Father, glorify your Son.

When the Savior declares that he has made known the name of God the Father, it is the same as saying that he has shown the whole world his glory. How did he do this? By making himself known through his wonderful works.

The Father is glorified in the Son as in an image and type of his own form, for the beauty of the archetype is seen in its image. The only Son then has made himself known, and he is in his essence wisdom and life, the artificer and creator of the universe; he is immortal and incorruptible, pure, blameless, merciful, holy, good.

His Father is known to be like him, since he could not be different in nature from his offspring. The Father’s glory is seen, as in an image and type of his own form, in the glory of the Son.

The Son made known the name of God the Father to teach us and make us fully comprehend not that he is the only God, for inspired Scripture had proclaimed that even before the coming of the Son, but that besides being truly God he is also rightly called “Father.”

This is so because in himself and proceeding from himself he has a Son possessed of the same eternal nature as his own: it was not in time that he became the Father of the Creator of the ages!

To call God “Father” is more exact than to call him “God.” The word “God” signifies his dignity, but the word “Father” points to the distinctive attribute of his Person. If we say “God” we declare him to be Lord of the universe; if we call him “Father” we show the way in which he is distinct as a Person, for we make known the fact that he has a Son.

The Son himself gave God the name of Father, as being in some sense the more appropriate and truer appellation, when he said, not “I and God” but, I and the Father are one, and also, with reference to himself, On him has God the Father set his seal.

And when he commanded his disciples to baptize all nations, he did not tell them to do this in the name of God, but expressly ordained that they were to do it in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

(Commentary on Saint John’s Gospel 11, 7: PG 74, 497-500)

Cyril of Alexandria (d.444) succeeded his uncle Theophilus as patriarch in 412. Until 428 the pen of this brilliant theologian was employed in exegesis and polemics against the Arians; after that date it was devoted almost entirely to refuting the Nestorian heresy.

The teaching of Nestorius was condemned in 431 by the Council of Ephesus at which Cyril presided, and Mary’s title, Mother of God, was solemnly recognized.

The incarnation is central to Cyril’s theology. Only if Christ is consubstantial with the Father and with us can he save us, for the meeting ground between God and ourselves is the flesh of Christ. Through our kinship with Christ, the Word made flesh, we become children of God, and share in the filial relation of the Son with the Father.

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