Theological and Ethical Discourses 1 part 13/27

And who is equal to Paul, O you arrogant and reckless man, he says, that you would put him on a level with us mere men?

To this it is not we, but Paul himself, who cries out with a loud voice, saying:

Christ came—hear!—to save sinners, of whom I am first.

He, then, was first among the sinners being saved;

and thus you will honor Paul, just as he himself says:

I wished all to be as I myself am.

If, then, you wish to praise Paul or to honor him, imitate him;

and become such as he was in faith, you too, and then you will truly honor him, and he too will welcome you and will count you as his own glory and crown of boasting, because, having been persuaded by his words and having followed him, you too became his imitator and became such as he was.

But if you say that it would be a dishonor to Paul for another to become equal to him, and for this reason you neglect and despise your own salvation, know that, since you are deceiving yourself, he will rather reject you, and for this reason he himself will abhor you.

Do you wish, then, that I show you that you will honor him all the more greatly, and gladden and glorify him, if you should be able to become greater than he and closer in kinship to God?

Hear him presenting this very thing and saying:

I could wish that I myself were accursed, cut off from Christ, for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

He chose to be utterly separated from Christ, that you might be saved, and yet you say that he will consider it a dishonor if I, too, should will and hasten to become as he was?

No, brother, there is no envy among the saints of God; there is in them no desire or craving for preeminence or greater glory.

But those who behold him are free from all curious meddling.

For they are no longer able to look toward or turn back to anything of this life, or to any other man, or to think at all of anything foreign to them, but their mind has been set free from becoming attached to anything;

for this reason they also remain unchangeable for ages, and are unable to turn back toward evil.

But let me ask you, and answer me with understanding.

Whence did those who wrote these things know them, and whence does he who now writes them understand them?

You tell me, so that I may not again seem to you to be speaking out of vainglory:

Alas, that not even through your hearing does sight come about, but you remain hearing and seeing not at all.

Do you say that these words are a man's?

If they are a man's, you must certainly be able to say of what sort, since a man is able to know or declare, not only the reasonings and dispositions of another man, but not even the impulses or moods or inward state of soul of a beast;

For no one knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man that dwells within him.

But if it is difficult for a man to know well the dispositions and impulses of another man, or even of irrational beasts, how—or whence—could anyone know the things of God, that is, the transformation and state that comes upon the saints from the vision of him, not to speak now of the activity that attends it?

Moreover, if the words are a man's, then clearly the thoughts too are a man's.

But the thoughts contained in these should not be called thoughts, but rather a vision of the things that truly are;

for it is from the vision of those realities that we speak;

and what is said ought rather to be called a narration of things seen, whereas that alone deserves to be called a thought which is a mental conception generated by the mind concerning some thing or purpose that has no real subsistence—such as the intention to do something good or evil which has not yet been carried out by us—which conception is then brought forth from the thought into deed, so that the thought is the beginning of a thing about to be done by us, according to the saying:

First he conceived the angelic and heavenly powers, and the conception was already a deed.

But consider that all our words are not at all about things without real subsistence or unclear matters, but about things already coming to be and about to come to be, and that the whole explanation concerning these arises rather from the seeing and the beholding of them.

For it is altogether necessary for anyone explaining some matter—say, for instance, a house, or a city, or some palace and the order and arrangement within it, or again some theater and the things performed in it—first to see and to learn thoroughly the things therein, and only then to speak, with careful aim and reasoning, about that which he wishes to describe.

Since, if he has not seen it beforehand, what could he say merely out of his own head?

Tell me, what reflection or natural talent or learning, what prudence, consideration, thought, or reasoning will anyone find suitable for that concerning which he does not know how to speak?

For to speak about things one does not know or has not seen is altogether unreasonable and unlearned.

If, then, no one can say or relate anything about visible and earthly things unless he has become an eyewitness of the matter, how, brothers, could anyone have the strength to speak or relate concerning God and divine matters, and concerning God's own saints and servants — what entire relationship they have had toward God, and what the vision of God is that comes to be in them ineffably?

This vision produces in their hearts, in a manner beyond speech, a noetic energy, even though human reason grants one no more to say, unless it has first been illumined with the light of knowledge, according to the commandment that bids this.

But when you hear 'the light of knowledge' — that we may guide you by light in all things — do not suppose that it is merely the knowledge of things spoken of apart from light,

but namely of that light which produces knowledge in us;

for otherwise it is not possible for anyone to know God, except through the contemplation of the light sent forth from him.

For just as one who relates to others things concerning a man or a certain city speaks to them of what he himself has seen and beheld, while those who hear, not having beheld the man or the city about which they are hearing, cannot from hearing alone — as can the one who saw and relates the things concerning the man — know also the things concerning the city, so too concerning the Jerusalem above, and the invisible God who dwells in it, concerning the inaccessible glory of his face, and concerning the energy and power of his all-holy Spirit — that is, of the light — no one can speak, unless he first sees that very light with the eyes of the soul and accurately comes to know its illuminations and energies within it.

But if he should hear anything through the divine Scriptures, in which those who have seen God speak through them, he is taught by the Spirit only those very things;

hence he cannot even say that he has come to a knowledge of God through this hearing alone.

For how is it possible to know him whom one has not seen?

For if sight alone does not produce in us, mortal men, a perfect knowledge of the thing seen, how could hearing alone produce in us the knowledge of God?

God is light, and the vision of him is as light;

so in the vision of the light there is first the knowledge that it is God, just as with a man there is first hearing about him, then sight, and in seeing him the knowledge that he is the man of whom they had heard.

And yet not even so does the sense of what is being said come to rest there;

for whatever things someone may tell you by report concerning a man, when you see him, you cannot from the report alone recognize him precisely and be fully assured that he is the very one you had heard of; rather, the soul is divided by doubt, and either asks that very person or someone else who knows him, and only then do you learn with certainty that he is indeed that one.

So, then, it happens exactly the same way also concerning the invisible God.

For when someone beholds him having been revealed, he sees light;

he marvels indeed at seeing, but he does not at once know who it is that has appeared, nor does he even dare to ask him — for how could he, when he cannot even lift up his eyes and see what manner of one he is?

but he only looks, as it were, toward his feet, in trembling and great fear, knowing merely that someone has appeared before his face.

And if there happens to be someone who had previously explained these things to him, as one who already knew God, he goes to him and says:

'What did you see, child?' — 'Light, O father, sweet, sweet;'

as for what manner of light it was, father, I do not have a mind sufficient to tell you.

And as he says this, his heart leaps and throbs, and he is immediately kindled with longing for the one who appeared.

Then again he begins to speak, with many hot tears, as follows:

'That light appeared to me, father;

at once the walls of my cell were taken away, and the world passed away, fleeing, I think, from before his face;

and I remained alone, being alone together with the light.

But I do not know, father, whether this body of mine was even there at that moment;

for I do not know whether I had gone outside of it — at that time I was not even aware that I wear and carry about a body.

There was in me an ineffable joy, which even now abides with me, and great love and longing, so that the streams of my tears were set moving like rivers, just as even now, as you see.

So he, replying, says to him:

'My God, is it you?' And he answers and says:

'Yes, I am, God, who for your sake became man;

and behold, I have made you, as you see, and I will make you a god.'

When, then, he spends time mourning, weeping, prostrating himself, and being humbled, he begins little by little to know the things of God;

and having arrived at this, he then learns his holy, well-pleasing, and perfect will.

For if he does not see him — to say it again — neither can he know him;

and if he does not know him, how will he have the strength to know his holy will?

Therefore, as he progresses and becomes ever more closely united to God, from the things that come to pass in him from God he also comes to know both what God has done with all the saints who went before, and what he is about to do with those who come after.

Concerning the crowns and rewards to come, he is indeed taught, being initiated by God himself, inferring, of course, that these things are beyond mind, speech, and understanding;

and not only that, but he also clearly perceives what manner of persons he himself and all who are with him will be after the resurrection; yet he does not receive these things now, even though some have wrongly supposed that we say this.

For if we were to suppose that we receive everything here, then, according to them, we would also be denying the resurrection itself, the judgment and the recompense, and willingly casting away the hope of things to come.

But we neither think nor say this; rather, we vehemently subject to anathema those who say it.

Therefore we confess and say that even now, in this life, we already receive in some measure the pledges of all good things, but we hope to receive the whole after death, as it is written:

'but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.'

'Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been made manifest what we shall be;

but we know that, when he is manifested, we shall be like him.'

And so that we may turn the discourse into the form of question and answer, let us, as it were, ask the one who said this:

'From where, O beloved and friend of Christ, do you know that you will be like him?

Tell us, from where?' 'From the Spirit,' he says, 'which he has given us; by this we know that we are children of God and that God himself is in us, since he himself also told me these things with a mystical voice.'

But let us return to the matter at hand.

We said at the outset above that it is right to call those things our 'thoughts' when in our mind a reasoning concerning some good or evil matter is generated — for example, say, that I should acquire something, or do harm, or do good to someone — but that to speak concerning things already done or already seen is 'narration,' and not 'thought.'

Then again we said: concerning things, cities, theatres, or persons which one has not seen, how can he speak about them, or narrate their appearances, forms, and positions?

And if he should nonetheless speak, he would rightly be called a teller of myths by those who hear him.

The prophets and apostles, then, who spoke concerning the day of the Lord and concerning his glorious and terrible coming — that it will come as a thief in the night, and as birth pangs upon a woman in labor, and that he is revealed in fire — from whence did they learn these things, that they spoke them?

For certainly, either they heard it from someone, or they became eyewitnesses of that day.

Since, that which they did not see, and that which they did not hear another say, how could they have spoken it?

If, then, they heard it, tell me from whom;

for I am not yet, for now, saying that they themselves saw it and spoke, but that they heard it;

so tell me, then, if you know, from where they learned these things.

But if you do not know what to say, hear and know that they learned these things from the Holy Spirit, just as the Lord also told them:

'But when the Comforter comes, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and will remind you of all that I said to you.'

And that the Holy Spirit, coming upon the apostles, also taught and told them even the things Christ had not told them, the same Lord says:

'I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now;

but when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all the truth;

for he will not speak from himself, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things to come.'

'He will glorify me, because he will take of what is mine and declare it to you.'

You have learned, then, from whence those who wrote concerning that day and the appearing of the Lord, and concerning the things laid up and about to come upon sinners and the righteous, were taught.

So also concerning all the rest of the things not seen by us, they themselves, having been illumined through the Spirit, both saw and wrote at the same time.

But answer me, since I am asking.

What is the Holy Spirit?

God—from true God, confessedly true God.

You, then, as you see, call this one God, following the doctrines of the Church.

By saying and thinking this—that he is true God, proceeding from true God—you thereby establish that those who have the Holy Spirit confessedly have that very God abiding with them always, just as Christ said to the apostles:

'If you love me, you will keep my commandments;

and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever.'

Behold, then, you have been taught that he both abides and dwells in them unto endless ages;

for to say 'that he may abide with you forever' signifies that he will be with them eternally and unendingly, and be inseparable from them both in the present time and in the age to come.

And that the divine apostles, and as many as were counted worthy to receive it, actually saw the Holy Spirit, hear what follows:

'The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither beholds him nor knows him; but you know him, because he abides with you.'

And that you may know that those who love him and keep his commandments also see Christ, hear the Lord himself saying:

'He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me;

and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.'

Let it therefore be known to all Christians that Christ is truthful and true God, and that he confessedly manifests himself to those who show their love for him through the keeping of his commandments, just as he himself said:

and the Holy Spirit itself is given to them through his manifestation, and again, through the Holy Spirit, he himself and the Father abide with them inseparably.

But such men speak nothing of themselves;

and he who says that they speak something of themselves is thereby saying that it is possible for a man to know the things of man, and likewise for mere men to know the things of God;

but if this is not so, then he calls them liars and myth-mongers, as men not taught by Him, but teaching others, out of their own reasonings, concerning things they neither saw nor heard.

But one must know that, if these men too speak in accord with the God-bearing fathers who went before them, then clearly they too speak in the same Spirit; and those who disbelieve them, or even slander them, sin against him who speaks through them.

You have been taught, then, beloved, that the kingdom of heaven is within you, if you will, and that all the eternal goods are in your hands.

Hasten, then, to see and to receive and to acquire in yourself the goods that are laid up for you, and do not, by merely supposing that you possess them, be deprived of them all;

weep, fall down, just as the blind man once did—so do you also now, and say:

'Have mercy on me, Son of God, and open the eyes of my soul, that I may see the light of the world—you, who are God—and I too may become a son of the divine day;

and do not leave me, as unworthy, without a share in your Godhead, O Good One.'

'Send the Comforter, O Compassionate One, upon me also, that he may teach me the things concerning you and announce your things to me, O God of the universe.

Shine upon me with the true light, O tender-hearted One, that I may see your glory, which you had with your Father before the world came to be.

Abide, as you said, in me also.

Consent, O Invisible One, to be formed in me, that, beholding your inexpressible beauty, O Heavenly One, I may bear your image and forget all things visible.

Give me the glory which the Father gave you, O tender-hearted One, that I, like all your servants, may become a god by grace, and may be with you continually, now and always, and unto boundless ages. Amen.'

Yes, my beloved brother, believe and be persuaded that it is so, and this is our faith.

This, then, believe, brother, is what it means to be born again and renewed and to live the life in Christ.

Or do you not hear the great Basil saying, in his exhortatory discourse on the Lights:

'Do you not desire, O man, to see yourself becoming young from old?'—and Paul:

'If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;

the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.'

What, then, does he mean by 'all things'?

Has the sun, then, or the stars, or the sea, or anything visible become new and recent?

But you cannot say this;

for it was said with reference to us and for our sake.

These things, then, brothers, are the new creation in Christ;

these things are accomplished and come to pass daily among the true believers and elect, and, while still in the body, they become, as we have often said, partakers of all these things in part and knowingly;

and not only this, but they also hope, after death, to inherit these things completely and surely, becoming wholly present within the whole of the goods now partaken of in part.

For if we are indeed continually taught that we eat and drink Christ, and put him on, and see him, and are in turn seen by him, but we also know that we have him within us and that we in turn abide in him—so that he is our indweller, and we are his indwellers, he becoming, as it were, a house for us, just as we in turn become a house for him; and then we are his sons, and he becomes our Father; and he is a light shining in darkness, and we say that we see him, according to the saying, 'the people who sat in darkness saw a great light'—if, then, we say that all these things, and the rest, as has been shown, whatever the divine Scriptures teach us must come to pass in us in the present time of this present life, do not happen to us at all, or that they do happen, but mystically and imperceptibly, we ourselves knowing nothing of them, how do we differ from the dead?

Do not, then, surrender yourselves thus to unbelief and descend into the depth of perdition;

but even if until now you did not hope to receive a perception of such things and therefore asked for nothing, at least from now be fully assured—first believing these things to be true and in harmony with the divine Scriptures, going through all of them—that from here on the seal of the Holy Spirit is already given, knowingly, to us the faithful.

And having believed, so pursue that you may lay hold; so fight as not beating the air;

and besides this, ask, and it shall be given to you;

knock, and it shall be opened to you, whether here or in the age to come.

And so, through these and such means, run, fight, pursue, seek, knock, ask, turning aside toward nothing else, until you lay hold, until you grasp, until you receive, until it is opened to you and you enter, until within the bridal chamber you behold the Bridegroom, until you hear:

'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a little, I will set you over much'—until you become sons of light and sons of the day.

you shamelessly give yourselves over to such contrivances.

But take heed to yourselves, I beseech you—minding the things above, seeking the things above, longing for the things above—caring for nothing earthly before you have received those things.

Yes, let us despise all visible things, I beg your love;

let us strip off all things human, let us abhor all passionate and harmful things, that we may attain both the goods that are here and those that are to come, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom belongs all glory, honor, and worship, together with the Father without beginning, and the all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, the one thrice-holy Light, now and always, and unto the ages of ages;

On Dispassion and the Virtuous Life

And how one must cut off one's own will and ascend to the height of perfection

And concerning the conjoining of God with the soul, and of the soul with the body, and the paradoxical union of the three

Having often conversed with many people in the world, and certain debates having arisen among us concerning passion, I mean, and dispassion, I have heard almost everyone saying so—not only those imperfect in virtue and piety, but even those who seem to be perfect in virtue and who bear great names and reputation in the world—that it is not possible for a man to reach such a height of dispassion that he could converse and dine together with women and suffer no harm at all, nor experience secretly any movement or defilement.

Having myself heard these things firsthand, I was filled with great despondency, and I am compelled to lament over those who say such things, and to weep out of much compassion, knowing exactly that they say these things for no other reason than from great ignorance of the gifts of God.

For if they were not deprived of true dispassion, and were not covered in the darkness of the passions, and were not slaves to pleasures and to the desires of the flesh, they would not be ignorant of, and would not disbelieve, the life-giving mortification of Jesus and God, which he grants to the members of his saints.

For how will such men ever believe that some are dead, and become dead to the world, living only the life that is in the Spirit—men who throughout their whole life have made it their earnest business to do everything in hypocrisy, in order to please men and be called God-beloved by them?

For just as they imagine they achieve dispassion while still in the midst of the passions—being, and having become, sin entirely—and just as they persuade themselves that the praises of men alone suffice for virtue and holiness, so also, denying dispassion, they wish to be holy, and to be called holy, apart from it, as though they had acquired holiness from human praises.

...to remain dispassionate, but even while moving about in the midst of cities, hearing tragedians and lyre-players, and seeing men laughing and dancing and sporting, to suffer no harm whatsoever—this every writing testifies, every history testifies, and the deeds of the saints record such testimonies for us; and for this reason every strenuous exercise and every hardship is undertaken by the devout.

For the aim of those who strive according to God is this: first, to flee the whole world, and the things that are in the world;

By 'world' I mean the present life, that is, this transient age; and by 'the things in the world' I mean all that surrounds us, which the Word commands us to leave behind, and from which we must flee altogether—such as father and mother, brothers and relatives and friends, and further, possessions and money and property and all wealth—not as though these were forbidden or harmful in themselves, but because we, moving about in the midst of them, are unable to be freed from attachment to them;

for he who has already been intermingled with pleasures, if he does not flee their causes and become far removed from them, will not be freed from their desires.

But after becoming stripped of everything he possessed, then, if he is truly in earnest, he must also deny his very own soul;

which is accomplished in the mortification of one's own will—I do not mean only the outward will, such as not eating, not drinking, not doing anything rashly, not sleeping, not doing any of the things that seem good apart from a command—but also, I say, the inward movement of the heart: such as not looking with passion, not likewise embracing with passion, not finding fault secretly, not condemning anyone, not rejoicing at anyone's fall, not being angry in one's thoughts, not being maliciously envious, not being jealous in wickedness.

How shall I enumerate all the characteristics of piety, so that I may show you precisely the exactness required of Christians?

But learn further the things of life-giving mortification: never to hide any thought, not even a chance one; never to let a single day pass, as far as lies in your power, without tears; never to wash your face with water as is customary; never to adorn the hair of your head, or even of your beard; never to loosen your belt when turning to sleep, lest, growing slack, you sleep more than is needful; never to put your hand inside and scratch a part of the body, but rather to guard yourself even from another's touch; never to gaze intently, even simply, upon the face of an old man - for the one who mediates evils is present everywhere; never to nod to anyone against another; never to say anything that is not profitable, and to be silent about what is even worth saying; never at any time to abandon your customary rule until death; never to form a particular friendship with anyone, even if he seems to have the reputation of a saint; never to be concerned, in part or at all, with adornments of clothing or footwear, except only for what is needful, at once modest and decorous; never to taste anything with sensual pleasure, nor to eat what has pleased the soul through sight.

For in all these things, and in many others besides, the one who struggles practices self-control;

and through these, assuredly - if he proceeds slackly and carelessly - he fulfills, hour by hour, his own will, even though he is accounted blessed by men as one who has renounced the world.

For one who practices continence in outward matters visible to all is proclaimed by those who do not know how to see rightly as a laborer of virtue; but in fulfilling the hidden desires of his heart, he is, as unclean, hated and turned away from by God;

even if he should struggle in this way for a thousand years, he will find no benefit at all from outward struggles alone.

But he who is continent in all things, and trains his soul beforehand not to wander about disorderly, nor to do its own will in anything in which God is displeased, but who fervently compels it, walking wholly - as though balancing upon a rope in the air - in the commandments of God, this man will in a short time find Him hidden within those very divine commandments of His.

forgetting himself, he will be struck with amazement, falling down before Him, and will love to behold Him alone.

And when He has hidden Himself again from his eyes, this man, being at a loss, begins the way once more from the start, and runs more vehemently, more intently, more securely;

he looks downward, he walks in deep thought, he is set aflame by memory, he burns with longing, he is kindled by the hope of seeing that One again;