Yet this bond of love among us, and the power of concord, certainly do not reach the indivisibility possessed by the Father and the Son. They preserve unity in identity of essence.
There the unity is natural, true, and contemplated in existence itself. Here there is an outward form and imitation of the true unity.
Can impressions be wholly equal to seals? So too the reflection of truth in our conception is not identical with truth itself. Though it appears in a similar outward form, it also has no small difference.
If, therefore, someone among the heterodox imagines that he can distort the Son's natural identity and consequent unity with God the Father, let him then cite us as proof and confirmation of his folly.
He might say, "Just as we are all one, not by identity of bodies understood as unity, nor by the mingling of souls with one another, but by the disposition and inclination of love, concord, and agreement toward God's will, so also the Son is one with the Father."
We shall certainly reject such a heretic as ignorant and utterly senseless. For what reason? Because what surpasses us must not be applied to us. What is bodiless must not be subjected to bodily necessity. What belongs to God must not be referred to men.
If there were no division or distinction at all between us and God, then let him think of us what belongs to God. But if an immeasurable distance is found, why do they make the defects of our nature a rule and measure for God?
They subject the Nature above every necessity to the necessity dependent on our limitation. In doing so they are already committing an absurd and senseless deed.
For they imagine the seal from its impressions, and truth from an imitative likeness. They value as second what holds the first place, and attribute to what is second the properties of what is first.
Yet lest, by going deeper into these arguments, we seem to anyone to depart from the words under interpretation, we must say again what is necessary.
As the example and image of indivisible love, agreement, and unity contemplated in oneness of mind, Christ takes the essential unity which the Father has with Him, and which He in turn has with the Father.
In a certain manner He wills that we too be united with one another. This is plainly after the likeness of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity.
Thus the whole body of the Church is conceived as one, ascending in Christ through the coming together and union of the two peoples into the composition of one perfect whole.
So Paul also says: "For He is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of partition, the enmity, in His flesh. He abolished the law of commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, making peace, and might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, having slain the enmity in it" (Eph 2:14-16).
This was accomplished because those who have believed in Christ possess concord among themselves. They have acquired, as it were, one heart, through complete likeness in religion, obedience in faith, and a mind that loves the good.
This is what I have now resolved to say, without departing from the proper aim, and indeed because I deemed it necessary.
Yet the meaning of the words under interpretation compels us to enter into deeper contemplation. The Savior Himself urges this when He says, "as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us."
We must therefore attend carefully to what argument it is fitting for us to make about these words as well.
In the preceding discussions we said, not without reason, that the image of divine unity, the essential identity, and the most perfect mutual indwelling of the Holy Trinity must be reflected in the union of concord and oneness of mind among believers.
Here, however, we shall try to show also the natural unity by which we are bound to one another, and all of us to God. Perhaps this is not without bodily unity, I mean with one another.
We are separated by the distinction of bodies, since each of us is enclosed, as it were, within his own boundary and hypostasis.
For example, Peter cannot be and be called Paul, nor Paul in turn Peter. Yet with respect to unity through Christ, both are conceived as one.
Since we confess natural unity in the Father and the Son, and plainly in the Holy Spirit, we must examine again how we ourselves are shown to be one.
For one Godhead is received by faith and glorified in the Holy Trinity. We must examine how we are one both with one another, bodily and spiritually, and with God.
The Only-begotten shone forth from the very essence of God the Father and possessed the whole Begetter in His own nature. According to the Scriptures, He became flesh (Jn 1:14).
Through an ineffable conjunction and union with this earthly body, He, as it were, mingled Himself with our nature.
Thus He who is God by nature was called and truly became the heavenly Man. He was not a God-bearing man, as some suppose, who plainly do not understand the depth of the mystery.
Rather, He was at once and together both God and man. In this way, He joined in Himself what was divided by nature and far distant from one another in respect of being Only-begotten.
He did this so that He might show man to be a sharer and partaker of the divine nature.
The communion and indwelling of the Spirit passed also to us. It took its beginning through Christ, and first in Christ, when He is contemplated as like us, that is, as man and as sanctified.
Yet He is God by nature, since He appeared from the Father. By His own Spirit He sanctifies the temple and the whole creation which came into being through Him, which fittingly receives sanctification.
In this way the mystery of Christ became a certain beginning and path by which we too received the Holy Spirit and union with God. For we are all sanctified in Him, in the manner already described above.
The Only-begotten therefore established a certain mode, devised by the wisdom fitting Him and by the counsel of the Father. Through it we ourselves also come together and are mingled into unity with God and with one another.
Though each is separated from another by soul and body into a distinct person, He blesses those who believe in Him in one body, plainly His own, through mystical communion.
He makes them of one body both with Himself and with one another. Who indeed could divide, or tear away from natural union with one another, those who are bound into unity with Christ through one holy body?
For if "we all partake of the one bread," then we all constitute one body (1 Cor 10:17). Christ cannot be divided.
Therefore the Church is called the body of Christ, and we are individual members, according to Paul's understanding (1 Cor 12:27).
We are all united with the one Christ through the holy body. Since we have received Him, one and indivisible, into our own bodies, we must reckon our members as belonging to Him more than to ourselves.
That the remaining body is called the Church, with the Savior set as the Head, as though it were ordered from individual members, Paul will show in these words.
"That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the craftiness of men, in cunning with deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into Him who is the Head, Christ. From Him the whole body, fitted together and held fast through every joint of supply, according to the working in due measure of each separate member, makes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love" (Eph 4:14-16).
That by entering into communion with His holy flesh we also acquire bodily union, I mean with Christ, Paul again bears witness.
He speaks of the mystery of piety, "that it was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to His holy Apostles and prophets in the Spirit, namely, that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs and fellow-members of the body and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ" (Eph 3:5-6).
If we are all fellow-members of one body with one another in Christ, and not only with one another, but also plainly with Him who dwells in us through His flesh, is it not already clear that we are all one?
We are one both in one another and in Christ. For Christ is the bond of unity, being both God and man together.
Concerning unity in the Spirit, we shall take, as it were, the same path of reasoning and say again the following.
All of us have received one and the same Spirit, I mean the Holy Spirit. We are thereby united in a certain manner both with one another and with God.
It is true that we are many in our separate persons, and Christ makes the Spirit of the Father and His own Spirit dwell in each of us. Yet He is one and undivided.
By Himself He gathers into unity spirits which are separate from unity with one another, I mean in respect of being in a distinct personal existence. He makes all, as it were, some one thing in Himself.
Just as the power of the holy flesh makes those in whom it is present fellow-members of one body, so, I think, the one Spirit of God, dwelling undividedly in all, brings all into spiritual unity.
Therefore the divine Paul again proclaimed to us: "Bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" (Eph 4:2-6).
Thus, since one Spirit dwells in us, the one Father of all will be God in us through the Son. He holds all who partake of the Spirit in unity with one another and with Himself.
That we are joined to the Holy Spirit through participation will become clear also from what follows.
If we have abandoned the soulish life and have once entrusted authority over ourselves to the laws of the Spirit, is it not already beyond dispute for everyone what has happened?
Having renounced, as it were, our own life, and having received the supramundane impress of the Holy Spirit who has united Himself to us, we have scarcely not been transformed into another nature.
We are called not only men, but also sons of God and heavenly men, because we have become sharers of the divine nature.
Therefore we are all one in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I mean one according to identity of properties, and here we must recall what was said at the beginning of the discussion.
We are also one according to uniformity in religion, communion with the holy flesh of Christ, and communion with the one Holy Spirit, as has already been said.
THEOSIS