Atos 10
Gregory of Nyssa · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Atos 10:10
I also know that the blessed Peter was both hungry and at the same time drunk in such a type of drunkenness as this. Before his bodily meal was brought to him, when "he became hungry and wanted to take food," while his own were preparing the table for him, there came upon him a divine and sober drunkenness. Through this drunkenness he stood outside himself and saw the gospel linen sent down from above by four corners and holding the whole human race within itself in the myriad forms of birds and quadripeds and creeping things and beasts formed according to the cults, whose beastly and irrational form the Word commanded Peter to sacrifice, in order that by being cleansed what was left would become edible. This cleansing is clear from the word of piety not being handed over naked, for the divine voice says not once that what God has made clean is not unclean, but this proclamation happens thrice, so that we may learn from the first voice that God the Father purifies and from the second that in the same way the God purifying is the only-begotten God and from the third that equally the God purifying all that is unclean is the Holy Spirit. — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 10
Atos 10:38
But the Son, having all things which are the Father's, is himself proclaimed a king by holy Scripture. Now the divine Scripture says that the Holy Spirit is the unction of the Only Begotten, interpreting the dignity of the Spirit by a transference of the terms commonly used in this world. For as, in ancient days, in those who were advanced to kingship, the token of this dignity was the unction that was applied to them, and when this took place there was thenceforth a change from private and humble estate to the superiority of rule, and he who was deemed worthy of this grace received after his anointing another name, being called, instead of an ordinary man, the Anointed of the Lord. For this reason, that the dignity of the Holy Spirit might be more clearly shown to humankind, he was called by the Scripture "the sign of the kingdom" and "Unction," whereby we are taught that the Holy Spirit shares in the glory and kingdom of the only begotten Son of God. For as in Israel it was not permitted to enter upon the kingdom without the unction being previously given, so the word, by a transference of the terms in use among ourselves, indicates the equality of power, showing that not even the kingdom of the Son is received without the dignity of the Holy Spirit. And for this reason he is properly called Christ, since this name gives the proof of his inseparable and indivisible conjunction with the Holy Spirit. If, then, the only-begotten God is the Anointed, and the Holy Spirit is his Unction, and the appellation of Anointed points to the kingly authority, and the anointing is the token of his kingship, then the Holy Spirit shares also in his dignity. If, therefore, they say that the attribute of Godhead signifies dignity and the Holy Spirit is shown to share in this last quality, it follows that he who partakes in the dignity will also partake in the name that represents it. — ON THE HOLY TRINITY
Atos 10:40
Therefore, since it was necessary that the good Shepherd lay down his life on behalf of the sheep, so that through his own death he might destroy death, the captain of our salvation, by bringing death to pass, becomes a composite in his human nature, both as a priest and a lamb in the ability to receive a share of suffering. For since death is nothing but the dissolution of both soul and body, the one who united himself to both, I mean to both soul and to body, is separated from neither—"incapable of repentance," as the apostle says, "are the graces of God." So having distributed himself to both body and soul, on the one hand he opens paradise to the thief through his soul, and through his body he establishes the work of destruction. Now this is death's obliteration, that the destruction annihilated in the life-giving nature is made impotent, and this, which happens in regard to these [body and soul] becomes a shared benefit and grace of our nature. In this way, he who is in both, through his resurrection fits together all that was separate, he who, according to his power, gives his body to the heart of the earth, as it has been written, while he puts his soul away from himself, saying, on the one hand, to his father, "Into your hands I hand over my spirit," and on the other, to the thief, "Today you will be with me in paradise." … So in this way he comes both to be in death and not to be mastered by death.… The proof … is the operation that worked incorruption with regard to the body and a passing over into paradise with regard to the soul.… He demonstrates this who says that "God raised him from the dead." For not as Lazarus or anyone else of those who have returned to life by the power of another is he brought back to life—so clear is it how the resurrection of the Lord is to be conceived. Rather the Only Begotten himself raises up the person who was mixed together with himself, having both separated the soul from the body and having reunited both, and in this way a common salvation of human nature is effected. — AGAINST APOLLINARIS