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In laudem Athanasii

ORATION 21.

On the great Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria.

I. In praising Athanasius, I shall be praising virtue. For it is the same thing to speak of him and to praise virtue, since he possessed every virtue summed up in himself, or, to speak more truly, he possesses it. For all who have lived according to God live to God, even if they have departed 35.1084 from here. For this reason also God is called the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, as he is not the God of the dead, but of the living. But in praising virtue, I shall be praising God, from whom virtue comes to men, and the being led up, or led back, to him through the kindred illumination. For though the gifts we have and shall have from God are many and great—indeed, no one could say how many and how great—the greatest and most philanthropic is our inclination toward Him and our fellowship with Him. For what the sun is to sensible things, God is to intelligible things. For the one illuminates the visible world, the other the invisible; and the one makes bodily eyes sun-like, the other makes intellectual natures god-like. And just as the sun, to those who see and to the things seen, giving to the one the power of seeing, and to the other that of being seen, is itself the most beautiful of things seen; so God, to those who understand and to the things understood, creating for the one the power to understand and for the other the power to be understood, is himself the highest of things understood, at which every desire stops, and beyond which it is nowhere borne. For neither the most philosophic and penetrating, nor the most inquisitive mind has, or ever will have, anything higher. For this is the ultimate object of desire, and for those who have attained it, it is the repose of all contemplation.

II. Whoever, then, has been able, by means of reason and contemplation, to cleave through matter and this fleshly thing, whether one should call it a cloud or a veil, to be with God and to be mingled with the purest light, as far as is possible for human nature; blessed is he, both for his ascent from here, and for his deification there, which true philosophy bestows, and for being raised above the material duality because of the unity contemplated in the Trinity. But whoever has been made worse by this conjunction, and has been so constrained by the clay as to be unable to look up to the rays of truth, or to rise above the things below, though born from above and called to the things above; wretched is he in my eyes for his blindness, even if he prospers in the things of this world; and all the more so, the more he is deluded by his prosperity, and is persuaded that there is some other good besides the true good, reaping the evil fruit of an evil opinion, either to be condemned to darkness, or to see as fire him whom he did not recognize as light. 35.1085

III. These things have been the philosophy of few, both now and of old (for the men of God are few, though all are his creatures), of lawgivers, generals, priests, prophets, evangelists, apostles, pastors, teachers, and of every spiritual fullness and company, and among them all, of him who is now praised. Whom do I mean by these? Such as that Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve patriarchs, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, the Judges, Samuel, David, Solomon up to a point, Elijah, Elisha, the prophets before the captivity, those after the captivity; and these last indeed in order, but first in truth, all those concerned with the incarnation of Christ, or rather his assumption of flesh, the lamp before the light, the voice before the Word, the mediator before the Mediator,

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In laudem Athanasii

ΛΟΓΟΣ ΚΑʹ.

Εἰς τὸν μέγαν Ἀθανάσιον ἐπίσκοπον Ἀλεξανδρείας.

Αʹ. Ἀθανάσιον ἐπαινῶν, ἀρετὴν ἐπαινέσομαι. Ταυτὸν γὰρ, ἐκεῖνόν τε εἰπεῖν, καὶ ἀρετὴν ἐπαινέσαι, ὅτι πᾶσαν ἐν ἑαυτῷ συλλαβὼν εἶχε τὴν ἀρετὴν, ἢ, τό γε ἀληθέστερον εἰπεῖν, ἔχει. Θεῷ γὰρ ζῶσι πάντες οἱ κατὰ Θεὸν ζήσαντες, κἂν ἐνθένδε ἀπαλλα 35.1084 γῶσι. Καθ' ὃ καὶ Ἀβραὰμ, καὶ Ἰσαὰκ, καὶ Ἰακὼβ ἀκούει Θεὸς, ὁ Θεὸς, ὡς οὐ νεκρῶν Θεὸς, ἀλλὰ ζώντων. Ἀρετὴν δὲ ἐπαινῶν, Θεὸν ἐπαινέσομαι, παρ' οὗ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἡ ἀρετὴ, καὶ τὸ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀνάγεσθαι, ἢ ἐπανάγεσθαι διὰ τῆς συγγενοῦς ἐλλάμψεως. Πολλῶν γὰρ ὄντων ἡμῖν καὶ μεγάλων, οὐ μὲν οὖν εἴποι τις ἂν ἡλίκων καὶ ὅσων, ὧν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἔχομέν τε καὶ ἕξομεν· τοῦτο μέγιστον καὶ φιλανθρωπότατον, ἡ πρὸς αὐτὸν νεῦσίς τε καὶ οἰκείωσις. Ὅπερ γάρ ἐστι τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς ἥλιος, τοῦτο τοῖς νοη τοῖς Θεός. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ τὸν ὁρώμενον φωτίζει κόσμον, ὁ δὲ τὸν ἀόρατον· καὶ ὁ μὲν τὰς σωματικὰς ὄψεις ἡλιοειδεῖς, ὁ δὲ τὰς νοερὰς φύσεις θεοειδεῖς ἀπ εργάζεται. Καὶ ὥσπερ οὗτος τοῖς τε ὁρῶσι καὶ τοῖς ὁρωμένοις, τοῖς μὲν τὴν τοῦ ὁρᾷν, τοῖς δὲ τὴν τοῦ ὁρᾶσθαι παρέχων δύναμιν, αὐτὸς τῶν ὁρωμένων ἐστὶ τὸ κάλλιστον· οὕτω Θεὸς τοῖς νοοῦσι καὶ τοῖς νοουμένοις, τοῖς μὲν τὸ νοεῖν, τοῖς δὲ τὸ νοεῖσθαι δη μιουργῶν, αὐτὸς τῶν νοουμένων ἐστὶ τὸ ἀκρότατον, εἰς ὃν πᾶσα ἔφεσις ἵσταται, καὶ ὑπὲρ ὃν οὐδαμοῦ φέ ρεται. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἔχει τι ὑψηλότερον, ἢ ὅλως ἕξει, οὐδὲ ὁ φιλοσοφώτατος νοῦς καὶ διαβατικώτατος, ἢ πολυπραγμονέστατος. Τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι τὸ τῶν ὀρε κτῶν ἔσχατον, καὶ οὗ γενομένοις πάσης θεωρίας ἀνά παυσις.

Βʹ. Ὧτινι μὲν οὖν ἐξεγένετο, διὰλόγου καὶ θεω ρίας διασχόντι τὴν ὕλην καὶ τὸ σαρκικὸν τοῦτο, εἴτε νέφος χρὴ λέγειν, εἴτε προκάλυμμα, Θεῷ συγγενέσθαι, καὶ τῷ ἀκραιφνεστάτῳ φωτὶ κραθῆναι, καθ όσον ἐφικτὸν ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει· μακάριος οὗτος, τῆς τε ἐντεῦθεν ἀναβάσεως, καὶ τῆς ἐκεῖσε θεώσεως, ἣν τὸ γνησίως φιλοσοφῆσαι χαρίζεται, καὶ τὸ ὑπὲρ τὴν ὑλικὴν δυάδα γενέσθαι, διὰ τὴν ἐν τῇ Τριάδι νοουμέ νην ἑνότητα. Ὅστις δὲ ὑπὸ τῆς συζυγίας χείρων ἐγένετο, καὶ τοσοῦτον τῷ πηλῷ συνεσχέθη, ὡς μὴ δυνηθῆναι ἐμβλέψαι πρὸς τὰς τῆς ἀληθείας αὐγὰς, μηδὲ ὑπὲρ τὰ κάτω γενέσθαι, γεγονὼς ἄνωθεν, καὶ πρὸς τὰ ἄνω καλούμενος· ἄθλιος οὗτος ἐμοὶ τῆς τυ φλώσεως, κἂν εὐροῇ τοῖς ἐνταῦθα· καὶ τοσούτῳ πλέον, ὅσῳπερ ἂν μᾶλλον ὑπὸ τῆς εὐροίας παίζηται, καὶ πείθηται ἄλλο τι καλὸν εἶναι πρὸ τοῦ ὄντος κα λοῦ, πονηρὸν πονηρᾶς δόξης καρπὸν δρεπόμενος, ἢ ζόφον κατακριθῆναι, ἢ ὡς πῦρ ἰδεῖν, ὃν ὡς φῶς οὐκ ἐγνώρισεν. 35.1085

Γʹ. Ταῦτα ὀλίγοις μὲν ἐφιλοσοφήθη, καὶ τῶν νῦν, καὶ τῶν πάλαι (ὀλίγοι γὰρ οἱ τοῦ Θεοῦ, εἰ καὶ πάντες πλάσματα), νομοθέταις, στρατηγοῖς, ἱερεῦσι, προφή ταις, εὐαγγελισταῖς, ἀποστόλοις, ποιμέσι, διδασκάλοις, καὶ παντὶ πνευματικῷ πληρώματι καὶ συ στήματι, ἐν δὲ τοῖς πᾶσι, καὶ τῷ νῦν ἐπαινουμένῳ. Τίνας δὴ λέγω τούτους; Οἷον τὸν Ἐνὼχ ἐκεῖνον, τὸν Νῶε, τὸν Ἀβραὰμ, τὸν Ἰσαὰκ, τὸν Ἰακὼβ, τοὺδώδεκα πατριάρχας, τὸν Μωϋσέα, τὸν Ἀαρὼν, τὸν Ἰησοῦν, τοὺς Κριτὰς, τὸν Σαμουὴλ, τὸν ∆αβὶδ, τὸν Σολομῶντα μέχρι τινὸς, τὸν Ἡλίαν, τὸν Ἐλισσαῖον, τοὺς πρὸ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας προφήτας, τοὺς με τὰ τὴν αἰχμαλωσίαν· καὶ τὰ τελευταῖα δὴ ταῦτα τῇ τάξει, καὶ πρῶτα τῇ ἀληθείᾳ, ὅσα περὶ τὴν Χριστοῦ σάρκωσιν, ἤτοι πρόσληψιν, τὸν πρὸ τοῦ φω τὸς λύχνον, τὴν πρὸ τοῦ Λόγου φωνὴν, τὸν πρὸ τοῦ Μεσίτου μεσίτην,