ON ARIANE, HOMILY THIRD

1) The Arians, as it seems, having once decided to be apostates and opponents of the truth, persistently seek that what is written should apply to them: "When the wicked come into the depths of evil, he is negligent (Proverbs 18:3). Those who are rebuked do not rest, those who are led into difficulty do not feel shame, but as the face of a harlot's wife, they do not want to be ashamed of all (Jeremiah 3:3) in their wickedness. Since the sayings which they put on display, "The Lord created me" (Proverbs 8:22), and "The best of the angels" (Hebrews 1:4), and "The firstborn" (Romans 8:29), and "Thou art faithful to him who created Him" (Hebrews 3:2), have the right meaning and show a pious faith in Christ, then (I do not know why), again, as drunk with serpent poison, not seeing what should be seen, not understanding it, what they read, having spewed out from the depths of their wicked hearts, they have already begun to condemn what the Lord said: "I am in the Father, and the Father in Me" (John 44:10), saying: "How can the Son be contained in the Father, and the Father in the Son? Or in general, how can the Father, who is greater, be contained in the Son, who is smaller? Or what is surprising, if the Son is in the Father, when it is written of us, "In Him we live, and move, and are" (Acts 17:28).

They fall into this because of their wickedness, thinking that God is a body, and not understanding what the true Father and the true Son are, what the invisible and eternal Light and His invisible Radiance are, what is the invisible Hypostasis, the bodiless mark (????????, ????????) and the bodiless Image. And if they knew, they would not mock and blaspheme the Lord of glory, and understanding the bodiless bodily, they would not interpret what was said in a good meaning. Hearing this, it would be enough to know what the Lord says, and to believe, for faith in simplicity is better than superfluous verbal arguments. But since they intend to assert their heresy to mock this also, it is necessary to denounce their wickedness, and to show the true meaning for the protection of the faithful. 370

The words, "I am in the Father, and the Father in Me," do not mean, as the heretics think, that they move into one another, like empty vessels filled with one another, so that the Son fills the emptiness in the Father, and the Father fills the emptiness in the Son, and each of Them is neither complete nor perfect. For this is proper to bodies, therefore even to say this is utterly impious. The Father is complete and perfect, and the Son is the fullness of the Godhead. And again, God is not in the Son as He is in the saints, imparting strength to them, because the Son is the Father's power and Wisdom. Created beings are sanctified by the Spirit through communion with the Son, and the Son Himself is not the Son by communion, but is the Father's own generation. And again, the Son is not in the Father in the sense in which we live in Him, and move, and are, because the Son is, as from a source, from the Father, a life pouring out, by which all things are given life and exist. And life does not live another life, otherwise it would not be life, on the contrary, the Son Himself gives birth to all things.

2) Let us see what the defender of heresy, the sophist Asterius, says, for he, competing with the Jews in this, wrote the following: "It is evident that He called Himself in the Father and also the Father in Himself, meaning that the word He taught is not His, but the Father's, and the works are not His own, but those of the Father, Who gave Him power." But if he had said this simply by a lad, then it would have been excusable for his age. Since he who wrote this is a so-called sophist, who proclaims that he knows everything, what is he worthy of condemnation? And does not the Apostle show himself a stranger, exalting himself with the reproachful words of wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:4), and thinking that he can deceive with them, when he himself does not understand what he is saying and arguing about? What? 371 The Son called proper and proper to the Son alone as the Word and Wisdom and the image of the Father's essence, then Asterius refers to all creatures and makes common to both the Son and the creatures. This lawless man speaks of the power of the Father, as if it receives power into itself, so that by its wickedness it may be possible to tell him with consistency that the Son is adopted in the son, and that the Word has taken the power of the word. And he does not yet want to agree that this was said by the Son as the Son, but he also puts Him, as having learned this, on a par with all creatures.

If the Saviour said, "I am in the Father, and the Father in Me," not because the words He spoke are the words of the Son, but because they are the words and deeds of the Father, then David also says, "I will hear what the Lord God says concerning me" (Psalm 84:9), and Solomon, "My words are spoken of God" (Proverbs 31:1). And Moses was a minister of the words spoken by God, and every prophet spoke not from himself, but from God: These are the things that the Lord says, and the works that the saints did they did not call their own, but attributed to God, who gave power. For example, Elijah and Elisha called on God to raise the dead. Naaman, having cleansed him of leprosy, says Elisha, "That ye may understand that there is a God in Israel," and Samuel himself prayed to God in the days of harvest to give rain, and the apostles said that they do signs not by their own power, but by the grace of the Lord. From this it is evident that this saying could be common to all, and everyone, like the Saviour, could say: I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me. And therefore He is no longer the Son of God, the Word and Wisdom, but only among many.