Mystagogy 1 part 7/13

"Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep."

(92) Our mind is set midway between two—each of them working its own activity;

that is, between an angel and a demon.

The intellect has authority and power either to follow or to resist whatever it wills.

(53) The holy powers urge us toward what is good;

the natural seeds and a good deliberate choice assist us.

But the assaults of the demons are reinforced by the passions and by an evil deliberate choice.

(54) The pure intellect is sometimes taught by God Himself drawing near to it;

sometimes by the holy powers suggesting what is good;

and sometimes by the contemplation of the nature of things.

(55) The intellect that has been deemed worthy of spiritual knowledge must keep its conceptions of things free from passion, its contemplations secure, and the state of its prayer undisturbed;

yet it cannot always preserve this state because of the exhalations of the flesh, being clouded with smoke through the plotting of the demons.

(56) We are not angered by all the things that grieve us;

for the things that produce grief are more numerous than those that produce anger.

For instance: this thing has been broken, that has been lost, so-and-so has died;

for over such things we are only grieved;

but over the rest we are both grieved and angered, because we are disposed in an unphilosophic manner.

(57) When he contemplates these things spiritually, he is variously transfigured according to each object of contemplation;

but when he comes to be in God, he becomes wholly without form and without shape;

for contemplating the One who is single in form, he becomes single in form and wholly filled with light.

(58) The soul is perfect whose passible power has wholly inclined toward God.

(59) The intellect is perfect that, through true faith, has come to know beyond knowing the One who is beyond knowing, and has beheld the universal principles of His creatures, and has received from God the comprehensive knowledge of His providence and judgment within them.

(100) Time is divided into three; and faith extends together with all three divisions;

and faith and hope last only up to a certain point, but love, surpassingly united to the One who is beyond all infinity and ever increasing beyond measure, abides into the boundless ages;

and for this reason love is the greatest of all.

FOURTH CENTURY. (1) First the intellect marvels as it ponders the divine infinity in all respects, and that inexhaustible and most-longed-for ocean.

But just as there is no limit to His greatness, so neither is there any discovering of His wisdom.

(2) For how should it not marvel as it contemplates that boundless ocean of goodness, beyond all astonishment? Or how should it not be amazed as it ponders how and whence rational and intellectual being came to be, and the four elements out of which bodies are made, when no matter pre-existed for their generation? And what was that power which, set in motion to act, brought these into being? But this the children of the Greeks do not accept, being ignorant of the all-powerful goodness and of its active wisdom and knowledge that surpasses the intellect.

(3) Being a Creator from all eternity, God creates when He wills, through His consubstantial Word and Spirit, on account of His boundless goodness.

"But by what reason did He create only now, being ever good?" To this I answer you: the unsearchable wisdom of the infinite Being does not fall under human knowledge.

It is absurd, in the case of the all-powerful God, to doubt whether He is able to bring anything into being whenever He wills.

But do not inquire into the how and the why He created so "recently";

for it does not fall under your intellect, since of divine things some are comprehensible to men and others incomprehensible.

And unbridled contemplation might thrust one over a precipice, as one of the saints has said.

(6) Some say that created things co-exist with God from all eternity, which is impossible.

But we, having come to know the all-powerful God, declare Him to be the Creator not of qualities, but of substances endowed with qualities.

And if this is so, then created things do not co-exist with God from all eternity.

(7) In one respect the Divine and divine things are knowable, and in another unknowable;

knowable through the contemplations concerning Him;

but unknowable in respect of what He is in Himself.

(8) Do not seek for states and aptitudes in the case of the simple and infinite Being of the Holy Trinity, lest you make it composite like creatures;

for it is absurd and unlawful to conceive such a thing concerning God.

(9) Alone simple, single in form, without quality, peaceful, and free from all discord is the infinite, all-powerful, and creative Being of all things.

But all creation is composite, of substance and accident, and ever in need of divine providence, since it is not free from change.

(10) All intellectual being and all sensory being received powers from God when they were brought into existence, powers for apprehending the things that are;

the intellectual being received acts of understanding, and the sensory being received acts of perception.

(11) God is only participated in, but creation both participates and imparts;

it participates in being and in well-being, but imparts only well-being;

yet in one way the corporeal being does so, and in another the incorporeal.

(12) The incorporeal being imparts well-being by speaking, by acting, and by being contemplated;

but the corporeal does so only by being contemplated.

(13) Whether the rational and intellectual being shall exist forever or not lies in the will of Him who created all things good;

but whether these are good by deliberate choice or wicked lies in the will of those who have come into being.

(14) Evil is not contemplated in the substance of created beings, but in their erring and irrational movement.

(15) The soul moves rightly when its desiring power has been qualified by self-control,

and its incensive power cleaves to love, turning away from hatred,

and its rational power abides with God through prayer and spiritual contemplation.

(16) He does not yet possess perfect love nor the deep knowledge of divine providence who, in time of trial, does not bear with longsuffering the grievous things that befall him, but cuts himself off from the love of his spiritual brethren.

(17) The aim of divine providence is to unite, through right faith and spiritual love, those who have been variously rent asunder by evil—if indeed the Saviour suffered for this very purpose, that He might gather into one the scattered children of God.

Therefore he who does not endure the troublesome things, nor bear the grievous things, nor patiently suffer the painful things, walks apart from divine love and from the aim of providence.

(18) If love is longsuffering and kind, then he who is faint-hearted at the grievous things that befall him, and on this account bears malice against those who have grieved him, and cuts himself off from love toward them—how does he not fall away from the aim of divine providence? (19) Take heed to yourself, lest the evil that separates you from your brother be found not in your brother, but in you;

and make haste to be reconciled to him, lest you fall away from the commandment of love.

(20) Do not despise the commandment of love, for through it you shall be a son of God;

but in transgressing it you shall be found a son of Gehenna.

(21) These are the things that separate us from the love of friends:

to envy or to be envied, to harm or to be harmed, to dishonour or to be dishonoured, and thoughts arising from suspicion.

Have you then ever done any of these things, or suffered them, and on this account are separated from the love of your friend?

(22) A trial has come upon you from your brother, and the grief has led you to hatred;

do not be overcome by hatred, but overcome the hatred by love.

And you shall overcome it in this manner:

by praying for him sincerely to God, by accepting his explanation, or by yourself healing him through such means, by reckoning yourself the cause of the trial, and by being longsuffering until the cloud passes by.

(23) He is longsuffering who awaits the end of the trial and patiently expects the crown of endurance.

(24) A longsuffering man abounds in prudence, because he refers all that befalls him to the end, and awaiting that end he bears patiently with the grievous things.

And the end is eternal life, according to the divine Apostle;

"and this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."

(25) Do not be ready to cast away spiritual love, for no other way of salvation has been left to men.

(26) Do not, because of the hatred that arises in you today through the spite of the evil one, judge as base and wicked the brother who yesterday was spiritual and virtuous;

but through longsuffering love, reckoning his goodness of yesterday, cast away from your soul the hatred of today.

(27) Do not, the one whom yesterday you praised as good and extolled as virtuous, today speak ill of as base and wicked—making your brother's reproach the excuse for the evil hatred within you, because of your own change from love to hatred;

but continue in the same praises, even if you are still held fast by grief, and you will readily return to the same saving love.

(28) Do not, in the company of the other brethren, adulterate your customary praise of your brother because of the grief still hidden in you against him, secretly mingling reproach into your words;

but use pure praise in the company, and sincerely pray for him as for yourself, and you will most swiftly be delivered from that destructive hatred.

"I do not hate my brother," you say, while turning away from the very remembrance of him.

But listen to Moses, who says:

"You shall not hate your brother in your heart;

you shall surely reprove your brother, and you shall not incur sin on his account."

30. Even if your brother, being tempted, persists in speaking ill of you, do not for your part be cast out of your loving disposition, while you endure the same evil demon troubling you in your thoughts.

And you will not be cast out of it if, when reviled, you bless; when slandered, you speak well; when plotted against, you show goodwill.

This is the way of the philosophy that is according to Christ, and whoever does not travel this way does not dwell together with Him.

31. Do not regard as well-disposed toward you those who bring you words that produce grief in you and hatred toward your brother, even if they seem to be speaking the truth;

but turn away from such people as from death-dealing serpents, so that you may both check them from their evil-speaking and deliver your own soul from wickedness.

32. Do not prick your brother with words by way of veiled insinuations, lest, receiving the like in return from him, you drive away the disposition of love from you both;

but go with loving frankness and reprove him, so that, having resolved the causes of grief, you may deliver both of you from disturbance and grief.

33. Examine your conscience with all exactness, lest it be through your own fault that your brother was not reconciled;

and do not deceive your conscience, which knows your hidden things and accuses you at the time of departure and becomes a stumbling-block to you at the time of prayer.

34. Do not, at the time of peace, call to mind the things said by your brother at the time of grief, whether the grievous things were spoken to your face or to another about you and you heard of them afterward;

lest, by entertaining thoughts of resentment, you slip back into a destructive hatred of your brother.

35. A rational soul that nourishes hatred toward a person cannot be at peace with God, the giver of the commandments.

"For," He says, "if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses."

And if that person is unwilling to be at peace, yet you for your part keep yourself from hatred, praying for him sincerely and not speaking ill of him to anyone.

36. The ineffable peace of the holy angels is held fast by these two dispositions:

by love toward God and by love toward one another;

and likewise also the peace of all the saints from the beginning of the ages.

Most excellently, therefore, was it said by our Savior that on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

37. Do not be self-pleasing, and you will not be a hater of your brother;

and do not be a lover of self, and you will be a lover of God.

38. If you have chosen to live together with spiritual brothers, renounce your own self-will at the very door;

for in no other way will you be able to be at peace, neither with God nor with those who live with you.

39. He who has been able to acquire perfect love and has ordered his whole life toward it, this is the one who says "Lord Jesus" in the Holy Spirit;

and the contrary man, clearly, says the contrary things.

40. Love toward God ever loves to give wings to the intellect for divine converse;

while love toward one's neighbor ever disposes one to think well of him.

41. It belongs to one who still loves empty glory or is attached to some material thing to be grieved with men over transient things, or to bear them resentment, or to hold hatred toward them, or to be enslaved to shameful thoughts;

but from the soul that loves God all these things are altogether alien.

42. When you say and do nothing shameful in your mind, and when you bear no resentment against the one who has wronged you or spoken ill of you, and when at the time of prayer you ever keep your intellect immaterial and formless, then know that you have attained to the measure of dispassion and of perfect love.

43. It is no small struggle to be rid of vainglory;

and one is rid of it through the hidden practice of the virtues and through more frequent prayer.

And the sign of being rid of it is no longer to bear resentment against the one who has spoken or speaks ill of you.

44. If you wish to be just, assign to each of the parts within you what is according to its worth;

to the rational part of the soul, readings and spiritual contemplations and prayer;

to the incensive part, spiritual love, which is opposed to hatred;

to the desiring part, temperance and self-control;

and to the flesh, nourishment and clothing, only the most necessary things.

45. The intellect acts according to nature when it has the passions in subjection, contemplates the inner principles of beings, and abides with God.

46. As health and sickness are considered in relation to the body of a living creature, and light and darkness in relation to the eye, so virtue and vice in relation to the soul, and knowledge and ignorance in relation to the intellect.

47. In these three things the Christian pursues his philosophy:

in the commandments, in the doctrines, and in the faith.

And the commandments separate the intellect from the passions;

the doctrines lead it into the knowledge of beings;

and faith into the contemplation of the Holy Trinity.

48. Some of those who strive merely repel impassioned thoughts;

but others cut off the passions themselves as well.

And one repels them, for instance, by psalmody or by prayer or by lifting up the mind or by some other local distraction;

but one cuts off the passions by despising those very things to which they are attached.

49. The things to which the passions are attached are these: for instance, woman, money, glory, and the like.

And one is able to despise woman then, when even after withdrawal one withers the body as one ought through self-control;

money, when one persuades one's reasoning to be content with self-sufficiency in everything;

glory, when one comes to love the hidden practice of the virtues, manifest to God alone;

and likewise in the case of the others.

And he who despises these things never comes to hatred of anyone.

50. He who has renounced things, such as woman and money and the rest, has made the outer man a monk, but not yet also the inner.

But he who has renounced the impassioned mental representations of these things has made the inner man a monk, that is, the intellect.

One easily makes the outer man a monk, if only he wills it;

but it is no small struggle to make the inner man a monk.

51. Who, then, in this generation, is the one who has been altogether rid of impassioned mental representations and has been deemed worthy of pure and immaterial prayer—which is the sign of the inner monk? 52. Many passions are hidden in our souls;

and they are then exposed when the things themselves come into view.

And if the things come into view, immediately the passions distract the intellect.

54. Do not suppose that you have perfect dispassion while the object is not present.

But when it comes into view and you remain unmoved both toward the object and toward the memory of it afterward, then know that you have set foot within the bounds of dispassion.

Nevertheless, do not even so be careless, because virtue that endures over time mortifies the passions, but when neglected it rouses them again.

55. He who loves Christ assuredly also imitates Him to the best of his ability.

For example, Christ did not cease from benefiting men, and when met with ingratitude and blasphemy He was longsuffering, and when struck by them and put to death He endured, reckoning the evil against no one at all.

And these three are the works of love toward one's neighbor, without which the one who claims to love Christ or to attain His kingdom deceives himself;

"For not everyone," He says, "who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father."

"He who loves Me will keep My commandments."

56. The whole aim of the Savior's commandments is to free the intellect from incontinence and hatred and to lead it into love of Him and of one's neighbor, from which is born the radiance of holy knowledge in actual operation.

57. Having been deemed worthy by God of partial knowledge, do not neglect love and self-control;

for these, by purifying the passible part of the soul, ever make ready for you the way to knowledge.

58. The way to knowledge is dispassion and humility, without which no one shall see the Lord.

59. Since knowledge puffs up, but love builds up, join love to knowledge, and you will be free from conceit and a spiritual builder, building up both yourself and all who draw near to you.

60. Hence love builds up, because it neither envies, nor is embittered against those who envy, nor parades ostentatiously the thing envied, nor reckons that it has already attained, and confesses without shame its ignorance of the things it does not know;

thus, then, it renders the intellect free from conceit and ever prepares it to advance in knowledge.

61. Presumption and envy are wont, in a way, to attend knowledge, especially in its beginnings.

Self-conceit operates only inwardly,

but envy operates both inwardly and outwardly:

inwardly, toward those who possess spiritual knowledge,

and outwardly, from those who possess it.

Love, then, overturns all three:

self-conceit, since love is not puffed up;

inward envy, since love is not jealous;

and outward envy, since love is patient and kind.

It is necessary, therefore, that the one who possesses spiritual knowledge also acquire love, so that he may keep his intellect unwounded in all things,

lest envy pierce his eyes with thorns.

63. Do not give all your leisure to the flesh; rather, appoint for it ascetic discipline according to your strength, and turn your whole intellect to the things within.

For bodily exercise profits little,

but godliness is profitable for all things.

64. He who unceasingly occupies himself with the things within is self-controlled, patient, kind, and humble-minded;

not only that, but he also contemplates, theologizes, and prays.

And this is what the Apostle means when he says:

"Walk by the Spirit," and so forth.

65. He who does not know how to travel the spiritual road takes no thought of his impassioned thoughts, but gives all his leisure to the flesh; and either he indulges in gluttony and licentiousness, and grows sorrowful and angry and bears grudges, and thereby darkens his intellect, or else he practices asceticism beyond measure and clouds his understanding.

66. Scripture abolishes none of the things given to us by God for our use, but it chastises excess and corrects what is unreasonable.

For instance, it does not forbid eating, or begetting children, or having money and managing it rightly; but it forbids gluttony, fornication, and the like.

Nor even does it forbid thinking about these things;

for it was for this very purpose that they came into being.

67. Some of the things we do according to God are done in accordance with a commandment;

others are not according to a commandment but are, as one might say, by way of voluntary offering.

For example, according to a commandment are: to love God and one's neighbor, to love one's enemies, not to commit adultery, not to murder, and the rest;

and when we transgress these, we are condemned.

But not according to a commandment are: to remain a virgin, celibacy, voluntary poverty, withdrawal from the world, and the like.

68. He who honors celibacy or virginity must of necessity keep his loins girded and his lamp burning:

the loins by self-control, and the lamp by prayer, contemplation, and spiritual love.

69. Some of the brethren suppose that they have no share in the gifts of the Holy Spirit;

for through their negligence in the practice of the commandments they do not know that he who has unadulterated faith in Christ has within himself, all together, all the divine gifts.

For since, because of our idleness, we are far from active love toward him—the love that reveals to us the divine treasures within us—we naturally suppose ourselves to be without a share in the divine gifts.

70. If Christ dwells in our hearts through faith, as the divine Apostle says, and all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him,

then all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in our hearts;

and they are made manifest to the heart in proportion to each one's purification through the commandments.

71. This is the treasure hidden in the field of your heart, which you have not yet found because of your idleness;

for had you found it, you would have sold all and bought that field.

But as it is, having left the field itself, you busy yourself with the things around the field, in which nothing else is found but thorns and thistles.

72. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God";

since he himself is hidden in the heart of those who believe in him.

They will then see him and the treasures in him, when they purify themselves through love and self-control; and the more they intensify their purification, the more fully will they see.

73. "Sell your possessions and give alms, and behold, all things shall be clean unto you";

so that we no longer busy ourselves with matters concerning the body, but hasten to purify the intellect from hatred and intemperance—which intellect the Lord calls the heart.

For these things defile the intellect and do not allow it to behold the Lord who dwells within it through the grace of holy Baptism.

74. Scripture calls the virtues "ways";

and the greatest of all the virtues is love.

"Yet I show you a still more excellent way";

in that it persuades us to despise material things and to prefer none of the temporal things to the eternal.

75. Love for God resists desire,

for it persuades the intellect to exercise self-control over the pleasures.

And love for one's neighbor resists the incensive faculty (anger);

for it makes one despise glory and money.

And these are the two denarii which the Savior gave to the innkeeper, that he might take care of you.

But do not show yourself ungrateful by associating with the robbers, lest you be struck again and be found no longer half-dead, but dead.

76. Purify your intellect from anger, from the remembrance of wrongs, and from shameful thoughts, and then you will be able to know the indwelling of Christ.

77. Who enlightened you unto faith in the holy, adorable, and consubstantial Trinity? Or who made known to you the incarnate dispensation of one of the holy Trinity? Who taught you the principles concerning incorporeal beings, or those concerning the genesis and consummation of the visible world, or concerning the resurrection from the dead and eternal life, or concerning the glory of the kingdom of heaven and the fearful judgment? Was it not the grace of Christ dwelling in you, which is the pledge of the Holy Spirit? What is greater than this grace, or what is better than this wisdom and knowledge? Or what is loftier than these promises? But if we are idle and negligent and do not purify ourselves from the passions that defile us and blind our intellect—so as to be able to see the principles concerning these things more clearly than the sun—let us blame ourselves and not deny the indwelling of grace.

78. God, who has promised you the eternal good things and has given the pledge of the Spirit in your heart, has commanded you to take care of your life, so that the inner man, set free from the passions, may begin even now to enjoy the good things.

79. When you have been deemed worthy of the divine and lofty contemplations, take great care for love and self-control, so that, keeping the passible part of the soul undisturbed, you may possess the light of your soul unfailing.

80. Bridle the soul's incensive faculty with love, wither its desiring faculty with self-control, and give wings to its rational faculty with prayer;

and the light of the intellect will never be dimmed.

81. The things that dissolve love are these:

such as dishonor, loss, slander—whether against one's faith or against one's manner of life—beatings, blows, and the like;

and these whether they befall oneself, or any of one's own, whether kinsmen or friends.

He, then, who dissolves love because of any of these things has not yet known what is the aim of Christ's commandments.

82. Strive, as much as you can, to love every man;

but if you cannot yet do this, at least hate no one.

Yet you cannot do even this unless you despise the things of the world.

83. So-and-so has blasphemed;

do not hate him, but the blasphemy and the demon that incited him to blaspheme.

And if you keep the commandment, show forth the works of love, and if you can do anything, help him, so as to deliver him from the evil.

84. Christ does not will that you have any hatred toward any man, or grief, or anger, or remembrance of wrongs at all, in any manner whatsoever or on account of any temporal thing whatsoever;

and this the four Gospels proclaim throughout.

85. We who speak are many, but few are those who do;

yet no one ought to adulterate the word of God on account of his own negligence, but rather to confess his own weakness while not concealing the truth of God;

lest we become liable to judgment, both for transgressing the commandments and for misinterpreting the word of God.

86. Love and self-control free the soul from the passions;

reading and contemplation deliver the intellect from ignorance;

and the state of prayer presents it before God.

87. When the demons see us despising the things of the world—lest we should hate men on their account and fall away from love—then they stir up slanders against us, so that, being unable to bear the grief, we may hate those who slander us.

88. There is no affliction of the soul heavier than slander, whether one is slandered in regard to faith or in regard to one's manner of life.

And no one is able to despise this slander, except only the one who looks to God, as did Susanna, who alone is able both to deliver from distress, as He did her, and to give the people full assurance, as also in her case, and to comfort the soul with hope.

(89) The more you pray from your soul for the one who has slandered you, the more God gives full assurance to those who have been scandalised.

(90) Good by nature is God alone;

and good by deliberate choice is he alone who imitates God.

For the aim of Him who is good by nature is to unite the wicked to Himself, that they may become good.

He does all things so as not to fall short of the aim of love, which is our God Himself.

(91) The commandments of the Lord teach us to use indifferent things reasonably;

and the reasonable use of indifferent things purifies the state of the soul;

and the purified state gives birth to discernment;

and discernment gives birth to dispassion, from which is born perfect love.