Letter 97

To the same person. "O God, my God, attend to me; why have you forsaken me?" These words are spoken in the twenty-first Psalm [Psalm 22 in the Hebrew numbering] from the person of [Christ]; yet he himself was not forsaken, neither by the Father nor by his own divinity, as it seems to the Arians and the Eunomians [followers of Arius and of Eunomius, fourth-century deniers of the Son's full divinity], who are as it were afraid of the Passion and for this reason shrink back from the one who suffers. For who compelled the Savior either to be born here below in the beginning, or to go up onto the cross? For not unwillingly, but willingly did he come to the cross, with much rejoicing; for many days before he was saying to the disciples, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be mocked and to be crucified," and what follows. Rather, in himself he prefigures what is ours; for having become man, he assuredly makes his words on behalf of men; yet having become man, he was not estranged from being God and Lord of all things. For these things must be noted. Since, therefore, as the Apostle says, the Lord of all things put on the form of a servant, he prefigures in himself what is ours, like an advocate who himself has suffered no plunder, or rather as a defender, speaking on behalf of the one tyrannized over to the governor of the province: We have been afflicted, we have been worn down, we have been plundered, O most just of judges. On our behalf, then, Christ says, "O God, my God, attend to me." He is indeed God of all things, the Father together with the Son in creating all things; but he is called God of the Son as Father, according to the dispensation in the flesh. As, then, I have said before, Christ prefigures in himself what is ours. For we are the ones who were forsaken before, but now have been taken up and saved by the sufferings of the impassible Christ. Just as he also, taking upon himself as his own our folly and our trespass, speaks these things through the Psalm; since the twenty-first Psalm is manifestly referred to Christ. And of the same contemplation is the fact that he learned obedience from the things which he suffered, as the Apostle says, and the crying out, and the tears, and the supplicating, and the being heard, and the reverence, which things are enacted as a vision and woven together marvelously on our behalf. For as Word, he was neither obedient nor disobedient; for these things, and the hardships, belong to those under another's hand, the one [obedience] belonging to the more well-disposed, the other [disobedience] to those deserving punishment. But as in the form of a servant, he condescends to his fellow servants, indeed to servants, and takes the shape of what is alien, bearing the whole of me in himself together with what is mine, that he may consume in himself what is worse, as fire consumes wax, or as the sun the moisture of the earth, and that I in turn may partake of what is his through the commingling. For this reason he honors obedience by deed, and makes trial of it by suffering. For the disposition is not sufficient, just as neither is it for us, unless we proceed through deeds. For the deed is the proof of the disposition.

Ὁ Θεός, ὁ Θεός μου, πρόσεχες μοι· ἵνα τ. ἐγκαταλείπῃς με; ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ ἐν τῷ εἰκοστῷ καὶ πρώτῳ εἴρηται ψαλμῷ· ἀλλ’ οὐκ αὐτὸς ἐγκαταλέλειπται, ἢ ὑπὸ τοῦ Πατρός, ἢ ὑπὸ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ θεότητος, ὡς δοκεῖ Ἀρειανοῖς, καὶ τοῖς Εὐνομιανοῖς, ὥσπερ φοβουμένοις τὸ πάθος, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο συστελλομένοις ἀπὸ τοῦ πάσχοντος. Τὶς γὰρ τὸν Σωτῆρα ἢ γεννηθῆναι κάτω τὴν ἀρχήν, ἢ ἐπὶ τὸν σταυρὸν ἀνελθεῖν κατηνάγκασεν; Οὐ γὰρ ἀχοντί, ἀλλ’ ἑκουσίως ἐπὶ τὸν σταυρὸν ἦλθε σὺν πολλῇ ἀγαλλιάσει· πρὸ γὰρ πολλῶν ἡμερῶν τοῖς μαθηταῖς ἔλεγεν· «Ἰδοὺ ἀναβαίνομεν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα, καὶ ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου παραδοθήσεται εἰς τὸ ἐμπαιχθῆναι, καὶ σταυρωθῆναι», καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. Ἀλλ’ ἐν ἑαυτῷ τυποῖ τὸ ἡμέτερον· ἄνθρωπος γὰρ γενόμενος, πάντως τοὺς λόγους ὑπὲρ ἀνθρώπων ποιεῖται· ἀλλ’ ἄνθρωπος γεγονώς, οὐκ ἠλλοτριώθη τοῦ ὑπάρχειν Θεὸς καὶ Κύριος τῶν ὅλων. Σημειωτέον γὰρ ταῦτα. Ἐπειδὴ οὖν, καθὼς ὁ Ἀπόστολος λέγει, μορφὴν δούλου ἐφόρεσεν ὁ Κύριος τῶν ὅλων, ἐν ἑαυτῷ τυποῖ τὸ ἡμέτερον, ὡς δικοlόγος μηδὲν διηρπαγμένος, μᾶλλον δὲ συνήγορος, λέγων ὑπὲρ τοῦ τυραννηθέντος πρὸς τὸν καθηγούμενον τῆς ἐπαρχίας· Τεθλίμμεθα, καταπεπόνημεθα, διηρπάχθημεν, δικαιότατε τῶν δικαστῶν. Ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τοίνυν ὁ Χριστὸς φησιν· «Ὁ Θεός, ὁ Θεός μου, πρόσεχες μοι». Θεὸς μὲν τῶν ὅλων, ὁ Πατὴρ σὺν τῷ Υἱῷ ἐν τῷ κτίσαι τὰ πάντα, Θεὸς δὲ τοῦ Υἱοῦ Πατὴρ λέγεται, κατὰ τὴν ἔνσαρκον οἰκονομίαν. Ὥσπερ τοίνυν προεἴρηκα, ἐν ἑαυτῷ ὁ Χριστὸς τυπεῖ τὸ ἡμέτερον. Ἡμεῖς γάρ ἐσμεν οἱ ἐγκαταλελειμμένοι πρῴην, νῦν δὲ προσειλημμένοι, καὶ σεσωσμένοι τῷ τοῦ ἀπαθοῦς Χριστοῦ πάθεσιν. Ὥσπερ καὶ τὴν ἄφρυσύνην ἡμῶν, καὶ τὸ πλημμελὲς οἰκειούμενος ταῦτα διὰ τοῦ ψαλμοῦ φησι· ἐπειδὴ πρόσδηλος εἰς Χριστὸν ὁ εἰκοστὸς πρῶτος ψαλμὸς ἀναφέρεται. Τῆς δὲ αὐτῆς ἔχεται θεωρίας καὶ τὸ μαθεῖν αὐτὸν τὴν ὑπακοὴν ἐξ ὧν ἔπαθεν, ὥσπερ φησὶν ὁ Ἀπόστολος, ἥ τε κραυγή, καὶ τὰ δάκρυα, καὶ τὸ ἱκετεύειν, καὶ τὸ εἰσακουσθῆναι, καὶ τὸ εὐλαβεῖς, ἅπερ ὁραματουργεῖται, καὶ πλέκεται θαυμασίως ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν. Ὡς μὲν γὰρ λόγος, οὔτε ὑπήκοος ἦν, οὔτε ἀνήκοος · τῶν γὰρ ὑπὸ χεῖρα ταῦτα καὶ τῶν δεινῶν, τὸ μὲν τῶν εὐγνωμονεστέρων, τὸ δὲ τῶν ἀξίων κολάσεως. Ὡς δὲ δούλου μορφῇ, συγκαταβαίνει τῆς ὁμοδούλοις, καὶ δούλοις, καὶ μορφοῦται τὸ ἀλλότριον, ὅλον ἐν ἑαυτῷ ἐμὲ φέρων μετὰ τῶν ἐμῶν, ἵνα ἑαυτῷ δαπανήσῃ τὸ χεῖρον, ὡς κηρὸν πῦρ, ἢ ὡς ἀμίδα γῆς ἥλιος, κἀγὼ μεταλάβω τῶν ἐκείνου διὰ τὴν σύγκρασιν. Διὰ τοῦτο ἔργῳ τιμᾷ τὴν ὑπακοήν, καὶ πειρᾶται ταύτης ἐκ τοῦ παθεῖν. Οὐ γὰρ ἱκανὴ ἡ διάθεσις, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ ἡμῖν, εἰ μὴ διὰ τῶν πραγμάτων χωρήσωμεν. Ἔργον γὰρ ἀπόδειξις διαθέσεως.