Catechesis VIII
CATECHESIS VIII
On the Omnipotence of God "The great God and the mighty Lord, great in counsel, and mighty in works, the Lord omnipotent, of great name . .. "1
(1) By belief "in One God," we cut off all polytheistic error, arming ourselves against the Greeks and all opposition on the part of heretics. By adding "in One God, Father," we combat the Jews who deny the Only-begotten Son of God.
For, as I said yesterday, even before explaining the doctrines concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, by the very mention of "Father" we have already implied that He is Father of a Son; that just as we understand that God is, so we may understand that He has a Son. Now to these attributes we add that He is also "Almighty," and this we assert because of Greeks and Jews and all heretics.
(2) Of the Greeks, some have said that God is the soul of the world; others that His power does not extend to earth, but only to heaven. Some, laboring under a similar delusion, pervert the text: "And your faithfulness to the skies,"2 and have dared to circumscribe the providence of God by skies and heaven and to alienate from God the things on earth, forgetting the Psalm which says: "If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I sink to the nether world, you are present there."3 For, if there is nothing higher than heaven, and 1 Jer. 32.1S, 19 (Sept.).
2 Ps. 107.5.
3 Ps. 13S.S.
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the nether world is deeper than the earth, He who rules the lower regions reaches the earth also.
(3) But heretics,4 as we said before, do not acknowledge One Almighty God. For He is Almighty who rules over all things and exercises authority over all. They who say that there is one Lord of the soul and another of the body affirm that neither of these is perfect, in that each lacks what the other has. For how is he almighty who has power over the soul, but not over the body? And how is he almighty who has dominion over bodies, but not over spirits? But the Lord confutes them when He says: "Rather be afraid of him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."5 For, unless he has power over both, how does the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ subject both to punishment? For how will He be able to take a body that belongs to another and cast it into hell, "unless He first binds the strong man"6 and plunders his goods?
(4) The Holy Scripture and the true doctrine know but One God, who has dominion over all things, yet tolerates many things because He so wills. For He rules over idolaters, but out of forbearance endures them; He rules over the heretics also, who reject Him, but puts up with them patiently. He rules over the devil, but tolerates him in His long-suffering; but it is not for want of power, as though defeated, that he endures him, for "he is the beginning of the Lord's creation, made to be mocked,"7 not by Himself, for that would be beneath His dignity, but "by the angels"8 who were made by Him. He has allowed the devil to live for two reasons, that he might suffer greater shame by defeat, and that men might be crowned with victory. 0 all-wise providence of God which takes wicked purpose as a basis of salvation for 4 Here Cyril is refuting the Manichaeans and those who followed their errors.
5 Matt. 10.28.
6 Matt. 12.29.
7 Job 40.19 (Sept.).
8 Ibid.
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the faithful! For He made use of the unbrotherly purpose of Joseph's brethren to carry out His own dispensation, and allowed them to sell their brother out of hatred, to take thence the occasion to make him king whom He wished. In like fashion He has permitted the devil to wrestle with men, that they who conquer him might be crowned, and after the victory, the devil might suffer greater shame for being defeated by inferiors, while men might gain great glory for having triumphed over him who was once an archangel.
(5) Nothing, therefore, is excluded from the dominion of God, for Scripture says of Him: "All things serve yoU."9 All things indeed ar'e His servants; but one, His Only Son, and one, His Holy Spirit, are outside all these; and all things that serve Him serve their Lord through the One Son in the Holy Spirit. God, then, rules over all things, and in His forbearance endures even murderers and robbers and fornicators, having determined a fixed time for requiting each, that they who, granted a long reprieve, remain impenitent may suffer the greater condemnation. There are kings of men who reign upon the earth, yet not without power from on high. This, of old, N abuchodonosor knew from experience when he said: "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures through all generations."lo
(6) Riches, gold and silver, are not the devil's, as some think, for "the whole world of riches is for the faithful man, but for the unfaithful not a farthing."ll But nothing is more faithless than the devil. God through the Prophet says plainly:
"Mine is the silver and mine the gold."12 Only use it well and there is nothing blameworthy in silver; but when you abuse a good thing and are then unwilling to blame your own conduct, you impiously put the blame on the Creator.
One can even be justified by money. "I was hungry, and 9 Ps. 118.91.
10 Dan. 3.100.
11 Prov.17.6 (Sept.).
12 Ag.2.9.
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you gave me to eat,"13-undoubtedly by the use of money; "I was naked and you covered me,"14-assuredly by the use of money. Consider too that money can be a door to the heavenly kingdom. "Sell," He says, "what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven."15
(7) I have said these things because of the heretics who condemn possessions and money and men's bodies. For I wish you neither to be the slaves of riches, nor yet to regard as enemies the things God has given to serve you. Therefore, never say that money is the devil's. For though he says: "To thee will I give all ... for to me they have been de1ivered,"16 one can reject his words, for one need not believe a liar. But perhaps, compelled by the power of Christ's presence, he spoke the truth. For he did not say: "To thee will I give all because they are mine," but because "to me they have been delivered."
He did not seize the dominion of them, but he confessed that they had been committed to him, and their disposition, up to a certain point, entrusted to him. Let the exegetes ponder at a suitable time whether his statement is true or false.
(8) There is, then, One God the Father, the Almighty, whom the heretics have dared to flout; for they have dared to flout the Lord Sabaoth, "with his throne upon the cherubim."17 They have dared to blaspheme the Lord Adonai; they have dared to blaspheme Him who is in the prophets the Almighty God. But for your part worship One, the Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, shunning polytheism and all heresy, saying with Job: "I will call upon the Lord Almighty, who does great things and inscrutable, glorious things and marvelous without number";18
13 Matt. 25.35.
14 Ibid. 25.36.
15 Matt. 19.21.
16 Luke 4.6.
17 Cf. Ps. 79.2.
18 Job 5.8, 9 (Sept.).
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and: "For all these things there is honor from the Almighty,"19 to whom be glory now and forever and ever. Amen.
19 Cf. Job 37.22,23 (Sept.).