Theological and Ethical Discourses 1 part 14/27

and when, having run a great deal, he becomes utterly exhausted and is unable to reach Him, but even falls down completely, no longer able to run, then he sees the One he is pursuing, and overtakes the One who flees, and holds fast the One he desires; and he becomes wholly outside the world, and forgets the whole world entirely; he is joined to the angels, mingled with the light, tastes of life, is entwined with immortality, comes to enjoy delight; he ascends to the third heaven, is caught up into paradise, hears unspeakable words; he enters the bridal chamber, arrives at the bridal bed, sees the Bridegroom, becomes a partaker of the spiritual marriage, is filled from the mystical cup, of the fatted calf, of the living bread, of the drink of life, of the spotless Lamb, of the intelligible manna - he comes to enjoy all those good things upon which not even the powers of the angels dare to gaze without fear.

Being in this state, he is set on fire in spirit and becomes wholly fire in soul, imparting his own brightness even to the body - after the manner of visible fire imparting its own nature to iron; and the soul becomes to the body what God has become to the soul, even as the theologian's voice says:

For neither can the soul live unless it is illumined by its Creator, nor can the body live unless it is empowered by the soul.

Consider carefully the force of what has been said.

God - without beginning, without end, inaccessible, unsearchable, invisible, ineffable, untouchable, impalpable, impassible, indescribable - having appeared to us in the flesh in the last days through the Son, and made known through His all-holy Spirit, being, as we believe, like us in all things except sin, mingles Himself with an intelligent soul for the sake of my soul, as someone has said, that He might both save the spirit and make the flesh immortal.

'I will dwell in them and walk among them.'

'And I and the Father will come, and will make our abode with them' - that is, with those who believe, and who demonstrate their faith by the aforementioned works.

Since God, according to His unfailing promises, dwells in us, His genuine servants, and walks in our souls through the energies and illuminations of His all-holy Spirit, we confessedly believe that the souls of such worthy ones are inseparable from God.

And since souls, in turn, extend throughout the whole body and are lacking in no part of it, it is altogether necessary that the flesh itself, being inseparable from the soul - or rather, being unable even to live without it - should be wholly led by the will of the soul;

and just as it is not possible for the body to live apart from the soul, so neither is it possible for the body, in that case, to have a will apart from the soul.

It has therefore been demonstrated that, just as in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit one God is worshiped without confusion and without division, so again, in God and soul and body, man becomes god by grace, without division and without confusion - the body not being changed into soul, nor the soul being transformed into deity, nor God being confused with the soul, nor the soul being fixed into flesh - but God remaining what He is as God, and the soul remaining as it is by nature, and the body, as it was fashioned, remaining clay.

He who has wondrously bound these together, and mingled the intelligent and immaterial with clay, He Himself is united without confusion to both of these; and I too become, according to His image and likeness, even as the Word has shown.

But again, if it please you, let us resume our discourse:

for, being moved by pleasure and joy, I still wish to dwell on what has been said, so that I may set forth the meaning of these things yet more clearly.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - one God whom we worship.

God, soul, and body - man, created according to the image of God, and deemed worthy to be god.

Why then have I said these things, and to what end have they been stated so minutely, and why have I drawn out my discourse at such length, if not that men might be put to shame - or rather, that those who do not have the image might come to know themselves, and that those who are separated from God might bewail themselves and learn of what they have been deprived, and might discern, by hearing this discourse, by what things they are held captive, and might understand what manner of darkness covers them, and might tremble to teach concerning God; or rather, to put it more indulgently, that they might shudder to contradict those who have the grace of God within themselves, and who are taught all things through it, and are able to do all things by it, and might cease to say that it is not possible for one who lives according to God, moving about in the world and eating together with women or conversing with them, to remain unstained both in mind and in sense?

God is impassible, not suffering along with the things that are seen.

And again I know that those who are not able to see with the eyes of the soul, nor to perceive with its senses, and who have not understood the force of what has been said, will respond in some such way:

'That God,' he says, 'is impassible, we know;'

'but it is not about God - it is entirely about man that we are in doubt.'

But the discourse, foreseeing this, has for this very reason stopped their mouths, by saying that man too becomes god by grace, that is, by the gift of the all-holy Spirit.

For just as it is not possible for the sun, shining upon mire, ever to have its rays defiled, so neither is it possible for the soul or the mind of a graced man who bears God within him to be defiled, even should his most pure body happen to roll about, so to speak, in the mire of human bodies - a thing unfitting indeed for the God-fearing;

and not only that, but even should he be shut up with ten thousand defiled unbelievers and impious men, and, naked in body, be joined with them, naked, he will suffer no harm to his faith, nor be separated from his own Master, nor lose that beauty.

For many such things happened in the case of martyrs and saints, as with the martyr Chrysanthus and certain other saints; and yet they suffered no harm at all from this device of the devil, having God dwelling and abiding within themselves.

For he who has either preserved for himself from above that which is according to the image and likeness, or has called it back and recovered it, has also recovered the ability to see according to nature.

Therefore such a man walks decorously, as though it were day, and sees all things just as they are by nature;

He sees gold, and does not attend to its brightness, but perceives that, in its substance, it is from the earth, and is dust or stone, never able to be changed into anything else.

He sees silver, pearl, and all precious stones, and his perception is not stolen away by their beautiful colors, but he sees all these stones as but one among all stones, and reckons them all, alike, as clay.

He sees costly garments and does not marvel at their variety, but considers that they are the dung of worms, and pities those who delight in them and cherish them as precious.

He sees someone being glorified, seated on a throne, escorted through the streets by a great crowd, or even puffed up with pride, and, beholding it as though it were a dream, he is disposed accordingly, laughing and marveling at the ignorance of men.

He looks upon the world, and exists and walks in the midst of a great city - the Lord who works these things in us is witness - as though he alone existed in the whole world;

and he is disposed as one living in a desert impassable to men, as one who has nothing to do with anyone, and knows none of the men on earth.

and he beholds her as having entirely become that which she is indeed becoming;

for whom his mind would never look round upon the outward bloom, but rather upon the material corruption existing within, out of which the whole body is composed.

For what else is the body but the juice of masticated food?

For thus, from the greatness and the beauty of created things, he comes to know the Creator, and his mind is raised up to the contemplation of Him, and he kindles his soul toward the understanding of the Maker; through which, in turn, he is moved to divine longing and to tears, and comes to be wholly outside the things that are seen, and is separated from created things.

For just as the light of our sensible eyes is sent forth by us in every direction, and, passing over all things set before it by its power of sight, is not at all defiled by them even if the things seen are exceedingly ugly, but we carry it about again, undefiled, toward other things - so also the mind of the saints, even should it look down into miry passions and shameful things, is not defiled.

For their mind exists bare, and is a stranger to every passionate desire.

For if it should ever wish to enter into the contemplation of such things, it does this for no other reason than to observe and thoroughly learn the passionate movements and workings of the passions, and whence they take their causes, and by what remedies they are, in turn, made to disappear - just as we hear physicians do, and as we have heard concerning the ancients.

For they dissected the dead, in order to understand the arrangement of the body, so that, knowing from these the inward parts of living men, they might attempt to heal in others the diseases that are not seen.

The spiritual physician who wishes skillfully to heal the passions of the soul does something entirely of this sort;

and in order that I may show you in words his skillful method of healing, I shall make my account a practical one.

A certain sick man comes to the spiritual physician, stupefied by his passion, wholly disturbed in mind, seeking, instead of healing, the very things that harm him - namely, those things which plainly increase the passion and draw death upon him in an instant.

The physician, who loves mankind and is compassionate, sees him; he perceives the brother's weakness, the inflammation of the passion, the swelling; he sees the sick man becoming wholly given over to death.

Will anyone, then, fall in love with such a person - that I should again recall those senseless words?

I think that not even one of the most raving madmen would conceive such a thing regarding a woman, or a man, sick unto death - let alone physicians who are pious and who fear God.

But, bidding farewell to the words of those who are truly mad, let us hold fast to the thread of our narrative.

When, then, the spiritual and skilled physician sees the brother in the condition we have described, he does not immediately cry out, nor does he put him off, nor does he say:

'The things you seek are evil and deadly, and I will not give you these remedies' - lest, hearing this, he take flight and go off to another physician inexperienced in such passions, and die that very hour;

but instead he receives him, restrains him, comforts him, and shows him every love together with sincerity, so as to assure him that indeed, by the very remedies he asked for, he will effect the cure and fulfill his desire.

And though the disease of each of these, perhaps, requires a strict diet and abstinence from pleasant things, they themselves rather seek to indulge in destructive foods and to gorge themselves on them to the full.

For this reason, then, as I have already said, the experienced physician does not immediately refuse what the sick man requests, but promises to fulfill everything he asks for;

the sick man, as though for good things, hastens after what pleases his heart; the physician conceals the remedies;

for the sick man merely touches the remedies, and by that touch, contrary to all expectation, receives his cure;

and at once the swelling of the passion subsides, the wound disappears entirely, and the things for which he was formerly inflamed with desire, he can no longer bear even to remember from then on.

And it is possible to see and behold a wonder taking place that is higher than any word can express;

for without any other remedy, by the mere touch and sight of the medicinal remedies, he makes the sick well; their wounds and their swelling subside, and the flame of their thirst ceases; and those who hungered for destructive and harmful foods now, from that time on, desire rather what is beneficial; and they tell many people of the physician's wonders and the marvelous method of his skill.

Let those who are healthy hear, and let them understand what has been spoken to us in riddles - if indeed they have also received the grace of divine knowledge.

For the sick do not know these things; indeed, they do not even know that they are sick.

But who, then, could ever persuade by argument those who are in such a state that they are held fast by weakness and disease?

For they consider this to be health: to do the will of the flesh and to do everything belonging to desire and craving.

And just as no one will ever make those who are out of their mind and deranged consider themselves to be out of their senses, so too no one will ever persuade those who wallow in passions and are mastered by them, and who do not perceive their being held captive by them, that they are in a bad state, nor will anyone bring them to change for the better.

For being blind, and not even believing that anyone else can see, they live thus deprived also of sight, and they are persuaded that it is not even possible for them to regain their sight.

For if they were persuaded, perhaps they would also have sought to regain their sight, and having regained it, they would have seen accurately and recognized those who are crucified to the world.

But because they do not wish to be freed from the passions, they willingly stop their ears and are unwilling to give heed to the Apostle, who says thus:

'The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.'

'And it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me'; and again:

'Put to death therefore your members that are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness.'

He, then, who has died to the world -- for this is the cross -- and no longer lives himself, but Christ lives in him, who has put to death the members that are upon the earth, that is, the passionate senses of the body, so that he has become a stranger to every passion and every evil desire -- tell me, how could such a one in any way at all receive the sensation of passion, or undergo the movement of pleasure, or have his heart shaken at all?

But if you still disbelieve and delay, consider against whom you are bringing your accusations, and whom you are calling a partaker of sin.

Do you say that the hearts of those who have Christ living and indwelling within themselves are stolen away toward pleasure?

So then, according to you, Christ has become a partaker of sin -- he who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth, he who takes away the sins of the world and cleanses of every passion the souls joined to him?

Do you not yet perceive what we say, and what you blaspheme?

Do you not shudder, and put your hand upon your mouth? And yet you train your tongue to speak concerning things of which you have not yet had experience, nor have you grasped in your mind the knowledge of such things -- things which you have not seen with your eyes, nor has your hearing taken in their greatness.

Do you not know that those who have had experience of these things, both in deed and in word, laugh at you as senseless whenever you attempt to speak about such matters, uttering one thing in place of another?

If, then, you have been deemed worthy of the grace from above, then speak freely of the things of grace, and theologize without hindrance concerning the God who is God by nature;

declare of grace without hindrance to all, how the saints are servants of his glory.

But if you confess -- doing well in this -- that you have not partaken of the gift, nor perceived yourself to have become dead to the world, nor known yourself to have ascended into heaven so as merely to be hidden there and not appear, nor, according to Paul, to have gone forth outside the whole world, whether in the body or apart from the body, nor learned that you have been wholly transformed and become, as it were, spirit in the putting off of the flesh, comparing spiritual things with spiritual -- why do you not embrace this good silence and seek in repentance and tears to receive and learn these things, but instead wish thus vainly to speak of things of which you have not the true knowledge, and love to be called holy apart from them, and are disposed as one already saved, presuming to entertain thoughts belonging to another and to teach others?

Do you not shudder to guide others toward the light, while you yourself are deprived of the divine light?

Are you not afraid to shepherd brothers, you who still sit in darkness and have not even acquired that eye which sees the true light?

Are you not ashamed to heal others, being yourself infirm and not even able to perceive your own wounds?

Tell me, if you have not known yourself to be free from passion, and have not learned that the passionless God dwells within you, in what else have you placed your confidence, that you have dared to undertake and to intrude yourself into the works of the passionless and the ministries of the holy servants of God?

Take heed lest you unwittingly leap into ranks foreign to you and ministries not your own, and, as a despiser of the divine will and a bold and worthless servant, be sent away into the outer darkness.

Take heed lest you be found naked of the senatorial garment and dignity -- which you will understand to be nothing other than the grace of the Spirit -- and, being thus found, be bound hand and foot together and cast into the eternal fire.

See that you do not attempt to shepherd before you have acquired the Good Shepherd as your genuine friend, since -- know this -- you will gain nothing else thereby than to give account to God, not only for your own unworthiness, but also for the sheep whom, through inexperience and passion, you have destroyed.

See to it, I beseech you, that you do not at all take upon yourself debts belonging to others, while you yourself remain a debtor in some matter;

Do not dare to grant forgiveness, you who have not acquired in your heart him who takes away the sin of the world.

See, brother, that you do not undertake to judge another before you yourself have become exact, an examiner of your own faults, and have rendered a just verdict against yourself through tears and mourning;

and then, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and set free by the grace of God from the law of the flesh and the death of sin, you may be established as a just judge for the judgment of others, as one appointed to this by God through the Spirit.

For observe that none of the rulers of this world dares to leap into this office, before he has been enrolled by the king in the order of judges.

And if such order and such fear exists in human offices, so as not to offend the earthly king, how much more reverence ought we to render to the offices of God, lest, self-ordained and before being called from above, we leap into divine things and fall into the hands of the living God.

Shudder, O man, and revere the longsuffering of God, and do not be found to have less fear toward God, the heavenly King, than the rulers of this world have toward the earthly one;

nor should you show contempt for the riches of his goodness and longsuffering out of love of glory and love of rule, for he is the ruler of all and the fearsome judge of all, rendering to each according to his deeds and his thoughts;

coming to pass in fulfillment of his unfailing promises.

'He who loves me will keep my commandments, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him'; and again:

'I and my Father will come and make our dwelling with him.'

Having become such, you will no longer live for yourself, but you will see yourself to have become dead to the world, carrying about your flesh as dead and altogether inoperative toward sin, but living to God alone, as one energized and moved by him;

And, having recognized yourself in such glory, you will then cry out with the divine Paul, in a loud voice, with joy of heart, and say:

'I thank my God, that the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law and death of sin.'

And from then on you will make no distinction between male and female, nor will you suffer any harm from that quarter, since you now perceive God's creatures according to nature and no longer contrary to nature;

but, even while associating and conversing with men and women and embracing them, you will remain unharmed and unmoved from your natural seat and station, and you will regard them as precious members of Christ and temples of God, and treat them accordingly.

But before you attain to such a measure and behold the life-giving mortification of Jesus and God in your members, you will do well to flee harmful sights, in which there is in itself no cause of evil, but through the ancestral sin dwelling within us we are drawn out and enticed into improper desires.

For by so doing, your whole life will be lived in safety, and you will not strike your foot against the stone of sin, whether you have already acquired God or are still striving to acquire him, in Christ himself our God, to whom belongs all glory, honor, and worship, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.

Concerning those who serve God: who they are, of what kind, and what manner of persons.

And who is the one who repents, and what is his work; and who is the one pursuing the ascetic life, and what is his work; and who is the one who serves God, and what is his work.

And that, if we do not acquire the virtues, mere freedom from the passions will profit us nothing.

Since, inasmuch as from divine baptism onward we consider ourselves, apart from works, to be Christians and believers, believing in the consubstantial and undivided Trinity and in the one Lord of it, our Lord Jesus Christ and God, and, out of custom, we simply subscribe and call ourselves servants of God, and, writing to others, we sign ourselves at the top of our letters with this name -- perhaps not knowing this very thing, what servitude to God is, and who is worthy to be called and to be a servant of God -- I am moved by the Word to exercise my discourse, and I am compelled to speak concerning those who serve God: who they are, of what kind, and what manner of persons, and what works are done by such persons for the Lord's sake, so that each one may know himself from his own actions, and may know what he serves through his own undertakings and whom he serves, or what he has ever served and whom he has served, lest one, gratifying himself, should seem to be serving the Lord and not himself.

But concerning those who live in the world and are under the yoke of worldly life, we have no discourse at all, since the holy Paul plainly cries out:

'He who is unmarried is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; but he who has married is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife and the world.' Our whole discourse, then, will be concerning those who have renounced the world and the things in the world.

Those who newly enter the stadium of repentance by their own uncompelled and voluntary resolve, and, as far as possible, train themselves in bodily discipline -- the beginners, I mean, and also those who have spent a long time at it -- suppose that they are serving the Lord, and hope to be justified by works.

For, not attending to the light of the divine Scriptures, but some of them always walking outside of it and held fast in the darkness of their own wicked thoughts, they do not know that there is a great difference between those who repent and strive in the exercise of virtue and those who actually serve Christ the Master.

For those who repent, being sorry for the evil they have done, seek to receive forgiveness for their offenses, such as was the tax collector, the harlot, Peter himself, when, having been terrified and having denied the Lord three times, he wept bitterly, and anyone like that prodigal who squandered his father's inheritance with harlots and tax collectors;

for these and such as these are not said to be serving the Lord, but, being enemies and having given offense, they are reconciled to him through repentance and confession.

and not only that, but they also strive earnestly to acquire the virtues in place of the passions.

And he who is newly repenting grieves, weeps, fasts, keeps vigil, sleeps on the ground, ministers, and endures all afflictions, always reckoning his own evils and considering himself worthy of even greater punishments; he bears without disturbance all that befalls him, so that through such endurance his offenses may be forgiven him.

But the good ascetic who is now striving does and practices all these things, and many more besides, not for the wiping away of sins, but for the war against the passions;

and he receives with joy every affliction that comes upon him, and if none comes, he afflicts himself;

and every deed which he hears was performed by the saints of old, or which he sees being performed by those living with him, he is eager, according to his ability, likewise to do, so that, by the variety of ascetic virtues and deeds, he may wipe away the many and varied passions through which the demons have gained power over us, and utterly efface them from his own soul, storing up in himself, with all the power of his soul, the virtues in their place.

For if this is not thus accomplished by him, and the matters of his struggles are not thus rightly disposed in him, there will be no benefit to him from mere estrangement from the passions alone;

For it is not the one who does not covet, but the one who shows mercy, who is praised; nor is it the one who kept the talent given to him safe, but the one who doubled it, who was saved; nor is it the one who turns away from evil, but the one who does good, who is blessed; nor is it the one who does not side with the enemies of the king, but the one who arms himself and fights against them on his behalf, who demonstrates love.

And the Master Christ himself testifies to this, plainly crying out thus:

'He who is not with me is against me;'

'and he who does not gather with me scatters.'

By saying this, he shows that he who does not keep his commandments in every way and with all diligence, and does not always acquire the virtues through the labor of the commandments and advance forward by them, but only seemingly abstains from evil deeds, while not persistently holding fast to good deeds, but rather, through negligence of the commandments, has ceased, as it were, from gathering the virtues -- such a one is not even able to keep what he seems to have;

for through idleness he loses even these;

and this is what the saying 'he who does not gather scatters' makes clear.

For in the case of sensible things, this is impossible;

for he who, in that realm, does not gather but sits idle, is not thereby the same as one who scatters.

'For to him who knows to do good,' he says, 'and does not do it, it is sin to him'; and again:

'Cursed is everyone who does the works of the Lord negligently.'

Which will surely be enough first of all for my own condemnation, since I am slack and negligent.

But if the one who carelessly performs the commandments of God is cursed, how much more will the one who performs them only partially, out of what he is able to do, or does not perform them at all, be condemned all the more.

This you will find happening also in the case of civil laws and worldly affairs:

For a servant who sees his master's house being broken into by certain men and his master's property being plundered, and who neither cooperates with the thieves nor hinders them or cries out, but allows them, after taking everything, to escape secretly — that servant, his master will likely reckon, along with them, to be a conspirator against him and a thief himself.

Have not all of you likewise passed the same judgment against the wicked man?