St Athanasius the Great FOUR DISCOURSES AGAINST THE ARIANS, Part II, Complete

Translated by Cardinal Newman.

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This Part: 130 Pages

Page 130

36. And so let Paul of Samosata also stand corrected on hearing the divine voice of Him who said 'My body,' not 'Christ besides Me who am the Word,' but 'Him [3440] with Me, and Me with Him.' For I the Word am the chrism, and that which has the chrism from Me is the Man [3441] ; not then without Me could He be called Christ, but being with Me and I in Him. Therefore the mention of the mission of the Word shews the uniting which took place with Jesus, born of Mary, Whose Name means Saviour, not by reason of anything else, but from the Man's being made one with God the Word. This passage has the same meaning as 'the Father that sent Me,' and 'I came not of Myself, but the Father sent Me [3442] .' For he has given the name of mission [3443] to the uniting with the Man, with Whom the Invisible nature might be known to men, through the visible. For God changes not place, like us who are hidden in places, when in the fashion of our littleness He displays Himself in His existence in the flesh; for how should He, who fills the heaven and the earth? but on account of the presence in the flesh the just have spoken of His mission. Therefore God the Word Himself is Christ from Mary, God and Man; not some other Christ but One and the Same; He before ages from the Father, He too in the last times from the Virgin; invisible [3444] before even to the holy powers of heaven, visible now because of His being one with the Man who is visible; seen, I say, not in His invisible Godhead but in the operation [3445] of the Godhead through the human body and whole Man, which He has renewed by its appropriation to Himself. To Him be the adoration and the worship, who was before, and now is, and ever shall be, even to all ages. Amen.

[3440] i.e. ton Chr. vid. Matt. xxvi. 26.

[3441] Or. i. 47, n. 11.

[3442] John vi. 44, viii. 42.

[3443] S:35, line 8.

[3444] De Syn. 27 (15).

[3445] energeia, S:14, n. 5.



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