About Existence and the paradox of selfless Parental, Filial and Brotherly Love

As it can be logically deduced, Existence cannot have a beginning, since if there ever
was a time when Existence would not have existed, then there couldn’t had been anything
which would have ever caused the existence of something else. Nothingness cannot possibly
generate anything, by its non-existent self. Existence either exists always, without needing
to have a beginning, or else can never exist at all. Thus, the obvious fact can only be that
Existence has always existed. Not having the initial limit of a beginning, means the nature
of Existence is unlimited, also not having an end nor any other limit. The material universe
however, has a beginning in time, as indicated by the “Big Bang” theory and the second law
of thermodynamics,1 which means it cannot represent the Unlimited Existence. Monotheist
religions have referred to this Eternal Existence, as God. In the Bible we see that God is He
Who Is,2 meaning the One Who Exists always. In other words, this means He is Existence
Herself. It is precisely for this reason, that in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the
Septuagint, the name God revealed to Moses for Himself, “I Am”, was translated explicitly
as “Being”3 or “the Existing One”.4 God is the True Unlimited Being or Existence, Who is
beyond change, being always the same (as only limited beings change, because of their
limitations), like Augustine of Hippo also observed.5 Since He does not have a prior cause,
being the Uncaused Origin of everything else, He is referred to as being uncreated, as He
exists without needing first to be created in time, by another creator. In Orthodox Christian
theology, the terms “uncreated”, “unlimited” and “eternal” are in fact synonymous with the
term “divine”. To consider a limited or created being as “divine”, amounts to idolatry.
Being by Her own nature unlimited, Existence does not lack anything that is good. It
would be absurd to imagine that limited beings, could have something good, which did not
always exist in an Eternal Existence, while evil has been described as the absence of the
Good.6 As such, we can say that the Unoriginated Existence always has unlimited good
attributes and operations, such as life, wisdom, beauty, power and love, as the Orthodox
Christian tradition teaches. Also, the Unlimited Existence cannot possibly lack a personality,
which is likewise good. If personality would not have existed eternally, then humans should
not have been created as persons either. In fact, the term “Existence” should be understood
in the context of this article, not as an activity, but rather as a synonym for “hypostasis” or
“person”. For this reason, I found it better to avoid using the less personal pronoun “It”,
when referring to the Uncaused Existence, preferring feminine terminology instead,
although She is beyond gender distinction, and this is balanced by masculine terminology,
1
“Two recent scientific discoveries have yielded plausible prima facie physical evidence for the beginning of the universe. The
expansion of the universe points to its beginning-to a Big Bang-as one retraces the universe's expansion in time. And the second law
of thermodynamics, which implies that the universe's energy is progressively degrading, suggests that the universe began with an
initial low entropy condition.”, Paul Copan, William Lane Craig, “The Kalam Cosmological Argument, Volume 2: Scientific
Evidence for the Beginning of the Universe,” Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2017, ISBN 1501335898, 9781501335891.
2
“And God said unto Moses, ‘I Am That I Am.’ And He said, ‘Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, “I Am hath sent me unto
you.”’”, 21st Century King James Version, Exodus 3:14.
3
“Yet the Bible of the early church, the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament), translates the Hebrew verb ‘I am [who I am]’ into a Greek
participle functioning as a noun, ‘I am the being (‘egō eimi ho ōn’), thus providing the basis for Philo, as well as Origen and other
church fathers, to perceive God essentially as Being.”, Gene L. Green, Stephen T. Pardue, K. K. Yeo, “The Trinity among the
Nations: The Doctrine of God in the Majority World”, Langham Publishing, 2015, ISBN 1783681330, 9781783681334, p. 13.
4
“Then God said to Moses, ‘I AM the Existing One.’ He also said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: “The Existing One
sent me to you.”’”, St. Athanasius Academy of Orthodox Theology, “Orthodox Study Bible”, Thomas Nelson, 2008, ISBN
0718003594, 9780718003593, Exodus 3:14.
5
“God said, ‘I am who am.’ For God is existence in a supreme degree – he supremely is – and is therefore immutable. ”, Augustine of
Hippo, “De civitate Dei 12.2, apud David Vincent Meconi, Eleonore Stump, “The Cambridge Companion to Augustine”, Cambridge
University Press, 2014, ISBN 1107025338, 9781107025332, p. 36.
6
“Evil will be nonexistent, since even today evil is the absence of good and alienation from it. Night does not exist ontologically, but
it is the absence of the sun.”, Hierotheos Vlachos, tr. Esther Williams, “Life After Death”, Birth of the Theotokos Monastery, 1996,
ISBN 9607070348, 9789607070340, p. 311.
when we refer to Him by the term “God”. Nonetheless, existence as an act, is an uncreated
energy (meaning operation in the Greek language), that the Eternal Personal or Hypostatic
Existence has obviously always manifested. This is also the first gift She offers to us in
time, by creating us out of nothing, in Her unlimited merciful love. 7 However, Her uncreated
energies are distinct from Her Divine essence, which remains unknowable to us. Thus, as
saints Gregory of Nyssa and Dionysius the Areopagite have done, the uncreated essence of
God can be called the Divine Darkness (since we can never see it in any way), 8 from which
shines eternally the Uncreated Light, 9 referring to His energies, that we can come to see or
feel. Through them, we can know God in a personal manner, yet never entirely, since He is
unlimited and we are limited, and as such, His revelation to us will never end. 10
Since, as previously noted, the Unlimited Existence manifests eternally through
Herself, all attributes and operations that are truly Good, it also follows that Her Love is
always perfect and selfless, never beginning nor ending, continuously unchanging, as the
theologian Dumitru Stăniloae noted.11 But how could selfless love be eternal then, if only
one Person alone would have existed eternally? This would be a paradox, since such a
lonely being could have manifested originally only a love for herself. In such a case, if
selfless love would not be eternal, it would then be an illusion and not better than selfish
love, which represent blasphemous statements, in the Orthodox Christian tradition.
However, if the Uncaused Existence also generates eternally, without beginning and without
end, another Existence, it can eternally manifest a selfless perfect love for this other
Existence.12 This eternal love has a parental character, and similarly the Eternally Caused
Existence, also manifests an Eternal selfless filial love for the Unoriginated Existence, Who
is His Eternal Origin. But brotherly love is also good, and thus it should exist eternally as
well. If the Uncaused Existence is actually the Eternal Source of Two other Eternal
Existences, then between These Two an eternal brotherly love can also be manifested,
without beginning and without end, as they have the same Eternal Parent, Whom They also
love eternally in a selfless manner.13 Thus, eternal perfect love is possible in the Eternal
Trinity,14 of the Eternal One and the Eternal Two. It is this eternal selfless love, that humans

7
“As created beings we can never be just ourselves alone; God is the core of our being, or we cease to exist. At every moment we
depend for our existence upon the loving will of God. Existence is always a gift from God — a free gift of his love, a gift that is never
taken back, but a gift none the less, not something that we possess by our own power. ”, Bishop Kallistos Ware, “The Orthodox Way”,
St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1995, 0913836583, 9780913836583, p. 45.
8
“The image of Moses ascending Mount Sinai to encounter God, surrounded in darkness, inspired both Gregory of Nyssa and
Dionysius the Areopagite to speak about the divine darkness as a symbol of God's incomprehensibility. ”, Hilarion Alfeyev, Ilarion
(Hieromonk), Jessica Rose, “The Mystery of Faith: An Introduction to the Teaching and the Spirituality of the Orthodox Church”,
Darton Longman & Todd, 2002, ISBN 0232524726, 9780232524727, p. XLIII.
9
“Blue, as the ‘glory of God,’ represents the Uncreated Light radiating out from the ‘divine darkness’. ”, Fr. Silouan Justiniano,
“Brilliant Darkness: On St. Dionysios the Areopagite’s Blue Halo”, Orthodox Arts Journal, April 13, 2019.
10
“Man, being ‘in God’, or rather ‘in Christ’, preserves his full humanity, his freedom (he is required to ‘keep the commandments’),
and he participates in a process that knows no end, because God, in his transcendent essence, is always ‘above’ any given experience
of Him.”, Saint Gregory Palamas, John Meyendorff, “The Triads”, Paulist Press, 1983, ISBN 0809124475, 9780809124473, p. 22.
11
“Love must exist in God prior to all those acts of His which are directed outside Himself. Love must be bound up with His eternal
existence.”, Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae, “Theology and the Church”, p. 79 apud Hieromonk Damascene, “Christ the Eternal Tao”, Valaam
Books, 2012, ISBN 1887904239, 9781887904230, p. 251.
12
“Each Divine ‘I’ puts a ‘Thou’ in place of Himself…The Father sees Himself only as the subject of the Son’s love, forgetting
Himself in every other aspect. He sees Himself only in relation with the Son. But the ‘I’ of the Father is not lost because of this, for it
is affirmed by the Son Who in His turn knows Himself only as He Who loves the Father, forgetting Himself…”, Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae,
p. 88 apud Hieromonk Damascene, p. 252.
13
“If one ‘I’ closed in on itself remains in a dreamlike subjectivity, the absorption of two ‘Is’ into a mutual love which is indifferent
towards the presence of any other also preserves, to a certain extent, this same character of dreamlike subjectivity and uncertainness
of existence. This incomplete unity and lack of certainty fosters a greediness for the other in each of the Two which transforms him
into an object of passion, and this is beneath the level of true love. Complete unity and the full assurance of existence are possessed
by the two ‘Is’ when they meet in a Third by virtue of their mutual love for the Third. ”, Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae, pp. 93–94 apud
Hieromonk Damascene, p. 253.
14
“With Christ’s revelation of the Triad, mankind realizes for the first time that, truly, ‘God is love’. Now it is seen how, if God were
mono-Hypostatic (that is, one Person), He would not be love.”, Hieromonk Damascene, pp. 266–267.
are also called to receive from God and manifest it in the world. As the Patriarch Daniel of
the Romanian Orthodox Church noted, Christian families are meant to follow the example
of the eternal love in the Holy Trinity, by cultivating selfless “conjugal, paternal, filial and
brotherly love”.15 Conjugal love can be seen however as a form of brotherly love, like
friendly love similarly is. Christians need of course, to manifest brotherly love also outside
their families, offering it unconditionally to all other humans, regardless of their differences,
including even those who are their enemies,16 while manifesting filial and absolute love for
God. They can succeed in doing this, by cleansing their hearts through hesychasm, which
said in a very simplified manner, involves the constant remembrance of God, by practicing
the unceasing prayer of the heart, 17 watchfulness of the thoughts, fasting and humility
(humans do not really have any logical reason to be prideful, as they are just limited beings
made out of nothing, always depending on the Infinite Being for their existence). This will
allow them to feel the uncreated parental love and presence of God, bringing them unlimited
happiness, even while they are still in this fallen world. Finite things will never be able to
bring humans the infinite happiness they desire, only leaving them thirsting for more
pleasure, once these come to an end, due to their limited nature.
The Orthodox Christian view of the Holy Trinity, described previously, does not
compromise monotheism. Although, all Three Persons are eternal, sharing the same Divine
essence, without beginning and without end, as They were not created in time, only the One
Unoriginated or Uncaused Existence is Self-Existent and independent, while the existence
of the Two depends eternally on the One, 18 from Whom They receive Their uncreated
nature. In Orthodox Christian theology, the Uncaused Eternal Self-Existent Existence is
referred to as God the Father, or the One God, 19 while His Two Eternally Caused Existences
are referred to as the Son of God and the Holy Spirit of God. Saint Cyril, the Apostle to the
Slavs, mentioned a metaphorical comparison with the sun, which emanates light and heat. 20
If the sun would have been eternal, then the emanated light and heat would also have been
eternal, without ever beginning. We might wonder, why do only Two come from the One?
We can answer simply, that this is reflected in mathematics (offered to us by God), where
the number Two comes after One. But someone could also ask, do other uncreated persons
come from the Two? This has not been revealed to us, and it would be pointless to speculate
about this (like the so-called schools of “gnosticism” have done), as we won’t be able to
15
“This perfect and eternal love of the Most Holy Trinity is a source and model of love and harmony for Church life, family and
society. Notably, the Christian family is called to be an icon of God’s love in the world. That is why, Saint John Chrysostom called the
Christian family a domestic church, where conjugal, paternal, filial and brotherly love is cultivated.”, Basilica.ro, “Patriarch Daniel
calls Christian family an icon of God’s love in the world, praises family role during pandemic”, May 29, 2020.
16
“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully
use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax
collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?
Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”, St. Athanasius Academy of Orthodox Theology, Matthew
5:44–48.
17
“The saints were all the time saying, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.’ A monk could be accomplishing his
obediences; he could be preaching or teaching his disciples, but all this time his heart (and part of his mind which was connected
with his heart) would be repeating, ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.’”, Hieromonk Damascene, p. 413.
18
“The first person of the Trinity, God the Father, is the ‘fountain’ of the Godhead, the source, cause or principle of origin for the
other two persons.”, Bishop Kallistos Ware, p. 32.
19
“St. Gregory of Nazianzen made the point most simply when he said that there is one God because there is one Father, ‘one God
because of the monarchia.’ Properly speaking, God the Father is the one God (O Theos).”, Gregory of Nazianzen, “Oration on Holy
Baptism”, Oration 40.41. See also Basil, “On the Holy Spirit”, 18.45. apud Thomas Hopko, “Apophatic Theology and the Naming of
God in Eastern Orthodox Tradition” in Alvin F. Kimel, “Speaking the Christian God: The Holy Trinity and the Challenge of
Feminism”, Gracewing Publishing, 1992, ISBN 0802806120, 9780802806123, pp. 145–146.
20
“And as light and heat spring from the sun's circle, likewise God the Son is begotten by and God the Holy Spirit proceeds from God
the Father. The light corresponds to God the Son, who is begotten of God the Father, and enlightened the whole world with the Book
of the Gospels. The heat corresponds with the Holy Spirit, which eternally proceeds from the Father.”, Saint Cyril the Philosopher
apud Very Rev. Prof. Blagoy Tchiflianov, “Our Orthodox Faith”, Lulu.com, 2012, ISBN 1105658996, 9781105658990, p. 11.
find an answer and it would not aid our salvation. The Trinity also represents Completeness
and we speak about an unlimited plurality of uncreated attributes and energies, shared by the
Three Persons. But less than three persons would not be able to share all these energies,
such as selfless Parental, Filial and Brotherly Love. God being all-powerful could be the
Eternal Origin of an unlimited number of eternal persons, but being all-powerful means that
He can also be the Eternal Origin of only Two Eternal Persons, if He decided so, as His
revelation shows.
Speaking about an eternal brotherly relation between the Son and the Holy Spirit,
could lead us to the conclusion that Both would come from the Father in an identical way.
However, the Orthodox Christian tradition states that there is a fundamental distinction
regarding the manner in which the Son of God and the Holy Spirit originate from the
Unbegotten Father. The Son is eternally generated by the Father, while the Holy Spirit
proceeds eternally from the Father, which cannot be confused. 21 Nonetheless, since They
Both originate eternally from the same Unoriginated Father, regardless of the way this is
happening, I believe it is not wrong to refer to the Holy Spirit also as the Sister of the Son.
Regarding the origination of the Holy Spirit, it can also be noted, that if the Spirit were to
proceed eternally in origin from the Son too, it would then no longer be possible to speak
about an eternal brotherly love, manifested without a beginning in time, between the Son
and the Holy Spirit. Thus, as stated by saint Photius, the patriarch of Constantinople, the
Holy Spirit can only originate from the Father alone. 22 A contrary doctrine, would also not
be compatible with the metaphor mentioned by both saints Teophilus of Antioch 23 and
Irenaeus of Lugdunum (Lyons),24 about the Son and the Holy Spirit acting as the Two
eternal hands of the One Father, Their eternal head. The Son and the Holy Spirit are thus
fully equal, but also truly distinct, as there is no confusion between Them. The fundamental
distinction between the Son’s eternal generation by the Father and Spirit’s eternal procession
from the Father, should however remind us, that not only our immediate blood relatives are
our brothers, but also all other humans, regardless how unrelated they might seem to us. In
His unlimited Love, God wishes that we do not remain mere creatures, but become His
children, even though we do not share His nature, by becoming the adopted brothers of His
Son, in a free unconstrained way, to live forever in the deifying uncreated grace of the Holy
Spirit, as the Orthodox Christian tradition teaches. It is for this reason, that the Eternal Son
of God became incarnate, as the Lord Jesus Christ, in a created fully human nature, which
He received from the Holy Virgin Mary, through her cooperation with the Holy Spirit, while
He also preserved His uncreated fully divine nature, bringing us true Life, through His
bodily resurrection. And by His descent, Christ has conquered “Hades” or “Sheol” from
within, lighting it with the uncreated Fire of His Love, putting an end to the spiritual
blindness of death and providing all with the possibility to always feel His uncreated

21
“Do you tell me first what is the unbegottenness of the Father, and I will then explain to you the physiology of the generation of the
Son, and the procession of the Spirit, and we shall both of us be stricken with madness for prying into the mystery of God.”, Saint
Gregory Nazianzen, “Oratio XXXI (Theologica V)”, 8', P.G., XXXVI, 141 B. apud Vladimir Lossky, “The Mystical Theology of the
Eastern Church”, St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1976, ISBN 0913836311, 9780913836316, p. 5.
22
“In his theology, Photius held that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone (ek monou tou Patros). ”, John Farrelly, “The
Trinity: Rediscovering the Central Christian Mystery”, Rowman & Littlefield, 2005, ISBN 0742532267, 9780742532267, p. 103.
23
“When God said, 'Let us make [man] after our image and likeness'…he regarded the making of [man] as the only work worthy of
his own hands…[and] he said, 'Let us make' to none other than his own Logos and his own Sophia. ”, “Theophilus of Antioch to
Autolycus 2.18”, quoted by Sophia Compton, “Theophilus of Antioch and the “Two Hands of God,” Theandros, Vol. 4, number 2,
Winter 2006/2007 apud Emmanuel Hatzidakis, Metropolitan Nikitas (Lulias), “Jesus: Fallen?: The Human Nature of Christ
Examined from an Eastern Orthodox Perspective”, Orthodox Witness, 2013, ISBN 0977897052, 9780977897056, p. 43.
24
“He writes in AH 4.20.1, 'For with Him were always present the Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, by whom and in whom,
freely and spontaneously, He made all things, to whom also He speaks, saying, “Let Us make man after Our image and likeness”
[Gen. 1.26].'”, Anthony Briggman, “Irenaeus of Lyons and the Theology of the Holy Spirit”, OUP Oxford, 2012, ISBN 0199641536,
9780199641536, p. 129.
Presence (which however, brings happiness only to those who truly love Him). 25 Thus, like
saint Irenaeus noted, we can now become adopted sons of God, sharing in His immortality. 26
Likewise, since gender distinction is also good (and thus not illusory), being the
reason why humans were made in this way, it must also exist eternally. The Uncaused
Existence, being the One Eternal Source, does not manifest such a distinction (as it would
imply a duality in Her unique role), regardless what terms we use to refer to Him or Her.
But the Two Eternally Caused Existences, can also manifest an eternal gender difference in
Their Roles. In the book of “Genesis”, we read that the Divine Persons decided to make
humans, male and female, in Their Image.27 Also, the words used in the Hebrew (“Ruach”)
and Aramaic (“Rukha”) languages, to refer to the Holy Spirit of God, are of feminine
gender. These were the languages spoken in our world by the Lord Jesus Christ, Who Is the
Eternal Hypostatic Word of God. In our recent times, the female gender of the Holy Spirit
gained more attention,28 being pointed out by Orthodox theologians, such as Thomas
Hopko29 and Paul Evdokimov.30 Nonetheless, this is not a “novelty”, and it does not
contradict any Orthodox dogma. The antiquity of this tradition is attested in the
“Didascalia” of the Holy Apostles, which speaks about the Bishop, the Deacon and the
Deaconess as acting in the Image of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and are honored
thus.31 It has been speculated, that it is also to better preserve this gender distinction, that the
saints Theophilus of Antioch and Irenaeus of Lugdunum have referred to the Holy Spirit as
the Divine Sophia,32 which means Wisdom in the Greek language, while referring to the Son
as the Divine Logos, meaning Word or Reason. However, the tradition of referring instead to
the Son, also as the Wisdom of God, mentioned by the Holy Apostle Paul became more
popular, probably due to the closer relation between Word, Reason and Wisdom. 33 It can be
noted, that the Holy Spirit has also been called the Hypostatic Love of God, 34 and another
25
“The righteous and the unrepentant shall both pass through the uncreated ‘fire’ of divine presence, however, the one shall pass
through unscathed, while the other shall be burnt.”, Fr. George Metallinos, “Paradise and Hell According to Orthodox Tradition”,
Apostoliki Diakonia of the Church of Greece, accessed on February 6, 2023.
26
“This is the reason why the Word of God was made flesh, and the Son of God became Son of Man: so that we might enter into
communion with the Word of God, and by receiving adoption might become Sons of God. Indeed we should not be able to share in
immortality without a close union with the Immortal.”, Saint Irenaeus of Lugdunum (Lyons), “Against Heresies”, III,19,1 apud
Philip Krill, “Listening to the Fathers: A Year of Neo-Patristic Reflections”, AuthorHouse, 2020, ISBN 1728372593,
9781728372594, entry “February 5”.
27
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over
the birds of heaven, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that moves on the earth.’ God made man; in
the image of God He made him; male and female He made them.”, St. Athanasius Academy of Orthodox Theology, Genesis 1:26–27.
28
“Some scholars have even suggested a parallel between Christ as male and the Spirit as feamle on an ontological level, arguing
that the male gender is an image of Christ and the female gender is an image of the Holy Spirit.”, Valerie A. Karras, “Patristic Views
on the Ontology of Gender”, in “Personhood: Orthodox Christianity and the Connection between Body, Mind, and Soul”, ed. John T.
Chirban (Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1996), p. 114 apud JKohn D. Garr, ”God and Women: Woman in God's Image and
Likeness”, Golden Key Press, 2011, ISBN 0979451442, 9780979451447, p. 123.
29
“Thomas Hopko has suggested correspondence on some level between male humanity and Christ on the one hand and between
female humanity and the Holy Spirit on the other.”, Thomas Hopko, “On the Male Character of the Christian Priesthood”, St.
Vladimir's Theological Quarterly 19:3 (1975), pp. 147–173 apud JKohn D. Garr, p. 123.
30
“Paul Evdokimov has opined that 'in accordance with the distinction of persons…there is an ontic affinity between the the
masculine and the Word, as there is an ontic affinity between the feminine and the Holy Spirit.’”, Paul Evdokimov, “Woman and the
Salvation of the World”, tr. Anthony P. Gythiel (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1994), p. 27 apud JKohn D. Garr, p.
123.
31
“the deacon has the place of Christ and you should love him; you should honor the deaconess in the place of the Holy Spirit. ”, The
Didascalia 2, 26 (F. X. Funk, ed. Padesborn, 1905) apud Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, “The Ministry of Women in the Church”, St Vladimir's
Seminary Press, 1991, ISBN 0961854561, 9780961854560, p. 145.
32
“Since ‘pneuma’ in Greek is neuter, ‘rûah’ can be rendered in Greek by Ennoia or Sophia, which helps to preserve the female
aspect. Theophilus of Antioch and Irenaeus' ‘Apostolic Demonstration’ list Wisdom as the third person of the Trinity. ”, Carl Séan
O'Brien, “The Demiurge in Ancient Thought”, Cambridge University Press, 2015, ISBN 110707536X, 9781107075368, p. 234.
33
“Why did Sophia fade as a name for the Holy Spirit?…Perhaps because the attributes of Sophia were transferred to Christ ‘the
wisdom of God’ (1 Cor 1:24).”, Dennis A. Jacobsen, “A Spirituality for Doing Justice: Reflections for Congregation-Based”
Organizers, Fortress Press, 2021, ISBN 1506464378, 9781506464374, p. 42.
34
“But the Third hypostasis is hypostatic Love, although deprived of all selfhood. Like the first two hypostases, the Third hypostasis
has, in its own hypostatic life, its own kenosis, which consists precisely in hypostatic self-abolition…But in this kenosis the Third
hypostasis finds itself as the Life of the other hypostases, as the Love of the Others and as the Comfort of the Others, which then
feminine term in the Greek language, used occasionally by Orthodox Christians to refer to
the Holy Spirit, has been Hagia Irene, meaning the Holy Peace, which is the dedication of a
church in Constantinople, situated near the Hagia Sophia cathedral.35
Some early Christian groups also believed that Jesus had referred to the Spirit as His
Mother (like the mentions from the “Gospel according to the Hebrews”), 36 but in my
opinion such a terminology is inaccurate, as the Son depends for His Eternal Existence on
the Father alone (like the Spirit also does), and could be understood only if Jesus spoke it
from His human position alone, as the Holy Spirit can give birth to Christ in those who open
their human hearts to receive Her Uncreated Grace. However, I do not see any problem in
referring to the Holy Spirit as the Sister of the Son. The expression is not novel, being
mentioned in the early Vth century, by Synesius of Cyrene, the Bishop of Ptolemais (who
also referred to Her, as the Hagia Pnoia, meaning the Holy Breath). He spoke about the
Holy Spirit as being the Son’s Sister, precisely “because the Father is the source of both the
Spirit and the Son” (except this, he even calls Her as also mother and daughter of the Son,
but I consider this terminology is less accurate and should better be avoided). 37 Some might
object to the expression “Sister of the Son”, since Synesius was somewhat controversial,
due to exaggerated neoplatonic views, and this terminology happened to also be used by an
early heretical group, called the “Elcesaites”. But their heresy was not resting upon this
expression38 (which they likely borrowed from the orthodox Christians of their times), while
Synesius was not condemned as a heretic. Likewise, there are obviously antecedents, when
the Church adopted more “novel” terminologies, to better express its Orthodox teaching. An
example can be the the explicit distinction between the Divine Persons, Their uncreated
essence (or nature) and Their uncreated energies (or operations), made by saint Gregory
Palamas. This was necessary to defend the Orthodox hesychast tradition and practice, being
officially recognized as a dogma by the Holy Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church 39 in the
XIVth century. Nonetheless, an implicit distinction between the divine nature and the divine
energies, was already evident in the works of the Cappadocian fathers (saint Basil of
Caesarea stated in his works, that we can know God through His operations, but never His
essence),40 as well as in the theology of Saint Maximus the Confessor, accepted by the Sixth
Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, held during 680-681, speaking about the distinction
becomes for it too its own Comfort, its self-comfort.”, Sergius Bulgakov, “The Comforter”, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004,
ISBN 080282112X, 9780802821126, p. 181.
35
“However the dedications in Constantinople also reflect his theological concern over what would come to be called the Holy
Trinity, and the roles of the individual divine Persons. In this Constantinian Trinity, the Father seems to have been assigned Power,
the Son, Wisdom, and the Holy Spirit, Peace.”, Dennis O'Neill, “Passionate Holiness: Marginalized Christian Devotions for
Distinctive Peoples”, Trafford Publishing, 2010, ISBN 1426925050, 9781426925054, p. 53.
36
“…the Gospel according to the Hebrews, where the Savior himself says, ‘Just now my mother, the Holy Spirit, took me by a lock of
hair and lifted me up to great Mount Tabor’…”, Origen, “Commentary on John (1:3)” apud James R. Edwards, “The Hebrew Gospel
and the Development of the Synoptic Tradition”, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2009, ISBN 0802862349, 9780802862341, p. 56.
37
“The Hagia Pnoia is the Son’s ‘mother (matèr),135 sister (gnôta), daughter (thugatèr)’ (II 101–103): ‘mother’ because Intellect/the
Son is begotten through the Spirit; ‘sister’ because the Father is the source of both the Spirit and the Son; ‘daughter’ because the Son
and the Father are united.”, Irini-Fotini Viltanioti, “Synesius of Cyrene: Philosophy and Poetry "Sharing the Same Temple"” in Mark
Edwards, “The Routledge Handbook of Early Christian Philosophy”, Routledge, 2020, ISBN 1134855982, 9781134855988, p. 535.
38
“According to Hippolytus, a certain Alcibiades of Apamea came to Rome in the early third century preaching a second baptism
based on the Book of Elkesai.”, Everett Ferguson, Michael P. McHugh, Frederick W. Norris, “Encyclopedia of Early Christianity”,
Taylor & Francis, 1999, ISBN 0815333196, 9780815333197, p. 369.
39
“The official name of our Church is ‘The Holy Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church.’ The Church of the East has never from the
first been known by any other name than Catholic, nor has she set aside this title in any official document.”, Saint Raphael of
Brooklyn, “Letter to D. M. Canright”, 1914, Published in “The Lord's Day” apud Laurent Cleenewerck, “His Broken Body:
Understanding and Healing the Schism Between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches : an Orthodox Perspective”,
Euclid University Press, 2007, ISBN 0615183611, 9780615183619, p. 101.
40
“On this distinction, St Basil the Great writes, ‘…the energies are various, and the essence simple, but we say that we know our
God from his energies, but do not undertake to approach near to his essence. His energies come down to us, but his essence remains
beyond our reach.’”, Letter CCXXXIV, 1, in P. Schaff & H. Wace (Eds.), “The Nicene and post-Nicene fathers (Vol. 8)”, Christian
Literature Company, Bauckham, R. (1984), p. 274 apud James Siemens, Joshua Matthan Brown, “Eastern Christian Approaches to
Philosophy”, Springer Nature, 2022, ISBN 3031107624, 9783031107627, p. 116.
of the human nature, will and energy from the divine nature, will and energy, in the one
Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.41 In fact, a similar distinction can also be found in the
works of the Jewish thinker Philo of Alexandria, who referred to God’s energies as Divine
powers distinct from His essence. 42 A better example, can be the term “homoousios”, which
was not scriptural, being previously used by pseudo-gnostic 43 cults,44 and even condemned
by the orthodox synod of Antioch in 268, due to its sabellian or modalist use by Paul of
Samosata.45 Yet, this did not prevent the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325, to use it
in an orthodox manner, emphasizing that the incarnated Son of God would not have been
able to bring humans deification and unlimited life in a free manner, without having Himself
the uncreated nature of His Father, as saint Athanasius of Alexandria 46 and previously saint
Irenaeus47 insisted. A difference in gender also does not mean that there would be a different
essence or nature between the Divine Persons, just like all human persons share the same
nature or essence, whether they are men, women, eunuchs or hermaphrodites. Thus, the
Lord Jesus Christ is consubstantial with the other Divine Persons, as well as with all other
humans, obviously including also those who are not male, bringing the possibility of
deification to all. Nonetheless, it must be underscored, that an eternal gender distinction
manifested in the Holy Trinity, does not imply there would also be an eternal “sexuality”,
which is temporary and only in this fallen world, strictly for the propagation of the human
race.48 In this sense, the Lord said that following their resurrection, men and women will not
be married, but will instead live like God’s Angels in Heaven. 49
Stephen, by the mercy of God, an Orthodox Christian

41
“Palamas attempts to make explicit the distinction between the essence and the energy of God, which he sees as implicit in the
Trinitarian theology of the Cappadocian Fathers and in the Sixth Ecumenical council's definition of Christ's divine and human
energies.”, Norman Russell, “Gregory Palamas and the Making of Palamism in the Modern Age”, Oxford University Press, 2019,
ISBN 0192565486, 9780192565488.
42
“Philo, for instance, makes a distinction (which he hardly invented himself) between knowing God's bare existence (hyparxis),
which is possible for man, and knowing his essence (ousia), which is not, as well as between knowing him in himself and knowing
him from his ‘powers’ (dynameis) or effects, including, inevitably, the Logos.”, John M. Dillon, “The Knowledge of God in Origen”
in Roel B. van den Broek, "Knowledge of god in the Graeco-Roman world", BRILL, 2015, 9004296670, 9789004296671, p. 219.
43
“CLEMENT's declared purpose in compiling the Stromateis was, to describe the true Gnostic, and to guard his pupils from the
misrepresentations of the pseudo-Gnostics, of whom he mentions Valentinus, Basileides, Cassianus, Marcion, Prodicus and
Heracleon.”, Francis Ryan Montgomery Hitchcock, “Clement of Alexandria”, Society for promoting Christian knowledge, 1899, p.
156.
44
“Homoousios first appeared among Christians in Gnostic circles…”, Everett Ferguson et al, p. 541.
45
“The Nicene watchword homoousios (‘of one substance’) was suspect to most Christians in the east both because the word was not
in scripture and because it had been condemned as Sabellian by the council in Antioch that deposed Paul of Samosata in 268. ”,
Ibidem, p. 540.
46
“Christians could experience the Taboric light, which was not merely a metaphor for psychological insight, but an experience of
God himself. Truly, as St Athanasius said, ‘God became man so that man might become God’.”, Constantinos Athanasopoulos,
“Orthodox Mysticism and Asceticism: Philosophy and Theology in St Gregory Palamas’ Work”, Cambridge Scholars Publishing,
2020, ISBN 1527558800, 9781527558809, p. 168.
47
“The idea first occurs in St Irenaeus of Lyons (Adv. haer. V, Pref.): 'Our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through his transcendent love,
become what we are, that he might bring us to be even what he is himself.’ But it is in the succinct formulation by St Athanasius of
Alexandria in On the Incarnation (54:3) as quoted above that the the adage is most well known.”, Paul Ladouceur, “Modern
Orthodox Theology: Behold, I Make All Things New”, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019 ISBN 056766483X, 9780567664839, p. 352.
48
“In other words, genital sexuality is a temporary phase in God's plan for humanity that will be transcended in ‘the end of time,’ in
the ‘eschaton’.”, Milica Bakić-Hayden, “Doubly neglected: Histories of Women Monastics in the Serbian Orthodox Church” in Ina
Merdjanova et al, Fordham University Press, 2021, ISBN 0823298620, 9780823298624.
49
“For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. ”, St. Athanasius
Academy of Orthodox Theology, Matthew 22:30.