ACC ~ Matthew 3 v17

AN ANGELIC VOICE?

APOLLINARIS: Some say that the “voice saying, ‘This is my beloved Son’” was either an angelic voice serving to represent the person of the Father or else some other voice fashioned on the spot. FRAGMENT 9. [1]

[1] MKGK 3.

BY HEARING AND BY SIGHT

HILARY: A voice from heaven thus spoke: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” [1] God’s Son is manifested both by hearing and by sight. Both the witnesses of contemplation and the spoken word are sent from the Lord to an unfaithful people who disregard the prophets. At the same time, we knew from those who were immersed in Christ that after baptism with water the Holy Spirit would descend to us from the heavenly gates. Then we would be filled with the anointing of heavenly glory and become God’s children through the adoption the Father’s voice announced. Truth prefigured the image of the sacrament through these very happenings. ON MATTHEW 2.6. [2]

[1] Mt 3:17; Mk 1:11; Lk 3:22.

[2] SC 254:110.

MY BELOVED SON

CHRYSOSTOM: Jesus freely identified himself with the people. For if he were not one of the people, he would not have come with the people for John’s baptism. Yet this caused some to imagine that John was greater than Jesus. In order that this opinion not be entertained, when Jesus was baptized the Spirit came down, and a voice with the Spirit proclaimed the identity of the Only Begotten. The voice said, “This is my beloved Son.” The voice was not identifying John but Jesus. The voice did not say this one who is baptized, but simply “this.” The Spirit came in the form of a dove, drawing the voice toward Jesus and making it evident to all that “this” was not spoken of John who baptized, but of Jesus who was baptized. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 12.2. [1]

[1] PG 57:204; NPNF 1 10:76**. The Spirit revealed Jesus’ identity directly, making clear the relation of John and Jesus.

THE FATHER’S VOICE, THE SON’S HUMANITY, THE SPIRIT’S DESCENT

AUGUSTINE: Here then we have the Trinity presented in a clear way: the Father in the voice, the Son in the man, the Holy Spirit in the dove. This only needs to be barely mentioned, for it is so obvious for anyone to see. Here the recognition of the Trinity is conveyed to us so plainly that it hardly leaves any room for doubt or hesitation. The Lord Christ himself, who comes in the form of a servant to John, is undoubtedly the Son, for here no one can mistake him for either the Father or the Holy Spirit. It is the Son who comes. And who could have any doubt about the identity of the dove? The Gospel itself most plainly testifies: “The Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove.” So also there can be no doubt whose voice it is who speaks so personally: “You are my beloved Son.” So we have the Trinity distinguished. … Here are the three persons of the Trinity distinguished: When Jesus came to the river, he came from one place to another. The dove descended from heaven to earth, from one place to another. The very voice of the Father sounded neither from the earth nor from the water but from heaven. These three are as it were distinguished in places, in offices and in works. But one may say to me, “Show me instead the inseparability of the triune God. Remember you who are speaking are a Catholic, and to Catholics are you speaking.” For thus does our faith teach, that is, the true, the right Catholic faith, gathered not by the opinion of private judgment but by the witness of the Scriptures, not subject to the fluctuations of heretical rashness but grounded in apostolic truth. This we know, this we believe. This, though we do not see it with our eyes nor as yet with the heart, so long as we are being purified by faith, yet by this faith we most firmly and rightly maintain the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are a Trinity—inseparably one God, not three gods. But yet one God in such a way that the Son is not the Father, and the Father is not the Son, and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son but the Spirit of the Father and of the Son. This ineffable Divinity, abiding ever in itself, making all things new, creating, creating anew, sending, recalling, judging, delivering, this Trinity, I say, we know to be at once indescribable and inseparable. SERMON 2.1-2. [1]

[1] PL 38:355; NPNF 1 6:259**. The Trinity is plainly revealed in the baptismal narrative. The one God, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, all appear explicitly in this narrative, distinguishable, yet one God.