Theodoret of Cyrus

Even in the case of our own soul, when we say that it cannot die, we do not predicate weakness of it, but we proclaim its capacity of immortality. And similarly when we confess the immutability, impassibility and immortality of God, we cannot attribute to the divine nature change, passion or death. Suppose they insist that God can do whatever he will, you must reply to them that he wishes to do nothing that it is not his nature to do. He is good by nature; therefore he does not wish anything evil. He is just by nature; therefore he does not wish anything unjust. He is true by nature; therefore he considers falsehood abominable. He is by nature immutable; therefore he does not admit of change. If he does not admit of change, he is always in the same state and condition. This he himself asserts through the prophet: “I am the Lord; I change not.” And the blessed David says, “You are the same, and your years shall have no end.” If he is the same, he undergoes no change. If he is naturally superior to change and mutation, he has not become mortal from immortal or passible from impassible, for had this been possible he would not have taken on him our nature. But since he has an immortal nature, he took a body capable of suffering, and with the body a human soul. Both of these he kept unstained from the defilements of sin and gave his soul for the sake of the souls that had sinned and his body for the sake of the bodies that had died. And since the body that was assumed is described as the body of the very only-begotten Son of God, he refers the passion of the body to himself.

Regarding the divine nature the prophet David says, “Behold, he who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” But the narrative of the Evangelist describes the Master Christ as sleeping in the boat. Now not sleeping and being asleep are two contrary ideas, so the prophet contradicts the Gospels if, as they argue, the Master Christ was God alone. There is no contradiction, for both prophecies and Gospels flow from one and the same spirit. The Master Christ therefore had a body, akin to all other bodies, affected by the need of sleep. So the argument for the confusion is proved a fable.Regarding the divine nature the prophet Isaiah said, “He shall neither be hungry nor weary” and so on. But the Evangelist says, “Jesus, being weary with his journey, sat thus by the well”;23 and “shall not be weary” is contrary to “being weary.” Therefore the prophecy is contrary to the narrative of the Gospels. But they are not contrary, for both are descriptive of one God. Not being weary is proper to the uncircumscribed nature that fills all things. But moving from place to place is proper to the circumscribed nature. When that which moves is constrained to travel, it is subject to the weariness of the wayfarer. Therefore what walked and was weary was a body, for the union did not confound the natures.

But what excuse for despondency will we have left if we take to heart God’s own promises and the hopes of Christians: the resurrection, I mean, eternal life, continuance in the kingdom, and all that “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of people, the things that God has prepared for them that love him”? Does not the apostle say emphatically, “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not even as others which have no hope”? I have known many people who even without hope have got the better of their grief by the strength of reason alone, and it would indeed be extraordinary if they who are supported by such a hope should prove weaker than they who have no hope at all. Let us then, I implore you, look at the end as a long journey. When he went on a journey, we used indeed to be sorry, but we waited for his return. Now let the separation sadden us indeed in some degree, for I am not exhorting what is contrary to human nature, but do not let us wail as over a corpse; let us rather congratulate him on his setting forth and his departure hence, because he is now free from a world of uncertainties and fears no further change of soul or body or of corporeal conditions. The strife now ended, he waits for his reward. Do not grieve too much for orphans and widows. We have a greater Guardian whose law it is that all should take good care of orphans and widows and about whom the divine David says, “The Lord relieves the fatherless and widow, but the way of the wicked he turns upside down.” Only let us put the rudders of our lives in his hands, and we shall meet with an unfailing providence. His guardianship will be surer than can be that of any man, for his are the words “Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yet will I not forget you.” He is nearer to us than father and mother for he is our Maker and Creator. It is not marriage that makes fathers, but fathers are made fathers at his will.