Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church
Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church
DIFFICULTY 41 INTRODUCTION The forty-first of the early Difficulties unites two of Maximus’ favourite themes. It is inspired by a famous and influential passage from one of St Gregory of Nazianzus’ sermons for the feast we now call the Holy Theophany (or, in the West, Epiphany) of Our Lord Jesus Christ: ‘and natures are instituted afresh, and God becomes man’. It is a passage Maximus often quotes, when he is considering the Incarnation of Christ. Its influence can be seen in the way it has been taken up in the liturgical tradition, both in the East and in the West. These words are incorporated in the first sticheron of the Aposticha sung at Vespers at the end of Christmas Day: ‘Today there is brought about an astounding mystery: natures are instituted afresh, and God becomes man! What he was, he remains, what he was not, he assumes, without suffering mixture or division.’ This sticheron, translated in Latin, became in the Roman Office (and still remains) the antiphon of the Benedictus for the Feast of the Circumcision (now the Solemnity of the Holy Mother of God, Mary): Mirabile mysterium declaratur hodie; Innovantur naturae; Deus homo factus est… The other great Maximian theme developed in this Difficulty is that of the division of being (already discussed above, in chapter 5 of the Introduction): for the overcoming of the division of being (that is, not its destruction, but the overcoming of its divisive and destructive potentialities) is what has been accomplished by the reinstitution of natures. The theme of the division of being is drawn by Maximus from St Gregory of Nyssa. As he develops the theme in this Difficulty, he draws on another theme of Gregory’s, that of the double creation of the human person. For the final division of being is, for Maximus, human sexual differentiation, and as he expounds this he draws on Gregory’s exposition of the theme of double creation, especially in his treatise, On human creation.
154 TEXTS The structure of the Difficulty is straightforward. After introducing the theme of the division of being, he shows how the human person has been created to hold together these divisions of being, which are all reflected in the human constitution. The human person is therefore to be regarded as a microcosm and bond of creation, mediating between all the divisions. But because of the Fall, the human person can no longer fulfil this function. Therefore, in the Incarnation, God has recapitulated the cosmic role of human beings and restored to them their primordial function. Maximus then paraphrases this in the terminology of logic, citing a passage from the Divine Names of Denys the Areopagite in support. At the end of the Difficulty is a brief exposition of the passage from Gregory Nazianzen that confines itself to the reinstitution of natures in the Incarnation. 1304D 1305A From the same sermon: TEXT 1 ‘And natures are instituted afresh, and God becomes man.’ 2 The saints have received the many divine mysteries from those who became attendants and ministers of the word (Luke 1:2), and were immediately initiated into knowledge of reality in accordance with the tradition passed down to them from those before them. They say that the substance of everything that has come into being is divided into five divisions. 3 The first of these divides from the uncreated nature the universal created nature, which receives its being from becoming. For they say that God in his goodness has made the radiant orderly arrangement of everything that is, and that it is not immediately plain what and how it is, and that therefore the division that divides creation from God is to be called ignorance. For what it is that naturally divides these one from another, so that they may not be united in a single essence, since they do not have one and the same logos, they grant to be ineffable. The second division is that in accordance with which the whole nature that receives being from creation is divided by God into that which is perceived by the mind and that perceived by the senses. The third is that in accordance with which the nature perceived by the senses is divided into heaven and earth. The fourth is that in accordance with which the earth is divided into paradise and the inhabited world [the oikoumenê], and the fifth, that in accordance with which the human person, which is the laboratory in which everything is
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DIFFICULTY 41<br />
INTRODUCTION<br />
The forty-first of the early Difficulties unites two of Maximus’<br />
favourite themes. It is inspired by a famous and influential passage<br />
from one of St Gregory of Nazianzus’ sermons for the feast we now<br />
call the Holy Theophany (or, in the West, Epiphany) of Our Lord<br />
Jesus Christ: ‘and natures are instituted afresh, and God becomes<br />
man’. It is a passage Maximus often quotes, when he is considering<br />
the Incarnation of Christ. Its influence can be seen in the way it has<br />
been taken up in the liturgical tradition, both in the East and in the<br />
West. These words are incorporated in the first sticheron of the<br />
Aposticha sung at Vespers at the end of Christmas Day: ‘Today there<br />
is brought about an astounding mystery: natures are instituted afresh,<br />
and God becomes man! What he was, he remains, what he was not, he<br />
assumes, without suffering mixture or division.’ This sticheron,<br />
translated in Latin, became in the Roman Office (and still remains) the<br />
antiphon of the Benedictus for the Feast of the Circumcision (now the<br />
Solemnity of the Holy Mother of God, Mary): Mirabile mysterium<br />
declaratur hodie; Innovantur naturae; Deus homo factus est…<br />
The other great Maximian theme developed in this Difficulty is that<br />
of the division of being (already discussed above, in chapter 5 of the<br />
Introduction): for the overcoming of the division of being (that is, not<br />
its destruction, but the overcoming of its divisive and destructive<br />
potentialities) is what has been accomplished by the reinstitution of<br />
natures. The theme of the division of being is drawn by Maximus from<br />
St Gregory of Nyssa. As he develops the theme in this Difficulty, he<br />
draws on another theme of Gregory’s, that of the double creation of<br />
the human person. For the final division of being is, for Maximus,<br />
human sexual differentiation, and as he expounds this he draws on<br />
Gregory’s exposition of the theme of double creation, especially in his<br />
treatise, On human creation.
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