Homily - The Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon

The Sunday for the Fourth Ecumenical Council
Titus 3:8-15; Matthew 5:14-19

Note: the recording includes a few seconds when Fr. Anthony's mind went apophatic and he forgot a critical detail.  Real life is like that sometimes!  

First Council: Nicea in 325 (vs. Arius)

"And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, Begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made: 

Who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man; 

And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried;  And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; And ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father;  And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, Whose kingdom shall have no end."

Second Council: Constantinople in 381 (defend the Holy Spirit).

Finished our Creed; Holy Spirit, the Church, Baptism, Resurrection, Life in the age to come.

Third Council: Ephesus 431 (vs. Nestorius – she gave birth to the man Christ; Christotokos).

Jesus Christ was fully God and fully Man.

Because Jesus was true God of true God, the Virgin Mary gave birth to God; thus she should be called Theotokos. 

Fourth Council: Chalcedon in 451 (vs. Nestorianism and the Abbot Eutyches and the Alexandrian Patriarch Diasocurus (recent robber council)

The Fathers accepted the message sent by Pope Leo, which Dioscorus had abstained from reading at his robber Council in Ephesus. In the message, The Pope distinguishes clearly between the two natures, emphasizing the presence of the two natures in one hypostasis.

Among the most important conclusions of the Council was that Christ is “perfect God and perfect Man. A true God and a true Man. Equal to the Father in Godhead and equal to us in humanity, like us in everything except in sin. He was begotten from the Father as God pre-eternally and in the last days He was born of the virgin Mary the Mother of God (Theotokos), according to humanity. He is one. He is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Lord who must be confessed in two natures united without confusion nor change, without division nor separation. He was not divided into two persons but he has always been the Only Begotten God the Word and the Lord Jesus Christ”.

 In this Chalcedonian definition, the Fathers of the Council re-emphasized the Creed. They also emphasized two other important things:

·      The unity of the person in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is indicated in the “he is one and the same”. The Lord Jesus Christ is One. He is the Word of God eternally born from the eternal Father before the ages, and born from Mary in humanity.

·      That the two natures in Christ sustain their properties amidst the unity of the person. The word became Flesh assuming all the Human Nature except “sinning”, without giving up or abandoning his Divine Nature.

Application

The Church Fathers chose a gospel to be read in relation to this Council. It is Christ’s saying: “You are the light of the world”. 

Not just the physical light, but the spiritual light.

One of the things that the spiritual light is that we can be full of it ourselves; that we can carry God within us and He can become the light through which we see one another.

Not the light of ego or self-confidence; this is a shortcut which will lead us into division (heresy); not the heresy of Nestorius or Eutechius, but the witness of a proud and divisive spirit that actually drives the self and others away from the true light – even while using pious words of Scripture and the Fathers.

 This true light is helps us see one another. The Lord says after that: “let your light shine on people so that they can see your work and glorify your Father in the heavens”.

This is done not by pious strutting or false humility; but by the way we see and connect with others in the light; by the way we avoid being contaminated by giving in to the dark tempations of the world; and by sharing the same kind of sacrificial light that the Source of Light did when He became perfect man.

That is how we can live as a real family with God in heaven as our Father. We avoid sin; and we love one another.

This way we can make God’s Will come true. The gospel which we heard was chosen to describe the Holy Fathers (whose number is 630) of the Fourth Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon. These Fathers were the light of the world in both their time and ours as well. We abide by their teachings which were handed down to us. By their teachings we are able to avoid the darkness of heresy.

Let us be like them. Let them be our example and model, through Christ, who lives in them, that He might dwell in us too.

See https://www.antiochpatriarchate.org/en/page/1155/ for a more thorough treatment.