Cappadocian Fathers and Mother 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for it they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” – these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words, not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny. “For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. In the East – “Three Holy Hierarchs” are remembered together – Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom. In the West – Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, and Athanasius are considered the four Greek Doctors (teachers) of the Church. In the LBW the three Cappadocian Fathers are commemorated, and recently their sister was added in the ELCA – to give us what is now known as the Cappadocian Fathers and Mother: Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, and Macrina. The 3 men in this group are known as the Cappadocian Fathers; all three explored the mystery of the Trinity. Basil the Great – known as the Administrator and Patriarch of the Eastern monks, was born in a Christian family of aristocratic landowners in Pontus in Asia Minor c. 329. His was a saintly family, his parents and grandparents were all canonized. Basil was trained in rhetoric and the best of pagan and Christian culture at Constantinople and Athens. He became a close friend of Gregory of Nazianzus. They were baptized together, ca. 358, and Basil gave up what promised to be a brilliant administrative career for the then unpopular life of asceticism that his family was leading at Annesi. His brother Peter and other followers soon joined him. Basil established a common life for the service of society, discouraging extreme asceticism. After a brief period in Syria and Egypt, Basil settled as a hermit by the river Iris in Caesarea. He joined the clergy there and was ordained around 365. In the famine of 367-368, he sold his extensive property for the benefit of the starving, raised other money, and organized relief work, forbidding any distinction between Christians and Jews. In the spring of 370 he was elected bishop of Caesarea, a post which had jurisdiction over the dioceses of nearly all Asia Minor and Armenia, and was consecrated June 14. He struggled against Arianism of the civil administration and also against the party that denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit. He organized missionary activity in Armenia. He sought to reunite all the Orthodox churches divided by the schism of Antioch. He was eloquent, statesmanlike, and of surpassing holiness. He died Jan 1, 379 and was mourned by the entire city, Jews and pagans as well as Christians. He was immediately eulogized by his brother Gregory of Nyssa and his friend Gregory of Nazianzus. Basil’s ascetic training convinced him that only the purified spirit could know that divine incomprehensibility. He is sometimes known as the Doctor of the Holy Spirit, and his treatise “On the Holy Spirit” was a major contribution to the doctrine of the trinity. Basil was influenced by his sister Macrina to live a monastic life. Basil’s Longer Rule and Shorter Rule for monastic life are the basis for eastern monasticism to this day, and express a preference for communal monastic life over that of hermits. He is the father of eastern communal monasticism, and monastic life in the Orthodox church is based on principles which he laid down. Gregory of Nazianzus – Gregory, called “the Theologian” by the Eastern church because of his profound influence and eloquence, was born at Arianzus near Nazianzus in Cappadocia ca. 330 of well-to-do parents. His father was a bishop (celibacy had not yet become universal). Gregory was educated at Caesarea, where he met Basil, and then in Palestine, Alexandria and Athens. On the way to Athens, he was shipwrecked (although he was a catechumen, he was not yet baptized), and he dedicated the remainder of his life to God in thanksgiving for his deliverance. Throughout his career he was torn between his desire to live a life of solitary contemplation and the church’s summons to involvement in its conflicts and controversy. At Athens he again met Basil. After 8 years of study, in 367 or 386, he left for Nazianzus. There he was baptized, probably by his father. He taught rhetoric briefly, but soon joined Basil in his monastery on the river Iris. Together they wrote monastic rules, edited the sayings of Origen, and enlisted Gregory of Nyssa for the monastery. Gregory’s father, in poor health, brought his son back to Nazianzus for ordination at Christmas in 362. Gregory assisted his father and helped elect Basil to the see of Caesarea. The Emperor Valens in 372 divided the province of Cappadocia in half. Basil persuaded Gregory to accept election as Bishop of Sasima, the new diocese, but under threats of violence the bishop of the new capital of Tyana he never took possession of it. A rift between Basil and Gregory resulted that was never fully healed. Gregory continued to assist his father until his father died in 374. Gregory then withdrew to Isauria until 378 and then accepted a call to be bishop of the Nicene community in the capital city of Constantinople. Gregory of Nazianzus was sent to preach on behalf of the Orthodox faith against the Arians in Constantinople, though the Orthodox did not have a church there at the time. He defended Orthodox Trinitarian and Christological doctrine, and his preaching won over the city. The hostility of the Arian majority became violent. At the Council of Constantinople in 381 Gregory resigned the see to prevent further division in the church and retired to his estate, where he spent the last years of his life writing. He died there in 390. His relics are in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Gregory of Nyssa – known as “the Philosopher and Mystic” was born in Caesarea ca. 335 of a famous Christian family: he was Basil’s brother. He was ordained a lector but seems to have abandoned his vocation to follow the profession of his father, a rhetorician. He married, but after the death of his wife, Gregory was persuaded to enter the monastery founded by his brother on the river Iris. At Basil’s insistence, he was consecrated bishop of Nyssa, a suffragan see of Cappadocia in 371. He lacked his brother’s administrative talent and was accused of negligence in financial matters and deposed by an Arian-dominated synod in 376. After the death of the Arian emperor Valens in 378, Gregory returned to Nyssa. When Basil died in the following year, Gregory continued his brother’s work and became one of the leaders of the church. He took part in the Council of Antioch in 379, and at the Council of Constantinople in 381 he acknowledged to be a pillar of Orthodoxy. When he went to Constantinople he remarked on the people’s zeal for theology as well as the pervasiveness of Arianism. In his last years Gregory was involved in a bitter controversy over Apollianarianism, the first great Christian heresy which claimed that Christ lacked perfect manhood. Gregory died after attending the Council of Constantinople in 394. His has a long and impressive list of writings, refuting heresies and clarifying the corresponding Orthodox position, especially regarding the Holy Trinity. Gregory is the most speculative of the Greek fathers, with a strong interest in philosophy. In him three strains come together: Scripture, philosophy and mysticism. He is remembered as a writer on spiritual life and the contemplation of God in worship and sacraments. Macrina (ca. 329) was the older sister of Basil and Gregory. She received an excellent education centered on the Bible, and when her fiance’ died, she devoted her life to Christian perfection. She was a leader of a community, based on the family estate, dedicated to asceticism, meditation, and prayer. Macrina’s teaching was influential within the early church. She died around 379. Paul tells the church at Corinth that wisdom does not come from humans but from the divine. God’s wisdom is revealed through the Holy Spirit. God’s wisdom and the revelation of it is a mystical experience. Paul says that one has to be spiritual to discern what God is trying to teach. Paul reminds the church that they are to have the mind of Christ. That it is not their own thoughts that matter, but the thoughts of God, through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit that really matter. The Cappadocian theologians understood this. They are remembered for upholding the doctrine of the Trinity. They attained this wisdom through spiritual discipline: prayer, contemplation, study. They took the time, large amounts of time, to allow God to speak to them through these spiritual disciplines. They continued to teach followers that they should engage the mystical experience of God, to fully understand what God was calling the followers to. We don’t listen for God. But God speaks to us. The Cappadocian Fathers and Mother taught us about contemplative communication. We need to develop Spiritual disciplines to listen for God. Here we Stand - We listen for God to speak to us. They call us to enter into this mystical experience today. It is in following these same disciplines that we may hear what God is trying to speak to us. Too often, we listen to our own wisdom, or the wisdom of others. But most times, this may be human wisdom and not divine wisdom. We think of ourselves, and not with the mind of Christ. We need to spend more time with the spiritual disciplines. We are called to set aside time, large amounts of time, for prayer, meditation, contemplation, reading of Scripture, and devotional reading. How do we think God will communicate with us when we are not listening? We need to learn to experience God in the way the Cappadocians did. It may seem like a small amount of work, or time, or energy. But when God speaks to us in those mystical moments, it can be the greatest moments of our life. Because God does speak to us, whether we are listening or not. We have the mind of Christ, because we have all been made one with him. The Holy Spirit is constantly communicating the divine wisdom. And every once in awhile, we experience the power of God in our lives.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:14:09 +0000
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