On Receiving the Homoousion (complete)

I am still amazed that one way of understanding is not held among us with a settled mind: we all understand rightly, and yet we are not united. I shall state, then, the whole mystery, the words, opinions and understandings of all, in a short discourse, so that we may shut out Arius. The Greeks, whom they call Hellenes, or pagans, say there are many gods; the Jews, or Hebrews, say there is one. We, since truth and grace came later, say against the pagans that there is one God, and against the Jews that there are Father and Son; so, while saying two, Father and Son, yet embracing one God, we take up both religions and resist each of them by what is contrary to it in the other. The pagans indeed, having fallen far, said that the elements and their foods were gods. The Jews, by a carnal error, deny Christ, whom they confess in another way. Our doctrine, then, is to be approved, because it taught the truth and corrected error. This will be easy to recognize if the force of the word adopted by our forebears, which is named homoousion, is understood. And I do not want anyone to be misled when I speak of homoousion only of the Father and the Son: for the Holy Spirit too is from the Father and in the Son. This reasoning will prevail above all against the Arians and against the heretics. We confess that God is: so there is being. Let us confess that Christ is in the same way: in this sense I say, God is, Christ is. And what is this being? We confess it to be light, to be Spirit, to be God, to be the Word. No one denies these. This being the Greeks call ousia or hypostasis; we, in Latin, call it by one name, substance. And few and rare Greeks say ousia; all say hypostasis.

There is indeed a difference; but let us leave it aside now. The divine Scripture often said hypostasis in Greek and substance in Latin. The prophet Jeremiah spoke of God's substance: “But if these had stood in the substance of the Lord, they would have seen my Word.” What is it to stand in the substance? To understand God's substance: that it is true light, that it is infinite spirit. Had they understood this, they would understand the Word of the Lord, that is, they would have seen the Word of the Lord. And so too the same Jeremiah speaks a little later. David says: “And my substance in the lower parts of the earth”: he speaks of God, and he says substance, and what this means is plain. The Apostle says to the Hebrews: “Who is the imprint of his substance”; for he called the Spirit the imprint of God's substance. There are many other examples, but what does it matter? It is read that there is, and is said to be, a substance of God. And the substance of God is light, Spirit, God; likewise the substance of Christ is Word, light, Christ. We all truly say these things: that Christ is true light from true light, God from God. Rightly, then, he is said to be of the same substance, that is, homoousion. Confess homoousion, then, when you say light from light, God from God. Why do you resist? Because it is Greek? Homo is such that, whatever it is joined to, it signifies now “of the same”, now “together” with the thing; for example, species, which in Greek is called eidos: homo and eidos are joined, and it signifies “of the same species”; so homōnymon, “of the same name”. So when homo is joined to ousia, it becomes homoousion, “of the same ousia”, that is, of the same substance. By this Arius is shut out, who said that Christ was from nothing. Likewise we have said that homo, as homou, when joined to a thing, signifies nothing other than that the thing is together, as homēlikes, “together of one age”, and homotrophoi, “nourished together”. So we shall say that homoousion is “substantial together”, or “consubstantial”. See, we have Latin names too. And if this is so, by this too Arius is shut out, who said, “there was when he was not”. For if we say, always Father, always Son; and if in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, then, since the beginning is without origin, and God always was without time, always the Word, always Father, always Son. If this is so, “there was when he was not” is shut out, as I said. See: homoousion is set against Arius in both senses, and against the whole heresy of Arius.

If these things are true, accept homoousion; for if you will not, you new Arians are not hidden. But, as is clear from your acts, you indeed say that Christ is God from God, light from light, but made, and in this way born not from the substance of God but from nothing; and you compel others by your arguments to say this, so that you may hear it rather than say it yourselves. And what are the arguments? O God, O Christ, help! “If Christ is born of God, God is either divided or diminished.” These and similar unworthy things you often bring forward, as if God were a body, or bodily, or matter; for there division or diminution can occur. But we have already said much about this: how in divine things, in incorporeal things, and above all in soul, in spirit, in mind, and still more in God, there is motion or birth in every way. For perfect things can be neither increased nor diminished, above all as to substance; for since they are self-begotten and self-powered (I speak of God, of spirit), they send forth such as they themselves are. Generation there is not generation by change, nor is there any passion there, nor any appearance of passion. Meanwhile, what do you compel us to confess by these reasonings of yours: that Christ was born from nothing? Is your blasphemy less, since you think the same? Or, if you think so, why is your profession not open? But you do not see that you say contrary things; for you say God from God, light from light. How is this from nothing, when you say from what? Christ, then, is from God, not from nothing; from light, not from nothing; for “from God” is understood as “from his substance”. For it is one thing to be from God in the sense in which all things are from God; but Christ is out of God; and Christ himself is the Word, or the Word is Christ.

Finally, ask what the Word is, and you will find that the Word cannot be from nothing. But those men deceive you, those, I say, who, not understanding the mode of generation, say: “Who can tell the generation of the Lord?” First, this can be taken as said of men: “who?”, that is, “no one”. But the Holy Spirit can both suggest it and tell it; and so we too have spoken by the permission of God the Father and of Jesus Christ our Lord. And certainly this was said not to make us despair, but in wonder. Next, let the mode of generation be unknown: we are speaking of substance; if Father and Son, then homoousion. How God is Father and how the Word is Son is hard to know; but now this does not seem to need inquiring. For first it must be confessed that the Son is from the Father's substance, and then how he is Son; and that mode is truly difficult, and has been treated by us elsewhere. Now, then, about homoousion: certainly, so as to satisfy you (for we want peace with all), we have a way to express homoousion: first, “consubstantial”, or “consubstantial together”. Next, if we say God from God, light from light (and the Father is light, and the Son likewise is light), then, since we say that the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son, let us also say, we who rightly say God from God, light from light, God in God and light in light: this will be true, and the full homoousion. Do you doubt it? What if this too is read? It is blasphemy to contradict it. David says: “For with you is the fountain of life, and in your light we shall see light.” Confess this now, and homoousion with it. This can likewise be objected to anyone who says “like substance”; for we say the same substance and substance together. Certainly it is said in Isaiah: “No one before you, O God, and no one after you is like you, O God”; and David says: “Who will be like you, O God?” These things are against those who say “like substance”. But I pass over many things which have been treated more fully and abundantly against the treatises that they themselves sent. For of those who say “unlike” we need not speak, nor of those who think that those who teach what we say are Patripassians. For all these and the other heretics have been easily refuted in a larger treatise. Be present, God the Father, and God the Lord Jesus Christ, so that there may be homoousia in your people through the homoousion. Amen.