Questions and Doubts 1 part 4/9

Whoever embezzles a tongue and hides it in the earth — that is, hides speech in the earthly wisdom of the world — or also a bare garment, that is, a cloak, that is, cultivates character to please onlookers, and two hundred pieces of gold, that is, all sensible things together with the senses — having hidden this gold in the earth of his own fleshly enjoyment, such a one is killed by the governing Word: it first boils against him like fire, and then he is pelted, as it were with stones, by divine sayings.

QUESTION: Concerning the different wills of God

ANSWER: One must understand three wills in respect to God: according to good pleasure, according to dispensation, according to permission

And that according to good pleasure is shown in what pertains to Abraham, [God] saying to him, "Go out from your land":

and that according to dispensation is shown in what was arranged for Joseph, toward the outcome of things to come:

and that according to permission is shown in what happened concerning Job

"Call no man blessed before his death"? ANSWER: Even according to the ready understanding of the many, on account of the uncertainty and the slipperiness of human choice, one ought not call anyone blessed until, having passed through every virtue, he closes his life with an undisputed end.

But according to the loftier sense: he who has begun, through repentance and asceticism, to humble the earthly mind-set living within him and render it weak, is not yet to be called blessed, until, through the intense labor of asceticism, he is put to death and reaches completion:

for such a one is blessed, having died together with Christ through the cessation of evil deeds, and rising together with him again through the height of the virtues

For this the psalmist also signifies, saying, "Blessed are the undefiled in the way" — clearly, those pure of wickedness — "who walk in the law of the LORD" — those who journey by good works

QUESTION: What does the psalmist mean, speaking of enemies who set upon him round about? ANSWER: "Round about" is the front, the back, the right, the left

The demons, then, attack us from the front whenever they entice through the surface-appearances of matter; from behind whenever they stir up the memory through preconceptions of wicked thoughts; from the left whenever, through fleshly and unrestrained passions, they pry the soul loose; and from the right whenever, through vainglory and pride, they attack the soul.

"Take up a psalm and bring a timbrel"? ANSWER: Take up God-inspired teaching, and render virtuous practice through the mortification of the body

QUESTION: What is elemental composition? ANSWER: They say three bodies are spoken of:

first, that of the four elements: fire, water, earth, air:

then, from these, second bodies: all growing things, both trees and vegetables:

and from these, a third body: the human, and that of the irrational [creatures]:

for by eating these, they become flesh

Just as, then, the four elements are the beginning and elemental composition of our bodies, so too the elemental composition and beginning of the soul, consisting of the four generic virtues, brings about the successful accomplishment of character:

then from this, as it were a second body, the settled state of the virtues:

then from this, knowledge, that is, contemplation, is embodied:

for practice is the ascent to contemplation

What does the ladder that appeared to Jacob signify, and who are the angels descending and ascending? ANSWER: We think the ladder to be piety toward God

And angels descending and ascending:

Those ascending are the inner principles of the virtues, being exalted through us; those descending are the inner principles of knowledge that come down because of the exaltation of our virtues.

It is necessary, then, when the Pharisees—who are a type of the demons—bring this to us, to lay hold of it and examine it through discernment: to nature we must render the things pertaining to need (for this is "to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's"), and the whole desire of the soul we must render to God.

QUESTION: What does it signify, "If they persecute you from this city, flee into the other"? ANSWER: Cities exist for the guarding, securing, and keeping safe of valuables;

A city, then, according to the manner of allegory, is the ascetic discipline devised in various ways—such as abstinence from wine, refraining from foods, intensified vigil, and the like—which are a guard and a security.

If, then, the demons persecute us from one of these, bringing on conceit or vainglory through such a form of ascetic discipline, it is better to withdraw from this discipline that seems the more exact one, lest you fall into pride, and to flee into another, vainglory-free virtue, until the principle of dispassion should come.

By "cities" he means human souls:

for it is upon these that the apostolic words, sent forth by the Savior, dwell in them when received by the worthy; but when driven away by those who have judged themselves unworthy, they migrate into the souls of others, which have become receptive of their teaching.

And such cities of Israel they will by no means finish visiting—truly dwelling among them, in one place taking up residence, in another being driven away from them—until the Son of Man comes according to his glorious coming, fulfilling all things.

"...a bruised reed he will not break, and smoldering flax he will not quench"? ANSWER: He who, in imitation of the Lord, employs the principle of compassion, neither causes the one who is bruised by sin to be utterly broken through despair, nor quenches the one whose rational faculty is smoldering because of vainglory over certain virtues, but allows him to keep his eagerness until he comes to the perfection of full knowledge.

For this is, I think, also what it means for the tares to grow up together with the good seed: that is, for the passion of man-pleasing and vainglory to spring up together with the virtues.

Whence the farmer of souls commands that these not be plucked up until the virtues take firm root, lest someone, wishing to pull up such passions, uproot together with them the eagerness for virtue.

What does the prophetic riddle mean, saying, "Sound the trumpet at the new moon, on the notable day of our feast"? What, then, is the notable feast? ANSWER: The Word bids the teachers of the Church to sound the trumpet through the word of teaching:

and to sound with the trumpet, that is, with the mortification of the body;

and at the new moon, that is, the one reckoned according to the moon;

The notable feast, according to the Jews, was celebrated in the seventh month—that of the trumpets;

and on the tenth of the same month they kept the fast of Atonement, and on the fifteenth the feast of Tabernacles.

But we celebrate spiritually thus: in the seventh month—that is, in the seventh law of grace—keeping the notable day of the Gospel;

for the God of all things provided seven laws to nature from the beginning;

to Adam two: the one before the transgression, not to eat from the fruit of the tree, and the one after the transgression, to eat bread in the sweat of his face; a third, the one at Noah's time; a fourth, the one at Abraham's time, that of circumcision; a fifth, that of Moses; a sixth, the prophetic law; a seventh, the evangelic law, in which we offer to God the firstfruits of the fruits of virtue at the beginning of the illuminations;

for on the first of the month, those under the law used to offer the firstfruits of the fruits.

And on the tenth of the month we perform the fast of Atonement, being initiated through the name of our Lord Jesus, who became our atonement, fasting from all evil;

and on the fifteenth we keep the feast of Tabernacles;

for by adding to the mystery according to our Lord Jesus the five apprehensive powers of the soul—occupied with none of the sensible things but joined to the Lord himself—we receive in him the firm establishment of the virtues.

QUESTION: A difficulty from the Ethics of St. Basil, in the discourse "On Fasting":

"When," he says, "perfection was despaired of, then enjoyment was permitted."

ANSWER: Perfection was despaired of at the time when man, through disobedience, perverted the natural powers given to him.

It was therefore impossible for nature, once entangled in material attachment, to return to perfection, until the Maker of nature, having become man beyond nature, brought nature back to what accords with nature.

And by "enjoyment was permitted" he means that it was instead given over to the self-rule of error.

QUESTION: Of the same author, from the first Psalm:

For what reason did he, at the beginning of the Psalms, take as an example the foundations of a house, the keel of a ship, and the heart of a living creature? ANSWER: Since a house, composed of stones, becomes an escape from cold and heat, and moreover a shelter and guard for man, from this—following natural contemplation—we learn that ascetic discipline, composed of the inner principles according to virtue, is a house: providing us shelter from the devil's heat of temptations, warmth against his chill of despair, and a guard against the demons who plot against us.

bestowing and acquiring in exchange the things to come.

And by "the heart of a living creature" he took faith, being woven about on every side by the virtues.

QUESTION: A difficulty of a prophetic saying, from the discourse "On Baptism" of St. Gregory the Theologian:

"Blessed is he who sows upon every water," and upon every soul that tomorrow will be plowed and watered, which today the ox and the donkey tread.

ANSWER: The soul that is plowed through the practical life and cleansed of the thorns of the passions, and watered through knowledge—which today the ox and the donkey trod, calling the ox the Jewish law, and the donkey the portion of the gentiles, that is, the soul remaining in the letter and today oppressed by irrationality, but tomorrow transformed through practice and knowledge—

into which he who sows the seeds of virtue is blessed.

"Blessed is he who, even though he be a torrent of rushes, is watered from the house of the Lord."

ANSWER: The torrent of rushes is the flesh, which by the storm of the passions sweeps away the powers of the soul, and, like rushes, strikes with the roughness of sins.

And it is watered "from the house of the Lord" whenever it is watered from the commandments of the Lord, who assumed our flesh; from which flesh, having entered upon the way of life, he drank the suffering on our behalf, and became for us a house of refuge.

"Yesterday you were withering, though flourishing in the flow of blood;"

"for you were welling forth crimson sin."

ANSWER: "Yesterday," he says, "you were withering in virtue, but flourishing in sin;"

"today you have blossomed again in virtue, having been withered in sin;"

"for you touched the fringe of Christ's garment;"

The fringes of Christ are the various ascetic practices, since, just as the fringes hang from the garment, so the ascetic practices hang from moral philosophy;

which, when practiced with humility, are by nature able to stop the flow of the passions.

"Yesterday you lay cast upon a bed, enfeebled and dissolved," and so forth.

ANSWER: By "bed" he means the repose of the body, and "enfeebled" means enfeebled by pleasures.

"And you had no man," he says, that is, a courageous thought, so that when the water was stirred, he might cast you into the pool—meaning that when a thought arises in you, stirring you toward the discernment of the better and the worse, it might cast you into the water of purification.

"Today you have found him who is at once man and God;"

for whenever someone, employing teaching, purifies, it is God who is the one operating, and man is the instrument which he has used for the salvation of the one who is afflicted.

"You were lifted up from the pallet"—or rather, you lifted up the pallet, that is, through the practical life you bore up the body, no longer being dragged down by it.

"for the devil and his angels"—whether that fire which goes before the face of the Lord and burns his enemies round about, or, more fearful than these, that which is arrayed together with the unsleeping worm, not being quenched but perpetuating forever for the wicked.

ANSWER: Upon those the Sodomitic fire is rained down—upon those who have trampled the law of nature by misuse;

and this is the reproof of conscience, whenever, after the manner of fire, it burns this up.

And "brimstone" is the various circumstantial happenings, and "storms" are the sudden circumstances, which, mingling together, will cause more intense pain.

And those are burned in conscience in imitation of the devil and his angels, as many as through pride enviously slander the providence of God and make use of deceit toward their neighbor.

And "that which goes before the face of the Lord, burning his enemies round about"—the fire is the operations of God:

for these characterize the face of God, such as goodness, love of mankind, gentleness, and things like these;

which illuminate those who are disposed favorably toward them, but burn those who are disposed contrarily and estranged from likeness to them.

And he called that fire more fearful which is arrayed together with the eternal worm, not being quenched but even perpetuating forever for the wicked;

which fire, when the divine appears and lies set forth for the enjoyment of the worthy, endlessly devours and unceasingly torments—more fiercely than fire—those who have not made themselves radiant through good works, as a worm ever stirring up their memory, while they reckon up their failure and deprivation of the good.

QUESTION: From the same author, in the discourse "On Hail," concerning "I do not accept that a spring be stopped up and a torrent be carried along."

ANSWER: The spring is the evangelical teaching, ever welling up through faith; and the torrent is the outer philosophy, having its persuasiveness in speech alone.

The spring is he who has his life in agreement with his word; and the torrent is the unpracticed word, bewitching the hearing by utterance alone.

The spring is he who imparts the tradition to those who learn according to the inner sense of the things set down in Scripture; and the torrent is he who teaches according to the letter.

concerning the righteous judgments of God, whether we grasp them or are ignorant of the great abyss.

ANSWER: "Abyss" is named from incomprehensibility, from byein, that is, from "to stop up," according to what is said in the Psalm concerning the asp that "stops up" its ears, instead of saying "the one that blocks."

As, therefore, in relation to us, who are not able to attain a comprehensive grasp of the providence that wells forth these judgments, they are incomprehensible; but in another way they are comprehensible.

How is mercy also apportioned by weights, according to holy Isaiah? For the good is not without judgment, even though it seemed otherwise to those in the vineyard.

ANSWER: If the mercy of God is weighed, it is also fittingly circumscribed.

...and the faculty of breathing, not receiving the whole of the air, or the light, or the voice — since otherwise the participation in these would not have been left for another; but each thing participates according to the power proportionately present in it. So too the mercy of God gives both the remission and the grace according to the quality of the dispositions of each subject.

For example: one has repented completely, and is also completely forgiven;

one has repented partially, and is also partially forgiven;

and likewise also in the case of one who loves.

And wrath too, in proportion to sins, is called "a cup in the hand of the Lord" and "a bowl of staggering drained to the dregs" — even though, for all, it withholds something of what is due, and tempers the unmixed wine of wrath with loving-kindness;

inclining from the severe toward the yielding.

ANSWER: The hand of the Lord is the power that creates and sustains, that works good and wards off woe.

Every sin, therefore, as soon as it comes to subsist, has already fixed to it the judgment that follows from its end.

It inclines from the severe toward the yielding, proposing to the soul, through the saving commandments, the repentance that empties out such a judgment.

QUESTION: A question concerning a difficulty from the oration "On Good Order" of St. Gregory the Theologian.

How is the word the offspring of mind, and yet also begets a word in another mind? Of which word, then, does he speak — the internal word, or the uttered word? ANSWER: Our fathers say that only the Divine is unbounded and simple in essence; but all other things, whatever have their being after God and from God, exist from essence and quality, that is, from power — that is to say, from essence and accident.

If this is so, then the soul too, being mind by its power, certainly holds itself as unbegotten, begetting for itself in begotten fashion, so that the word that is in the mind and is begotten from the mind is other than that begetting mind, together with the property proper to the begetting, which admits of no reversal whatsoever.

This word, then, being and begotten in this way, receiving the voice of the ministering nature, is uttered forth and begets a word in another mind, being conveyed to that mind through the hearing of the one who receives it.

It begets a word in another mind, not creating a word within the other, but giving, so to speak, the power of form and shape, for the shaping of a concept in the hearer.

QUESTION: From the oration on peace of the same St. Gregory.

"A perfect Triad out of three perfect things: the Monad set in motion on account of its richness, the Dyad transcended on account of matter and form (from which also bodies come), the Triad determined on account of perfection;"

"for it is the first to transcend the composition of the Dyad."

ANSWER: Here he does not posit a cause for the being of the divine and blessed Trinity — which is above cause and rational account — but a cause for our guidance toward the truest piety concerning the Holy Trinity.

For just as we conceive the Creator from the essence of the things that exist, so also we are mystically taught the mode of existence of the ineffable Godhead from certain symbols pertaining to existing things — it being clear that the holy Godhead itself moves us to the knowledge of itself and provides pious occasions for us to dare to examine the mode of its supernatural existence.

It is said, therefore, to be "moved" either on account of us who are moved toward it, or as the cause of our motion toward the knowledge of it.

This is what is meant by "the Monad having been set in motion."

And "the Triad determined on account of perfection" is said because Being itself is not outside of wisdom and life;

understanding which, we have determined Wisdom to be the Son and Word of God, and Life to be the Holy Spirit, since our soul also, created according to the image of God, is beheld in these three: mind, and word, and spirit.

QUESTION: What does the saying in Ezra mean, "Terrify them by the law of the Lord"? ANSWER: "Terrify" is said in the sense of "strike them with dread" — not from the goods that have been promised, but from the fearful things that have been threatened;

for this is servile, and fitting for the Jews.

QUESTION: From the "Ethics" of St. Basil, on the first Psalm.

"...so that, as in a common infirmary for souls, all people, each of us, might choose the remedy for his own passion;

for," he says, "a remedy will cause great sins to cease."

For what reason did the teacher here not follow Scripture? For Scripture gave the remedy as letting the evil thought that has intruded pass by and not admitting it, whereas he applied the term to healing.

ANSWER: Since every beginning has an end also, and every statement has an implied counterpart, and every operation has an effect, the more exact of the teachers often make the beginning of their own discourse from the effects, just as the teacher did here as well;

for indeed the end of letting the evil pass by and not admitting it is healing and health.

"The prophets, then, teach some things, and the historians other things, and the law yet other things, and the form of proverbial exhortation is different again."

ANSWER: The prophets teach things foreknown; the historians teach the remembrance and setting-forth of good deeds; the law teaches the knowledge of good and evil;

and the form of proverbial exhortation offers counsel for the gnomic will, that is, it sets down the manners of what is to be done.

"And somewhere someone, of those exceedingly brutalized by anger, when he begins to be charmed by the psalm, straightway the wildness of his soul departs, lulled to sleep by the melody."

ANSWER: The teacher spoke not concerning the one who simply chants, but concerning the one who knows how to chant;

for thus also Elisha sought from the kings a young man who knew how to play, that is, one who understood, and was able, through the mediation of the spoken word, to convey the indwelling meaning to the soul and imprint it there.

"A weapon amid nocturnal fears, a rest from daily labors."

He called "night" the hidden, deceitful assaults of the enemy, and "day" the acknowledged and manifest temptations.

The one, then, who has received the settled state of divine knowledge, and is ignorant of none of the enemy's devices, fears nothing of the enemy's hidden assaults;

for fear is nothing other than an anticipated evil.

But indeed he also considers the labors endured for the sake of acknowledged temptations to be "rest," because of the trial that arises in the soul from its struggle with them, and the blessed expectation, hoped for from this, of the crown of incorruption.

QUESTION: From the Apostle, to the Romans:

"For God has shut up all together into disobedience."

ANSWER: Just as a master pursues his own animal that has run off and gone astray, and when he has hemmed it in together with those pursuing it, and finds it wounded, he tends to it — so also the Word of God, having become man, "shut in" — that is, "overtook" — and found all disobedient and sinful, and, having had mercy, saved them.

"But he who is weak eats vegetables."

ANSWER: This was not said by the Apostle concerning bodily illness — for he always rejoiced in the illnesses of the body — but he commands the one who is weak in soul to eat vegetables, that is, foods that are plain and frugal and easily prepared and do not fatten the flesh.

This, then, is the plain sense.

But according to contemplation, he is weak and eats vegetables who is unable to ascend to the height of knowledge and, like Moses, to draw near to the very cloud where God is, but is still, whether being one of the people or even one of these loftier ones, the seventy elders, nourished — in the manner of vegetables — on the contemplation of nature.

"For I say that Christ has become a minister of the circumcision for the sake of truth."

For without seed was he conceived, and without corruption was he born.

"And do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to be roused from sleep."

By "time" he means the time of the evangelical proclamation, and that it is necessary that those who have believed and been justified should ardently hold fast to the virtues, for the safeguarding of the justification that comes from faith and grace; and that those who are asleep through the inactivity of the commandments, having the mind inoperative toward spiritual and divine things, should be roused in heart and keep the mind wakeful toward the heavenly and intelligible beauties, having lulled every sense-perception to sleep with regard to sensible things, so that it may be possible for us to say, with Solomon, "I sleep, but my heart is awake."

"If the dead are not raised at all, why then are people even baptized on their behalf?" ANSWER: Since he speaks concerning dead bodies — for these are the things that fall and rise again — and we are baptized for the resurrection of these; for baptism bears the type of burial and resurrection;

for the going down and the coming up signify this. The Apostle, silencing those who wavered concerning the resurrection, said:

"Why then are they baptized on their behalf?" For the one who here fulfills the type of burial and resurrection through baptism will await, in its own proper time, the complete resurrection that is to be in truth.

QUESTION: What does the sheet shown to Peter in Acts signify, and the wild beasts and creeping things and four-footed animals that were in it? ANSWER: Since, according to what was seen by the prophet Ezekiel, their work was "as a wheel within a wheel," and by this is signified that the sensible and the intelligible world exist within one another — for the intelligible world is in the sensible world by way of types, and the sensible world is in the intelligible world by its inner principle — there was shown, then, to the Apostle everything belonging to the sensible world;

for that which was let down by four corners signifies the world composed of the four elements, existing purely in the intelligible realm according to the inner principle inherent within them.

And he heard, "Rise, kill, and eat" — that is, "Rise up in mind from the things pertaining to sense-perception, and kill and eat," dividing sense-perception by the division belonging to reason, and, taking these up spiritually, make them your own.

Or it also signifies the Church, established upon the four corners of the Gospels, or also upon the four generic virtues.

And the wild beasts and creeping things signify the various characters of men, from among the nations, who are about to come over to the faith of Christ.

And "kill and eat" signifies that first, by the word of teaching, you must kill the evil that is in them, and then eat, appropriating their salvation to yourself, just as the Lord also made this his own food.

QUESTION: What does the number of the fifty thousand burned books signify in the same Acts? ANSWER: Since the number of the myriad is the end of every number, it is signified by this that the end of all magic and vain sorcery is nothing other than the deception of the senses, which those who discern it burn up with the fire of apostolic teaching.

Since our Lord Jesus Christ, being God by nature, having taken up our flesh, became in truth alone truly man, alone having kept in himself the purpose of God, which he spoke: "Let us make man according to our image and likeness" — and just as the first man was fashioned by the divine hands, so also the Lord, dying that death on man's behalf, alone and first laid down his own soul into the Father's hands.

And just as he was and became the only-begotten and firstborn among many brethren, so also he alone and first accepted to undergo the death that destroys death, so that he might become also the firstborn from the dead, and himself hold first place in all things.

And the robbers are taken to represent our nature, divided into the righteous and sinners.

And the breaking of the legs signifies that all men, when they die, are found not without transgressions and the crushing of sin, but the Lord alone died whole and without any sin whatsoever.

And with regard to each individual, the robbers are understood in many ways.

For they are taken both with reference to body and soul, and to the fleshly and the spiritual mind-set, but also to anger and desire, and to the sensible world and the intelligible, and to the written law and that of grace.

And since, whether we sin or act righteously, the Word, condescending, is ever crucified in our midst, therefore whenever through our evildoing and ignorance we render the Word inoperative and inclined downward, immediately the demons, leaping upon them, shatter our soul's powers of advance and passage.

QUESTION: What is the discrepancy among the things recorded in Acts concerning Paul's vision? For in the vision on the road, Luke relates that those who were with him heard the voice but saw no one;

but when Paul, on the steps, recounts the same vision, he says that those who were with him saw the light but did not hear the voice of him who spoke.