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1. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He had addressed to
the Jews, so regulating His discourse that the blind saw not, and
believers' eyes were opened, are these, which have been read today
from the holy Gospel: "Then said the Jews, Who art thou?"
Because the Lord had said before, "If ye believe not that I am,
ye shall die in your sins." To this accordingly they rejoined,
"Who art thou?" as if seeking to know on whom they ought to
believe, so as not to die in their sin. He replied to those who asked
Him: "Who art thou?" by saying, "The beginning, for also I
speak to you." If the Lord has called Himself the beginning, it
may be inquired whether the Father also is the beginning. For if the
Son who has a Father is the beginning, how much more easily must God
the Father be understood as the beginning, who has indeed the Son
whose Father He is, but has no one from whom He Himself
proceedeth?
For the Son is the Son of the Father, and the Father certainly is
the Father of the Son; but the Son is called God of God, the Son
is called Light of Light; the Father is called Light, but not, of
Light, the Father is called God, but not, of God. If, then,
God of God, Light of Light, is the beginning, how much more
easily may we understand as such that Light, from whom the Light
[cometh], and God, of whom is God? It seems, therefore,
absurd, dearly beloved, to call the Son the beginning, and not to
call the Father the beginning also.
2. But what shall we do? Are there, then, two beginnings? Let
us beware of saying so. What then? if both the Father is the
beginning and the Son the beginning, how are there not two
beginnings? In the same way that we call the Father God, and the
Son God, and yet say not that there are two Gods; and yet He who
is the Father is not the Son, He who is the Son is not the
Father; and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and of the
Son, is neither the Father nor the Son. Although, then, as
Catholic ears have been taught in the bosom of mother Church, neither
He who is the Father is the Son, nor He who is the Son is the
Father, nor is the Holy Spirit, of the Father and of the Son,
either the Son or the Father, yet we say not that there are three
Gods; although, if we are asked of each apart, we must, of
whichever we are questioned, confess that He is God.
3. But all this seems absurd to those who drag up familiar things to
a level with things little known, visible things with invisible, and
compare the creature to the Creator. For unbelievers sometimes
question us and say: Whom you call the Father, do you call him
God? We answer, God. Whom you call the Son, do you call him
God? We answer, God. Whom you call the Holy Spirit, do you
call him God? We answer, God. Then, say they, are the Father,
and the Son, and the Holy Spirit three Gods? We answer, No.
They are confounded, because they are not enlightened; they have
their heart shut up, because they want the key of faith. Let us
then, brethren, by an antecedent faith that heals the eye of our
heart, receive without obscurity what we understand, and what we
understand not, believe without hesitation; let us not quit the
foundation of faith in order to reach the summit of perfection. The
Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God: and yet
He is not the Father who is the Son, nor He the Son who is the
Father, and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and the
Son, is neither the Father nor the Son. The Trinity is one God.
The Trinity is one eternity, one power, one majesty; three, but
not three] Gods. Let not the reviler answer me: "Three what,
then? For," he adds, "if there are three, you must say, three
what?" I reply: The Father, and the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. "See," he says, "you have named three; but express what
the three are?" Nay, count them yourself; for I make out three
when I say, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For
the Father is God as respects Himself, but [He is] the Father as
respects the Son; the Son is God as respects Himself, but He is
the Son as regards the Father.
4. What I say you may gather from daily analogies. So it is with
one man and another, if the one be a father, the other his son. He
is man as regards himself, but a father as regards his son; and the
son man as respects himself, but a son as respects his father. For
father is a name given relatively, and so with son; but these are two
men. And certainly God the Father is Father in a relative sense,
that is, in relation to the Son; and God the Son is Son
relatively, that is, in relation to the Father; but not as the
former are two men are these two Gods. Why is it not so here?
Because that belongs to one sphere and this to another; for this is
divine. There is here something ineffable which cannot be explained in
words, that there should both be, and not be, number. For see if
there appear not a kind of number, Father, and Son, and Holy
Ghost the Trinity. If three, three what? Here number fails. And
so God neither keeps apart from number, nor is comprehended by
number. Because there are three, there is a kind of number. If you
ask three what, number ceases. Hence it is said, "Great is our
Lord, and great His power; and of His understanding there is no
number." When you have begun to reflect, you begin to number; when
you have numbered, you cannot tell what you have numbered. The
Father is Father, the Son is Son, the Holy Spirit is the Holy
Spirit. What are these three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit? Are They not three Gods? No. Are They not three
Almighties? No. Not three Creators of the world? No. Is the
Father then almighty? Manifestly almighty. And is the Son then not
almighty? Clearly the Son. is also almighty. And is the Holy
Spirit then not almighty? He, too, is almighty. Are there then
three Almighties? No; only one Almighty. Only in Their relation
to each other do They suggest number, not in Their essential
existence. For though God the Father is, as respects Himself,
God along with the Son and the Holy Spirit, there are not three
Gods; and, though as respects Himself He is omnipotent, as well as
the Son and the Holy Spirit, there are not three omnipotents; for
in truth He is the Father not in respect to Himself, but to the
Son; nor is the Son so in respect to Himself, but to the Father;
nor is the Spirit so as regards Himself, in as far as He is called
the Spirit of the Father and of the Son. I have no name to give the
three, save the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God,
one Almighty. And so one beginning.
5. Take an illustration from the Holy Scriptures, whereby you may
in some measure comprehend what I am saying. After our Lord Jesus
Christ rose again, and was pleased to ascend into heaven, at the end
of ten days He sent from thence the Holy Spirit, by whom those who
were present in that one chamber were filled, and began to speak in the
languages of all nations. The Lord's murderers, terrified by the
miracle, were pricked to the heart and sorrowed; sorrowing, were
changed; and being changed, believed. There were added to the
Lord's body, that is, to the number of believers, three thousand
people. And so also by the working of another miracle there were added
other five thousand. A considerable community was created, in which
all, receiving the Holy Spirit, by whom spiritual love was kindled,
were by their very love and fervor of spirit welded into one, and began
in the very unity of fellowship to sell all that they had, and to lay
the price at the apostles' feet, that distribution might be made to
every one as each had need. And the Scripture says this of them,
that "they were of one soul and one heart toward God." Give heed
then, brethren, and from this acknowledge the mystery of the
Trinity, how it is we say, There is both the Father, and the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, and yet there is one God. See! there
were so many thousands of these, and yet there was one heart; there
were so many thousands, and one soul. But where? In God. How
much more so God Himself? Do I err at all in word when I call two
men two souls, or three men three souls, or many men many souls?
Surely I speak correctly. Let them approach God, and one soul
belongs to all. If by approaching God many souls by love become one
soul, and many hearts one heart, what of the very fountain of love in
the Father and Son? Is it not still more so here that the Trinity
is one God? For thence, of that Holy Spirit, does love come to
us, as the apostle says: "The love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." If then the
love of God, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is
given unto us, makes many souls one soul, and many hearts one heart,
how much rather are the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, one God,
one light, and one beginning?
6. Let us hear, then, the Beginning who speaks to us: "I
have," said He, "many things to say of you and to judge." You
remember that He said, "I do not judge any one." See, now He
says, "I have many things to say of you and to judge." But, "I
do not judge" is one thing: "I have to judge" is another; for He
had come to save the world, not to judge the world. In saying, "I
have many things to say of you and to judge," He speaks of the future
judgment. For therefore did He ascend, that He may come to judge
the living and the dead. No one will judge more justly than He who
was unjustly judged. "Many things," said He, "have I to say of
you and to judge; but He that sent me is true." See how the Son,
His equal, gives glory to the Father. For He sets us an example,
and says as it were in our hearts: O believer, if thou hearest my
gospel, the Lord thy God saith to thee, when I, in the beginning
God the Word with God, equal with the Father, coeternal with Him
that begat, give glory to Him whose Son I am, how canst thou be
proud before Him, whose servant thou art?
7. "I have many things," He said, "to say of you and to judge:
but He that sent me is true;" as if He had said, Therefore I
judge the truth, because, as the Son of the True One, I am the
truth. The Father true, the Son the truth, which do we account the
greater? Let us reflect, if we can, which is the greater, the True
One or the Truth. Take some other instances. Is a pious man, or
piety, the more comprehensive? Surely piety itself; for the pious is
derived from piety, not piety from the pious. For piety may still
exist, though he who was pious became impious. He has lost his
piety, but has taken nothing from piety itself. What also of comely
and comeliness? Comeliness is more than comely; for comeliness gives
existence to the comely, not the comely to comeliness. And so of
chaste and chastity. Chastity is clearly something more than chaste.
For if chastity had no existence, one would have no ground to be
chaste; but though one may refuse to be chaste, chastity remains
entire. If then the term piety implies more than the term pious,
comeliness more than comely, chastity than chaste, shall we say that
the Truth is more than the True One? If we say so, we shall begin
to say that the Son is greater than the Father. For the Lord
Himself says most distinctly, "I am the way, and the truth, and
the life." Therefore, if the Son is the truth, what is the Father
but what the Truth Himself says, "He that sent me is true"? The
Son is the truth, the Father true. I inquire which is the greater,
but find equality. For the true Father is true not because He
contained a part of that truth, but because He begat it entire.
8. I see I must speak more plainly. And, not to detain you long,
let me treat only of this point today. When I have finished what,
with God's help, I wish to say, my discourse shall close. I have
said this, then, to enlist your attention. Every soul, as being a
thing, is mutable; and although a great creature, yet a creature;
though superior to the body, yet made. Every soul, then, since it
is changeable that is, sometimes believes, sometimes disbelieves; at
one time wishes, at another time refuses; at one time is adulterous,
at another chaste; now good, and again wicked, is changeable. But
God is that which is, and so has retained as His own peculiar name,
"I am who am." Such also is the Son, when He says, "If ye
believe not that I am;" and thereto pertains also, "Who art thou?
The Beginning" (ver. 25). God therefore is unchangeable, the
soul changeable. When the soul receives from God the elements of its
goodness it becomes good by participation, just as by participation
thine eye seeth. For it sees not when the light is withdrawn, while
so long as it shares in the light it sees. Since then by participation
the soul is made good, if it changes and becomes bad, the goodness
remains that made it good. For there is a goodness of which it partook
when good; and when it has turned to evil, that goodness continues
entire. If the soul fall away and become evil, there is no lessening
of goodness; if it return and become good, that goodness is not
enlarged. Thine eye participates in this light, and thou seest. Is
it shut? Then thou hast not diminished the light. Is it open? Thou
hast not increased the light. By this illustration, brethren
understand that if the soul is pious, there is piety with God, of
which the soul is partaker; if the soul is chaste, there is chastity
with God, of which it partakes; if it is good, there is goodness
with God, of which it partakes; if it is true, there is truth with
God, of which the soul is partaker. Whereof if the soul is no
partaker, every man is false; and if every man may be false, no man
is true of himself. But the true Father is true of Himself, for He
begat the Truth. It is one thing to say, That man is true, for he
has taken in the truth: it is another, God is true, for He begat
the Truth. See then how God is true, not by participating in, but
by generating the Truth. I see you have understood me, and am glad.
Let this suffice you today. The rest, according as He gives it, we
shall expound when the Lord pleases.
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