Chapter Eight
Answer to an objection based on the saying: "Who is my brother and sister ?" and the words which Christ added, as He pointed to His disciples, "Behold my brethren and my mother" (Matt. xii. 48-49).
[These words were a reproof to those Jews who regarded Christ as merely a man, and not the Only Begotten.1 So He asks, "Who is my brother, if I am the Only Begotten ? Who is my mother, if I created all things? What man, acknowledging mother and brethren, ever did the miracles I have done ? As no such man ever has done or will do them, why call me a mere man with brethren? The man born blind saw the Godhead with the eyes of his soul, but you are blind to the brightness of such power in your midst. So I say to you as to blind men, 'He that doeth the will of my Father (with which mine is identical) is my mother and brother,' for in so doing he both brings me forth as a mother does, having conceived me in doing the Father's will, and he also is brought forth along with me, not by coming into personal subsistence,2 but by being made one in grace of will. For he that doeth the will of my Father bringeth me forth in the fellowship of the deed, and is brought forth with me. For he that believes that I am the Only Begotten of God in some sense begets me, not in subsistence but in faith, being mystically present with that which is begotten."
Note that Christ does not specify any of His Apostles by name,but simply says, "He that doeth the will of the Father."]
Footnotes:
1Μονογενής, the alternative title of Macarius' book, appears here for the first time, and is used three times in the chapter. See Introd. p. xxiv.
2οὐκ ἐν ὑποστάσει οὐσίας γενόμενος. In the light of other passages in Macarius, there is a special interest in his use of these words. See Introd., p. xviii.