In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
John 17.1 – 13
At that time, Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you gave me to do; and now, Father, you glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with you before the world was made. “I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world; yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you; for I have given them the words which you gave me, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you did send me. I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are mine; all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me; I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.”
Today is the Sunday of the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council. One of the main reasons for the Council, as is well known, was the heresy put forward by a priest called Arius. Arianism, as it came to be called, denied that Christ was God, but rather a created being, the Son of God created by Him before the beginning of the world.
There are many obvious implications to this heresy. To begin with, if Christ is not God, then there is no Holy Trinity. Further, if Christ is not God, then God did not become man at the Incarnation. Also, if Christ is not God, then the most holy Theotokos certainly cannot be the Mother of God. And so on.
Concerning this heresy, Saint Theophan the Recluse says the following: ‘Arias began to deny the divinity of the Son of God and His oneness in essence with God the Father. The entire Church rose up against him; all believers, from all ends of the earth, unanimously confessed that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Only-Begotten Son of God; begotten not made, of one essence with the Father.’ This, as we all know, is what our Lord was telling us when in our reading from Saint John’s Gospel today He says He and the Father are one.
However, despite the fact that Arianism tears asunder the very fundamentals of Christian theology, it became very popular. That may seem to stand in contradiction to what Saint Theophan said, about the entire world rising up against it. Why it does not is something I will return to shortly.
Perhaps it is understandable that it became popular. The concept of the Holy Trinity is difficult. It is something that we can know because God has revealed it to us; but it is something that is beyond the finite human mind to comprehend. And it didn’t help that many priests and bishops were advocates of Arianism. Where the shepherd leads the sheep tend to follow. Which, of course, emphasises the importance of the theological training of the clergy, to ensure that they will not be seduced away from the faith; and also, the proper instruction of all the faithful, so that they may recognise false teaching when it is presented to them and be able to reject it.
The dissension between the Orthodox and the Arians became so problematic in society that the emperor decided he had to intervene; and so, the First Ecumenical Council was called. There Arius faced off against Saint Athanasius, that great champion of Orthodoxy in general and the Holy Trinity in particular. Glory to God, the Fathers of the Church were able to discern truth from falsehood. Saint Athanasius prevailed and Arius was exiled.
The controversy, alas, did not end there. Saint Athanasius was forced to continue his struggle against this most pernicious heresy. So many adherents did it have, that the phrase was coined Athanasius contra mundum – Athanasius against the world – to describe the holy man’s battle to preserve the faith; and looking back on the matter some years later, Saint Jerome, commenting on the prevalence of the heresy, remarked that ‘the world woke and groaned to find itself Arian.’
Here is where I return to the seeming contradiction between how widespread this heresy was and what Saint Theophan said about the whole Church rising up against it. There is no contradiction; because he did not say the whole world rose up against it, but the whole Church. Arianism was heresy; and heresy is not of the Church. So, those who accepted Arianism were not of the Church; those who rejected it, and only they, were the Church. And it was they, along with Athanasius, and the Fathers of the Council who rose up in support of Holy Orthodoxy.
It likely seems a harsh thing to say, especially in the world we live in today, that those who accept heresy are outside the Church. But that is the doctrine of the Orthodox Church. It was what the Church believed at the time of Arius; and it is what the Church believes now. Concerning this, you will sometimes hear people say something to the effect that the Church says that those who are not Orthodox are going to hell. This is not what the Church teaches. It is for God alone to judge a person and not for the Church to comment on who will go to hell; nor, indeed, to say who will not. The only exceptions are those whom the Church recognises to be saints and venerates as such.
A further quote from Saint Theophan, which I will paraphrase somewhat, states the position very neatly: I do not know if the heterodox will be saved, but if I became heterodox I would not be saved. What he means here is that it is not for him to speak of those outside the Church; but that he believes that if he, as someone who knows the truth of the Orthodox faith were to abandon it, he is quite sure that he would be damned as a result. Regarding those who do have not the truth of the Faith, who knows how God, in His great mercy, will judge them? But with respect to those who do know the truth and turn from it … well eternity for them seems a very grim prospect indeed.
Returning to the First Council as I finish, what does all this mean for Arius? Who can say. Perhaps he was sincere in his delusions and God was merciful. But concerning Saint Athanasius and the Fathers of the Council, we can indeed say; for they were all recognised by the Church as saints and we venerate them to this day. Why? Because they were holy men who defended the truth of the Orthodox faith. This is their example to us; and something we must also do now and to the end of our days. Amen.
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