Talk 3

Now we shall speak, brothers, about the personal properties of the Persons of the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Since in God there is one essence or nature, but three Persons: in order not to confuse the three Persons into one, we absolutely must know the distinction of one Person from another. This distinction must be precisely personal only, but never essential: because by His essence all three Persons possess exactly the same properties.

In what then does the personal distinction of the Father from the Son and the Holy Spirit consist, as well as the Son from the Father and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son?

God the Father is distinguished from the Son and the Holy Spirit in that He has being and life from Himself, or, as Holy Scripture says, He has life in Himself; that is, He was not created by anyone, nor born, nor does He proceed from anyone; but He Himself gives birth to—or rather, has begotten before all ages the Son, and brings forth the Holy Spirit. Therefore, God the Father in the order of the Divine Persons ordinarily occupies the first place and is called the first Person of the Holy Trinity.

When we imagine, brothers, that God the Father begets the Son, we must not imagine this begetting as resembling our human birth. We are born of our mothers in pain, and at birth we are usually separated from our mother. Divine begetting is quite different. God is Spirit: in Him there are not and cannot be any of the parts that man has: He has neither head nor hands nor feet—nothing, in short, of what man has. Therefore in Divine begetting there can be neither suffering nor any separation whatsoever. As Spirit, God begets spiritually, incomprehensibly to us, in the way that He alone, the Son, and the Holy Spirit know; God begets or has begotten the Son before all time, eternally: there was no time when the Father was not Father of the Son, just as there was no time when He was not God. “When you hear of God begetting,” says Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, “do not fall into fleshly thoughts; do not understand an earthly begetting, that you may not become impious.” God is Spirit, and His begetting is spiritual. From bodies, bodies are born, and for bodily birth a certain duration of time is required. On the contrary, the begetting of the Son from the Father is without the medium of time.

Moreover, what is born among men is born imperfect; but the Son of God was born perfect. For what He now is, He has been from the beginning, being born without beginning. We, upon being born, pass from a state of infantile senselessness into a state of reason. Your birth, O man, is not complete. Your growth occurs gradually. But do not think thus about that begetting (Divine), and do not accuse Him who begat of weakness. The Son of God was born in all respects like to Him who begat Him; was born—as Life from Life, Light from Light, Truth from Truth, Wisdom from Wisdom, King from King, God from God.

Moreover, God the Father begat Him without dividing: He begat Wisdom, but Himself remained not without Wisdom; He begat Power, but did not weaken; He begat God, but did not deprive Himself of Godhead, and lost nothing, was not diminished, was not changed; and He who was Begotten likewise has no deficiency: He who begat is perfect, perfectly is He who was begotten; He who begat is God, and God too is He who was begotten. To say that God the Father after deliberation, in time, became Father, is the greatest impiety. For God was never without the Son, nor did He become Father after—in time—but He always has the Son, having begotten Him in the way known only to Himself, before all ages, having begotten incomparably more swiftly than among us are born words and thoughts. For when we utter words in time, we spend time on this; but the begetting accomplished by the power of God has no time. God did not bring His Son from non-being into being (as, for example, the Angels), nor did He accept in adoption someone who was not already his son: but as the eternal Father, He eternally and ineffably begot His only Son, who has no brother. Not two principles, but one Principle—the Father—is the Head of the Son.

Such is the begetting of the Son from the Father and such is Their distinction. The Father begat the Son and gave Him Himself to have life in Himself; the Son was born, received life from the Father before all ages, not separated from His essence.

When we hear that God the Father, having begotten before all ages the Son, also brings forth the Holy Spirit, then this bringing forth, or rather—procession, we must understand not sensually, that is, not in a human way, but spiritually, as God alone knows, and equally we must acknowledge it as distinct from begetting, although we do not know in what the begetting differs from the procession. The Holy Spirit also proceeds eternally from the Father, just as the Son was eternally begotten of the Father; He proceeds, but never separates Himself from the Father. And when the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, said the Savior, comforting His disciples in the coming separation from Him, even the Spirit of truth who comes forth from the Father, He will testify of Me. Thus Holy Scripture teaches clearly about the procession of the Holy Spirit, God from God the Father—and from Him alone, and not from the Son as well, as some teach. In our Creed we read about the Holy Spirit: (I believe) in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Life-giver, who proceeds from the Father. And here too there is no word: and from the Son. And this Creed is older than all the innovations introduced by non-Orthodox into the teaching of the faith, and in its most important passages is drawn almost word for word from Holy Scripture; indeed, the whole of it is founded upon Holy Scripture.

Therefore, brothers, let us believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Life-giver, who proceeds from the Father. Whoever adds: “and from the Son” will be a heretic, not Orthodox. So we must believe on this basis, that in Holy Scripture there is nowhere a single word about the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son as well, although there are several places in which it speaks of His temporal sending into the world through the Son of God. And hearing that the Holy Spirit is called Life-giver, we must understand that God the Holy Spirit, together with God the Father and the Son, gives life to every creature—rational and irrational, animate and inanimate: the creatures of heaven and earth have received life from Him; but especially the Angels and men, by their spiritual life and growth in it, are obliged to the Life-giving Spirit of God. By the Holy Spirit every soul is vivified and by purity is raised up.

Such is the distinction of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit proceeds, but is not begotten of the Father—He proceeds before all ages, as the Son was begotten before all ages. There was never a time when the Father did not have the Spirit proceeding from Him. Although the procession of the Holy Spirit is distinct from the begetting of the Son, what this distinction is—we do not know: because Holy Scripture has not revealed it. Saint John of Damascus says: The Father is the source and cause of the Son and the Holy Spirit, but of the Son alone is the Father the begetter, and of the Spirit He is the producer.

In conclusion of our talk it is well to remind that God the Father, who from eternity has begotten the Son and also from eternity brings forth the Holy Spirit, deigns to be called our Father as well. His Only-Begotten Son says to us: Call no one on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven; and He has given us the very prayer in which He commanded all of us to call God Father, who is in heaven, our Father. Let us not disgrace ourselves by deeds contrary to Him. Let us be obedient in all things to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and to our Father by grace; let us pray that His kingdom also be on earth, a kingdom of peace and love, that His will also be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let us strive to live in love, as children of one heavenly Father, and thus let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Let children more often remember the Son of God, who knows no other will except the will of the Father; let them learn to obey their parents in all things—if the will of the parents is lawful—and always to honor them as mediators in the Divine gift of life. All of us: both fathers and children, men and women, elders and young people, let us worship the Tri-hypostatic Godhead: the Son in the Father with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit proceeding from the Father and resting in the Son. Amen.