Section CLXXXIX

With these things most perfectly harmonize those which Gregory Nazianzen, brother of Caesarius, committed to writings which will never perish: σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς, a vessel¹ of election, a most eloquent man², ὁ θεολόγος³, and one concerning whom⁴ “nothing more approved and holy than his life, nothing clearer and more illustrious than his eloquence, nothing purer and more correct than his faith, nothing fuller and more perfect than his knowledge can be found. For he alone is one concerning whose faith not even parties dissenting among themselves, as is wont to happen, could dispute; but he obtained such merit before the Lord and the churches of God that whoever should dare to contradict his doctrine in anything would, by this very fact, be shown rather to be himself a heretic. For it is a manifest indication that a man is not of the right faith if he does not agree with Gregory in faith.”

But what faith concerning the salvific will of God and the amplitude of the repaired order did Gregory hold and propose to be held? The answer is ready, since his testimonies concerning this matter can be neither more luminous nor more explicit.

For in the place of a principle he posits that God is charity by his very nature and is thereby borne to impart benefits and to crown those increased by his benefits with his own beatitude. “The God of peace,” he says⁵, “who reconciled us to himself through the cross⁶, although previously through sin we had been made his enemies; who brought the auspicious announcement of peace both to those who were near and to those who were far off—that is—”

—both to those who were subject to the law and to those who were foreign to the law; ὁ τῆς ἀγάπης πατήρ, ἡ ἀγάπη· ταῦτα γὰρ πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων χαίρει καλούμενος, he the father of charity, indeed charity itself—for by these names he delights chiefly to be called—… may he perfect you⁷ unto every good work.”

But because love cannot be idle, God, who is the father of love and love itself, is borne by an implanted weight, as it were, to enrich all by his benefactions. Gregory employs this divine ornament⁸ to refute those who imagined that the Christian faith belonged solely to the eloquent:

Nothing more inequitable than our faith could be imagined if it fell only to the learned and to those who excel in the faculty of speaking and in logical demonstrations; but the common multitude were deprived of it just as of gold and silver and all other things which are held in value here and are most avidly sought by most men; and if God held grateful and acceptable that which is lofty and exalted and reaches few, but on the contrary scorned and rejected that which is nearer and does not exceed the grasp of the common people. For this does not befit even more moderate men: that they should not require such honors as can be rendered to them, but should delight only in excellent and extraordinary ones—much less God, οὗ πολλῶν ὄντων ἐφ᾽ οἷς θαυμάζεται, οὐδὲν οὕτως, ὡς τὸ πάντας εὐεργετεῖν ἰδιώτατον, who, although he is admirable under many names, nevertheless possesses nothing so proper to himself as to pursue all with benefits.

Whence he both is and by his merit is called⁹ φάος ὀλβιοδώρον, the light which is the font of beatitude.

To this will so inclined toward doing good must be attributed the fact that God did not cast away man depraved by fault, but undertook to fashion and repair him anew. “For since,” says the Theologian¹⁰, “to lack every stain of sin belongs to God and to the first and uncompounded nature; … I shall boldly add that it also belongs to the angelic nature, because it surely approaches this most nearly on account of the proximity it has to God; but to sin belongs to—”

—human and earthly composition… Οὐκ ᾤετο δεῖν ἀβοήθητον τὸ ἑαυτοῦ πλάσμα καταλείπειν ὁ δεσπότης, οὐδὲ περιϊδεῖν κινδυνεῦον τὴν ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ διάστασιν, therefore the Lord by no means thought that he ought to leave his own formation destitute of aid, or to disregard it as it was in danger of being separated from him. Ἀλλ᾽ ὥσπερ οὐκ ὄντας ὑπέστησεν, οὕτως ὑποστάντας ἀνέπλασε, πλάσιν θειοτέραν τε καὶ τῆς πρώτης ὑψηλοτέραν … ἵνα μὴ τῇ ἀπογνώσει χείρους γινόμενοι, καὶ ἀεὶ πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον καταφερόμενοι, τελέως ἔξω τοῦ καλοῦ καὶ τῆς ἀρετῆς δι᾽ ἀπόγνωσιν πίπτωμεν· μηδὲ εἰς κακῶν βάθος ἐμπεσόντες, ὃ δὴ λέγεται, καταφρονῶμεν. But rather, just as he first created us when we did not exist, so he restored and refashioned us after we had been created, and indeed with a more divine formation, surpassing the first formation … lest otherwise, being made worse through despair and falling daily into graver crimes, we should at last fall entirely from the supreme good and from virtue on account of despair; and thus, fallen into the depth of evils, to use the words of Scripture¹¹, we should contemn. But rather, just as those who measure out a long journey rest in inns and refresh limbs wearied by labor, so let us complete with vigor and diligence what remains of the way.

He teaches things twin to these¹² when, explaining the rationale of the Mosaic rites, he says:

We judge thus. Since through sin we fell from the beginning and had been carried away by the enticement of pleasure into the worship of idols and nefarious slaughters, ἔδει πάλιν ἀνακληθῆναι, καὶ πρὸς τὸ ἀρχαῖον ἐπαναχθῆναι, διὰ σπλάγχνα ἐλέους Θεοῦ Πατρὸς ἡμῶν, οὐκ ἀνασχομένου ζημιωθῆναι τοσοῦτον ἔργον τῆς οἰκείας χειρὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον, through the bowels of the mercy of God our Father, who did not endure to suffer the loss of man, so great a work of his own hand, it was necessary that we should be recalled and restored to the ancient state. In what manner, therefore, was it fitting that he should be reformed, or what ought to have been done?

Namely, according to Gregory, it was fitting that the providence of God toward men should be manifold and various, beginning¹³ from easier things and advancing toward more perfect things and even unto the Gospel itself.