the Savior, who had no need, fasted, in order to give us an example. And so it is doubtful to none that fasts are profitable.
For thus a man shows that he wills to obtain what he asks, when he afflicts himself with fasting. Hence it is said: 'Prayer with fasting is good.' Therefore, in order that prayer may be acceptable, it desires to have the solace of fasting; and because none of these is firm without piety, it adds: 'and almsgiving with justice'—so that almsgiving, justice being preserved, may commend prayer together with fasting. Finally, mercy commended the prayer and fasting of Cornelius. For he himself, abounding in wealth, fasted, but also fed those who had nothing, so that their satiety made his fasting acceptable. Fasting therefore both needs some things and ought to lack some things, that it may be able to merit what it asks. 121. THE PRAISE AND GLORY OF PASCHA.
O holy and salvific day of Pascha, to be proclaimed with all praise, on which death was conquered, the kingdom taken from the devil; the mystery of God made manifest, the decree which was against us made void; the gates of hell shattered, the bound set loose, the imprisoned released, the blind enlightened, the unlearned endowed with knowledge, the impious made merciful, the unjust made just; the remission of sins granted, the reconciliation of enemies, the correction of error, the declaration of truth; sons acquired for God out of the lost; pride abased, humility exalted; the poor enriched, the rich emptied out; mountains leveled, valleys filled, hills laid low; shamelessness trampled down, modesty cherished;
to souls the power to ascend to heaven was given, liberty restored, captivity broken asunder and dissolved; the darkness grew faint, malice was confounded, squalor was purified; Satan cast down, hell emptied, our Lord Christ Jesus approved as the true Son of God, the flesh raised into the heavens to the confounding of the wise of the world, things heavenly, earthly, and infernal shown to belong to the one God and Lord! And so, most beloved brethren, we ought to keep and venerate this festal day, devoted to God, with sobriety of life and gladness of mind, shunning what is base and dishonorable, that we may deserve to come to the fruit of Pascha, through Christ our Lord, to whom is honor and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. 122. ON THE BEGINNING. 'In the beginning was the Word.'
What is 'in the beginning'? Since we read also in the old books: 'In the beginning God made heaven and earth,' and in the epistle of the same one whose Gospel it is, concerning whose 'beginning' we attempt to say something, it is signified in the same sense; for he says: 'that which was from the beginning.' The epistle, therefore, and the Gospel have one and the same sense. For one thing is what he says in the old text: 'In the beginning God made heaven and earth,' and another when he says: 'In the beginning was the Word,' and: 'that which was from the beginning.' For to be 'in the beginning' and to be 'from the beginning' signify one and the same thing, because that which was from the beginning did not begin to be. For that which begins to be was not from the beginning, and therefore 'beginning' is added, so that it is said:
'it began to be in the beginning'—that is, that among the rest it should be first in order, because that which was itself made in the beginning began to have others after it, which were made after it, as we read: 'In the beginning God made heaven and earth.' He did not say: 'in the beginning were heaven and earth,' because, when they did not yet exist and God was arranging to make the world, 'in the beginning'—that is, among the rest of the things which contributed to the fabric of the world—'He first made heaven and earth,' because a beginning is the inception of someone starting something, which is first in order.
But that which is said, that 'in the beginning was,' namely the Word, signifies that it existed before the inception of the creation above and below, so that it should by no means be understood to have been made first among these things which were created, because it 'was in the beginning' when God was arranging to make the creation. Therefore, if it was 'in the beginning,' that is, was before all things, it always was, and therefore the Word also was. 'It was with God,' he says, so that what always was with God should by no means be reckoned to be unworthily subject to a beginning. For it is fitting that what was with God before all things should be subject to no beginning. Hence he also added: 'and the Word was God.'
Now he shows openly that the things said above are congruous with the Word, because, he says, the Word is God, and concerning God one ought not to think otherwise than that He is always said to have existed. For if it began, it is a creature; if it is a creature, it is not God; for whatever exists is either God or a creature, and on this account the name of God does not befit a creature. But because it did not begin to be—for it was—it is worthily called God. But it is said to have always existed 'with God' for this reason, that it is not God of itself, but of God. For which reason its name too is called 'the Word of God,' as the faith of the same evangelist in his Revelation shows; for he says, among other things: 'and his name is the Word of God.'
For in order that it might be signified to be not Himself from whom are all things, but Him through whom are all things—that is, not the Father but the Son—it was called 'the Word of God,' so that, because God cannot be without a Word, this one who is called 'the Word of God' may be believed always to have been with God; and because the Word is not outside Him whose Word it is, this Word, which was with God, may be understood to be signified as being not from elsewhere, but from God; and because it is of God, it may not absurdly be called God. And so the fact that God was with God does not make two Gods. For if there were two, they would be diverse in nature and not of one will. For if we men, though we are of one nature, are nevertheless of diverse will, how much more where the nature too is diverse!
And He would not be said to be God with God. For God, who was and is with God, does not have of Himself that He is God; otherwise He would not be said to be God with God, nor would the 'Word of God' be called God the Word; but because that which is of God signifies nothing other than that He is God, the 'Word of God' was named God, so that, because He is called 'the Word of God,' He might not be referred to another God; while the fact that He is called God might not turn to injury of God, if that which was of God were by no means called God. Therefore both the unity of God has been preserved and the due honor rendered, since this one, who is God of God, has been received not into His own glory, but into the glory of Him of whom He is God.
For this reason the Gospel begins to speak of the Word before it speaks of God the Father, because the questions are not raised about God, but about the Word of God. For no one doubts about God, but about Him who is God of God. For every tongue of things heavenly and earthly confesses one God, but is troubled in the mystery of the one God. For it trembles when it hears the Word of God called 'God'; for it is struck by corporeal modes, because the word of a man cannot be called a man—seeing that God is by nature simple, not composed of members, nor such as to have an inside and an outside, nor before and after, or top and bottom, but, if it may be said, wholly the same throughout all, never varied or dissimilar—but His brightness is one, immeasurable;
for if fire has no front and back, or inside and outside, how much more its Creator!—and so, because everything that God is is wholly one, it is not discordant, when that which is of God is called God. In part, therefore, by a human example, in part by one not human, the Son of God, who is the Word of God, is God. For by that same reasoning by which the sons of men are men, the Son of God is God. But because the sons of men are men by intermingling, the Son of God is not God by this example, because He is begotten simply from the simple God.
And just as our word is from us, by this example it is understood that the Word of God is of God; but because our word is not that which we ourselves are, the Word of God is not of God by this reasoning, because the Word of God is a substance, not a sound which perishes. For not because words are common to us and to God will there be one and the same reasoning for us and for God in the effecting of things. For we read: 'In the beginning God made heaven and earth.' How did He make it? Surely not, as we make things, with hand and labor? And in what follows: 'And God said,' it says, 'Let there be light; and light was made'—how do we suppose God spoke, since He certainly did not speak to a man, but to Him who was able to make, who was also about to make man, as He did make him? As we speak, with a bodily organ? Far from it.
You see, therefore, that words indeed are common to us and to God, but they differ in their effect; for God makes otherwise than we make, and He is said to speak, but not in our manner. So also the Word of God is not such a word as ours, which, after it is made, is no more; but that one abides, because it is such a word as both hears and speaks and works. And He is not only the 'Word of God,' but also the 'Power and Wisdom of God'—this is the Son of God, who, as far as pertains to His effecting, is called the Son of God; but as far as pertains to the address by which God addresses us through Him, He is called the Word of God; but as far as pertains to the wisdom by which God through Him teaches us His mystery, He is called the Wisdom of God;
but as far as pertains to the operation, because through Him God made and makes all things, He is called the Power of God. These could befit no other than the Son of God. For because He is God of God, He is called all things of God. For by being born He obtained all the things of God. For it was not fitting that the Word of God and the Power and Wisdom of God should be called degenerate; for this is God: Word, Power, Wisdom. But Christ, because He is wholly God of wholly God, is called both the Wisdom of God and the Power and the Word of God—that is, to be God of God and with God. Wherefore he says: 'This was in the beginning with God,' for to overcome the minds of the unbelieving the constrained Scripture broke forth, to show that Christ is God;
for in every place, on account of the unity of God, He wishes Christ to be understood to be God, but now with open voice he said that He is God and always was with God, disclosing the mystery of God, lest He be thought altogether solitary; he declared that God is not said to be one for this reason, that He should be reckoned solitary, but that, although there be two or three, yet from one, this does not prejudice the unity, because that which is of one is referred to that very one, since He is one. Although all things are said to be of God, yet one thing is that which has properly arisen from God, and another that which, by a nod, was created from without by God;
that is, one thing is that which proceeded from His substance, and another that which, when it in no way existed, was created by His will, because that which proceeded from the substance of God never existed by way of substance, but that which was created then began to exist in substance, when it was created; and on this account the Trinity alone has no beginning. The disclosure of the mystery, therefore, diminished the merits of faith, because, the more hidden is that which is believed, the more abundant is the reward of the believer and the less the penalty of the doubter. But the disclosure of the mystery, just as it made believers merit less, so it stirred up greater penalties for the doubters. For a more manifest law makes one more guilty. For the testimony of the Savior, by which He had called God His own proper Father, had sufficed.
For which of the believers would doubt that the Son differs in nothing from the Father in substance? But because the perversity of the heretics had begun, by the inventions of unbelief, to assail the rights of faith, receiving the Son of God otherwise than He is proclaimed, it was added, to produce a manifestation, that this one existed before all things with God and is God, in order to declare what the true reckoning of the Son contained mystically—whereby the divine clemency is seen to have provided for human weakness, that it might open what it had reserved closed for the merits of a more excellent faith. Hence he added, saying: 'All things were made through Him,' so that if anyone among the foregoing should be in doubt about anything, because the understanding of men is too narrow to grasp divine things, he might be made capable from these words, when he hears:
'All things were made through Him,' so that he should by no means think Him to be a creature, because he hears all things made through Him by God. But if He too were a creature, He would not have said that all things were made through Him by God; for He Himself was not coming into being through Himself. And to deliver this still more absolutely, he added: 'and without Him,' he says, 'was made nothing.' Saying this he excluded all controversy and earthly arguments. Although there are not lacking those who doubt, yet, when he showed that without Him nothing was made, he taught that one ought in no way to suspect Him to be a creature. For how can He Himself be said to be a creature, when nothing is said to have been made by God without Him? For if He made it, the Scripture lies. But far be it, for the Scripture is faithful, which,
in order to cut off error, uses as great a manifestation as it can for the redeeming of men unto salvation. Finally he subjoined: 'that which was made,' he says, 'in Him is life.' 'In Him'—that is, in the Word—it signifies that that which was made is life. As the Lord Himself also says: 'As the Father has life in Himself, so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself'—not because the Word was without life and afterward life was either given or made in Him, but it wills the Word itself to be understood to be life. If of God the Father it can be said that He Himself is one thing and what He has in Himself is another, so also of His Son, because 'as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself.'
For human words are not adequate to explain divine things; therefore what is said seems faulty, that, although the Son of God is not a creature, yet 'made' is said to be in Him. And if he had said: 'that which was begotten in Him,' even so it would have seemed faulty. But in order to show His substantive generation, he demonstrated, by such language as he could use, the work effected in it, through which He existed, namely that His generation has life in itself. For we indeed live, but cannot give life to others, since not even that same life is in our power; but He is said to have life in Himself for this reason, that He is able to give life and to create what He wills, that they may exist and live.
For He is said to have been born for this, that He may be able to do all the things that the Father does, because He has life in Himself just as the Father also has—that is, to have made all things through Himself and in Himself, to have so begotten Him that He should have in Himself life, through which He may be able to make all things. Not that He Himself is anything other than life, but while His life has this power, that it both lives and is able to create other things which live, He is said to have life in Himself. For we live, but we do not have life in ourselves in such a way as to give life to others also. This sense the apostle Paul too records, saying, among other things:
'who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn before every creature, since in Him were created all things in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through Him and in Him.' The Gospels of the two apostles John and Paul agree; for they say the same things, that the Son of God was begotten before every creature, in order that He might create the spiritual powers and the world and the visible things that are in it. For what John said, that 'that which was made, in Him is life,' this same thing Paul also signified, saying that 'in Him were created all things in the heavens and on earth.' And in what follows:
'All things were created through Him and in Him.' 'Through Him' He created, because in substance He is the same God, that is, the Father in the Son; but 'in Him' truly, because He so begot the Son that He should have the power of making all things visible and invisible. This is what it was to have made life in Him, that He might both live and furnish to others the life of living, acting, understanding, and to the other living creatures according to what He willed, as it were the image of God. For while He is called the image of God, it is referred to both, because both through His expressed nativity He has in Himself the full likeness of the Father, and He can do whatever the Father can do, so that it is true that the Father is seen in the Son, who is the image of the invisible God.
Did he, because he called the Father invisible, make the Son visible, since the Son is by nature exactly what the Father also is? And since the heavenly creation is invisible, how much more its Creator! But he signified that which is in the heavens, not that which is on earth, because, although the Son too is invisible, yet there—that is, in the heavenly places—He is seen by the apostles or by others such as these, of whom He said: 'Father, I will that where I am these also may be with Me and may see My glory'; and in another place: 'Blessed,' He says, 'are the pure in heart, for they shall see God'—that is, the Father in the Son, God in the image, which is God in God.
Just as a body is the image of a body, so also God is the image of God, because the Father is the exemplar, but the Son is the exemplar from the exemplar, which He communicates to the Holy Spirit: 'for of Mine,' He says, 'shall He receive.' And therefore in the Son God is seen as in His own image. For just as no one was found worthy to open the book and its seals except the Word of God, so also no one is worthy to see God the Father, neither by nature nor by merits, except His true Son. For there is no medium that stands between the Father and the Son, He Himself being our witness who says: 'For no one has seen the Father except He who is from God; He has seen God.' But if the Father is seen in the Son, why is no one said to be worthy to see God, when He is seen in the Son, since the Son differs in nothing from the Father?
He differs in nothing at all in substance, because He is the true Son; but He differs in cause or degree, because all power is in the Son from the Father, and, although the Son is not less in substance, yet in authority the Father is greater, the Lord Himself testifying and saying: 'If you loved Me, you would rejoice, because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.' Keeping to which measure, the apostle Paul says: 'One God the Father, of whom are all things and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus, through whom are all things and we through Him'—so that the first degree is that from which are all things, the second that through which are all things, the third that in which are all things. And because none of these is degenerate, they are signified to be in the unity of God, the apostle saying:
'since of Him and through Him and in Him are all things; to Him be glory.' 123. WHETHER ADAM HAD THE HOLY SPIRIT? I have found that some of our brethren have not fully learned the Scriptures,
but in simplicity of mind assert that Adam, when he was made, received the Holy Spirit, which he lost by sinning, just as now it is given to believers—led by this reasoning, by which it is usually asserted by very many that man was restored through faith in such a way that, brought back to his original state, he received all that which Adam had at the beginning obtained, and that he ought to be called a perfect man who—'if he did not have,' they say, 'the Holy Spirit, he was imperfect.' But I say that not only man, but all the things that God made, which cannot be said to have received the Holy Spirit, are perfect. For all the kinds of animals are perfect in their own kind, so as to fulfill that for which they were made;
so also man is perfect in his own kind, so that he is able to discern evil from good, the crooked from the right. For he is an intelligent animal, perfect for that for which he was made; for he is capable of learning, devising, doing, so that what he cannot accomplish by power he may accomplish by understanding. And how did they dare to say that man was born perfect and knowing all things, whom they see to know nothing beyond what is learned here? For what he does not learn here, he does not know. Finally, since he does not here learn what he himself is, he does not know it. He, therefore, who does not know what he himself is, how does he know all things, since to know himself is less than the rest? But because he learns about the rest, while he does not learn about himself, he knows about other things, but does not know about himself, neither what he is, nor whether he exists before the body or after the body.
For if he had been made perfect in such a way as to need nothing, he would not have been a man, but God, nor, being encompassed, would he have transgressed. But to have the Holy Spirit is beyond the nature and perfection of man, so that he may be able to do the things that are of God. Was it not, because the donkey spoke to Balaam, beyond its perfection? For it received that it might be able to do what was not of its own nature, but of ours. And so, because man is more excellent than the other animals, are those other animals therefore to be called imperfect? Or because the holy angels are not what God is, are they imperfect? Or because the lights and the stars are inferior to the angels above, or because the clouds with their veil obscure the sun and moon, are they less perfect?
And because the members need one another, because the feet cannot do what the hands can, shall they be called imperfect? Far from it. For all things are firm and perfect for their own places and degrees, so as to fulfill that for which they were made. Therefore all things are perfect, because their Creator too is perfect, but in comparison with Him they are imperfect. For God is through all things perfect, as it were the fount and origin of all. For the things that were made are indeed perfect, but for that for which they were made, so that in another respect they are not perfect, because one needs another, so that in that which it does not need it is perfect, not in that which it needs; and therefore all things are both perfect and imperfect. The hands need the feet, because, unless they walk, the hands will be idle. Again the feet need the hands;
for they cannot shoe themselves nor tend themselves. Since therefore the body is perfect in its members, yet it cannot fly, nor carry as much as a mule can. Though they are perfect in these things, yet they do not know how to govern themselves, nor can they apply medicine to themselves. Hence it is said: 'Do not become like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding.' And water and fire, though they oppose one another, are perfect in their own kind; for they fulfill that for which they were made. For fire cooks and consumes, purges and warms; but water washes, cools, irrigates, refreshes the thirsty. And so, since all things are perfect in their own kind, yet without man they can do nothing, nor can man, though he is more perfect, do anything without them. Hence the apostle calls us both imperfect and perfect.
For in comparison with unbelievers we are perfect, because we have come to know God; yet because we know less than we ought of the things that have been promised, and because in this life we cannot grasp as much as is the reality of what is believed, we are imperfect. Therefore, since some suppose that the perfection of Adam is being restored to believers, let us consider whether this restoration possesses anything of divine gift beyond what Adam had attained. For Adam, when he was made, 'was placed in paradise, that he might work it and keep it.' That is, that he might cultivate the earth and keep the commandments of God, through which he might know that he had received dominion over all things in such a way that he himself nonetheless lived under the law of his Creator, lest his lordship should exalt him and, puffed up with pride, he should become forgetful of his Maker.
He was placed there, then, that his life might be sustained by food; but through Christ this has been granted, that when we rise we shall not need food or drink, because that which is mortal in man shall be changed into life. Adam was made to dwell on the earth; but faith has deigned to bestow this, that our habitation may be in the heavens. Scripture itself bears witness, for it says: 'The first man Adam was made a living soul, but the second man a life-giving spirit. The first man,' it says, 'was of the earth, earthy; the second man from heaven, heavenly: as is the earthy, such also are the earthy; as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly.' What could be plainer than that Adam did not possess the Holy Spirit?
For he was made a living soul, but through Christ he is made a life-giving spirit, so that man may in some respect be like his Creator and may be what he believes. For because the mystery of faith, which has been given for salvation, is threefold, man becomes threefold in body, soul, and the Holy Spirit, through whom we are called sons of God—a name by which Adam is by no means proved to have been called; for he was made earthy. But the sons of God, born not carnally but spiritually, are called heavenly. Behold, it is established that the gift of God has bestowed far more grace in the time of the Saviour than Adam had received, since man has not only been restored but also bettered: restored in this, that he has been washed from sins; bettered in the rest.
For both justice and reason demanded this: that the clemency of God should then be more abundant in the bestowal of benefits, when He willed the mystery of His divinity to be made known to His creation; so that those who come to know what was unknown from ages and generations—namely the sacred mystery of the one God subsisting in a Trinity—should, on account of this dedication, as it were, of the new dispensation, having been washed from sins, be furthermore justified, and being adopted by God receive the Holy Spirit, through whom they might be seen to possess the sign of adoption. For those adopted by God ought to have the sign of God the Father, so that not undeservedly they may be called sons of God.
This gift was promised through the prophets, that it should be given at that time when the mystery of God was to be declared in triumph, with death overcome, so that the creation might know that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God. Whence the Evangelist also says: 'The Spirit,' he says, 'was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.' For this is the glorification: when through His own power He is known to be that which He testified concerning Himself; which glorification gave this gift that had been promised through the prophet Joel. For God says: 'In the last days I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh,' and so forth. And the Apostle, among other things:
'But when the kindness and humanity of God our Saviour appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewal, through the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.'