Sermon 384

SERMO 384

On the Trinity, or On the Old and New Scriptures
AGAINST THE ARIANS

What God is.

Holy and divine words, brothers, are recited to us continually, indeed daily, for our benefit, so that our souls may be nourished: and in the future age may be filled with eternal feasts; as the prophet says: I shall be satisfied when Your glory is revealed. But what this future glory is, with what riches it blossoms, and with what splendor it shines, we can praise, but we cannot explain. Why? Because we read: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him. If therefore such and so great are the eternal and heavenly goods which the Almighty Lord has prepared for His holy, catholic, and faithful people; what is God Himself, who has prepared such and so great things? What is, I say, Almighty God? What, except immeasurable, ineffable, incomprehensible, above all, beyond all, besides all? For He transcends all His creation, surpasses all His works, excelling all. For if you ask about greatness, He is greater; if beauty, more beautiful; if sweetness, sweeter; if splendor, more radiant; if justice, more just; if strength, stronger; if mercy, more merciful. For no reason permits that any creation should be equal to its creator, or a work be compared to its artist: as it is read in the prophet: He who made strong things is stronger; and He who made beautiful things is more beautiful than them.

The Trinity in unity, and unity in the Trinity consists.

Thus we proclaim the lofty distinctions of this unique deity, not as Jews, but as Christians, we equally confess the mysteries of the divine Trinity. For just as the Father is almighty and ineffable, so the Son is almighty and incomprehensible: thus also the Holy Spirit, indiscriminately connected in the Father and the Son, is ineffable and immense. For the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one almighty God, one in trinity, one in power, unity, trinity, eternal majesty, one powerful in all things, and the trinity in unity, and unity in trinity subsists: yet neither is the trinity divided, nor is the unity separated. Armed and instructed with this catholic faith, dearest ones, let us briefly question the impious Arian heretics, who brazenly assert themselves at this time and corrupt and deceive many of our Christians by seduction, how they pray to the Lord when they believe against the Lord. They respond to us, saying: We pray to the Lord indeed in trinity, but as we read, the Father is greater, the Son lesser, the Holy Spirit inferior, because Christ himself says: The Father is greater than I.

We respond to this: Do you thus, I ask, pray to and worship God? Thus, certainly; thus we read, thus we worship, thus we pray. To these we say: If therefore you worship and pray to God thus, this is not to worship and beseech one great God, but to make three gods: and where is it that in divine law it is read: Hear, O Israel; the Lord your God, is one God? And again elsewhere it says: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. For if the Father is one thing, the Son another, the Holy Spirit another; it is no longer one Trinity, but a divided power. But how can a differing power stand, when according to what we read in the Gospel: A house divided against itself, or a kingdom divided, cannot stand? And how can divinity be distinguished from itself, when splendor of light or heat of the sun can in no way be separated? Behold, for as we see, in the sun there are three things, and they absolutely cannot be separated. But let us see what three things there are: motion, splendor, and heat. We see indeed the sun running in the sky, shining, warming. Therefore, divide, if you can, Arian, the sun, and only then divide the Trinity. But perhaps the reasoning about discerning the sun is difficult because it is in the sky and far from us. Behold, we propose another element which is lesser and is with us on earth: I speak of fire, which is held in our hands, and yet is not divided. And fire indeed has three things and cannot be divided: that is, motion, light, and heat. If therefore, impious heretic, you cannot divide the created sun and fire, how can you divide God, the creator of all?

Testimonies of the Scriptures about the Divine Trinity. Praise of the Catholic Faith.

But hear and learn that this great and singular Trinity was shown from the beginning of the human race. Hear it in the Law and the Prophets, in the Psalms and in the Gospel, hear it undoubtedly declared in the Apostle. Hear it, I say, in Genesis: God made man in the image of God. To simultaneously show the inseparable Trinity, it says in that book: And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Hear the prophet speaking from the person of Christ: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me, He has sent me to evangelize the poor. Hear it in the Psalms: By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of His mouth; and again: Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with Your free Spirit. Hear this same confirmation in the Gospel: The Lord Christ says to the Apostles: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me: go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Hear the Apostle: O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? Or who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. If, therefore, it has been sufficiently and openly proved by both the old and the new Scriptures that the divine unity is an inseparable Trinity, let us utterly despise heretics, according to the Apostle who says: After a first and second warning, have nothing more to do with a heretic. And let us now confirm our faithful people concerning this same catholic faith. There are indeed no greater riches, no treasure, no honors, no greater substance in this world than the catholic faith, which saves sinners, enlightens the blind, heals the sick, baptizes catechumens, justifies the faithful, restores penitents, increases the righteous, crowns martyrs, preserves virgins, widows, and the chaste modesty of the married, ordains clerics, consecrates priests, prepares for the heavenly kingdoms, and grants an eternal inheritance with the holy angels. As the Lord Himself promises by confirming: In the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God; through Christ our Lord.