Catechetical Oration

Contents

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1. 0Gregory explains that instruction in the faith must be adapted to each hearer's errors, and begins with the pagan: perfect divinity admits no distinction, so there can be only one God.
2. 1Since God is not without reason (logos), he has a Word, which, unlike ours, is eternal, living, all-powerful, and creative, distinct from the Father yet one with him in nature.
3. 2By the same analogy God has a Spirit, not a passing breath but a substantial, self-moving power existing in its own hypostasis, inseparable from God and his Word.
4. 3The Trinity is a mystery that steers between Jewish and pagan errors, keeping the unity of the nature from the one and the distinction of hypostases from the other.
5. 4Against the Jew, Gregory argues from Psalm 33:6 that Scripture itself teaches a substantial Word and a Spirit existing in hypostasis.
6. 5God, who is Word, Wisdom, and Power, made man out of love in his image, good and free; evil is not from God but is the absence of good, arising when the free will turns away from it.
7. 6Gregory explains the fall: an angelic power set over the earth grew envious of man, who joined the intelligible and the sensible, and by deceit mixed vice into man's will, so that death, curse, and shame replaced life, blessing, and freedom.
8. 7Against the Manichaeans, Gregory argues that God is not the cause of evil: evil is the privation of good and arises from the will, and bodily pain is wrongly judged evil by those who measure good by pleasure.
9. 8Death is a mercy: like a potter breaking and remoulding a vessel, God dissolves the body to refashion it free of evil in the resurrection, and the judgment heals the soul; only the Creator could restore fallen man.
10. 9The human experiences of Christ, from birth to death and burial, are not shameful, since only vice is shameful, and so they are not unworthy of God.
11. 10The infinite Godhead is not confined by the flesh, just as the soul is not confined by the body and a flame is united to its fuel without being shut up in it.
12. 11How God is united with human nature cannot be explained, any more than the union of soul and body, but the miracles show that it happened.
13. 12Christ's works, giving life, feeding, healing, ruling nature, and conquering death, prove that God was manifested in the flesh.
14. 13Christ's birth from a virgin without pleasure and his death without corruption are beyond nature, and so prove that he is God.
15. 14The objector asks why God would stoop so low as to be mixed with the cheap covering of human nature.
16. 15God became man out of love for humankind, to heal, raise, and free fallen man; since only vice is opposed to virtue, taking human nature is not unworthy of God.
17. 16Birth and death are natural movements, not the passion of vice; Christ shared them, and by reuniting his own soul and body in the resurrection he began the resurrection of all humanity.
18. 17To the question why God saved man by birth and death rather than by a mere command, Gregory replies that patients do not dictate treatment to physicians, but promises a reasoned answer.
19. 18The end of idolatry, the spread of churches and of martyrs' contempt for death, and the ruin of the Jerusalem temple are offered as present proofs that God has come.
20. 19Gregory turns to explain why God saved humanity by uniting himself with it rather than by command, starting from what is rightly believed about God.
21. 20God's goodness, wisdom, justice, and power must all be present together in the incarnation; goodness moved him to save us, and wisdom made that love effective.
22. 21Man, created from nothing and an image rather than the archetype, is changeable; his will always moves either toward the true good or, deceived by appearances, toward its opposite.
23. 22Deceived by a bait of apparent good, man sold himself to the enemy; justice required that God not seize him by force but buy him back, as one may lawfully ransom a slave.
24. 23The captor, proud and seeing Christ's miracles, accepted him as ransom for those held in death; the Godhead was veiled in flesh so that he would approach, showing God's goodness, justice, and wisdom together.
25. 24God's power is shown most in his descent to our lowliness: hidden in flesh like a hook in bait, the Godhead entered death so that life and light might destroy death and darkness.
26. 25God is present in all things; in the incarnation he mingled with our nature so that it might become divine, freed from death and from the adversary.
27. 26The deceiver was justly deceived in turn, but for his good as well as ours: like gold refined by fire, all creation, even the adversary, will be purified and will join in thanksgiving at the final restoration.
28. 27Christ had to pass through every stage of human life, from birth to death, to cleanse it all, and he came as a man on earth because the sickness was on earth; no creature is nearer to God than another.
29. 28Human birth is not shameful, for only vice is; the organs of generation serve the preservation of the race against death, so God's entering life by birth is not unfitting.
30. 29God delayed the incarnation, like a physician waiting for a disease to come to the surface, until every form of human wickedness had shown itself.
31. 30Sin lingers like the tail of a snake whose head is crushed; faith has not reached all because God calls all equally but leaves each person's will free.
32. 31God does not force belief, for compulsion would destroy free will, virtue, and moral judgment; unbelief is the fault of those who refuse.
33. 32Christ was born in order to die and so raise our whole nature with his own body; the four arms of the cross show that he holds all creation together; the resurrection appearances need no defence.
34. 33Baptism is a second birth into immortal life, accomplished by prayer, invocation of grace, water, and faith; as divine power makes a man from seed, so it can make the baptized incorruptible.
35. 34Christ, shown to be God by his miracles, keeps his promise to be present when invoked, so the divine is surely present in baptism, and the prayer that precedes it confirms this.
36. 35Triple immersion imitates Christ's three days in the tomb and begins the destruction of evil; the baptized pass to blessedness in the resurrection, while the unpurified must be purified by fire over long ages until their nature is restored pure to God.
37. 36Baptism, requiring only faith and water, is a small and easy beginning that brings the baptized into participation in God's purity.
38. 37As the soul is united to Christ by faith, the body is united to him by the Eucharist: as bread became Christ's body by nourishment, the bread sanctified by the Word and prayer is changed into his body, making believers sharers in incorruption.
39. 38Gregory turns briefly to faith, referring to his fuller works: the one reborn in baptism must know from whom he is born and what he becomes.
40. 39In baptism one chooses one's own parentage: whoever confesses the Trinity uncreated is born into unchangeable life, but whoever thinks the Son or Spirit a creature is born only into changeable creation.
41. 40Baptism without a changed life is only water: the baptized must show the character of God who begot them, restoring what they have taken, since the goods and punishments to come, the unquenchable fire and undying worm, are beyond description.