In the name of the ✠ Father, and of the ✠ Son, and of the ✠ Holy Spirit. Amen.
Friends, today we commemorate the 318 God-bearing Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, who gathered in the year 325 to defend the apostolic faith against the heresy of Arius. As we approach the end of our Paschal celebration, the Church calls us to remember those courageous bishops who preserved for us the true teaching about Christ’s divinity, ensuring that the light of orthodox faith would shine through the centuries.
Today’s epistle from Acts shows us Saint Paul’s farewell to the elders of Ephesus. He warns them: “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.”
As Saint John Chrysostom observed about this passage: “Notice how Paul does not say ‘the church which you have purchased,’ but ‘which God has purchased with His own blood.’ This shows us that Christ, who shed His blood for the Church, is truly God.” The Golden-mouthed Father understood that Paul’s warning about false teachers would become reality when those who denied Christ’s true divinity arose to threaten the flock.
The Gospel presents Christ’s High Priestly Prayer from John chapter 17, where our Lord prays to the Father: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent… Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.”
These readings perfectly complement our commemoration of the Nicaean Fathers. Saint Paul’s warning about “savage wolves” was fulfilled when Arius arose, denying that Christ was truly God. And Christ’s prayer for unity among His followers was answered when the bishops gathered at Nicaea to proclaim with one voice: “We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of one essence with the Father.”
Allow me to share with you a story that illustrates the spirit of these holy Fathers.
In the early months of 325, as bishops began travelling to Nicaea, an elderly bishop named Hosius made his way from a small mountain village in Asia Minor. His name was not recorded in the great histories, but his story represents countless faithful shepherds who answered the call to defend the faith.
Bishop Hosius had spent forty years serving his people in a remote parish where wolves, the actual ones, still threatened the sheep, and where most of his flock were simple farmers and shepherds. When the summons came from Emperor Constantine to attend a great council, Hosius was already past seventy, his body bent with age and his eyes dimmed by years of copying manuscripts by candlelight.
His deacon, a young man named Timothy, begged him not to make the journey. “Father,” he said, “you have never even seen the great cities. You do not speak the language of the learned theologians. What can you contribute to such an assembly?”
The old bishop smiled and replied, “My son, I may not know the sophisticated arguments of the scholars, but I know my Lord Jesus Christ. I have baptised children in His name, celebrated His mysteries at this altar for four decades, and comforted the dying with the promise of His resurrection. If someone claims He is not truly God, then everything I have lived for is a lie.”
Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, the great champion of orthodoxy, would later write about this very point: “The Word became man that we might become God.” This profound truth that Christ must be fully divine for our salvation to be real was what humble bishops like Hosius intuited in their pastoral hearts, even without sophisticated theological training.
When Hosius arrived at Nicaea, he was indeed overwhelmed by the grandeur 318 bishops from across the empire, many bearing the scars of recent persecution, speaking in tongues he did not understand. But when Arius rose to speak, claiming that Christ was merely the first and greatest of God’s creatures, something stirred in the old bishop’s heart.
As Arius spoke eloquently about the Son being “subordinate” to the Father and “different in essence,” Hosius remembered the faces of all the martyrs he had known, men and women who had died rather than deny Christ’s divinity. He thought of little Anna, who had refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods even under torture, crying out “Jesus is my God!” He remembered old Stephanos, who had gone to his death singing “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death.”
Here the wisdom of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus becomes clear: “That which is not assumed is not healed.” If Christ had not assumed full human nature as true God, then human nature could not be truly redeemed. The martyrs Hosius remembered had died for this truth, though they expressed it in simpler terms than the theologians.
When the time came to vote, this simple mountain bishop stood with Saint Hosius of Córdoba, Saint Nicholas of Myra, and the other great theologians. He may not have understood every philosophical argument, but he knew that the Christ who had transformed his life, who was present in the Eucharist, who raised the dead and forgave sins, could be nothing less than true God.
The Council of Nicaea was not merely an academic debate. As Saint Basil the Great would later teach: “The Father and the Son are one in essence but distinct in persons. This mystery surpasses our understanding but not our faith.” The Fathers gathered at Nicaea wrestled with the very foundation of our salvation.
Arius had presented his heresy with compelling logic. He argued that if the Father begot the Son, then there must have been a time when the Son did not exist. He claimed that calling Christ “God” was merely honorary, like calling a judge “your honour.” This seemed reasonable to some, but the orthodox bishops recognised the deadly poison within such teaching.
Saint John Chrysostom explained why the question mattered so profoundly: “If Christ is not God by nature, then we are still in our sins, for no mere creature can forgive sins or grant eternal life.” The Fathers understood that their decision would determine whether Christianity remained the religion of God’s incarnation or became merely another philosophical school.
Old Bishop Hosius, listening to these debates, thought of the countless times he had absolved penitents in Christ’s name. Could a mere creature, however exalted, truly forgive sins? When he placed the Eucharistic bread on communicants’ tongues, saying “The Body of Christ,” was he offering them the flesh of God or merely of a supremely holy man?
The answer came to him with crystalline clarity. Everything he had experienced in forty years of priesthood testified that Christ was nothing less than God incarnate. The power to transform water into wine, to raise the dead, to forgive sins, to rise from the tomb, these belonged to God alone.
In today’s Gospel, Christ prays “that they may be one as We are.” The unity He desires is not mere organisational uniformity, but unity in truth the truth that the Fathers of Nicaea preserved for us.
Saint Cyril of Alexandria taught: “We are made one not merely by agreement in teaching, but by participation in the one Holy Spirit.” This unity in the Spirit enabled 318 bishops from different cultures and languages to speak with one voice against Arianism, despite their diverse backgrounds and varying levels of education.
When the crucial vote came at Nicaea, bishops like our fictional Hosius stood alongside the great theologians, united not by intellectual prowess but by their common experience of Christ’s divinity. The shepherd from the mountains and the scholar from Alexandria both knew the same Lord, the same Saviour, the same God.
The holy Fathers demonstrated that true unity comes not from compromising the truth, but from standing together in defence of it. They could have avoided controversy by accepting Arius’s “moderate” position, but they knew that any diminishment of Christ’s divinity would ultimately destroy the faith.
My dear brothers and sisters, why do we commemorate these ancient bishops today? Because the truth they defended is not merely an abstract theological formula—it is the foundation of our salvation.
When we celebrate the Divine Liturgy and the priest proclaims, “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal,” we confess with the Nicaean Fathers that Christ is truly God. Saint Athanasius reminds us that this confession shapes everything: “The Word became man that we might become God” not by nature, but by grace through participation in the divine life.
When we baptise in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we affirm the Trinity they defended. When we prostrate ourselves before the cross, we worship not a mere man, but God incarnate.
Like Saint Paul warning the Ephesian elders, the Fathers knew that “savage wolves” would continue to threaten the flock. In every age, new heresies arise that diminish Christ’s divinity or deny the Trinity. Today we face secularism that dismisses Christ altogether, relativism that claims all religions are equally true, and materialism that denies the spiritual realm entirely.
But we also face more subtle threats, the temptation to treat our faith as merely cultural tradition rather than divine truth, or to reduce Christianity to social activism whilst forgetting its supernatural foundation. Saint Gregory of Nazianzus’s insight remains relevant: “That which is not assumed is not healed.” If we reduce Christ to merely a moral teacher or social reformer, we lose the very power that can heal our fallen nature.
As we approach the feast of the Ascension and Pentecost, let us remember that we too are called to be “God-bearing” like these holy Fathers. We may not face councils or compose creeds, but we are called to bear witness to the same truth they defended.
In our families, let us teach our children that Jesus Christ is not merely a good teacher or moral example, but true God who became man for our salvation. When young people question why Christianity differs from other religions, we can answer with Saint John Chrysostom’s wisdom: only God incarnate can truly forgive sins and grant eternal life.
In our workplaces and schools, let us live in such a way that others see in us the transforming power of the divine life. Our conduct should reflect the truth that we have been touched by God Himself, not merely inspired by a great human teacher.
When we face opposition for our faith whether subtle pressure to conform or open persecution let us remember the courage of the Nicaean Fathers. Like old Bishop Hosius in our story, we may feel inadequate to defend the faith against sophisticated arguments, but we know our Lord Jesus Christ. We have experienced His presence in prayer, received Him in the Eucharist, and witnessed His power to transform lives.
The Kontakion of today proclaims: “The preaching of the Apostles and the decrees of the Fathers have established one faith for the Church. Adorned with the robe of truth, woven from heavenly theology, she rightly divides and glorifies the great mystery of godliness.”
This “great mystery of godliness” is that God became man so that man might become God not by nature, as the heretics claimed, but by grace through participation in the divine life. This is the gift the Fathers preserved, the treasure they handed down to us.
As we sing “Christ is risen!” in these final days of Pascha, let us remember that this proclamation has meaning only because He who died and rose is truly God. As Saint Athanasius declared, the resurrection is not merely the revival of a good man, but the victory of God incarnate over death itself.
Through the prayers of the holy and God-bearing Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, keep us steadfast in the faith they defended, that we may confess You as true God and true man, and attain to the eternal life which You promised to those who believe Amen.
In the name of the ✠ Father, and of the ✠ Son, and of the ✠ Holy Spirit. Amen.
Copyright © 2025 The Rev. Adrian Augustus. The Russian Orthodox Church of the Archangel Michael, Blacktown, NSW
