Page 136 - Prayer Book

136
Prayer B o ok
in a divine manner, stripping away all the elements of hu-
man ontological limitations.
The Cappadocian Fathers assigned an ontological and
divine character to the human existential/psychological
definition of the “person.” They achieved this by identify-
ing the “person” with the “hypostasis,” though these terms
may seem somewhat incomprehensible.
Let us first examine what “hypostasis” means. “Hy-
postasis” is roughly what we would today call an “indi-
vidual.” It is the concrete being, which exists in itself as an
individual realization of the common nature shared by
many similar beings. The hypostasis is what differentiates
a particular being from others of the same nature. The “hy-
postasis” makes the shared nature manifest in a specific
being in a unique way. For this reason, the hypostasis is
understood as the particular in contrast to the common, to
the shared nature.
Thus, the Holy Fathers stated that in the being of God,
the common divine nature exists, realized in three distinct,
different Hypostases!
However, to express the being of God as revealed in
Holy Scripture and in the experience of the saints, the term
“hypostasis” alone was insufficient. Something was miss-
ing: the element of Freedom and Love, which is revealed
in the divine Hypostases in Holy Scripture and in the ex-
perience of the saints: “God is love” (1 John 4:8)! By the
illumination of God, they identified the concept of “hy-
postasis” with that of “person”!
How is this to be understood?
As we saw earlier with the example of the mother
mourning her deceased child, the “person” is a relational