Standing with angels

 

St Gregory of Nazianzus(329-390), a close friend of St Basil the Great [see Yet another early witness to the Eucharist], is known in the East as Gregory the Theologian.  After studying with Basil in Athens, they returned to their native Cappadocia (now Eastern Turkey) to serve the Lord. It was during the time of the Arian heresy which refused the full divinity of Christ, Gregory was reluctantly consecrated bishop of Sasima, a small Cappadocian town. Following the death of his father, the bishop of Nazianzus, he briefly overseed that church. 

Later he became Archbishop of Constantinople, the most prestigious see in the East and second only to Rome in honour. He played a leading role at the First Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D. which completed the creed that we commonly call the Nicene Creed, often recited at the Sunday Eucharist by Catholics and Orthodox Christians.

His writings contain profound Eucharistic images and insights that arise from his teaching on the Trinity, the Incarnation and ‘deification’.  For Gregory, deification means participation in the divine life by grace through union with Christ, not absorption into the divine nature. For Gregory, the Eucharist is inseparable from the mystery of Christ. Because the Son truly became one of us, humanity can truly be united with God. The Eucharist is one of the principal means by which this union is effected.

In Oration 45(23) he writes:

Let us sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise upon the heavenly Altar, with the heavenly dances; let us hold aside the first veil; let us approach the second, and look into the Holy of Holies. Shall I say that which is a greater thing yet? Let us sacrifice ourselves to God; or rather let us go on sacrificing throughout every day and at every moment. Let us accept anything for the Word's sake. By sufferings let us imitate His Passion: by our blood let us reverence His Blood: let us gladly mount upon the Cross. Sweet are the nails, though they be very painful. For to suffer with Christ and for Christ is better than a life of ease with others.

He understood Christian liturgy as participation in the worship of heaven. While the text may be interpreted as not exclusively referring to the Eucharist it surely reflects its imagery. In his Oration2(73) (On the Priesthood) he presents the Eucharistic mysteries as something utterly transformative and holy.

who is to take his stand with Angels, and give glory with Archangels, and cause the sacrifice to ascend to the altar on high, and share the priesthood of Christ, and renew the creature, and set forth the image, and create inhabitants for the world above, aye and, greatest of all, be God, and make others to be God?

A key insight, here as in other places throughout his works, it is through union with Christ's Body and Blood that we are gradually transformed by divine life.  Eastern Christian theology places particular emphasis on participation in the divine life and the transformation of humanity by grace, themes that are also present in the Western tradition.

Gregory sets forth the awe of standing at the altar [Oration 2(95)]:

…how could I dare to offer to Him the external sacrifice, the antitype of the great mysteries, or clothe myself with the garb and name of priest, before my hands had been consecrated by holy works; before my eyes had been accustomed to gaze safely upon created things, with wonder only for the Creator, and without injury to the creature; before my ear had been sufficiently opened to the instruction of the Lord.