ACC ~ Acts 13 v3

ORDAINED THROUGH THE GRACE OF THE SPIRIT. CHRYSOSTOM: “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” What does “worshiping” mean? It means preaching. “Set apart Barnabas and Saul.” What does “set apart for me” mean? It means for the work, for the apostleship. Remember who ordained him? Lucius the Cyrenean and Manaen, or rather, one should say, the Spirit. For the more lowly the personages involved, the more palpable the grace of God. Paul is ordained henceforth to apostleship, to preach with authority. How is it then that he himself says, “Not from men nor by men”? Because it was not humankind that called him or brought him over. This is what “or by men” means. For this reason he says that he was not sent by this man but by the Spirit. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 27.

THE THREE PERSONS PERFORMING ONE ACTION. PSEUDO-BASIL: The Lord, upon appearing to Paul from heaven, said, “Go to Damascus, and you shall be told that you are my chosen vessel,”because [the Lord] had established him as the herald of the gospel to all the world. Then Ananias said to him, when he arrived in Damascus, “Brother Saul, see once more: the God of the fathers has preordained you.” And lest you think this word [i.e., God] refers to Christ, he adds, “to do his will and to know his just one Jesus.” [Paul], making this calling and preordaining a title, says, “Paul a slave of Jesus Christ, called apostle.” Then he says something else regarding this calling, “Set aside for the gospel of God.”The Acts of the Apostles taught that the Spirit directed the setting aside, for it says, “While the apostles were fasting and praying, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set aside for me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them.’” If the Lord, the God of the fathers, chose him whom he had preordained, while the Son called him forth, and the Spirit, using the operation of [the divine] nature, set the same one aside, how is there a difference of nature in the Trinity in which an identity of operation is found? AGAINST EUNOMIUS 5.

Acts