First one must keep
in mind the Apostle’s words, howe he did indeed say somewhere, “There are
so-called gods either in heaven or on earth, just as there are many gods” (1
Cor 8.5). But, look, catechumen, do not be perplexed and run back to idols
because Christians says that there are many gods. For listen to God’s Scripture
saying: “All of the gods of the gentiles are demons” (Ps 95.5). But just
because he does not begrudge his beneficence, God says: “For I said, ‘You are
all gods and sons of the highest’” (Ps 81.6). The Scripture says that if
someone has received God’s logos, he becomes a god (See Jn 10.34-35), but also
“God stood in the gathering of the gods, but in the midst he distinguishes
gods” (Ps 81.1), and if you are gathered as human beings, God is not in the
gathering. If the gathering itself is of gods, gods are being called such
because the logos of God is among them and they do not walk as human beings do;
God is in such a gathering, and there is where “God stood in the gathering of
gods; in the midst he distinguishes gods.” (Psalm 76 Homily 2 in Homilies on
the Psalms: Codex Monacensis Graecus 314 [The Fathers of the Church; trans.
Joseph W. Trigg; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press,
2020], 260)