Pyrrhus: What dost thou say of Honorius, who clearly taught one will of Our Lord Jesus Christ in his letter to my predecessor?
Maximus:
Who is a more trustworthy interpreter of such an epistle? The one that
actually wrote it for Honorius, the one who at the time was still alive,
and who, in addition to all his other virtues, illumined the whole West
with godly dogmas? Or is it those in Constantinople who interpret it in
accordance with the whim of their own hearts?
Pyrrhus: The one who actually composed the letter.
Maximus:
This same person afterwards wrote for Pope John (who is among the
saints) to Constantine, just after he had become Emperor regarding the
very same letter of Honorius. He explained that:
"We
say one will of the Lord, not of the Godhead and humanity, but only of
the humanity. For Sergius hath written: 'As some say that the two wills
of Christ are opposed, we in response write that Christ did not have two
opposing wills, as of flesh and of spirit, as we ourselves have since
the Fall, but one only, that which characterized His humanity by virtue
of nature.'"
And
the clear proof of this is the fact that he writeth of limbs and flesh
[i.e. the Letter quoted Rom 7:23], which means that we cannot apply what
he saith unto the Godhead. Straight away, in anticipation of
objections, he saith:
"And
if someone saith 'Why, when speaking of the humanity of Christ, did you
not refer to the Godhead as well?' we reply, for the first part, that
our answer was made to a specific question; and for the second part,
that there, as ever, we have followed the practice of Scripture. For
sometimes it speaketh concerning His Godhead only, as when the apostle
saith 'Christ the power of God and wisdom of God', and sometimes
concerning only His humanity, as when the apostle saith 'the foolishness
of God is stronger than men', and what is weak in God is stronger than
men."
Pyrrhus: My predecessor, misled by the pope's manner of writing, understood it in a somewhat naive fashion.
(The Disputation with Pyrrhus of Our Father Among the Saints Maximus the Confessor, Joseph P. Farrell, p.49-50)
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