On the Holy Spirit: Cappadocian Fathers
INTRODUCTION
Can someone tell me who the Holy Spirit is? What do you know about Him? (discussion).
Let's start with the Creed. What does it tell us about the Holy Spirit? it tells us that He is
- The Lord, the Life-Giver,
- Who proceeds from the Father,
- Who is worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son,
- Who spoke by the prophets
And do you recall one common prayer in which we address the Holy Spirit? Let's check the 4th litany of the 3rd hour of the Agpeya and see what we call Him: (give the youth a minute to look them up)
- The Heavenly King,
- The Comforter, (the "Paraclete", which can be better translated as an advocate or a helper, often used to refer to one called to help in a court-of-law)
- The Spirit of Truth,
- Who is present in all places and fills all
- The treasury of good things
- The Life‑Giver
We say here again that the Holy Spirit is the life-giver. What does that mean? Today we'll learn a bit more about the Holy Spirit, and our guides will be 3 church fathers who wrote a lot about Him...these are the Cappadocian fathers.
CONTENT (Key Points)
When we mention the Cappadocian fathers, we usually mean the three great fathers who lived in the region of Cappadocia (modern-day Turkey) in the fourth century. Their names are:
- St. Basil the Great (330--379 AD), who was bishop of Caesarea
- St. Basil's younger brother, St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335 -- c. 395 AD), who was bishop of Nyssa
- Their close friend, St. Gregory of Nazianzus (329--389 AD) who became Patriarch of Constantinople.
Actually, there is something very well-known that is attributed to 2 of these fathers, and which we pray/do very regularly. You probably already know them (Give them a moment to try & remember). It's the liturgy Two of the three liturgies we currently have in the Coptic Orthodox Church are attributed to St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nazianzus. These fathers were not Egyptian or Coptic and yet they had a great impact, not only on the Coptic church but on all Christianity, and we still pray the liturgies they wrote, almost 1,700 years after their death
So, who are these men? And how did they become so influential?
St Basil and St Gregory of Nyssa were brothers born to a very rich family. They had other siblings too, and the most famous was their elder sister St. Macrina. Macrina was very devout, and she lived with her mother (St. Emilia), and founded a convent for women which she and her mother and servants lived in, and also many other women joined. Due to her devoutness, God gave her the gift of performing miracles. But even more importantly, Macrina was a wise, loving and caring saint. She taught her mother & her brothers about the love of God, and all the miracles she performed were for the benefit of people who needed healing from diseases and needed a spiritual guide to God.
St Basil and St Gregory of Nazianzus---who wrote 2 of our liturgies---were not brothers but they were best friends. They studied together in Athens and then returned home to Cappadocia in order to serve God. They were both made bishops and they served God by loving the Christian people, by guiding them to the true faith and helping them live good Christian lives. So, when we pray the liturgy that is written by the Cappadocian fathers, we find a lot of theological teaching inside it. This is because the fathers believed that what we pray should be the same as what we believe, and both should be the same as how we live. For example, we should not say "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit", unless we believe in them and we live this fact in our lives.
The Cappadocian fathers lived between the first two councils: the council of Nicaea and the council of Constantinople. Do you remember what were the main topics that were discussed in these councils? In Nicaea it was the divinity of Christ and in Constantinople it was the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
Why did these topics arise and why did some people spread heresies about them? Well, because it is a very delicate and difficult matter to understand. How can we explain the Trinity, and that the Son and Holy Spirit are of the same essence as the Father? Until today we can find these questions very difficult, and become confused when people ask us.
For example, in the 4th century, the council of Nicaea used the term "Homo-ousios" to describe the relationship between the Father and the Son as "of the same essence" (i.e. that the Father is not greater than the Son, they are of the same "substance"). Yet, some people were confused because this term was new to them as it's not a biblical term, and many people were afraid that it could mean that the Father and the Son are just the "same", in which case we don't have a Trinity
What role did the Cappadocian fathers play? They wrote a lot about the Holy Spirit. They found themselves amid these controversies, and were instrumental in explaining the doctrine of the Trinity. The Cappadocian fathers took the approach of explaining the correct dogma behind the term "Homo-ousios" without using the term itself very often, and in this way they managed to reconcile people of different opinions to the true faith.
Now let's examine some of their teachings on the Holy Spirit. For example, let's look at how St. Basil explained Genesis 1:2 (The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters). He tells us that in the Syriac language the verb here means "lying on", like a hen lying over the eggs or embracing them, rather than "flying or wandering" over them. In fact, in Syriac the word "Spirit" is a feminine noun, and therefore the word gives the perfect sense of the mother hen lying on the eggs, protecting, and giving them life.
The same concept is used multiple times in the Bible. Isaiah 37:5 says: "Like birds flying about (or laying on the eggs), So will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending, He will also deliver it; Passing over, He will preserve it." And perhaps this was what was in our Lord's mind when he said: "How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing" (Matthew 23:37)
So what does this mean for me? St Basil tells us that this is exactly the role of the Holy Spirit Just as the hen embraces the eggs to bring forth life out of them, the Holy Spirit is the life-giver: His "hug" changes the darkness into light, and turns nothingness into life full of wonderful creation, including you and me. And the Holy Spirit continues to embrace creation every moment, providing us with life, and working within us to be more like God.
But some of us feel the presence of the Holy Spirit while others don't, right? And even for every single one of us, it can differ from day to day and hour to hour. Well, what advice can St Basil offer us here? Well, he asks us: is an artist always an artist? If an artist is talented, then this means the talent is always in them, right? It will never go away. But when does it become clear? When can people see that this person is an artist? Only when she is painting and people can see her art In the same way, St Basil says On the Holy Spirit, Chapter 26, paragraph 61, the Holy Spirit is always inside us But is it always obvious? No, it is obvious when we desire to live as He wants us to, and when we try to love others as He wants us to. When we do that, the Spirit acts inside us, filling us with love and blessings, and helping us in our lives so that we become like God.
Have you heard this story before?
"There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, "'Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, "What is water?"
It seems crazy to us that a fish does not know what water is. But it's just its natural environment. It's kind of like how we forget about the atmosphere we walk in everyday, and the amounts of oxygen and carbon dioxide that allow us to live in it. But even if we forget about it, it is still there or else we would be dead It's the same for the Holy Spirit: He is there all the time, even when we are unaware of it.
Let's remember that the Holy Spirit lives in us ever since our baptism, and loves and holds us as a mother hen cares for her chicks. But we have to open our hearts to Him, or else we will be like an artist who never uses her talents and never paints.
DISCUSSION
See Quote from St. Basil on the Holy Spirit in the attachment below. The youth may read and discuss.
APPLICATION
If we want to grow closer to the Holy Spirit, we have to direct our attention to Him more This means praying for His presence and guidance and joy. A good way to start is to pray the litanies of the 3rd hour of the Agpeya more regularly. They are beautiful prayers that focus our attention on the Holy Spirit.
RESOURCES
- St. Basil's Hexameron
- St Basil, "On the Holy Spirit"
- Study Guide on Saint Basil the Great On the Holy Spirit