Följande utdrag ur en av Gregorios av Nyssas predikningar är mycket intressant. Jag vet inte riktigt hur man ska applicera dem: man kan tänka sig olika betydelser: antingen såsom gällande ”folk i allmänhet som inte är kristna”, eller såsom ”folk som inte är kristna, men näraliggande”, eller såsom ett ekumeniskt ”om kristna utanför Kyrkan”. Vad han än menar är det värt att läsa. Predikningen i fråga höll han på sin faders begravning. Fadern, St. Gregorios den äldre, hade innan han blev kristen tillhört en grekisk, monoteistisk sekt med många likheter med judendomen. Han blev senare biskop och vigde bl.a. St Basileios den Store.
He sprang from a stock unrenowned, and not well suited for piety, for I am not
ashamed of his origin, in my confidence in the close of his life, one that was not planted
in the house of God, but far removed and estranged, the combined product of two of the greatest opposites—Greek error and legal imposture, some parts of each of which it
escaped, of others it was compounded. For, on the one side, they reject idols and
sacrifices, but reverence fire and lights; on the other, they observe the Sabbath and petty
regulations as to certain meats, but despise circumcision. These lowly men call
themselves Hypsistarii, and the Almighty is, so they say, the only object of their
worship. What was the result of this double tendency to impiety? I know not whether to
praise more highly the grace which called him, or his own purpose.
Even before he was of our fold, he was ours. His character made him one of us. For, as many of our own are
not with us, whose life alienates them from the common body, so, many of those without are on our side,
whose character anticipates their faith, and need only the name of that which indeed they possess. My
father was one of these, an alien shoot, but inclined by his life towards us. He was so far
advanced in self control, that he became at once most beloved and most modest, two
qualities difficult to combine. What greater and more splendid testimony can there be to
his justice than his exercise of a position second to none in the state, without enriching
himself by a single farthing, although he saw everyone else casting the hands of
Briareus upon the public funds, and swollen with ill-gotten gain? For thus do I term
unrighteous wealth. Of his prudence this also is no slight proof, but in the course of my
speech further details will be given. It was as a reward for such conduct, I think, that he attained to
the faith.
He was approaching that regeneration by water and the Spirit, by which we confess to
God the formation and completion of the Christlike man, and the transformation and
reformation from the earthy to the Spirit. He was approaching the laver with warm
desire. . . . And as he was ascending out of the water, there flashed around him a light
and a glory worthy of the disposition with which he approached the girt of faith.
