Spiritual Homilies 1 part 10/36

Yet still the greater parts of the soul are held by wickedness, and the soul is deceived by stealth and supposes that it has become wholly, throughout, of the good part and of grace.

Has the embryo in the womb already become a man? Or has the one who lays a single stone of the foundation already completed the building? Or has the seed that has been buried — or rather the shoot that has sprung up from it — already become an ear of grain? Does the merchant who sails, as soon as he begins to trade, already fill his cargo hold? And does the one who partakes of grace, for this reason, become a perfect Christian? Even the first and the great ones stand thus in relation to perfection as an official stands to a governor, or as a bodyguard stands to a count or a general, or as a little stream stands to the river Euphrates.

The one who has the intention of going to a city that is far off, thirty stations away, if he travels two or three stations, let him not suppose that he has entered the city.

Since, then, the opposing power is exhortative, not compulsory, so also divine grace is exhortative, on account of the free will and the mutable character of nature.

So then, if a person does evil, being incited by Satan, Satan is not judged in his place, but the person himself is punished and chastised, having become obedient to wickedness by his own will.

Likewise also, if a person inclines toward the good and the grace of God comes to be with him, grace does not credit the good to itself, but attributes it to the person and glorifies him, since the person became for himself the cause of the good.

For he is of a mutable nature, and it is not as though grace, coming to him, binds his will by compulsory power.

And so it does not make him, willing or unwilling, immutably good; rather, even though the divine power is present with him, it yields to his free will, so that the will of the person may be demonstrated — whether he honors grace or does not honor it, whether he agrees with it or does not agree.

For many have honored it and agreed with it, while others have turned away.

Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected in the flesh? For no law is laid upon the nature of men, which by its free choice is able to turn toward the good and toward evil.

I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what do I desire if it is already kindled?

The Lord desires that his heavenly fire be kindled in the hearts of men; and some are willing, but others are not willing, as he says.

How often I desired to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her own chicks, and you were not willing!

You see that the Lord is willing, but the men themselves are not willing to draw near to the Lord.

But to God be the glory forever.

Ezekiel, the blessed prophet, having beheld a divinely-inspired and glorious vision and sight, narrated it and wrote down a vision full of ineffable mysteries.

For he saw in the plain a chariot of the Cherubim, four living creatures, and each one of the living creatures had four faces—the one face of a lion, and the one face of an eagle, and the one face of a calf, and the one face of a man—looking toward the four directions, and wings belonging to each face, so that they had nothing behind or to the rear.

And their backs were full of eyes, and their bellies likewise were filled with eyes, and there was no place at all that was not full of eyes.

And there was a wheel by each face, a wheel within a wheel, and in the wheels was spirit.

And he saw as it were the likeness of a throne, and upon it one seated, as it were the likeness of a man, and what was beneath his feet was a work of sapphire.

And the chariot of the Cherubim, and the living creatures, bore the Master who was mounted upon it;

wherever he wished to go, straight ahead in the direction of one of the faces they went—both the rest of them and the wheels.

And he saw beneath the Cherubim, as it were, a man's hand supporting and carrying them.

And this which the prophet saw in a real vision was true and certain.

It truly existed before the ages and from generation to generation, yet it was made manifest only in the last times, at the appearing of Christ.

For what he beheld was a mystery of the soul that was about to receive its own Lord, and to become for him a throne of glory and a light.

For the soul that has been deemed worthy to have communion with the Spirit of his light, and has been illumined by the beauty of his ineffable glory—since he has prepared it for himself as a seat and dwelling place—becomes wholly light, and wholly face, and wholly eye;

no part of it is not full of the spiritual eyes of the light (that is, no part is darkened), but the whole of it, through and through, is wrought into light and spirit, wholly full of eyes and wholly become face, having no hindmost or rear part, but being altogether according to the face, since the ineffable beauty of the glory of the light of the Lord has mounted and taken its seat upon it.

And just as the sun is entirely alike throughout, having no part that is deficient, or lesser, or hindmost, or last, but is wholly and entirely glorified with light, and is wholly light, and is wholly of one uniform substance;

or as fire—for the very light of the fire is wholly like unto itself, and has in itself no first and last, or greater and lesser—so the holy soul that has been illumined and perfectly enlightened by the ineffable beauty of the glory of the light of the Lord's countenance, and has perfectly had communion with the Holy Spirit, and has been deemed worthy to become a dwelling place and throne of Christ, becomes wholly eye, and wholly light, and wholly face, and wholly glory, and wholly Holy Spirit—whom it bears and carries and wears—he thus fashioning it.

Or rather, he who bears and leads and carries it is the one who thus prepares and adorns it with spiritual beauty.

For indeed, it says, a man's hand was beneath the Cherubim, because this one who is borne within it and guides it is himself the one who bears and lifts and supports it.

Now the four living creatures that bore their chariot bore a type of the ruling faculties of the soul.

For just as the eagle rules over the rest of the birds, and the lion over the wild beasts, and the ox over the tame animals, and man over all creatures, so also there are more kingly faculties of the soul—I mean, the will, the conscience, the mind, and its power of love;

for through these the chariot of the soul is governed, and upon these God rests.

And in another respect—I mean, in the heavenly Church of the saints—the mystery of the Cherubim is also applied, in that he himself is her charioteer, and she herself is his spiritual throne and seat and resting place.

For just as it says there that the living creatures, full of eyes, were exceedingly high, and no one could grasp their number or know their height, because this was not given to anyone else to know, so likewise it is impossible to grasp the number of the heavenly Church of the saints.

For this knowledge was not given to anyone;

for it is fitting that he alone should know it.

And just as, with the stars of light in heaven, to behold them and delight in them was given to those who see and have eyes, but to know or grasp their number is not given; or as, with the plants of the earth, to enjoy them was given to all,

but to know their number is possible to no one—in the same way, concerning the heavenly Church of the saints, to enter into her and to enjoy her was given to all who wish to strive, but to know or grasp her number God has reserved for himself alone to know.

He, therefore, who is mounted upon it is led and borne by the chariot and throne of the all-eyed living creatures—that is, either upon each soul, which becomes his throne and seat, and which is eyes and light; or by the whole body of the Church of the saints, which is light and eye—the Lord himself mounting it and guiding it with the reins of his Spirit, according as he who guides her himself knows.

they went wherever they wished to go, but rather wherever the one seated upon them and directing them knew and willed; so also here, the same one drives and leads, guiding by his Spirit, and thus they proceed, not according to their own will.

When he wills, though the body is here cast down, he drives and directs the mind of the soul up into heaven.

Again, when he wills, it comes back into the body; and when he wills, at the far bounds he shows it revelations of mysteries.

O the good and kind and only true charioteer!

And thus even the bodies will be deemed worthy of splendor at the resurrection, since the soul is now thus glorified beforehand and commingled with the Spirit.

And that the souls of the saints become heavenly light, the Lord himself said to the apostles:

'You are the light of the world.'

For having made them light, he commanded that through them the world should be enlightened.

'And they do not light a lamp,' he says, 'and put it under the measuring basket, but upon the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.'

'So let your light shine before men'—that is to say:

'Do not hide the gift which you received from me, but give it to all who wish and desire it.' And again he says:

'The lamp of the body is the eye.'

'If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body is full of light.'

'If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?' For just as the eyes of the body are its light, and when the eyes of the body happen to be sound, the whole body is illumined;

but when something befalls them and they are darkened, your whole body is dark—so also the apostles were appointed as the eyes and light of the whole body, that is, of the world.

The Lord, therefore, said to them, giving this charge:

'If you stand firm and do not turn aside, being the light of the body, behold, the whole body of the world is illumined.'

'But if you, being light, are darkened by turning away from the good, how great is that darkness'—namely, the world... Having therefore become light, the apostles ministered light to those who believed, their hearts having first been illumined by the heavenly light with which they themselves also happened to be illumined.

And being themselves salt, they seasoned and salted every believing soul with the salt of the Holy Spirit.

For the Lord said to them:

'You are the salt of the earth'—calling the souls of men 'earth'.

For they ministered to the souls of men the heavenly salt of the Spirit, seasoning them and rendering them incorruptible and unharmed, free from much foul stench.

For just as meat, if it has no salt, rots and becomes filled with much foul odor, so that all turn away their faces from the vileness of the smell, and worms creep into the rotten meat and there they feed and eat and there they make their lair;

but when the salt comes, the worms that were feeding there are exposed and destroyed, and the stench of the foul odor ceases—for the nature of salt is destructive of worms and does away with foul odor. In the same way also, every soul that has not been salted with the Holy Spirit and does not partake of the spiritual salt (that is, the power of God) has rotted and been filled with the great stench of wicked thoughts, so that the face of God turns away from the terrible stench of vain thoughts—the darkness of the passions dwelling within such a soul.

And the evil, terrible, invisible worms, which are the spirits of wickedness and the powers of darkness, walk about within it, and there feed in the depths of its thoughts, and creep about within it making their lair, and devour it and destroy it and corrupt it.

'For my wounds,' he says, 'stink and are corrupted.'

He purifies it by the working of his power, destroying and doing away with the evil passions within it, and delivering it from the darkness of wicked reasonings; and thus, having been made sound and unharmed by the true salt, it becomes fit for use and service to the heavenly Master.

For this reason also, in the Law, making use of a pattern and a shadow, God commanded that every sacrifice be salted with salt.

The sheep, therefore, had first to come and be sacrificed by the priest and die, and then, having been cut into pieces, to be salted, and only then to be placed upon the fire.

If the priest does not first sacrifice and put the sheep to death, it is not salted, nor does it become a whole burnt offering to the Master.

So also our soul, coming to the heavenly Priest, must be sacrificed by him, and must, in its disposition, die to the most wicked life by which it lived (that is, to sin), and the wickedness of the passions must, as it were, go out of it as its own soul.

For just as the body, when the soul departs, has died and no longer lives the former life by which it lived, and neither hears nor walks, so also, when Christ, the true high priest, by the grace of his power, sacrifices and puts to death our soul with respect to the world, it dies to the wicked life by which it lived, and no longer hears, nor speaks, nor conducts itself in the darkness of sin;

because through grace, the wickedness of the passions goes out from it, as it were its own soul and life.

As the apostle also cries out, saying:

'The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.'

For the soul that still lives in the world and in the darkness of sin, and has not been put to death by him, but still has within itself the soul of wickedness (that is, the working of the darkness of the wicked passions), and is shepherded by it and obeys it, does not belong to the body of Christ, does not belong to the body of light, but is a body of darkness, and still belongs to the portion of darkness.

Just as, on the other hand, those who have the soul of light (that is, the power of the Holy Spirit) belong to the portion of light.

'How can you call the soul a body of darkness, when it is not his creature?' Here listen attentively, rightly, and with careful discernment.

Just as a garment or cloak which you wear was made and fashioned by someone else, and you have put it on;

and likewise a house which another has built and constructed, and you dwell in it—in the same way also Adam, having transgressed the commandment, having listened to the evil one and disobeyed God, was sold and sold himself to the devil, and the evil one put on the soul, that good creature which God had fashioned according to his own image, as the apostle also says:

'Having stripped off the principalities and the powers, he triumphed over them on the cross.'

For this is also why the Lord's coming took place: that he might strip them naked and recover his own house and temple, namely, man.

For this reason, then, the soul is called a body of the darkness of wickedness for as long as the darkness of sin remains in it, because it lives there in the wicked age of darkness and is held fast there, as Paul also, calling it a body of sin and a body of death, says:

'that the body of sin might be done away with'; and again:

Who will deliver me from the body of this death? Likewise, too, the soul that has believed in God, having been delivered from sin and having died to the life of darkness, and having received the light of the Holy Spirit as though it were her soul, and having lived by it — such a soul henceforth lives there and abides there, because there she is held fast by the light of the Godhead.

For the soul is neither of the nature of the Godhead nor of the nature of the darkness of evil, but is a certain intelligent creature, beautiful and wonderful and great and good, the likeness and image of God; and through the transgression the wickedness of the passions of darkness entered into it.

Furthermore — whether the soul has been commingled and united with those wills:

For the soul that wishes to live with God, and in enjoyment and rest and eternal light, must, as has been said before, come to the true High Priest, Christ, and be sacrificed and die to the world and to the former life of the darkness of wickedness, and be transferred into another life and divine manner of living.

And just as, if someone dies in a city, he no longer hears the voice of those there, nor speech, nor sound, but has died once for all and is transferred to another place where there are no voices and cries of that city, so also the soul, when it has been sacrificed and has died, no longer hears — in that city of the wickedness of the passions (of sin, of the evil powers) in which it once dwelt and lived — the voice and speech and outcry of the evil reasonings of darkness.

No longer is there heard in her the voice of vain and evil reasoning, and the disturbance of the spirits of darkness, but she is transferred into a city full of goodness and peace, into the city of the light of the Godhead; and there she lives and has her citizenship, and there she hears and speaks and reasons and performs works of spiritual virtue, worthy of God.

Let us, then, also entreat to be sacrificed by his power, and to die to the age of the wickedness of darkness, and to have the spirit of sin destroyed within us, and to put on and receive a soul of the heavenly Spirit, and to be transferred from the wickedness of darkness into the light of Christ, and to rest in the life of the whole age.

For just as in a racecourse the chariots run, and the one that gets ahead hinders and holds back and prevents the other from advancing and getting ahead, so also the reasonings of the soul and of sin run within a man.

If, then, the reasoning of sin happens to get ahead, it hinders and holds back and checks and prevents the soul from drawing near to God and from bearing off the victory over it.

But where the Lord himself mounts and drives the soul as a charioteer, he always conquers, skilfully driving and guiding the chariot of the soul, continually, into the heavenly and God-inspired mind.

For he does not even fight against wickedness, but being the sovereign master and one who holds authority, the victory is always his.

Thus the Cherubim are led not where they themselves wish to go, but where the one who has mounted and drives them guides them; and where he wills, there they go — he who also bears them up.

"For," it says, "a hand of a man was beneath them."

The holy souls, then, are led and guided by the driving Spirit of Christ, wherever he wills.

And when he wills, into heaven; and when he wills, to the ends of the earth; when he wills, in the body — and wherever he wills, there they minister to him.

For just as the wings are the feet of a bird, so the heavenly Spirit of light, taking up the wings of the reasonings of worthy souls, guides and drives them as he wills and as he himself knows.

You, then, who hear this — when you have heard these things, look within yourself, whether you possess them in deed and in truth, in your soul.

For these words are not simply idle, merely spoken, but are accomplished in a Christian soul in operative power and full assurance and truth.

And if you do not possess them, but are poor in such spiritual goods, you ought to have unceasing grief and pain and affliction and mourning, since you are still dead to the land of the living; and like a wounded man, cry out continually to the Lord, and ask faithfully, that you too may be counted worthy of this true life.

For just as God, having made this body, did not give it to have its life from his own nature nor from his own substance — its food and drink and clothing and footwear — but gave it to have the whole provision of its life from without, having made the body itself, in itself, naked; and it is impossible for the body to live apart from the things that are outside it (that is, apart from food and drink and clothing), and by every necessity it needs and requires the things outside it, so that it may be able to live and subsist —

if it stood on its own nature alone, receiving nothing from what is outside it, it would be corrupted and perish. In the same way also the soul, not being of the nature of the divine light, but created by God according to his own image —

so he ordained and was well pleased that it should have eternal life not from its own nature, but from his own Godhead, from his own Spirit, from his own light — spiritual nourishment and food and drink, and heavenly garments; for this is the true life of the soul.

Just as for the body, as has been said before, its life is not from itself but from outside it (that is, from the earth), and it is impossible for it to live apart from the things outside it, so also for the soul: unless it be born from this present life into that land of the living, and thence be nourished spiritually and grow in the Lord, advancing, and be clothed from the Godhead with the garment of ineffable and heavenly beauty — not being of that nature itself — it is impossible for it to live, apart from that nourishment, in rest and incorruptible enjoyment.

For the divine nature has the bread of life, who said:

"I am the bread of life" — and living water, and wine that truly gladdens the heart of man, and oil of gladness, and a most abundant and richly varied heavenly and spiritual food, and heavenly garments of light, which come from the Spirit of God.

In these things is the eternal life of the soul.

Woe to the body whenever it stands upon its own nature alone, for it is corrupted and dies.

And woe also to the soul, whenever it stands upon its own nature alone and trusts only in its own works, not having communion with the divine Spirit; for it dies, not being counted worthy of the eternal life of the Godhead.

For just as, in the case of the sick, when the body is no longer able to take food or drink, the man is despaired of, and all his true friends, relatives, and beloved ones weep over him — so God and the holy angels weep over souls that are not nourished with the heavenly food of his Spirit and are not living in incorruption.

These are not simply words spoken, but a spiritual work of life, a work of truth, coming to pass in the worthy and believing soul.

If, then, you have become a throne of God, and the heavenly Charioteer has mounted upon you, and your soul has become wholly a spiritual eye and wholly light; and if you have been nourished from that food of the Spirit, and if you have been given to drink from the living water and the God-inspired and spiritual wine that gladdens the heart; and if you have been clothed in your soul with the garments of the ineffable light; if your inner man stands in the experience and full assurance of all these things — behold, you are living, from now on, the truly eternal life, your soul resting with the Lord.

But if you have not acquired and received these things from God in truth, so as to live a true life, weep and grieve and lament, because you have not yet obtained the eternal and spiritual riches, and have not yet received such a life.

But have constant pain over your poverty, beseeching the Lord, because you still stand in the dire poverty of sin.

Would that one might at least have pain over one's own poverty, and not go about, as though satisfied, in carelessness.

For he who has such pain, and seeks and asks the Lord unceasingly, will quickly obtain redemption and the heavenly riches, just as the Lord also said, recounting the parable of the unjust judge and the widow:

"How much more will God execute justice for those who cry out to him day and night?"

"Yes, I say to you, he will execute justice for them speedily."

Concerning the Spiritual Pearl

...speaking of the kingdom of heaven, and relating concerning that precious, glorious, divine, and uniquely priceless pearl, and teaching how one is to obtain it, making use of a parable drawn from visible things, he answered thus:

"The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, who, having found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought that pearl" — so that, bringing it to the king, he might altogether please him and be counted worthy of honor from him.

For it is by precious stones that a royal crown is woven together.

So, then, the soul too ought to acquire and find the heavenly and priceless pearl, the Spirit of Christ, that great and good merchandise, so that it may be woven into the crown of glory of Christ, the heavenly King.

But without this divine pearl, which is the Holy Spirit, no soul can please Christ the King, nor become part of the royal crown.

How, then, one is to acquire and find this pearl, one may learn from visible merchants, those who conduct trade in precious pearls.

For these, having sold off all their substance, and having removed themselves far from their native land, and having passed through desert places infested with robbers, arrive at the places where pearls are formed.

For there lie exposed the more precious and glorious of the stones, with their prices marked and inscribed beneath.

And each of the traders looks at the stones set before him, and also considers how he is to present them to the king.

But if it exceeds his wealth, he is not only grieved and mourns over his fruitless labor, but he is also no longer able to see the king.

In the same way Christ our Lord also prefigured and inscribed beforehand the price of that fine and great pearl, apart from which no one can please the heavenly King.

And that price is renunciation of the world, and death, and the cross.

For he himself became the type and originator of the way that leads to life, giving his own body over to death for our sake, and conquering the tyranny of the devil, and redeeming us with his own blood.

And thus he teaches all who follow him and are made his disciples and wish to acquire the heavenly pearl (which is the kingdom of heaven) to deny themselves and no longer live for themselves, according to the apostle:

"That those who live," he says, "should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for their sake, Christ."

"Let him deny himself and follow me."

"Unless one," he says, "hates father, mother, brothers, and so forth, and even his own soul, he cannot be my disciple."

Through death, then, this pearl of life, Christ, is purchased; and thus, unless one prepares oneself and denies oneself, giving one's soul over to death, one cannot acquire this pearl; and without it one cannot see the heavenly Father.

For he himself is the crown of glory that has been woven, he himself is Christ, bound together with precious stones, become the glorious crown of the church of the saints.

And let every soul that desires to depart into life seek and acquire this pearl, the Lord, who has become all in all — food, drink, clothing, treasure, rest, inexpressible joy, true life — giving itself even unto death.

He, then, who has found this one, has found riches for all ages, ever-flowing enjoyment, unsleeping light, glory unclouded by darkness.

For he works all these things variously in that man, transforming himself together with his needs.

Let the soul, then, having heard the word of God, and delighting together with God, rouse itself and awaken to the love of the longed-for Lord, and kindle the love of the Bridegroom.

Let it struggle unto death, that having conquered, it may obtain eternal life, following our forerunner Christ, who gave himself up for us even unto death.