Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday after Pentecost

Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebub,” and, “By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.” So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house. “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”—because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.” (Mark 3:20–30)

No one who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit can imagine saying “anathema” to Jesus. No one in the Spirit would deny that Christ is the Son of God, or reject God as Creator. No believer would utter such things contrary to Scriptures, or substitute alien or sacrilegious ordinances contrary to moral principles. But if anyone shamelessly blasphemes against this same Holy Spirit, he “does not have forgiveness, either in this world or in the world to come.” For it is the Spirit who through the apostles offers testimony to Christ, who in the martyrs manifests unwavering faith, and who in the lives of the chaste embraces the admirable continence of sealed chastity. It is the Spirit who, among the whole church, guards the laws of the Lord's teaching uncorrupted and untainted, destroys heretics, corrects those in error, reproves unbelievers, reveals impostors, and corrects the wicked.

Novatian, The Trinity 29

He is the subject, not the object, of hallowing, apportioning, participating, filling, sustaining. We share in him; he shares in nothing. He is our inheritance, he is glorified, counted together with Father and Son. He is a dire warning to us, the “finger of God.” The Spirit is, like God, a “fire.” This means that the Holy Spirit is of the same essential nature as the Father. The Spirit is the very One who created us and creates us anew through baptism and resurrection. The Spirit knows all things, teaches all things, moves where and when and as strongly as he wills. He leads, speaks, sends, and separates those who are vexed and tempted. He reveals, illumines, gives life, or better said, he is himself light and life. He makes us his temple, he sanctifies, he makes us complete. He both goes before baptism and follows after it. All that the Godhead actively performs, the Spirit performs.

Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 31, “On the Holy Spirit” 29

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Second Sunday in Advent

And a rod will emerge from the root of Jesse, and a flower will come up from the root. And God’s spirit will rest on him, a spirit of wisdom and intelligence, a spirit of counsel and strength, a spirit of knowledge and piety. He will fill him with a spirit of the fear of God; he will not judge according to reputation or reprove according to speech. Rather, he will render fair judgment to a low one, and he will reprove the low of the land; and he will strike the land with the word of his mouth, and with breath through his lips he will destroy ungodly things. And he will be girded at the waist with righteousness and enclosed with truth at his sides. And a wolf will feed together with a lamb, and a leopard will rest with a kid, and a little calf and a bull and a lion will feed together, and a small young child will lead them. And an ox and a bear will feed together, and they will be together with their young, and a lion will eat straw like an ox. And an infant child will lay its hand on an asp’s hole and on a bed of asps’ offspring. And they shall surely do no wrong, nor will they be able to destroy anyone on my holy mountain because the whole land was filled with knowing the Lord, as much water covers the seas. And in that day there will be the root of Jesse and the one who rises up to rule nations; nations will put their hope in him, and his rest will be honor. (Isaiah 11:1–10 LXX)

This is He who, after the manner of a dove, when our Lord was baptized, came and abode upon Him, dwelling in Christ full and entire, and not maimed in any measure or portion; but with His whole overflow copiously distributed and sent forth, so that from Him others might receive some enjoyment of His graces: the source of the entire Holy Spirit remaining in Christ, so that from Him might be drawn streams of gifts and works, while the Holy Spirit dwelt affluently in Christ. For truly Isaiah, prophesying this, said: “And the Spirit of wisdom and understanding shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and piety; and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill Him.” This self-same thing also he said in the person of the Lord Himself, in another place, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because He has anointed me, He has sent me to preach the Gospel to the poor.”

Novation, On the Trinity 29

The one who would proceed “from the root of Jesse” was none other than Christ, and the children of the Jews themselves confess that this is so when they say that the prophecy discussed above is clearly about the expected and anointed one who would come among them. But now, even after a thousand years have passed from the time of the prophet Isaiah and the time of Christ to us, they maintain that the prophecy still has not happened. They are forever reflecting, but their theories have run aground, and they so extend the time-frame of the prophecy in order to discredit it as untrue. They rob themselves of the hope of the prophecies. Furthermore, they try to interpret the sense of the prophetic sayings, as the apostle says, “without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make assertions.” But in order that we might attain what was discussed above, he then prophesied that the one who is raised from the root of Jesse shall rule the nations. And he adds: nations shall hope in him. He is certainly remembering the Jewish faction in what was discussed above, and he does not assume that anything prophesied would benefit the people of the circumcision.

Eusebius of Caesarea, Commentary on Isaiah 11

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Prophet Isaiah

Be comforted, you fainthearted. Be strong, do not fear! Behold, our God renders judgment, and will render it. He will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will speak clearly. For water shall burst forth in the desert, and a valley in the thirsty land. The waterless desert shall become meadows, and the thirsty land springs of water. There will be the gladness of birds, a habitation of reeds and marshes. (Is 35:4–7 LXX)

The same rule of truth teaches us to believe, after the Father, also on the Son of God, Christ Jesus, the Lord our God, but the Son of God—of that God who is both one and alone, that is the Founder of all things, as already has been expressed above. For this Jesus Christ, I will once more say, the Son of this God, we read of as having been promised in the Old Testament, and we observe to be manifested in the New, fulfilling the shadows and figures of all the sacraments, with the presence of the truth embodied. For as well the ancient prophecies as the Gospels testify Him to be the son of Abraham and the son of David.… Him, too, Isaiah alludes to: “There shall go forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall grow up from his root.” The same also when he says: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son.” Him he refers to when he enumerates the healings that were to proceed from Him, saying: “Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear: then shall the lame man leap as a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall be eloquent.” Him also, when he sets forth the virtue of patience, saying: “His voice shall not be heard in the streets; a bruised reed shall He not destroy, and the smoking flax shall He not quench.” Him, too, when he described His Gospel: “And I will ordain for you an everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies of David.” Him, too, when he foretells that the nations should believe on Him: “Behold, I have given Him for a Chief and a Commander to the nations. Nations that knew You not shall call upon You, and peoples that knew You not shall flee unto You.” It is the same that he refers to when, concerning His passion, he exclaims, saying: “As a sheep He is led to the slaughter; and as a lamb before his shearer is dumb, so He opened not His mouth in His humility.” Him, moreover, when he described the blows and stripes of His scourgings: “By His bruises we were healed.” Or His humiliation: “And we saw Him, and He had neither form nor comeliness, a man in suffering, and who knows how to bear infirmity.” Or that the people would not believe on Him: “All day long I have spread out my hands unto a people that believes not.” Or that He would rise again from the dead: “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, and one who shall rise to reign over the nations; on Him shall the nations hope, and His rest shall be honor.”

Novation, On the Trinity 9

Describing the Indescribable

Continuing my posts of patristic texts coinciding with this Sunday’s Psalm study.

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To him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
and brought Israel out from among them,
    for His steadfast love endures forever;
with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,
    for His steadfast love endures forever.  (Ps 136:10-12)

And although the heavenly Scripture often turns the divine appearance into a human form,—as when it says, “The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous;” or when it says, “The Lord God smelled the smell of a good savor;” or when there are given to Moses the tables “written with the finger of God;” or when the people of the children of Israel are set free from the land of Egypt “with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm;” or when it says, “The mouth of the Lord has spoken these things;” or when the earth is set forth as “God’s footstool;” or when it says, “Incline your ear, and hear,”—we who say that the law is spiritual do not include within these features of our bodily nature any mode or figure of the divine majesty, but diffuse that character of unbounded magnitude over its plains without any limit.  For it is written, “If I shall ascend into heaven, You are there; if I shall descend into hell, You are there also; and if I shall take my wings, and go away across the sea, there Your hand shall lay hold of me, and Your right hand shall hold me.”  For we recognize the plan of the divine Scripture according to the proportion of its arrangement.  For the prophet then was still speaking about God in parables according to the period of the faith, not as God was, but as the people were able to receive Him.  And thus, that such things as these should be said about God, must be imputed not to God, but rather to the people.  Thus the people are permitted to erect a tabernacle, and yet God is not contained within the enclosure of a tabernacle.  Thus a temple is reared, and yet God is not at all bounded within the restraints of a temple.  It is not therefore God who is limited, but the perception of the people is limited; nor is God restricted, but the understanding of the reason of the people is held to be restricted.  Finally, in the Gospel the Lord said, “The hour shall come when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father;” and gave the reasons, saying, “God is a Spirit; and those therefore who worship, must worship in spirit and in truth.”  Thus the divine agencies are there exhibited by means of members; it is not the appearance of God nor the bodily features that are described.

Novation, On the Trinity VI