The Light Shines in Darkness

St. Macarius ca. 4th cent.
 
Question: Whether Satan is with God both in the air as well as in humans?
 
Answer: If this sun, which is a creature, still shines upon murky places and yet is not tainted in any way, how much more the Godhead? If God is with Satan, He is not tainted or sullied by that fact. God, however, has permitted evil in order to develop man. But evil is shadowy and blind can cannot see the purity and simplicity of God. If, indeed, anyone should say that Satan has has his own proper place and God also has His, he is circumscribing God, placing Him outside of the place occupied by the Evil One. How, then, can we say that the good is not limited certain places and is not comprehensible and that all things are in it and yet how is the good not infected by the evil? Is it not the same parallel that, because the heavens and the sun and the mountains are in God Himself and have their whole being through Him, then are they God? All created things whatsoever have their own level of being, and the Creator, who is present to them, is God. (The Fifty Spiritual Homilies, Homily 7.2)
 
The sun, being a material, created thing, shines down also upon swampy places full of mud and slime and yet is not affected or defiled. How much more the pure and Holy Spirit that is joined to the soul which still is afflicted by evil, without himself being tainted by evil. For: “the light shines in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not” Jn. 1:5. (ibid., Homily 16.3)
 
God is without limits and is incomprehensible. He appears everywhere, both in the mountains and the sea and below in the abyss. Yet he is not present by a movement, such as angels enjoy in their descent from Heaven to earth. God is in Heaven and He is also here. But you rightly object to my statement: “How can God be in hell or in what way is He in the darkness or in Satan or in filthy places?” I answer you that He Himself cannot undergo any change and He contains all things since He is infinite. But Satan, who is His creature, is bound. What is good is not tainted nor plunged into darkness. But if you deny that he contains all things, including hell and Satan, you make him finite as far as that place where the wicked one dwells, so that as a result we should look for another, superior to Him.
It is necessary that God be always superior. Because of the mystery of the Godhead and His simplicity, the darkness, though having its being in Him, does not comprehend Him. Nor can the evil participate in the purity that is in God. Therefore, for God no evil exists as a seperated substance, since He is in no way affected by it. (ibid., Homily 16.5)