Spiritual Homilies 1 part 5/36

If then, as has been said, in the shadow the power of God was thus present with the righteous, working wonders both fearful and manifest — even though they wrought outward signs by the divine power, yet within them the divine grace dwelt — likewise also with the prophets: whenever there was need to speak great things to the world, the Spirit worked in them and ministered in their souls, that they might prophesy and speak.

But they did not speak at all times, but only when the Spirit that was in them willed it.

Yet the power was always present with them.

If then the Spirit was poured out so abundantly even in the shadow, how much more in the New Covenant, at the coming of the Lord, where the outpouring and the intoxication of the Spirit took place.

For he says, 'I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh.'

'I will be with you until the end of the age.'

'For if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?'

That same power which from the beginning was with the fathers and with the apostles — may that very power dwell in us and give us rest.

Since some say that the thrones and the crowns are created things and not spirits, how ought we to understand this? Answer.

The throne of the Godhead is our mind, and again, the throne of the mind is the Godhead and the Spirit.

Likewise also Satan and the powers and rulers, through the transgression of the commandment, took their seat in the heart and in the mind and in the body of Adam, as upon their own throne.

For this reason, then, the Lord came and took a body from the Virgin.

For if he had wished to come down in the bare Godhead, who could have endured it? But through the instrument of the body he speaks to men.

...spirits — the Lord stripped off and put on the body, stripping off the principalities and the authorities, and made that body the very throne of his Spirit.

just as Mary also says, 'The Mighty One has done great things for me.'

'He has put down the mighty from their thrones' — the ruling spirits of wickedness, from the thrones of the thoughts and reasonings in which they had made their abode; the Lord put them down and cleansed the conscience, and made for himself a throne of the mind and the body and the thoughts.

'You will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel'? Answer.

We find that this took place on earth, when the Lord was taken up into the heavens.

For he sent the Comforter, the Spirit, upon the twelve apostles — his holy power — which, having come, took up its dwelling and sat down upon the thrones of their thoughts.

And behold, those standing by said:

'They are full of new wine.'

Then Peter began to judge them, saying concerning Jesus that a man mighty in word and in signs — him you crucified, hanging him upon a tree; and yet he works wonders, and splits the stones of the tombs, and raises the dead.

'In the last days I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy' — and now this is being fulfilled.

Many, then, having been instructed by Peter, came to repentance, so that a chosen world of God came into being.

Do you see how a beginning of judgment took place then? For there a new world appeared.

Here, then, authority was given to them to sit in this world and to judge — even though they are yet to sit and pass judgment at his coming, in the resurrection of the dead — this happens here, the Holy Spirit having taken his seat upon the throne of their thoughts.

But also the diadems which Christians receive in that age are not created things — and those who say so speak wrongly — but these are shown forth by the Spirit, transformed into that likeness.

What does the apostle say concerning the heavenly Jerusalem, that she is the mother of us all, unto whom we confess allegiance?

And concerning the garment which Christians wear, it is clear that the Spirit itself clothes them.

It is as if someone were to enter royal houses and see the paintings there and the beauties, and elsewhere treasures stored up, and were to recline with the king, and delicacies and most sweet drinks were set before him, and he found rest in every way in those sights and beauties — but afterward, torn away from there, he found himself in foul-smelling places; then he begins to shed tears, as one led away from such places into dark and foul-smelling places.

Or it is as if there were a woman most beautiful and wise and wealthy beyond all others, and she took to herself a poor and lowly man, ill-favored, clothed in rags, and she stripped off his filthy garments and clothed him in royal apparel and set diadems upon him and became his companion; then the poor man begins to be astonished and amazed, saying:

'To me, wretched and lowly and of no account, has such a companion been given?' So God has done for the lowly and wretched man.

He gave him a taste of another age, of another, most sweet delight; he showed him glories and royal beauties, ineffable and heavenly; and then the man, comparing those spiritual things with the things of this age, casts them all away — whether he beholds a king, or rulers, or wise men, he despises them all in comparison with that heavenly treasure.

For since God is love, he received the intellectual and divine fire of Christ, and was given rest, and rejoiced, and there he remains bound.

Does Satan exist alongside God, whether in the air or in men? Answer.

This sun, though a created thing, when it shines upon muddy places, in what way is it harmed? How much more, then, the Divine, though present alongside Satan, is neither soiled nor defiled.

an evil permitted for the exercise and training of man

Yet evil has been darkened and blinded, and is not able to see the pure and subtle nature of God.

But if you say that Satan has his own place, and God his own, you make him not to be in all things, but circumscribed to that place in which he dwells.

But we say that God is incomprehensible and uncircumscribed, and that all things are in him, and that the good is not defiled by the evil.

For surely, since heaven and the sun and the mountains exist in God himself and consist through him, this does not mean that they themselves became God. The created things are fixed in their own order, and the Creator, though present with his creatures, is God.

Since sin transforms itself into an angel of light and produces things resembling grace, how may a man understand the schemes of the devil, and how may he receive and discern the things of grace? Answer.

The things of grace have joy, peace, love, truth; and when the soul receives the truth, it compels the man to seek the truth.

But the things of sin are formless and troubled; they have no love and joy toward God.

Just as wild bitter lettuce is like the garden lettuce — the one being bitter, the other sweet, though similar in appearance — so also in grace itself there is a likeness of truth, and there is the very substance of truth.

As, for instance, there is the ray of the sun and the sun's disc itself — the ray shines in one way, and the light stored up in the disc in another.

There is a lamp that is lit within a house, and there is another that is lit everywhere.

Different, then, is the brightness that is lit within the lamp itself — brighter and more radiant.

So it is: at one time a man sees certain visions, as it were, from afar, and rejoices in those visions; and at another time the power of God enters into him and takes hold of his members and his heart, and takes his mind captive to the love of God.

When they seized Peter and cast him into prison, while he was shut up there, an angel came and broke his bonds and led him out; and he, as though in a trance, thought it was a vision.

And how do those who are worked upon by the grace of God fall? Answer.

The very thoughts that are pure in their own nature — these themselves slip and fall.

For it comes to be lifted up, and to condemn, and to say:

'You are a sinner' — while it holds itself to be righteous.

Do you not know what Paul says?

'A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure'? For even a pure nature is liable to be lifted up.

Can anyone, through light, see his own soul, since some deny revelation and say that vision comes through knowledge and perception? Answer.

There is perception, and there is vision, and there is illumination.

And the one who has illumination is greater than the one who has mere perception.

For his mind was illumined, because he received a greater portion than this one who has only perception, since he saw within himself a certain full assurance of visions.

Yet revelation is one thing, and illumination another.

Revelation is the higher of the two, because great things and the mysteries of God are revealed to the soul.

Does one see the soul through divine light and revelation? Answer.

Just as these bodily eyes see the sun, so also those who have been illumined see the image of the soul; but this is granted to few, even among Christians.

Does the soul have a form or an image? Answer.

It has an image and a form resembling an angel, just as the angels too have an image and a form.

And just as the outward man has an image, so also the inward man has an image resembling the angel, and not the outward man.

Whether mind and soul are different things? Answer:

Just as the members of the body, though many, are called one man, so too the members of the soul are many — mind, conscience, thoughts, will — accusing and defending one another.

But these are bound together into one.

They are members of the soul, but the soul is one, the inner man is one.

As outward eyes see from afar thorns and precipices and pits, so also the mind, being quicker than the opposing power, foresees its wiles and devices and secures the soul beforehand, being as it were the eye of the soul.

Christians are of another age, a new offspring, children of the Holy Spirit, luminous, like their Father, the spiritual Adam, the luminous one, of that city, of that race, of that power.

They are not of this world; they are of another world.

You are not of this world, just as I am not of this world.

For just as a merchant, setting out from many way-stations and multiplying his trade, sends word ahead to his own people that gardens, houses, and needful garments be built for him, and when he returns home he brings back with him great wealth besides, and his own people receive him with much joy — so much more in the spiritual realm, those who trade in heavenly riches are known by their fellow citizens, that is, by the spirits of the saints and of the angels, who marvel that our brothers on earth have fallen into such great wealth.

Having the Lord with themselves at their departure, they go up to those above with much joy, and the Lord's own there receive them, having prepared for them houses and gardens, garments wholly radiant and costly.

That even the spiritual, and those who have gifts of grace, fall when they are puffed up.

Even those who are good by nature, if they do not guard themselves, are gradually dragged down through that very goodness, and those who have wisdom are deceived through that very wisdom.

One must therefore be tempered in every part: goodness with severity, wisdom with discernment, word with deed, and one's whole trust placed upon God and not upon oneself.

Those who say there is no sin in man are like those submerged and swept away by a flood of many waters, who yet say, "We have heard the roar of the waters." So too these, submerged by the depths of wickedness and its waves, say that sin is not present in their mind and their thoughts.

There are others who speak words not seasoned with the heavenly salt, so that they describe the royal table yet eat or possess nothing of it.

But another is he who has beheld the King himself, when the treasuries were opened, and has entered in, and inherited, and eaten and drunk of the costly dishes.

Just as, suppose there were a mother with an only-begotten son, most comely and wise, on whom she had set all her hopes, and it happened that she must bury him — she would have unceasing pain and inconsolable grief — so too the mind, as though the soul had died away from God, ought to have grief and pain and unceasing tears, to have a broken heart and to be under fear and anxiety, having hunger and thirst for the good always.

And then the grace of God and hope succeed such a one, and he is no longer in such grief, but rejoices as one who has found a treasure, and yet again trembles lest he lose it.

Just as, suppose someone, falling into many public burdens and losses, escapes with much toil, and afterward falls into great abundance and much substance, and he no longer fears loss or poverty because of his abounding wealth — so too the spiritual, having first passed through fearful places, and then, filled full with grace, no longer fear those who wish to plunder them, since wealth abides with them; yet they do have fear — not the fear of beginners who fear the evil spirits, but the fear and anxiety of how they should administer the spiritual gifts entrusted to them.

...the disorderly. And the more one abounds in the wealth of grace and light, the more he considers himself poor — this thought being implanted in him as though it were natural; and the more he advances into the knowledge of God, the more he considers himself unlearned; and the more he learns, the more he is disposed as one who knows nothing.

These things grace, in its ministry, works into the soul as though they were a kind of nature.

Just as, suppose a child were carried by a swift-running young man, the child no longer does what it wishes, but the one carrying it bears it about as he wishes — so too grace, working in the depths, carries the mind and lifts it up to the heavens, and lifts it up into its own world, into perfect rest.

For Christians are not burdened or grieved even in afflictive circumstances.

If they are tested in poverty and hardship or in failures, they ought not to be displeased, but rather to rejoice and to prefer poverty to wealth, fasting to luxury, dishonor to glory.

And again, when they fall into the luxurious and glorious circumstances of this life, which urge them to come to visible rest, or glory, or wealth, or luxury, they ought not to take pleasure in these and rest upon them, but rather to flee from them as from fire.

For the soul is more precious than all created things.

For man alone was made according to the image and likeness of God.

For behold, how immense is this heaven, and the earth also, being but precious vessels among created things; yet man is more precious than all creatures, since the Lord was well pleased in him alone, even though the sea-monsters and the mountains and the wild beasts are, in outward appearance, greater than he.

For God says, "Let us make man according to our image and likeness."

See then your own dignity, how precious you are, even above the angels, since he himself in person came to earth on an embassy for your redemption.

God, therefore, and the angels came for your redemption and salvation.

A king, the son of a king, took counsel, and coming, laid down his soul upon the cross.

And so great is the love of God for man, that the Immortal One is crucified for your sake.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son for it;

how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things? And elsewhere again he says:

Amen, amen, I say to you, that he will set him over all his possessions.

For indeed, when Elisha was on the mountain and the foreigners came against him, the servant boy said:

"Many are coming against us."

"And we are alone." Elisha answered:

"Do you not see the encampments and multitudes of angels round about us, helping us?" You see that all things, even multitudes of angels, are present with the servants of God.

How great, then, is the soul, that God and the angels seek it for their own fellowship and for the kingdom, while Satan and his powers seek it for their own portion.

For among visible things, a king is not attended by rustic churls, but by comely, cultivated ones; so also in the heavenly palace, the blameless, the irreproachable, those pure in purpose and comely, having no blemish, the most beautiful — these go to the fellowship of the King. So it is also in the spiritual realm:

Souls that, amid the passions, are adorned with good character and manners — these have fellowship with the heavenly King.

If, in the visible realm, where a ruler goes to stay, it happens that the house has some uncleanness, it is made ready and much adornment takes place and perfumes are put in it — how much more does the house of the soul, in which the Lord rests, need much adornment, so that the Blameless and Spotless One may be able to enter there and find rest.

For upon such a heart God, and the whole heavenly church, rest.

So too God entrusts his own nature, together with his own precious things, to the soul.

In the visible realm, if there is war (and the king comes with his army to fight), and if the one side is very small, it immediately sends an embassy, seeking terms of peace.

But if it is a very great nation against a very great nation, such as the king of the Persians against the king of the Romans, it is inevitable that the two kings move with all their armies.

You see what sort of dignity is yours, that God moved with his own army, with the angels and the spirits, to engage the adversary in battle, so that he might redeem you from death.

Just as, suppose there were a king who found a poor man covered with leprosy in all his members, and he was not ashamed, but applied medicines to all his wounds, and healed his sores, and brought him to the royal table, and clothed him in purple, and made him a king — so also God has done for the race of men.

He washed away their wounds, and healed them, and led them into the heavenly bridal chamber.

Great, then, is the dignity of the Christians, of such a kind that even if, from the beginning — from when Adam was created — until the consummation of the world, one were to struggle against Satan, resisting and fighting against him, he would do nothing worthy in comparison to the gift, the free gift and the glory that he is destined to inherit in the kingdom of the heavens.

But if you become distracted and slack, what are you like? For just as, suppose there were a city having no wall, and robbers enter from wherever they wish, unhindered, and lay it waste and set it on fire — so, while you are negligent and not angry at yourself, the spirits of wickedness enter and destroy and lay waste the mind, scattering your thoughts into this present age.

For many, being scrupulous about outward things, and practicing knowledge, and taking care for an upright life, suppose this to be perfection, not stooping to look into their own heart and to see the evils there that hold the soul fast.

For the root of wickedness lies deeper within than the members of the body, and the robber is in the house — that is, the opposing power, which is a subsistent, intelligent reality; and if one does not wage a struggle against sin, the evil within, overflowing bit by bit, through its increase carries the man on even to committing manifest sins.

Since it is like the mouth of a spring that is always welling up, and if you do not immediately set yourself to check the flowing streams, but instead consent to them and take pleasure in them, then, falling into countless evils, you are as one dazed and out of your senses.

In the manner that, suppose there were a certain nobleman, carefree and wealthy, and the ruler's officers, the officials, seize him and carry him off, telling him that he has been accused of a crime and is liable to death — thereupon, out of fear, he loses all his thoughts, and is as one utterly stunned;

in this way, understand for me also concerning the spirits of wickedness.

For indeed the visible world, from king to pauper, is in tumult and disorder and conflict, and none of them knows the cause, since the evil that stole in through the disobedience of Adam — sin, the sting of death — is not something visible.

For the rational power and intelligent essence of Satan, having stolen in, has sown all the evils, since it works secretly upon the inner man and upon the mind, and fights against the thoughts; and men do not know that they do these things being driven by an alien power, but they suppose these things to be natural, and that they do them from their own nature.

But those who have the peace of Christ in the mind itself, and his illumination, know from where these things are stirred.

For this world suffers the affliction of wickedness, and they do not know it.

Those, then, who are inwardly tickled and take pleasure together within the heart, accomplish fornication there; and thus, as the evil spreads, they fall also into manifest fornication.

Understand the same also concerning love of money, and vainglory, conceit, envy, and anger.

Just as, suppose someone were invited to a banquet, and many dishes were set before him,

then sin suggests that he partake of them all, and thus the soul, taking pleasure along with it, is weighed down.

For there are impassable mountains in between, and rivers, and a multitude of serpents and venomous beasts and reptiles.

And just as, suppose there were a sea-monster that swallowed a man into its belly, so too sin swallows up souls.

There are flames of fire, burning, and fiery darts.

For the evil has spread itself among souls and has laid its foundation.

But the prudent, when the passions rise up, do not obey them; rather, once the passions begin to insinuate themselves, they thrust them away and grow angry at the evil desires, becoming enemies to themselves.

For Satan greatly desires to rest upon the soul and to spread himself out in it... and he is afflicted and constrained when the soul does not obey him.

But there are some held fast by divine power, who, even if they see a young man with a woman, though they entertain no thought at all, nor is their mind defiled, nor do they commit sin within themselves, yet it is not yet safe to have confidence in such a state.

But there are others in whom the passions have completely ceased and been quenched and dried up.

But these measures belong to the great.

Just as experienced divers descend naked into the depth of the sea and into the death of the water, that there they may find pearls fit to enter the crown of the king and the purple, so also monks go forth naked out of the world and descend into the depth of the sea of wickedness and into the abyss of darkness, and from the depths they take and bring up precious stones and pearls fit to enter the crown of Christ, into the heavenly church, into a new age and a city of light and an assembly of angels.

For just as many kinds of creatures fall into the dragnet, and the more useless ones the fisherman again throws back into the deep, so also the dragnet of grace is spread out over all and seeks rest, but men do not obey.

Therefore they are thrown back again into that very depth of darkness.

For just as gold, washed out from much sand, is found only the size of a millet seed... so also out of many, few are found approved, since those who possess the work of the kingdom are manifest, and those who adorn their teaching appear clearly; likewise also those who are seasoned with the heavenly salt and speak out of the treasuries of the Spirit.

And there appear vessels in which God is well pleased and gives his own grace.

And others receive the sanctifying power with much patience, just as the Lord wills, in many different ways.

He who speaks, then, if he is not guided by heavenly light and wisdom, cannot fully assure the mind of each hearer, since the dispositions of souls are many—some are in warfare, others at rest.

Just as if there were a desolate city, and someone wished to rebuild it, he would first completely tear down the parts that had crumbled and fallen away, and thus begin to dig and lay out the foundation of the building;

or just as someone builds a garden in desolate and foul-smelling places, he first begins to clear it and set a fence around it and prepare water channels and plant, so that after a long time the garden may bring forth fruit—so also the dispositions of men, after the transgression, are untilled, desolate, thorny.

Thorns and thistles shall the earth bring forth for you (cf. Genesis 3:18).

There is need, then, of much labor and toil, that one may seek out and lay the foundation, until the heavenly fire comes into the hearts and begins to clear away the thorns—and thus they begin to be sanctified.

There are words that stir up eagerness in the soul, but these very words have need of works.

For behold, the Scriptures and the Law and teachers and God speak words, so that these words may become deed within the soul.

For indeed the Lord, having come upon the earth, performed a work on it: he tilled the fallow and desolate earth, and cast out from it thorns and thistles, and removed from it the wild growth, and planted in it a new, heavenly planting.

For if he had wished to come down upon the earth with his bare divinity, neither could men have seen his glory, nor could death itself have endured it, nor could creation have withstood it.

But he set aside, in one respect, the greatness of his glory, and made use of farming tools, and took up the form of a farmer; and likewise he put on as garments the vessels of body and soul, and thus, entering in, he worked the desolate earth of the heart.

For if Israel could not endure the glory of Moses, how much more could no one withstand the divine glory.

He therefore took up the form of a farmer and the garment of a plowman.

Just as if there were a laborer who took up the tools of labor and those of the plow, and thus dug the ground, so the Lord, taking on the garment of a laborer, sent laborers into the ground, and worked and dug deep, and cast in heavenly seed.

For just as in a courtroom the ruler sits before the judgment seat, and then a curtain is set at the door, so that those outside may be more eager and unafraid, so also the divinity itself was hidden within the humanity, and made use of the human body as a covering or veil.

And he gives commands from behind the veil, and it is accomplished through another person.

He is a fisherman who cast the net into the depth of the sea, and from the dark depth brought up Adam; and behold, he now swims upon the water.

For what labor would it have been for the divinity, being bare in itself, to kill death? But rather, having taken on the body, he was all the more outraged and suffered.