Hence if a man whose conscience accuses him of evil calls God his Father, he asserts precisely that God is the cause and origin of his own wickedness. But there is no fellowship of light with darkness, says the Apostle; but light associates with light and justice was what is just, beauty with what is beautiful and incorruption with the incorruptible. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. If then someone who is dull of heart and seeks after lying, as the Scripture says, yet dares to use the words of the prayer, he should know that he does not call the Heavenly One his father, but the infernal one, who is himself a liar and father of every lie, who is sin and the father of sin. Hence the Apostle calls men who are subject to the passions children of wrath, and one who has fallen away from the true life is named the son of perdition; someone who is lazy and effeminate is termed the son of deserting maidens. In the same way, conversely, those whose conscience is pure are called children of light and day, and others who aspire to the Divine strength sons of power.
St Gregory of Nyssa
RJB
May 4, 2023
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