In cosmogoniam homilia 2

Of the same author, on the second day of the cosmogony, and against the one who said to him: "We Christians ought not to say 'Lord Sabaoth' over the sanctified offering." The word of God stirs up desire in the soul and, like a torch, places joy around it, so that it may brighten its thoughts, gladden its mind, cleanse its sins, and illuminate its understanding. Such is the word of God. For what a whetstone is to iron, that the word of God is to the soul. The whetstone does not bestow just one thing upon the iron, but first it makes it spit out the rust. Then it thins what is thick, sharpens what is blunt, brightens what is dark, polishes, cleanses, and sharpens. So then is the word of God, making the soul spit out the rust of sin, sharpening it when it is blunt, thinning it when it is thick, brightening it when it is dark. The word of God wishes us to be bright, according to the apostolic disposition which says: "That you may be as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life." Behold the brightness. It wishes us not to be blunt, but sharp; for the word of God, it says, is living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It wishes us not to be thick, but to thin the mind with thoughts. For where there is thickness, it is alien to the word of God; but where the mind is fine-textured, it is akin to the law of God. For this reason, concerning those who are thicker, scripture says: "And Jacob ate and was filled, grew fat, grew thick, grew broad; he abandoned the God who made him.

Let the divine word also shine upon our mind, and especially during this holy season of fasting, which refines the body and sharpens the understanding. For fasting is the nurse of every sanctification and the mother of a pious mind. It is not only a question of how we fast, but of how we fast piously. Many fast because of public necessity or business, but this is not counted as fasting for them. For the intention is judged; necessity is not crowned. It was in this holy state that the blessed Moses was instructed in the law on the mountain and was taught about the creation. We said yesterday that God, when about to give the law through Moses, first showed himself as creator and then as lawgiver. How could the Jews have believed that God made the heaven and the earth and everything in them, if he had not first performed the wonders in Egypt, showing himself to be the creator of the inhabited world? We teach in order to persuade; God persuades in order to teach. Since Moses was about to set forth and say that God made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, if he had not first performed the wonders in Egypt and shown that he is the creator of all creatures, the people would not have believed that God made the heaven and the earth. If Moses had not first stretched out his hands to the heaven and brought down hail and fire, and the peoples had not learned through the faithful servant that this mortal right hand, moved by the word of God, disturbed the heaven and confounded the creation.

all the more did the right hand of God, at his command, fix the heaven in place and lay the foundation of the earth. For no one disturbs a creation which he did not make. It was necessary, therefore, to show that God made the earth: Moses stretched out his hand toward the earth, and gnats came forth. It was necessary again to show that God made fire: Moses took soot from a furnace and sprinkled it, and filled the bodies of the Egyptians with boils that seethed like flame. It was necessary to show that God made water: the water was changed into blood. It was necessary to show that he made the sea: the sea was struck, and the people passed through. First, then, he showed through deeds that he was master, and only then did he explain through words that he was creator. Thus also the Savior in the Gospel did not teach before he had worked a miracle. First a sign: he changed water into wine; and he is not seen teaching before this sign. For the deed had to come first, and the word to follow. For this reason the writer says: "I have made my first account concerning all the things which Jesus began to do and to teach, O Theophilus." How was the Savior going to teach that he is the creator of the world? For if he had not given light to the eyes of the blind man, he would not have been believed when he said, "I am the light of the world." If he had not raised Lazarus, those who heard him would not have believed when he said, "I am the life and the resurrection." If he had not spat on the ground, made mud, and anointed the blind man, he would not have been believed that he was the one who took dust from the earth and formed Adam. If he had not walked on the sea, he would not have appeared as master of the sea.

If he had not rebuked the wind, he would not have been shown to be the master of the winds. For this reason, he appeared as a man, but through the miracles he was recognized and glorified as God. The Savior, then, astonished the disciples, and they said: "What sort of man is this, that the winds and the sea obey him?" He first showed the elements obeying, and then he explained through the works that all things came into being through him. He first showed them obeying. If the creation had not first been shown obeying, John the Evangelist would not have been believed when he said: "All things came into being through him." How could the apostles, having a common tongue, have been believed when they spoke about the divine Word, the creator, the savior, the all-wise, the teacher? But the tongue of the apostles was the miracles; the mouth of the apostles was a dead man rising, a lame man walking. That faith follows miracles, Scripture bears witness, saying: "For through the hands of the apostles great signs and wonders were performed among the people." And all were amazed, and multitudes of men and women were added daily. The miracles shone forth, and the teachings followed. So also in the Law, the miracles in Egypt preceded, showing God to be the creator. And God, being good, did not wish to glorify only himself, but shares the glory with Moses. For since God was revealed by what he made, Moses also is revealed by what he was glorified through. For when he came down holding the Law, so that they would not attend to him as a mere man, God fills his face with glory, so that the excess of grace might fill what was lacking in the weakness of nature.

They considered, you see, that a glorified appearance is not alien to God. Thus also the Savior made the face of Stephen, the protomartyr, shine. And why did he make Stephen's face shine? Because he was about to be stoned as a blasphemer for saying, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God," so God anticipated and crowned his face with an angelic form, in order to persuade the ignorant that if he is a blasphemer, why is he glorified? Yesterday, then, it was said by us that God made beings from non-beings on the first day. And the remarkable thing is that the works not only demonstrate the creation of God, but also refute the impiety of the heretics. For I ask: How did non-beings come to be, since they ask about the one who is, how he was begotten? If it was not, let them say, how did non-beings come to be, if it was not? That which is not does not come to be, as far as human reasoning goes, but not according to divine power. Sometimes the heretic says: God spoke and it came to be. But now you have stated the fact, not the manner. God said: Let there be light. That which was not came to be. The word was transformed into a thing, as if the voice itself, when uttered, became light. Therefore, it is not from non-beings, but from a being. For who dares to say that the word is a non-being? Therefore, he made nothing from non-beings, but from himself; and the creatures are found to be consubstantial with him, and what they flee from concerning the Son, they apply to the creatures. But again, being hard-pressed, they say: The will of God brought non-beings to completion. Then: For the will makes that which is not; but nature does not generate that which is. And this is remarkable. As in an image I say: Suppose for me a spring and a rock.

What is easier, for a spring to produce water or for a rock? If a spring produces, it brings forth from what it has; but a rock produces from what it does not have. Then the rock gave birth to what is not from what it did not have, and the spring did not give birth to the spring which it had within itself? And how did things that are not come to be? Was it spontaneity? "That which is not" is a name, but is it something? Do not, because I say "from things that are not," suppose that "that which is not" is something. Then you do not know how to say how that which is came to be from that which is not, and will you dare to meddle with how that which is came to be from that which is? All creatures did not exist from the beginning and have come to be. The only-begotten Word and creator of the world did not come to be from the beginning, but was. These things were not and came to be; but He was in the beginning, not having come to be, while these things came to be in the beginning, not having existed. "And the earth was invisible," it says. What is "invisible"? I know that many of the holy fathers have said: "The earth was invisible because it was covered by water." Many of the thoughts are pious, but not true. For example, the three friends of Job, seeing him in trial, condemned the saint as suffering justly and said: "If you had not wronged widows, if you had not defrauded orphans, God would not have brought these things upon you." And yet, because they were ignorant of God's purpose, they chose rather to condemn him as suffering justly than to pass judgment on God as having brought them on unjustly. They acted for God's sake, and God rebukes them: "Why did you not speak rightly concerning my servant?" So there is a thought that is pious, but not true. What then is "the earth was invisible and unformed"? The interpreters have explained clearly. For Aquila says: "And the earth was a void and nothing.

It is called invisible not because it was not seen, but as one might say, unadorned. It was not yet brightened with plants, not yet crowned with fruits, not yet girded with rivers and springs, not yet variegated with the other good order, and it was invisible, not yet prepared for the fitness of generating. He speaks about a certain brave and handsome man: "Is this not the one," he says, "who struck the Egyptian man, the visible one?" So is there an invisible man? But "worthy," he says, "of being seen." Just as he called the Egyptian a visible man, as worthy of being seen, so he called the formless earth invisible. On the second day God said: "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it be separating between water and water." So he made this heaven, not the one above, but the visible one, having solidified it from waters like crystal. I want to present a matter to you. For many things are conveyed to us by sight rather than by reason. This water, let us say, overtopped the earth by thirty cubits. Then God said: "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water." And then in the midst of the waters a crystalline mass was fixed, and it lifted half of the water upward, left half below, as it is written: "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and it will be separating between water and water." Why does he call it a firmament? Because he solidified it from thin and dissolved waters. For this reason David also says: "Praise him in the firmament of his power." And to use another example: just as smoke, when it is given off from wood and fire, is rarefied and puffed up—

When it runs up to a height, it is transformed into the thickness of a cloud. Thus God, having raised the nature of the waters that had been rarefied, fixed it above. And that this example is true, Isaiah bears witness, saying that the heaven was solidified like smoke. So the heaven, having been congealed in the midst of the waters, lifted half of the waters upward. But why water above? For what use? That someone might drink? That someone might sail? For that there is water above, David bears witness, saying: "And the water above the heavens." Now pay attention to the wisdom of the creator. The heaven was crystalline, having been congealed from waters. For since it was about to receive the flame of the sun and of the moon and the infinite multitudes of stars, and to be entirely filled with fire, so that it might not be dissolved or scorched by the heat, he spread those seas of water over the back of the heaven, so that it might anoint and smear its back, and thus withstand the flame and not be parched. And you have an example as well. Just as today, if you place a cauldron over fire, if there is water above it, it withstands the fire; but if it does not have it, it is dissolved. Thus God set water as an opponent to fire, so that it might have sufficient endurance from the waters anointing it from above. And see the marvelous thing. Such moisture abounds in the heavenly body, though it is assailed by so much fire, that it even lends to the earth. For whence comes the dew? There is no cloud anywhere; the air has no water. Clearly the heaven drips from its abundance. For this reason the patriarch Isaac, blessing Jacob, said: "May God give you from the dew of heaven and from the quality of the earth.

It is said, brothers, that on the day of judgment the water above recedes and the heaven is dissolved, having no support from the waters, and the stars fall, having no path or foundation. These things, then, we do not say idly, but Scripture teaches: "For the heaven will be rolled up like a scroll"—that is, being parched; for what is parched is rolled up—"and the stars will fall like leaves of a vine." Pay attention, I ask, also to another use: The waters above the heavens not only preserve the heaven, but also send down the flame of the sun and the moon. For if the heaven were transparent, all the radiance would run upward. For fire, being upward-moving, would leave the earth desolate. For this reason, then, he plastered the heaven above with infinite waters, so that the radiance, being constricted, might be sent downward. See the wisdom of the craftsman. You have also within yourself the image of the craftsman's wisdom: God made in you also the image of the four elements. And pay attention, I ask. Understand for me this head as the heaven above, the parts above the tongue as the other heaven, that is, the firmament; whence it is also called "palate." Above, in the invisible parts, the brain, not visible; below, the tongue, visible. Just as the heaven above is in the invisible, so the world is in the spoken. And just as in the elements you find earth heavy, water lighter than earth but heavier than fire, and again air lighter than water but heavier than fire, so also in us the senses—taste, smell, hearing, sight—are not all equal. Take the proof.

If you wish to taste something, unless you bring it near the tongue, you do not receive the sensation of what is tasted. For it is thick, and being at a distance it cannot apprehend. But the sense of smell apprehends from afar. For example: you pass by a house, you smell incense, which you do not see. Again, sight is swifter than smell. For it sees great expanses from a mountain. Again, swifter than sight is the mind: it conceives of heaven, earth, sea, and is present everywhere. For this reason the mind is also an image of God. The mind conceives, and immediately creates within itself marketplaces, depicts a crowd, a populace. Let the heretics be ashamed. The mind works such things, and the craftsman of the mind, who is swifter than every sense of smell—does he not have a swifter operation, a more immediate creation, an incomprehensible nature? I wish, brothers, to say to you something which is strange as regards impiety, but familiar to the faith as regards inquiry, so that you may learn how many novelties the devil contrives, how many things he discovers, how many he suggests to the heretics—or rather, the heretics to him. Today a heretic came to us, in the presence of holy men and fathers, and said—I say this so that the word, if heard otherwise, may not strike otherwise. "Father," he says, "and Son and Holy Spirit are one divinity, one power, one kingdom. But it is necessary," he says, "to remove from its soul—for I do not say from the altar—the saying in the Sanctus: 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth.' If you do not remove this," he says, "you are not Christians." Do you see such audacity and madness of the devil? Do you see the root of theomachy? Do you see the excess of blasphemy?

He wished to behead piety, to unnerve the mystery, to obliterate faith, to uproot what had been established. And see the devil's cunning: He contrived to have him say, "Father and Son and Holy Spirit, one faith, one power, one kingdom." He mixed the poison with honey. For falsehood, whenever it wishes to be believed, unless it sets a foundation of apparent truth, it is not believed. And hear how. Nothing is similar, I say, but: Rahab the prostitute, when she received the spies, was asked, "Did the men come to you?" She says, "Yes." The first part is true. "But they left," she says. The second part is false. If she had said, "They did not leave," the house would have been searched. She spoke the truth to confound; she added the falsehood to deceive. So also this man: When we ask why we removed the sanctification, you say, "Lord Sabaoth." But it is not a name of God, it is not of Christ, nor of the Father. Do you see the contemptible and foul mouth? He was ignorant, from simplicity, that Sabaoth is not a name of God, but a name of armies, that is, Lord of the Hosts. I also state the reason. But before the end, I bring you good news: He repented, he fell prostrate, he anathematized, he prayed, he was received.

Pay attention, then. Since the discourse has digressed, we must also state the reason why the blessed Isaiah heard this sanctification being sent up to God. Isaiah was a remarkable man, filled with zeal, a bold man—bold not from audacity, but from zeal. In those times there was a king named Uzziah, who, in addition to his other royal glory, wished to assume the priesthood as well. The priests knew the proper order, but they were unwilling to oppose the king to any great extent: they respected his rank, honored the throne, and were overawed by the armies. Isaiah himself also kept silent; he did not resist the king. When God saw the priests afraid, the prophet faltering, and the king daring, he inflicted leprosy on his face for having dared to touch the sacred things. And so he was expelled not only from the priesthood but also from the kingship, and he remained a leper. God, for his part, did what was fitting, but he was indignant with the priests and especially with the prophet, because, being present, he had betrayed piety. Therefore, God was in a state of silence toward the prophet and did not impart words to him until the lawless one died. So when the impious man died, then God, setting aside his indignation, became reconciled with the prophet. Isaiah then says: "And it happened in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and elevated throne." And why did God appear on a high and elevated throne?

Since God is invisible, but the king, being visible, experienced fear, he shows the prophet the heavenly glory, so that he might persuade him of what kind of throne they disdained, what kind of throne they honored, what kind of heavenly and angelic bodyguard they neither honored nor considered, while they were abashed by a human bodyguard. And it says, the house was full of his glory, and the seraphim stood around him. The cherubim are a throne, the seraphim a bodyguard. For the cherubim are interpreted as nothing other than "fullness of wisdom." Just as this throne or another gives rest to the one seated and is an honor and a rest, so also the throne of God is wisdom, upon which God rests. For this reason David says, "The one seated upon the cherubim," meaning the one resting upon the fullness of wisdom. For this reason the cherubim are full of eyes—the back, the head, the wings, the feet, the chest. And everything was filled with eyes, since wisdom sees from all sides, has its eye open from all sides. It says, six wings to one and six wings to the other. And with two they covered the face, and with two the feet, and with two they flew. And they cried out to one another, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth," that is, Lord of the armies. Six wings to one and six wings to the other. Eight are at rest and four cry out. What then does scripture teach us? Not to set every reasoning in motion concerning God, but to proclaim some things in silence, and to glorify and theologize about others with faith. And why do they cover the feet and the head? Because neither a beginning nor an end is found.

With two they cover the head, with two the feet; clearly, with the middle wings they fly, not with the upper, not with the lower. For when we speak about God, we must speak of the middle things: that he is God, that he is creator, that he is master, that he is benefactor. All these are middle things. If you say how he begot, you have uncovered the head, which the cherubim cover. If you say where the end of God is, you bare the feet, which the cherubim cover. And it covers the head and the feet, not to hide, but to teach that they are inscrutable, that they are incomprehensible. Take also the type. There were six and six, twelve wings; eight are at rest and four are in motion. A type of the apostles. Twelve apostles, but four cry out as evangelists. And what do they cry? The voice which Satan was eager to overturn. Pay attention, I beg you. They did not simply say as we do, "Holy, holy, holy," but they cast back one to the other, as it is written: "And they cried out one to the other." "Holy," he says, "we ought to say once." The other says, "Holy." Then the other, "Add the third, 'Holy.'" Since then we have counted three, do not think there are three gods. What then? "Holy, holy, holy, Lord"? For there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And just as in psalmody they send back the parts to one another, so the powers above dance in response to one another, and as if from antiphonal melody they send up the doxology. Then: "The house," he says, "is full of his glory." And the lintel was lifted up from the cry which they cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

A strange thing. From the doxology, it was necessary to add glory, and the glory that existed was lost, and smoke entered. Smoke is an image of desolation. What then is this? The Holy Spirit foreknew that the "Holy, Holy, Holy" was fitted to the world, to the preaching of the apostles, and the temple of the Jews does not receive it. It says, therefore, that after the preaching of the Gospel, the synagogue is filled with desolation and smoke. It was not the door that was lifted up, but the lintel. Pay attention. Every door has a threshold below and a lintel above resting on the doorposts. And the doorposts cannot stand without having a threshold, nor can they be fixed unshaken without receiving the lintel. So the upper structure of the synagogue was lifted up. Not the whole synagogue, but having doors, yet not having a lintel. The lintel is the power that holds from above. The lintel was lifted up, it was stripped of grace. Since the lintel was lifted up, it is necessary that the doorposts be shaken by any chance hand. For this reason, every hand shakes Jewish things. And for this reason, some prophet said: "And I will set Jerusalem as shaken porches." And the house, it says, was filled with smoke. And where did the glory go? Pay attention, I beg you. Isaiah says: "And his house is full of glory." Then it says that it was filled with smoke. So when smoke entered, the glory was necessarily transferred. And where was it transferred? Not in one house, but it filled the churches throughout the whole world. And to show where the cherubim went, where the glory that was in the temple went, it says: "The whole earth is full of his glory." One nation was stripped, and the ends of the earth were illuminated.

This holy utterance of the Lord, this royal doxology, this inspired mystagogy, a diabolical mouth said: "Remove it from the altar." That the blasphemy is directed against Christ himself is clear from the testimony. Whom did Isaiah see on the throne? For he says: "I heard the voice of the Lord saying: 'Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people?'" He was reconciled to the servant, but still bore indignation. Just as we, if we are reconciled to a servant, do not immediately grant him the full gaze, but gradually steal away our sight, so God, not wishing to show his whole face, says while he stands: "Whom shall I send?" As if servants are standing before a master and he wishes to reproach their negligence, he says: "Whom shall I send? For this need I have no man." Not as not having one, but as not having a diligent one. So also God: "Whom shall I send in place of this one? The one who kept silent, the one who wages war against the priesthood?" What then does Isaiah? As a servant who has fallen into offense, and being stung and hastening to apologize for the first things: "Behold me, send me." How then shall we show that the glory belonged to Christ? John the Evangelist says: "Though Jesus performed such signs, the Jews did not believe him, so that what was said through Isaiah might be fulfilled: 'You will hear with your ears, and you will not understand.'" He said these things when he saw his glory and spoke about him. Have you seen the head of our salvation, the sanctification? If sanctification does not take place, neither is the mystery accomplished. You have the image. Only say the cherubim: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord." The sacrifice was sanctified.

And it was sent, he says, to me, one of the cherubim, and in his hand he held a coal, which he took with the tongs from the altar. He did not take it until it was sanctified. He touched, he says, my lips. Why the lips? The vestibule of the mysteries. What do we, the faithful, say? This mystery remits sins. And the cherubim say: Behold, I have removed your sins. Do you see the type? Do you see the truth shining? Therefore, let us not cease sanctifying him who is on the high and exalted throne. Let us also give thanks for the soul that was lured away, which the wolf seized and the shepherd snatched back, and the devil carried off and the lover of humanity reclaimed, so that every heretical mouth and every frenzied tongue may hymn blasphemy against Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for ever. Amen.