§ 149. Содержание 5-го слова о богословии.

In the fifth word of St. Gregory speaks about God - the Holy Spirit. First of all, he points to the enemies of the Holy Spirit, noting that due to the general nature of people who are untrue to the truth, both Macedonians and Eunomians unanimously rebel against the Holy Spirit, although their private opinions are so different from each other that it is almost impossible to follow the difference. And he begins his research like this: “we must assume that the Holy Spirit either exists in itself, or He can only be contemplated in something else. The first is called a creature by those familiar with such objects, and the latter is called an accident. If He is an accident; then he is only the power of God. And if it is force, then it is clear that He is brought into action, and not He himself acts, and together with the action ceases. Why does the Spirit act, and say this or that, and grieve, and be irritated, and produce everything that is only characteristic of something moving, and not of movement?.. But if He is a being, and not an accident: then He is either a creation or God; there is no middle ground here. If He is a creation, then why do we believe in Him, or are we perfected by Him? Believing in someone and believing in something are not the same thing: the former relates to the Divine, the latter to all created things.” The Doukhoborists also repeated their favorite dilemma in relation to the Holy Spirit: “The Holy Spirit is either not born, or is born. If not born, then two beginnings.” St. Gregory, having shown the absurd consequences of their bodily reasoning, says: “We do not accept your division, which does not allow anything in between the born and the unborn.... For tell me, where will you place the outgoing (τό ἐχπορευτόν.)? in your division it should occupy the middle, for it was introduced by your best Theologian, our Savior. Did you, following your third testament 615, deign to exclude from the Gospel the words: “The Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father? (John 15:26.) If the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, then He is not a creation; and not the Son, because He was not begotten. since He occupies the middle between the unborn and the begotten: then He is God.” What, they say, does the Spirit lack in order for Him to be the Son? “We’re not talking,” answers St. Gregory, so that He lacks something, since God lacks nothing. But the difference, so to speak, in the manner of manifestation and mutual relationship is the reason for the different names. Because of these expressions: “not to be born, to be born and to come forth,” we call one the Father, the other the Son, and the One about whom we speak comes forth, we call the Holy Spirit, so that the unity of the three Hypostases may be preserved in the one nature and glory of the Divine.” Where is it written that one should worship the Holy Spirit or pray to Him? St. Gregory quotes the words of Scripture John. 4:24., Rom. 8:26. 1 Cor. 14:25. About the first place he notes: “it seems to me that προσκινουν τω πνευματι, ἤ προσευχεσθαι means nothing more than offering prayer or worship to Himself (the Spirit).” The Eunomians pointed to the words: all this happened (John 1:3.). St. Gregory says: “It is not simply said: everything, but everything that came into existence.” The Father is not the Son, nor is everything that had no beginning of existence. Prove that the Spirit had a beginning of existence, and then give Him to the Son and number him among the creatures.” If God and God and God, then why not three Gods? Isn't this a multiplicity? “We have one God,” answers St. Gregory, because there is one Divinity, and that which is from Him ascends to the One, although we believe in three persons. For one is no more God than the other, and one did not become God before the other. And they are not separated by will and are not differentiated by force.... The Divinity in the divided is indivisible, as in three suns, which are contained in one another - one dissolution of light.” "The Spirit is unknown in the Scriptures." If this were so, the Theologian argues; then a) we must remember that something else should be accepted as truth, although it is not literally said about this in Scripture; b) “During the centuries there were two famous transformations of human life, called two testaments.... The Old Testament clearly preached the Father, darker - the Son; The New Testament revealed the Son and gave instructions about the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit dwells with us and reveals Himself to us in the clearest way. Until they recognized the Father as God, it was not safe to preach about the Son, and until they accepted the Son, it was not safe, to put it somewhat boldly, to burden us with the Holy Spirit.” The Divinity of the Holy Spirit is a lofty subject. “Behold, before you there are many testimonies.... Christ is born, the Holy Spirit precedes. Christ is baptized, the Spirit bears witness. Christ performs miracles, the Spirit accompanies. Christ ascends, the Spirit comes in His place. And what is great and divine that He could not do? What name belonging to the Divine does not belong to Him, except unbegotten and begotten?.. I am amazed when I see such a wealth of names; I tremble when I think what names are blasphemed by those who rebel against the Spirit!” And he enumerates the names by which the Holy Spirit is called in Scripture, and the actions that are attributed to Him. This is the content of five words about Theology! You might be interested in: