Sermon 140

SERMO 140

On the Words of the Gospel (John 12:44-50):
"He who believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me."
AGAINST A CERTAIN STATEMENT OF MAXIMINUS, BISHOP OF THE ARIANS,
WHO, HAVING BEEN STATIONED WITH SEGISVULTUS THE COMPANION, BLASPHEMED IN AFRICA

Faith in Christ.

What is it that we have heard, brothers, from the Lord saying: He who believes in me, does not believe in me, but in him who sent me? It is good for us to believe in Christ; especially because he himself also said openly what you have heard, that is, because he himself, the light, came into the world, and whoever believes in him will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Therefore, it is good to believe in Christ. It is a great good to believe in Christ; and it is a great evil not to believe in Christ. But because Christ, the Son, is whatever he is from the Father, yet the Father is not from the Son, but the Father is of the Son; indeed, he commends faith in himself, but he refers the honor back to the author.

The births of Christ are two.

For this hold firm and fixed, if you wish to remain Catholic, that God the Father begot God the Son without time, and made Him from the Virgin in time. That birth exceeds times; this birth illuminates times. Nevertheless, both births are marvelous: that one without a mother, this one without a father. When God begot the Son, He begot from Himself, not from a mother; when the mother begot the Son, the virgin begot, not from a man. Born from the Father without a beginning; born from the mother today with a certain beginning. Born from the Father, He made us; born from the mother, He remade us. Born from the Father so that we might be; born from the mother so that we might not perish. The Father begot an equal to Himself, and all that the Son is, He has from the Father. But what God the Father is, He does not have from the Son. Therefore, we say the Father is God from no one, the Son is God from God. Therefore, all that the Son does wonderfully, all that He speaks truthfully, He attributes to Him from whom He is; nor can He be anything other than Him from whom He is. Adam was made a man; he could be other than what he was made. For he was made just and could be unjust. However, the Only Begotten Son of God cannot be changed from what He is; He cannot be converted into something else, cannot be diminished, cannot not be what He was, cannot not be equal to the Father. But indeed, He who gave everything to the Son at His birth, gave not to the needy; without doubt, the Father also gave the equality with the Father to the Son. How did the Father give? Did He beget Him lesser and add to His form to make Him equal? If He had done this, He would have given to the needy. But I have already told you what you should firmly hold, that is, all that the Father gave to the Son in His birth, not to the needy. If He gave to the begotten, not to the needy, without doubt He gave equality, and by giving equality, He begot an equal. And although He is the one and the other; nevertheless, He is not another being, but what He is, that too is the other. Not who He is, this and the other; but what He is, this and the other.

The true Son of God, why Christ is called.

He who sent me, he says, you have heard: He who sent me, he says, himself gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak; and I know that his commandment is eternal life. Hold to the Gospel of John. He who sent me, himself gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak; and I know that his commandment is eternal life. Oh, if it would be granted that I say what I wish! For my poverty and his abundance cause me distress. He, he says, gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak; and I know that his commandment is eternal life. Seek in the Epistle of John, the evangelist, what he said about Christ. Let us believe, he says, in his true Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God, and eternal life. What is this: The true God and eternal life? The true Son of God is true God, and eternal life. Why did he say: in his true Son? Because God has many sons, therefore he had to be distinguished by adding that he is the true Son. It is not enough to say that he is the Son; but by adding, as I said, that he is the true Son, he had to be distinguished because of the many sons that God has. For we are sons by grace; he by nature. We are made by the Father through him: he is what the Father is; are we what God is?

No one except Christ dare say that he is one with the Father.

But certain ones, from another perspective, not knowing what they are speaking, say: Therefore, it is said: "I and the Father are one," because they have a harmonious will between them, not because the nature of the Son is the same nature as the Father. For even the Apostles (and this one said, not I), for even the Apostles are one with the Father and the Son. Horrendous blasphemy! And the Apostles, he says, are one with the Father and the Son because they obey the will of the Father and the Son. Did he dare to say this? Then let Paul say: "I and God are one." Let Peter say, let any prophet say: "I and God are one." They do not say it. God forbid they say it! They know themselves to be of another nature, a nature to be saved; they know themselves to be of another nature, a nature to be illuminated. No one says: "I and God are one." No matter how much they progress, no matter how much they excel in sanctity, no matter how much they excel in the pinnacle of virtue, they never say: "I and God are one"; because if they have virtue, and therefore say this; by saying this, they lose what they had.

The equality of the Son with the Father.

Therefore, believe the Son to be equal to the Father, yet nonetheless the Son from the Father, but the Father not from the Son. Origin with Him, equality with this one. For if He is not equal, He is not a true Son. What do we say, brothers? If He is not equal, He is lesser; if He is lesser, I ask the nature to be saved to wrongly believing, how the lesser was born. Answer: does the lesser grow or not? If He grows, then the Father also ages. But if what is born, is this; if the lesser is born, and will be lesser; perfect with His own detriment, born perfect with the detriment of the Father's form, He will never attain to the form of the Father. Thus you impiously consign the Son; thus you heretics blaspheme the Son. What then does the catholic faith say? The Son is God from God the Father; the Father is God not from God the Son. But the Son is God equal to the Father, born equal, not born lesser; not made equal, but born equal. What He is, so is He who was born. Was there ever a time the Father was without the Son? Never! Remove "ever," where there is no time. Always Father, always Son. Without beginning of time Father, without beginning of time Son; never Father before the Son, never Father without the Son. But yet because the Son is God from God the Father, the Father is God, but not from God the Son; let us not be displeased by the honor of the Son in the Father. For the honor of the Son gives honor to the Father, not diminishing His divinity.

The Word of God is the command of the Father.

Therefore, as I was saying, which I had proposed: And I know, he said, that his commandment is eternal life. Pay attention, brothers, to what I say: I know that his commandment is eternal life. And we read in the same John about Christ: He is the true God, and eternal life. If the commandment of the Father is eternal life, and Christ the Son himself is eternal life; the commandment of the Father is the Son himself. For how is it not the commandment of the Father, which is the Word of the Father? Or if you take the commandment given carnally from the Father to the Son, as if the Father said to the Son: This I command you, this I want you to do; with which words did he speak to the only Word? Did he seek words when giving the commandment to the Word? Therefore, because the commandment of the Father is eternal life, and the Son himself is eternal life, believe and accept, believe and understand, because the Prophet says: Unless you believe, you will not understand. Do you not grasp it? Be enlarged. Hear the Apostle: Be enlarged, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Those who do not want to believe before they understand are unbelievers. Because indeed they wanted to be unbelievers, they will remain unskilled. Let them believe, therefore, so that they may understand. Certainly, the commandment of the Father is eternal life. Therefore, the commandment of the Father is the Son himself, who is born today; a commandment not given in time, but a commandment born. The Gospel of John exercises minds, polishes and strips away, so that we may think not carnally, but spiritually about God. Therefore, let these things suffice for you, brothers; so that in the length of discussion the sleep of forgetfulness does not creep in.