Letters 1 part 6/17

For he was not deemed worthy to see your face, nor was any other among men, lest he die.

You, then, the incomprehensible, you the ineffable alone, you who cannot be contained by anyone and are unapproachable to all — how am I deemed worthy both to hold you and to embrace you and to see you and to eat you and to have you in my heart, Christ, and yet remain unburned, rejoicing and trembling at once, and hymning your great love for mankind, Christ?

The blind, therefore, and carnal, who do not know you, devoid of perception — or rather displaying their own weakness and darkening and deprivation of all good things, my Savior — how do they dare to say: What need has a man to hold the priesthood, unless he gains one of these three things — either the nourishment of the body, or the acquisition of gold, or a lofty throne of a wealthy episcopate?

O darkness, O hardness of heart, O extreme poverty, O great wretchedness, O great ignorance, O earthly and empty, vain names, O boldness, O mindset of Judas the betrayer!

For as to him the awesome things of the Master's supper and the undefiled body were counted as nothing, but he judged a few pieces of silver better, so also these men, preferring corruptible things to the incorruptible and divine, choose the strangling of the soul.

Tell me, O vain ones, if you know this!

...of any of the good things of the present age?

Who, having the grace of the Spirit in his heart, does not possess the venerable Trinity dwelling within him (...), the Trinity that illumines and deifies?

Or what more splendid thing could he desire in life — reckon it — in this short-lived one, or in the other, consider it for me, which has no end?

If you knew the hidden depth of the mysteries, you would not compel me to speak or write these things.

For I shudder with reverence as I engrave the divine things and outline in letters, for all to see, the things that are unutterable.

If you had beheld Christ, if you had received the Spirit and been brought near to the Father through these two, you would know what I speak and what I explain to you, and that it is a great and awesome thing, beyond all glory and splendor, rule and authority, wealth and power and every kingdom, to minister with a pure conscience of heart to the pure and Holy and undefiled Trinity.

Do not, then, speak to me of sinlessness of the body, and bring forth testimonies whose depth you do not understand, but hear what God said through the Apostles, and the plain testimonies of Basil the wise, of the fiery tongue, and of Father Chrysostom, and of Gregory who theologizes well on these matters, and be persuaded what sort of person he who ministers to God, the maker of all things, must be!

And from the worthiness you have received and from your own virtue you have cause to marvel at the greatness of this dignity.

(...) Do not be deceived, brothers, do not dare at all to touch or approach the unapproachable nature.

Whoever does not become deaf and blind to the affairs and customs of the world, in deeds and words — seeing indeed what the eye by nature is able to see, yet allowing nothing of it to enter within into the heart, so that their impressions and forms be pictured there; and hearing what human hearing receives, yet remaining like a soulless and unperceiving stone, remembering neither the sound nor the force of the words — that one cannot purely offer to God, who is pure by nature, the mystical and bloodless sacrifice.

For when he perceives himself doing these things in truth, he has been separated from the whole world and from the things of the world, and he will know and believe me as to what I am about to write again.

The dark air, which David calls a wall and which the Fathers named the sea of life, he has passed over, he has crossed through, he has entered into the harbor, in which everyone who arrives finds every good thing.

For there is paradise, there the tree of life, there the sweet bread, there the divine drink, there the inexhaustible wealth of the gifts.

There the bush burns without being consumed, and the sandals are immediately loosed from my feet; (...) there the sea is broken apart and I pass through alone, and I see enemies drowning in the waters; there I behold the tree cast into my heart, and all bitter things are transformed; there I have reaped the honey that the rock pours forth, and my soul has since had no share in affliction; there I have found Christ, the giver of these things, and I have followed him with my whole soul; there I have eaten the manna and the bread of angels, and I have desired nothing human any longer; there I have seen the dry rod of Aaron blossoming, and I have marveled at the wonders of God; there I have seen my barren soul bearing fruit, and how the dry tree produces beautiful fruit; there I have beheld my muddy and dissolute heart made pure and chaste and virgin, and heard: 'Hail, full of grace, for the Lord is with you and in you forever!'

There I heard, 'Wash yourself,' in the pool of tears!

There I was buried in a tomb of perfect humility, and Christ came in immeasurable mercy and lifted the heavy stone of my evils from there, and said: 'Come, go out as from the tomb of the world!'

There I saw how my God suffered impassibly, and how, though being immortal, he became dead, and rose from the tomb without breaking the seals.

There I saw the life and incorruption to come, (...) which Christ grants to those who seek him, and I found the kingdom of heaven existing within me — which is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, an undivided godhead in three persons. Those who have not preferred this above the whole world, and who have not counted it glory and honor and wealth merely to worship it, to minister to it, and to stand before it, are unworthy — unworthy also of the undefiled vision, and of the delight and the joy and all good things, of which they shall in no way partake, having not obtained repentance, unless they become, as we have said, taught in all things and zealously do all that my God has commanded; and even then only scarcely, with much fear and reverence, if God should so command, let one touch the untouchable things.

For it is not permitted to all to minister these things; but even if one receives the whole grace of the Spirit and is pure from sin from his mother's womb, unless it be by God's command and his election — God fully assuring his soul with divine illumination and inflaming it with desire for divine love — it does not seem to me reasonable for him to perform the sacred rites of the divine things and to touch the untouchable and awesome mysteries, to whom belongs all glory and honor and worship, now and always, forever, unto all the ages.

You who are wrapped in unapproachable light, and yet were considered by all to be circumscribable — you who are altogether uncontainable, whom no word at all has the power to express, but the mind, straining, grasps you with desire, yet is not able to hold you, being drawn back by fear, and again seeks, burning within; and having glimpsed a little of your radiance, it is sent away trembling, and rejoices with joy.

For human nature is not able to bear to behold you wholly and clearly, my Christ, even though we believe that we receive you wholly from the Spirit, whom you give, my God, and from your undefiled blood and flesh, in partaking of which we confess that we hold and eat you undividedly, O God, and without confusion; for you do not partake of corruption or defilement, but you impart to me, O Word, your incorruptible purity, (...) and you wash away the filth of my evils, and drive out the darkness of my sins, and cleanse the shame of my heart, and thin the thickness of my wickedness, and make me light, who was formerly darkened, and render me beautiful in both respects; you shine round about me with the radiance of immortality, and I am astonished and burn within, desiring to worship you yourself.

But when I, the wretched one, consider this — O the wonder! — I find you remaining within me, moving, speaking, and then rendering me speechless by the astonishment of your unapproachable glory.

But what is this strange thing of your mercy, my Christ? What is this immeasurable condescension, O Word?

Why have you come to my poverty, and how have you entered into a defiled house, you who dwell in unapproachable light, my God?

...being fire unbearable to mortal nature?

What shall I offer you, who have glorified me, the unworthy one, with such glory and honor?

For him whom men deem unworthy even to look upon — nay, they are not willing at all to speak with me or to feast together with me, the most wretched one — you, who nourish all breath and nature, (...) who are unapproachable even to the Seraphim, the creator, maker, and master of all, not only see and speak to me and nourish me, but have also deemed me worthy to hold and eat your flesh substantially, and to drink your all-holy blood, which was poured out for me when you were slain.

You have appointed me a deacon, minister, and mystagogue of these things — me, whom you knew, you who know all things, before you made the ages and before you produced any of the things unseen (for the visible things you established afterward) — me, the sinner, the profligate, the tax-collector, robber, one who became a murderer of my own self, a liar to good things, a worker of lawlessness and a transgressor of all your commandments.

You, therefore, know that these things are true; how shall I be seen before you, my Christ, and how shall I draw near to your table?

How shall I hold your undefiled body, I who have hands stained in every way?

How shall I hymn you, how shall I intercede for others, since I do not have, from faith and good works, love toward you and boldness, but am myself indebted, as you know, for many talents, for many lawless deeds?

My mind is at a loss, my tongue has grown weak, and no word can be found by me, Savior, to declare the works of your goodness, which you have done for me, your servant.

...the great weight of your many gifts.

You who made the sparrows speak with voices, grant also to me, the most wretched one, a word, that I may recount to all, in writing and unwritten, the things you have wrought in me through infinite mercy, my God, and through your love for mankind alone.

For truly beyond mind are the awesome and great things which you have granted to me, the stranger, the unlearned, the poor, the one without boldness of speech, the one rejected by every man.

My parents did not attend to me with natural love; my brothers and all my friends mocked me; for saying that they loved me, they lied completely.

My relatives, those outside, the rulers of the world, turned away from me, and could endure to look at me only so far as it might serve to destroy me together with themselves through their impieties.

Often I desired glory without sin, and I have not yet found it in this present life; for worldly glory, as I have been assured, even apart from any other deed, is itself a sin.

How many times I desired that men love me and that I have the boldness of intimacy toward them, and none of those who thought well of virtue could bear with me; but others, rather, wanted to see me and know me, and I fled from these as workers of evil.

All these things, therefore, Master, and others more than these, which I am not even able to tell or to remember, you have wrought toward me, the profligate, by your providence, that you might draw me out of the depth and worldly darkness (...) and out of the terrible deceit of the pleasures of this life.

The good fled from me because of my outward appearance, while I fled from the base by my own choice; for I loved, as has been said, the glory and wealth of the world, and the show of clothing, and habits of foolishness.

I do not know what I shall utter, I do not know what to say to you; for I fear both to speak and to write such things, lest I fall into my own words and sin, and what has been falsely written become indelible.

...and as it were, hiding herself in shame, she was held invisibly, wholly, by your divine hand.

The abominable deeds and licentious desires you indeed wiped away from my heart, my God, and you produced hatred toward these things in my soul; even though by my own choice I was inclined toward them, you made me have, rather, desire without action and actions without desire — a very great wonder in every way — and by divine dispensation you separated me from all: kings, rulers, and the wealthy of the world.

Though many often urged this, and I myself too often desired it, you yourself did not allow any counsel to prevail in these matters. Others, who spoke of glorifying and enriching me in this life, I hated, Master, hated from the heart, so that I never even sought any meeting with them; and they, becoming enraged, struck me violently with clubs. Others reviled me before everyone (...), saying I was a worker of every lawlessness, wishing to turn me aside from the straight path; for I fled from evil deeds, so that I might not be reviled, but they reviled me precisely so that I might come to such deeds — in case, perhaps, I might also crave the praise of men; and they added, saying they would always revile me, until I should fall in with their way of thinking.

But to those who spoke of giving me the glory of the world you have given me to answer thus, my Savior: 'If you held all the glory of the world,' I would say, 'and a royal crown were on your head, and scarlet were bound upon your feet, and if you suddenly made me lord of all these things, while you yourself stood as a commoner, wishing to be my slave, I would not at all share in your wickedness and your thoughts, nor would I go along with you in life.'

What paper could contain your benefactions and the many good things you have wrought for me?

...and I am weak in thought, my heart aches, because I am not able to speak concerning you, my God.

For when I, the wretched one, recall what I did, how much you helped me, out of what and how many evils, Savior, which I committed, you rescued me — yet you received me as one who had done many great good things, and as pure from the holy font, my mother; so you welcomed me, so you honored me, so you arrayed me in the royal robe — (...) I am wholly seized with trembling, and beside myself with joy, and I become speechless, and utterly undone, because a god was given to me, the maker of the world — to a man exceedingly abominable and detestable to all men and demons alike, as one who had already become and surpassed even them in the most monstrous deeds.

Woe is me, the shameful and filthy one — how shall I speak?

And I longed always to hear a word about you, and I wished to hold remembrance of you in my soul, and to speak and hear about you yet more often.

For even if formerly my mind could not purely form an image of you, being wholly defiled, nor could my eyes behold you or my hearing hear you, nor could my heart receive divine ascents concerning you, but at the mere report of you my whole heart was struck with astonishment, and my soul contracted with fear and trembling — yet now, beholding you from within, it is amazed at itself, and mirroring you, so far as you grant it, wholly within the whole universe, and wholly outside of this, and again wholly within itself, perceiving you wholly though wholly incomprehensible in your divine godhead — you who are invisible to all and hidden, you the inaccessible, yet accessible to those alone to whom you have willed, even as you yourself willed in your love for mankind to appear; you who are inaccessible and terrible to the Seraphim and Cherubim and all the angels by the radiance of your divine nature, yet accessible among men, though by nature ungraspable — it is wholly and utterly beside itself, and it is struck with still greater amazement at your goodness and your love for mankind, because you cleanse defiled souls and illumine the mind, and you take hold of what is earthy and material substance, and you kindle a great flame of divine love and cast into me, as it were fire, the longing of divine desire, and you prepare me to reach even to the third heaven, and you cause me, O Savior, to be caught up into paradise, where I hear words unutterable and strange, which it is not permitted for mortals to speak or to explain in word.

To you belongs honor, glory and majesty, eternal dominion, O Christ, Master of all, together with the Father and the Spirit who is by nature all-holy, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

A Letter to a monk who asked: "In what way do you distinguish the Son from the Father — in thought, or in reality?"

In which you will find a wealth of theology overturning his blasphemy.

You have shone forth, you have revealed the light of glory, the inaccessible light of your essence, O Savior, and you have illumined a soul that was darkened — or rather, that was darkness itself from sin, having lost its natural beauty — and as it lay prostrate you have raised it up from Hades, and you have granted it to see the light of the divine day and to be illumined by the rays of the sun and to become light itself — O great wonder!

Those who have not despised the glory of men, as you commanded, do not believe this, for they have not tasted the divine glory which you have given, and now give, my God, to those who seek you from the soul with the whole disposition of their heart — the eternal glory, you, the truly glorified God, whom to behold is the very summit of glory.

But he who has been deemed worthy to behold you always has certainly obtained an angelic dignity, even though by nature he is still bound to the flesh.

And if you have deigned to abide with him, and have willed also that he abide continually in you, you have fulfilled your dispensation, and you have made corruptible man a god like yourself — O God, who coexist by nature, who are without beginning together with God the co-unoriginate Son and Word, who was begotten of you, not separated from you in thought, but being in reality inseparable from you.

But if he is indeed distinguished, it is not in nature, but rather in hypostasis — that is to say, in person; for to distinguish him in reality belongs to the impious and godless, while to distinguish him only in thought belongs to those wholly darkened in mind.

And he is distinguished by a real, hypostatic mode, and yet he also remains within the One who begot him — which one must understand as the bosom of the Father — and he passes through into the whole world and fills all things, wholly apart from the Father in that going-forth, and yet he himself exists wholly together with the Father; and he is understood to pass through entirely by his energies, and to move by illumination.

For you have heard that Scripture speaks of God as walking about and remaining, and turning away his face and looking, and descending and ascending again, and coming and departing once more, and many other things pertaining to the divine energy — all the divine Scriptures proclaim these things, which the all-holy Spirit spoke, having proceeded ineffably from the Father, and was sent through the Son to men: not to the unbelieving, nor to the lovers of glory; not to orators, nor to philosophers; not to those who have learned the writings of the Greeks; not to those who are ignorant of the Scriptures within; not to those who have practiced a theatrical life; not to those who speak in polished and elaborate turns of phrase; not to those who have obtained great titles; not to those who have happened to be loved by the famous; not to those who have collaborated with the lawless; not to those who summon, nor to those who are summoned; nor to those who jest, nor to those who are made sport of; but to those who are poor in spirit and in life, to those pure in heart and in body, to those who possess simple speech and a simpler life and a simpler disposition, to those who flee glory as the fire of Gehenna and hate flatterers from the soul (for the Spirit does not receive flattery, nor does it endure to hear what is not true), to those who look only to the glory of the soul and to the salvation of all the brothers, and who, by not even the slightest movement of the heart, take any conscious perception toward anything of the world — such as praise, or human glory, or any other pleasure or passion.

For these are dead, and yet living in truth, since they are true even while accounted as deceivers.

These are humble in spirit and in heart, and they are gentle, and zealous for the Lord.

These are impious to the impious, and a fragrance of life to the elect of the Lord.

These are also reckoned as fornicators by the fornicators at heart, and equal to angels by those who are virgins in soul.

These are humbled even in the midst of glory, and are glorified even in poverty.

These consider meanness as a kingdom, and a kingdom as poverty.

These, while eating, are in self-control, and while fasting, are filled with every good thing.

These do not consent to injustice, nor can they overlook one who is afflicted and oppressed by the rich.

These have no regard for the face of men, for they behold the face of the Lord.

These are not bent in heart by gifts, and they do not overlook the law of righteousness, for they possess the wealth that cannot be plundered, and they reckon all the things of the world as dung.

These, having the Spirit as their teacher, have no need of instruction from men, but being illumined by his light, they see the Son, they behold the Father, and they worship the Trinity in its persons, the one God united ineffably in nature.

These are initiated, in turn, from the Father, into the mystery that the Son is begotten indivisibly, as he alone knows — for I am not able to say more; for if I were able, then surely speech would have the power to express what is beyond speech and understanding, and all things would be turned upside down.

For if the creature should fully learn the Creator, and comprehend wholly what he is, and be able to express it in speech and set it in writing, then the work would have become greater than the one who made it.

And if you are able to know the height of heaven, or to show what its substance is, and of the sun, moon, and stars — where they are fixed, and how, being lifeless, they move without sense-perception — or if you know the boundaries and measures of the earth itself, from which you yourself were taken, its breadth and its magnitude, and upon what it is set — if you have seen this, and again, what that foundation is, or where it has its base — if you have learned these things and found the end of each, and if you can measure the sand of the sea, or discern your own nature and interpret the work of wisdom that made you, then you will also comprehend the Maker himself, how in the Trinity the Monad exists without confusion, and in the Monad the Trinity exists without division.

Seek the Spirit; become outside the world!

Give no sleep at all to your eyes, nor take thought for the present life!

Weep, mourn the time you have lost!

Perhaps God will be moved to compassion and will grant — just as formerly he granted you to see the world and the sun and the light of day — so also now he will deem it worthy to shine forth and to reveal to you the noetic world, and to illumine you with the light of the thrice-sun; and if you behold this, then you will know what I say; then you will learn the grace of the Spirit, that even when absent he is present in power, and even when present he is not seen in his divine nature, but he exists both everywhere and nowhere.

If you seek to see this with the senses, where could you find it?

But if you are able to look up noetically — or rather, if that light shines upon your mind and opens the pupils of your heart — then you will not deny that it is everywhere, but through it you will be taught all things, even though you happen to be unlearned and uncultivated.

If you have not consciously perceived the divine sweetness, if you have not been illumined by the divine Spirit, if you have not wept tears without pain, if you have not beheld your mind in amazement, if you have not known your heart purified and radiant with bright reflections, and if you have not unexpectedly found Christ within you, and been struck with wonder at beholding the divine beauty, and forgotten human nature, seeing yourself wholly transformed — tell me, do you not shudder to speak of God?

How then do you dare, being yourself wholly flesh and not yet having become spirit as Paul was, to philosophize or speak concerning the Spirit — which, as you hear, does not dwell in such as you, because they are flesh, as it is written?

But I have written these things so that you may know how I believe, and, if you are willing, that you may be persuaded by me and grow sorrowful.

For if you truly do not have the treasure which the world cannot contain, if you have not yet received the glory of the fishermen — which those who received God truly received — then leave the world and the things in the world, make haste, run, before the gates of life are closed to you and before this present theater ends, and the festival is dissolved — alas! — and the sun and the stars are darkened, and the earth passes away, and Hades is opened, and everything becomes darkness and chaos; and then you will know, O beloved soul, and learn, that those who do not have the divine Spirit shining in the mind like a lamp, and dwelling ineffably in the heart, are sent away into eternal darkness.

For indeed the Lord is the Spirit, and the Father of the Lord, God, is Spirit; and it is altogether one Spirit, for it is not divided.

He who truly has this Spirit has the three, yet without confusion, even though without division.

For he is Father; how then could he be the Son?

For he is unbegotten as to essence, and he is also Son; how then could he become the Spirit?

The Spirit is Spirit; how then could he appear as Father?

The Father is Father, because he is ever the begetter; but how does this ever-begetting come to be?

Because he is not at all separated from the Father, and he wholly proceeds inexplicably; he always remains in the paternal bosom, and he always proceeds ineffably.

The Son is seen begotten in the Father everlastingly, yet united with him; and indeed the Father also is beheld in the Son, without interval, without division, without separation.

The Son is Son, because he is ever begotten and has been begotten before the ages; in proceeding forth he is not cut off from the root, but even apart he is found inseparable, and wholly united to the living Father, he himself being life, granting life to all.

Whatever the Father is, the Son is likewise these same things; whatever the Son is, the Father is the same.

I see the Son, and I see the Father; the Father is seen in the Son without variation — except that the one begets, while the other is ever begotten.

What is there, apart from the Father, that he is?

I have been brought down from the heights to lowly things, and I have become grieved toward myself, and I have wept for the race of men, because they seek strange examples, both of thought and of fact, and they introduce expressions drawn from human affairs, supposing thereby to picture forth the divine nature — a nature which no one, whether of angels or of men, has been able either to behold or to name.

For names and things and expressions, all have come to be by the command of God; for he assigned names to his works, and to each thing its own designation — not assigning all of them himself, but he also granted to his works the capacity again to assign names to other works; and one thing both names and is named by another — yet his own name has not yet been made known to us, except that he is 'He Who Is,' the ineffable God, as he said.

If, then, he is ineffable, if he has no name, if he is invisible, if he is hidden, if he is inaccessible, if he alone is beyond speech, beyond understanding — not only human understanding, but even that of the immaterial minds — for he has set darkness as his hiding place, and all other things exist on this side of that darkness, while he alone, as light, exists outside the darkness — how then do you introduce a merely conceptual distinction concerning him, or how have you beheld him separated in reality?

But if these are not your own words, but another's, I marvel whose they are, and I ask you to teach me: are they of an angel, or of one of the immaterial beings?

For they behold not the nature, but the glory of the glory.

But of what man will you dare to say it is?

Of John, or of the great Paul?

But the one cries out and proclaims to all that he is not worthy even to loose the thong or strap of his sandals; and the other, when he was caught up to the third heaven, and after this was taken up into paradise — did he perhaps say something to you alone, in private, which you have been keeping hidden and now wish to proclaim?

But he too cries out with a loud voice, saying: 'I heard words which I am not able to utter'; and 'God dwells in unapproachable light.'

John, then, does not loose the strap, nor is he even able to loose the thong alone; Paul was not able to express in words what he heard, calling these things unutterable — who, then, having so searched out God, and having remained unburned in the unapproachable light, and having entered into the very midst of the house, has beheld the very nature of the Master himself, that this wretched man should dare to say something more than John and Paul?

For who will not shudder, and who will not mourn the blindness and darkening of those who now speak thus and who fabricate anew a truly strange heresy, casting down together into one abyss both those who ask and those who are asked?

For whether they separate the Word in thought, or in reality, they err ill-mindedly, falling into heresy on both counts; for to separate him in reality effects a division of the Word, while to separate him only in thought produces confusion, as though he were not distinguished at all.

Shudder, O man; come to know yourself; speak about yourself — speak, if indeed you wish to say anything at all!