Know the Truth

The Sunday of the Fathers of the Six Ecumenical Councils

Heb 13:7-16

John 17:1-13

Today we commemorate the First Six Ecumenical Councils. Why are they important?
Ultimately, they define our understanding of the Incarnation of Christ, and our understanding of the Holy Trinity. The Creed that we’ll say in a few minutes comes from  the first two - Nicea in 325, and its modification by the first council of Constantinople, in 381.  

The other four councils dealt with the question of how the human and divine relate to each other in the person of Jesus Christ.

So, why is that important to us?

First of all, Jesus said, “You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free”. And that truth gives us a deeper insight into the understanding of our salvation.  The popular conception of God’s purpose in becoming man is that we are saved in order to go to Heaven.  But there’s much more than that.

When Adam and Eve ate the fruit way back in the Garden of Eden, they didn’t just lose fellowship with God.  They didn’t just get thrown out of Paradise.  Human nature was injured by their sin, so badly that there is nothing that man can do to fix it. But, as St Gregory the Theologian puts it, “For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved”. 

St. Paul refers to Jesus as the New Adam.  The Second Person of the Trinity, the Word, became Flesh and dwelt among us. In taking on human nature and combining it with the divine in such a way that they are both distinct, he healed human nature.  The healing of human nature is what gives us the freedom to avoid sin, it gives us the freedom to serve Christ and love Him.

Our Gospel today says, “And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”.  The Councils help us in this.  Take for example Nicea.

If we believe that Jesus was just a good man, wrongly persecuted as a political agitator, while denying that He is God, can we really be honest in saying that we know him?  Even if we think that He was a man with  an incredible god-consciousness?  Of Course Not!  Our creed tells us that He’s True God from True God, consubstantial with the Father.  The teaching that comes from the Councils gives us the understanding to begin to know Him.

Beyond the understanding, or the beginning of understanding, of the Incarnation and of the Trinity, the history of the Councils gives us pictures of courageous saints who still serve as examples.

The Council of Nicea came about because a man named Arius, a priest of Alexandria, Egypt, began preaching that Jesus was not God, that He was a created being. At the Council, the Arian party suggested that a creed be adopted saying that Jesus is of a similar substance to the Father, rather than what was eventually adopted, that He is of the same substance. 

During the council, St Nicholas was so incensed by the blasphemy coming out of Arius’s mouth that he slapped him.  Some say that he actually punched him.  As a result, the emperor took away his mitre and pallium - his badges of episcopal office - and put him in prison.  But, during the night, our Lord and His Mother came to him, restoring the mitre and pallium, and they freed him from his chains - honoring him for his action borne of his love for Christ.

In the Gospels, Jesus said “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before the Father”.

Then there’s Athanasius. A deacon, he served at the council as secretary to Alexander, the Archbishop of Alexandria. Some years earlier, at the age of 20 he’d already written a book “On the Incarnation”, as a counter to Arius’s heresy.  Two years after the council, Alexander died and Athanasius was raised to the episcopate as Archbishop of Alexandria.  For the next 46 years until his death, he was a tireless defender of Nicene Orthodoxy.  Five times he was run out of Alexandria by the Arian forces, and always returned.  And at one point, he even ran out of the crowd to grab the reins of the Emperor’s horse in order to debate a point of doctrine.

“Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before the Father”.

The defining issue of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, the third in Constantinople, was the question of whether Christ had one will or two - whether it was just the Divine Will operating in him, or whether he had a human will cooperating, working with, the Divine.

Remember the words of St. Gregory the Theologian? “For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved”. If Christ hadn’t assumed the human will, the human will could not be healed.

Maximos was a monk and  a scholar.  He took the position that Jesus had two wills, and he defended it publicly, both in writing and in debate. And defending the truth cost him dearly.  Twice he was convicted of heresy, and the ultimate penalty was torture - to have his tongue and right hand cut off, preventing him from spreading the two-will teaching.  He died soon afterwards.

Twenty years later, the Sixth Ecumenical Council was held in Constantinople, and Maximos was totally vindicated, with the Council recognizing the Truth that Christ had two wills, True God and True Man.

My friends, remember

• The Truth shall set you free

• In his first Epistle, Peter tells us that obedience to the truth purifies our souls.

• If you acknowledge Christ before men, He will acknowledge you before the Father.