Sermon 212
SERMO 212
ON THE TRADITION OF THE SYMBOL
A brief exposition of the whole creed.
It is time for you to receive the Symbol wherein is contained briefly, for eternal salvation, all that is believed. The Symbol, however, is so called from a certain similarity by a transferred word, because a symbol is made among merchants to strengthen their association in a pact of faith. And your association is of spiritual goods so that you may be like traders seeking a good pearl. This is the love which will be poured into your hearts through the Holy Spirit who will be given to you. To this, one attains from faith contained in this Symbol so that you may believe in God the Father Almighty, invisible, immortal, king of ages, creator of visible and invisible things, and whatever else is worthily spoken of Him either by sincere reason or by the authority of the holy Scriptures. Nor separate the Son from this excellence of God. For these things are not so spoken of the Father as if they were alien to Him who said: "I and the Father are one," and of whom the Apostle says: "Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God." For robbery is the usurpation of another's, whereas that equality is naturally His; and therefore, how will the Son not be almighty through whom all things were made, since He is also the power and wisdom of God, of which wisdom it is written that although it is one, it can do all things? He too is by nature invisible, in that very form in which He is equal to the Father. For the Word of God is naturally invisible, which in the beginning was with God and the Word was God; in which nature also, He remains immortal entirely, that is, in every way unchangeable. For even the human soul is said in a certain way to be immortal, but there is not true immortality where there is so much changeability, whereby it can both fall and advance; whence its death is to be alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in it; but its life is to approach the fountain of life so that in the light of God it may see the light, according to which life also you revive from a certain death to which you renounce through the grace of Christ. But the Word of God, which is the only-begotten Son, lives with the Father unchangeably forever; neither does He fail because continuance does not diminish, nor does He advance because perfection does not increase. He is also the king of ages, creator of visible and invisible things; because as the Apostle says: "In Him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers: all things were created through Him and for Him, and in Him all things hold together." But because He humbled Himself, not losing the form of God, but taking on the form of a servant, through this form of a servant He was seen being born of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary. In this form of a servant, the Almighty was weakened because He suffered under Pontius Pilate; through this form of a servant, the immortal died because He was crucified and buried; through this form of a servant, the king of ages rose on the third day; through this form of a servant, the Creator of visible and invisible things ascended into heaven, from whence He never departed; through this form of a servant, He sits at the right hand of the Father, who is the arm of the Father, of whom the Prophet says: "And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" In this form of a servant, He will come to judge the living and the dead, in which He wanted to share in the dead, though He is the life of the living. Through Him, the Holy Spirit was sent to us from the Father and by Himself. The Spirit of the Father and the Son, sent by both, generated by none, unity of both, equal to both. This Trinity is one God, almighty, invisible, immortal, king of ages, creator of visible and invisible things. For we do not say three gods or three omnipotent ones or three creators or whatever else of the excellence of God can similarly be said, because neither are there three gods but one God; although in this Trinity the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father, and the Holy Spirit is neither the Son nor the Father, but He is the Father of the Son, He is the Son of the Father, He is the Spirit of both the Father and the Son. Believe so that you may understand, for if you do not believe, you will not understand. From this faith, hope for grace, in which all your sins will be forgiven. For by this, you will be saved - not from yourselves but as the gift of God - not by works, so that no one may boast. For you will be His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, that you should walk in them, and putting off the old man, you may put on the new man, be a new creation, singing a new song, receiving an eternal inheritance through the New Testament; whence also after this death, which passed into all men, which is owed and rendered to the old first man, hope even at the end of your bodies for the resurrection, not to passions of pains, as the impious are to be resurrected, nor to joys of carnal desires, as fools think, but as the Apostle says: "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body," where the spiritual body will be subjected to the spirit in such a miraculous felicity to all facility, so that it will no longer oppress the soul nor will it seek any nourishment, because it will suffer no deficiency, but will remain in eternal life where with the body the very eternity will be life to our spirit.
The creed must by no means be written but always kept in memory and recalled.
Therefore, I have rendered this brief discourse on the entire Creed to you as required. When you hear the whole Creed, you will recognize this short collection of our discourse. You should by no means write it down to retain the exact words, but learn it by listening, and once you hold it, not write it down, but always retain and recall it by memory. For whatever you will hear in the Creed is already contained in the divine letters of the Holy Scriptures, and you are accustomed to hear everything in parts where needed. But what is thus collected and formed into a certain shape is not permitted to be written; it is a commemoration of God’s promise, where through the Prophet, foretelling the New Testament, He said: "This is the Testament that I will ordain for them after those days, says the Lord, putting my laws in their minds and writing them in their hearts.” Because of the necessity of signifying this, the Creed is not written on tablets or any other material, but in hearts through listening. He who has called you to His kingdom and glory will provide that it may also be written in your hearts by the Holy Spirit through His grace regenerating you; so that you may love what you believe and that faith may work in you through love; and in this way, you may please the Lord God, the giver of all good things, not by servilely fearing punishment, but by freely loving righteousness. This, therefore, is the Creed which has already been introduced to you by the Scriptures and ecclesiastical discourses as catechumens, but under this brief form, it is to be confessed and advanced by the faithful.