神學與倫理章句 第 1 章 第 4/27 段

For since, through his bodily presence, God who is over all came upon earth to refashion and renew man, and to bless again the whole creation that had been cursed on his account, listen attentively!

First, the soul which he assumed he vivified, and having made it incorruptible, he deified it; but his immaculate and divine body, although he deified it, he still went about bearing it as corruptible and material.

for all these are properties belonging to a corruptible body, wherefore he also died and was laid dead in a tomb.

But after rising incorruptible, he raised up with himself that very body also as spiritual, wholly divine and immaterial;

whence, indeed, in going forth he did not even break the seals of the tomb, but also, the doors being shut, he entered and went out unhindered.

But why did he not, together with the soul, immediately make the body he had assumed spiritual and incorruptible as well?

Because Adam too, having eaten of the tree of which God had commanded him not to eat, transgressed and immediately died the death of the soul, but the death of the body only many years later; and for this reason he first raised up and vivified and deified the soul that had received the sentence of the punishment of death, and then, in this way, ordained that the body should receive back incorruption through the resurrection, in accordance with the ancient sentence pronounced that it should return to earth through death.

And not only that, but having descended into Hades, he freed the souls of the saints held there from their eternal bonds, raised them up, and appointed them to a place of rest and unfading light; but their bodies he did not yet raise, but left them in their tombs until the common resurrection.

This mystery, then, has come to pass not only in the manner described, from the beginning, in Christ for the whole world, but has also occurred in each one of the saints of old, and continues to occur even now, always.

For by receiving the Spirit of our Master and God, we become partakers together of his divinity and essence;

and by eating his all-immaculate flesh — I mean the divine mysteries — we become wholly one body with him and truly kindred to him, just as the divine Paul himself says, that we are bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh; and again, that of his fullness of divinity we — that is, all of us — have received, even grace upon grace.

And in becoming this, we become like the loving God and our Master by grace, being renewed and made new in soul, being made incorruptible, and rising up as though living out of the dead — namely, beholding him who deigned to become like us, and being seen by him in turn, we who have been deemed worthy to become like him, as if one were beholding the face of a friend from afar, and conversing with him, and speaking with him, and hearing his voice.

Thus, then, the saints from every age, both of old and now, seeing spiritually, do not see a shape or form or impression, but formless light, since they themselves also become light out of the light of the Spirit.

But when each of the saints becomes such, his body does not immediately also become incorruptible and spiritual; rather, just as iron set aflame by fire partakes of its brightness and immediately casts off its blackness, but when separated again from the fire is seen and becomes cold and black once more, so too the bodies of the saints, partaking of the grace united to their soul — that is, of the divine fire — are sanctified, and being set aflame become themselves translucent, and are restored much more distinguished and more honorable than other bodies.

and when the soul is separated from the body, the bodies too are at once handed over to corruption and gradually dissolve;

but some remain for a long time, neither remaining wholly incorruptible, nor again being wholly corrupted, but preserve within themselves the marks both of incorruption and of corruption, being kept for the final resurrection, to be made completely incorruptible and renewed.

For what reason, then, and why?

Because it was not fitting that, before the renewal of creation, the bodies of men should be raised up and made incorruptible; but just as creation was brought forth first incorruptible, and man afterward, later, so again it is necessary that creation first be transformed — or rather, changed — from corruption into incorruption, and thus, together with it and at the same time as it, the corrupted bodies of men also be renewed, so that man, having again become spiritual and immortal, might dwell in an incorruptible, eternal, and spiritual place.

And that this is true, hear the apostle Peter saying:

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens, being set on fire, will be dissolved, and the elements, burning, will melt — not as though these were perishing, but evidently as being recast and reconstituted into a better and eternal state.

Again, from the very words of the apostle, with which he goes on to say:

But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to his promise.

In accordance, surely, with what Christ, our God, said:

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.

Having spoken of the passing away of heaven as its transformation — for even if heaven, he says, will be changed, yet my words shall possess the unalterable and the abiding.

For this the prophet David also proclaimed beforehand, saying thus:

And like a garment you will roll them up, and they will be changed;

but you are the same, and your years will not fail.

But let us consider how creation will be renewed and restored to its ancient beauty.

How, again, all creation is to be renewed and become new heavens and a new earth, according to the divine Apostle.

Since, then, he has promised new heavens and a new earth, none of the faithful will contradict this;

nor indeed, surely, will he disbelieve the Lord who says these things.

For just as our bodies, when dissolved, do not pass into utter and absolute non-existence, but are renewed again through the resurrection, so also heaven and earth and all things in it — that is, all creation — will be renewed and set free from the bondage of corruption, and...

and these elements will share together with us in that glory from thence; and just as fire will test all of us, according to the divine apostle, so also all creation will be renewed through fire.

And this can be learned from what the apostle Peter writes:

For, he says, the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements, burning, will be dissolved, and the earth and the works in it will be burned up.

Do you see how he says that all things will be recast and transformed through fire?

Since, then, all these things are being dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be in holy conduct and godliness?

the whole will be dissolved through fire, or rather will be recast and reconstituted, and will become bright and incomparably newer than what is now seen.

Therefore, beloved, looking for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, without spot, and count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them concerning these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the unlearned and unstable twist, as they also do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction;

But this is something not only those of that time suffered, but even now most of us, or, one might almost say, all of us, suffer from ignorance, confusing everything, twisting — that is, misinterpreting — everything in the divine Scripture to our own destruction, eagerly striving to make and to have the divine Scriptures as, so to speak, advocates of our own passions and desires and of our own destruction.

But let us see what the divine Paul also says concerning creation and its renewal:

'I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us,' he added:

'For the earnest expectation of creation eagerly awaits the revelation of the sons of God.'

for at that coming it is necessary that the sons of God be manifested through the presence of Christ and God, and that their beauty be revealed, and they themselves shown entirely as they are, just as it is written:

'Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun' — that is, the sons of the righteous God, evidently.

But lest you suppose that the divine apostle means some other creation, he goes on to say:

'For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope.'

Do you see how it was not without purpose that I earlier said that creation no longer wished to serve Adam once he had transgressed, seeing him fallen from the divine glory as one who had offended God his Maker?

For this reason, God, having foreordained before the foundation of the world man's salvation through regeneration, subjected creation to him, cursing it so that, since man for whose sake it had been brought forth had become corruptible, it too might become corruptible, in order that it might furnish him yearly with corruptible food;

but whenever he renews man and makes him incorruptible, immortal, and spiritual, then, I say, he will also transform the whole of creation together with him, and render it eternal;

for this is what he made clear through what he said:

'For creation,' he says, 'was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope.'

That is to say, it was not of itself, he means, that it was subjected to mankind, nor of its own will that it was brought into corruption and brings forth corruptible fruits and sprouts thorns and thistles together, but rather in obedience to God's command, who ordained these things in hope of a renewal to come again.

And wishing to make this even clearer, he said:

'For creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.'

You see how it was not unreasonable when we said that this creation, entirely incorruptible from the beginning, was brought forth by God in the order of paradise, but having been cursed, it was changed into corruption and servitude, being subjected to the vanity of mankind.

But observe also what its final splendor will be.

What the final splendor of creation will be.

Therefore, even in being renewed, it will not become again such as it was when first brought forth.

The body is raised not such as that of the first-formed man was before the transgression — that is, material, sensible, and mutable, needing sensible food — but there is raised a body wholly spiritual and immutable, such as that of our Master and God was after the resurrection, that is, of the second Adam, who became our first-born from the dead, differing greatly from that first body; in the very same way, the whole of creation too, by the divine nod, will not remain such as it was brought forth, material and sensible, but will be transformed in the regeneration into an immaterial and spiritual dwelling-place beyond all sense-perception.

Moreover, just as the divine Paul says, 'We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye,' so too creation, set ablaze by the divine fire, will be transformed, so that the prophetic oracle which speaks thus may also be fulfilled:

but wholly spiritual and immaterial, so that those who possess bodies that are incorporeal, and who, though existing in sense-perception, are beyond sense-perception, and who, though circumscribed, exist as uncircumscribed among the uncircumscribed, may have a dwelling worthy of their own glory.

Therefore, conceive now for me a world that is spiritual and exists beyond our sense-perception.

That which exists beyond sense-perception and is termed spiritual is, as far as we are concerned, altogether ungraspable and invisible;

and that which is neither seen nor grasped at all — how could it in any way be circumscribed by us, or who in his right mind would say such a thing?

Such, then, is also our reasoning concerning the angels.

For they too are, in a certain sense, corporeal and circumscribed, when compared with the immaterial and incorporeal nature of the Godhead, just as it is written:

'There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies' — the latter being material, but those above us immaterial;

'Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.'

Since, then, the heavenly minds are ministering spirits sent forth for service, as truth indeed holds, and as Paul, the initiate of such mysteries, also thinks, whenever a divine angel is at all sent down from above by God to minister to the divine command upon the earth, he leaves behind the heavenly choirs, and comes, admittedly, to the things of the world and to us.

But if this is indeed held to be so according to the apprehension of truth, then in this he is shown to be circumscribed and delimited;

Such, too, is our reasoning concerning the soul.

For when compared with God, who by nature is incorporeal, and with the angels, it is in a certain sense corporeal and circumscribed, but only to him who is able to bind it and has authority to cast it, together with the body, into the fire of gehenna; whereas to mortal perception and sight it is altogether incorporeal and incomprehensible, unable to be circumscribed at all by sensible places or spaces.

And let no one, hearing these things, marvel, when he considers how the incorporeal angels come in and go out invisibly even while the doors are shut, and in the same manner take also the souls of men; rather, let him hear the Lord saying:

'In the resurrection of the just,' he says, 'they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God' — and Paul says:

'It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body' — and from this let one learn precisely that our bodies, when raised from the dead, are to become spiritual and, so to speak, similar to the angels.

For if bodies are sown natural but raised spiritual, as the oracle says, and if we must, in the age to come, be as the angels of God, as the Lord himself has said, then evidently, though not in nature, yet in dignity, we shall be like them.

I call them 'corporeal' with reference to God, but with reference to us, immaterial and invisible;

much more so, then, are souls, according to the definition and rule of the comparison just stated.

Since, then, we shall become such in the resurrection, as the argument has demonstrated, what further need would there be, for those who have thus become spiritual and beyond all sense-perception here, who are as the angels of God — even if not equal to them in dignity — of any sensible earth and dwelling at all?

But the dignity, station, and longing of the angels of God is to be illumined by the primal and divine light, as secondary lights, to behold the glory and splendor of that unapproachable and infinite light, and to enjoy the ineffable and thrice-hypostatic Godhead.

For all creation, as I have said many times, once renewed and become wholly spiritual together with paradise itself, will be transformed into an immaterial, incorruptible, immutable, eternal, and intellectual dwelling-place.

And heaven will be incomparably more resplendent, being, as it were, another new heaven, more luminous than the one now seen.

And earth will receive an ineffable and new beauty, and an unfading verdure, being adorned with luminous flowers, so to speak, and with spiritual variety, in which righteousness dwells, according to the holy oracle.

And the sun of righteousness will shine sevenfold, and the moon will blaze forth twice as bright as the sun now shining;

and the stars will be like this sun — whatever these may be, and by whatever lofty reasonings they are to be contemplated by the mind.

But all these things are beyond speech, as surpassing all understanding; nevertheless, being spiritual and divine, they are united to the things of the mind and become another intellectual paradise, and a heavenly Jerusalem, made like unto and united with the heavenly realities, and an inviolable inheritance of the sons of God, of which no one on earth has ever become heir, nor has anyone dwelt in it, nor has anyone become lord even of a footstep of it;

for we have all been, are, and shall be sojourners in it, as all divine Scripture dictates.

Whenever, then, all earthly things shall be wholly united with the heavenly, then also the righteous shall inherit this renewed earth, which the meek, pronounced blessed by the Lord, inherit.

For now, some things have already been united with the heavenly, while others are yet to be;

for the souls of the saints, as we have said before, are joined to God through the gift and union of the Holy Spirit even while they are still in the body, and being renewed they are transformed, and rise up out of death, and after their falling asleep are restored in glory in an evening-less light;

but their bodies not yet, but are left in tombs and in corruption, destined to become incorruptible themselves too at the common resurrection, when evidently the whole earthly creation, this visible and sensible one, will also be transformed and united with the heavenly, that is, with the invisible things that are beyond sense-perception.

This, therefore, must first be fulfilled, and then our most longed-for and sweetest King, Jesus Christ and God, shall come with much glory and power to judge the world and to render to each according to his works.

Then thus, just as in a great house or palace there are many resting-places and dwellings, and again a great diversity in both, in these most divine mansions alike, so too in this new creation he will make divisions, allotting to each his portion according to his own worth and the splendor and distinction accruing to him from his virtues and works.

and each one shining in it.

But woe to those who are found outside that house at that time!

Having, then, spoken sufficiently and adequately about these matters, and having satisfied those who do not attempt to contradict out of mere contentiousness, come, let us also assure you, as far as possible, concerning how all the saints are united to Christ and become one with him.

How all the saints are united to Christ and God and become one with him.

Since, then, all the saints are truly designated members of Christ, who is God over all, and, as has been said, must be joined and united to him as belonging to his body, so that he may be the head in them, while the saints from the beginning of the age until the last day are his members, in order that the many may become one body of Christ, just as one man — some of them fulfill the office of the hands, working even now and doing his all-holy will, refashioning the unworthy into worthy ones and restoring them to him;

and others, that of the shoulders, bearing one another's burdens, or indeed carrying that very lost sheep which they have now found, which formerly wandered upon mountains and hills and places which the Lord does not oversee, and thus fulfilling his law;

and others, that of the breast, pouring forth for those who hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God the most penetrating stream of the word of ineffable wisdom and knowledge, and supplying them with the bread which the powers above in the heavens eat, being, as it were, upon his breast and beloved by him;

and others, that of the belly, embracing all in their bosom through love and carrying in their inward parts the Spirit of salvation as though pregnant with it, and possessing a capacity able to contain his ineffable and hidden mysteries;

and others, that of the thighs, bearing within themselves the generative power of God-befitting thoughts of mystical theology, and begetting the Spirit of salvation upon the earth — that is, the fruit of the Spirit — and sowing the seed in the hearts of men through the word of their teaching;

and others, that of the legs and feet, showing courage in temptations and endurance after the manner of Job, being in no way shaken from their standing in what is good, nor growing weak, but bearing the weight of his gracious gifts.

Thus, then, the body of the Church of Christ, joined together through his saints from the beginning of the age, is complete and entire unto the union of the firstborn sons of God who are enrolled in the heavens — to whom God even now says: 'Do not rejoice that the demons are subject to you' (which in the more frivolous produces rather vanity and conceit), 'but rejoice that your names are written in the heavens.'

But that all the saints, being members of Christ, become one body of his — and indeed shall yet still become so — I shall try to demonstrate this also from divine Scripture.

And first, hear our Savior and God himself, how he indicates that union with him is indissoluble and inseparable, when he says to his apostles:

'I am in the Father, and the Father in me;'

'and you in me, and I in you;' and again:

'Neither do I pray for these alone, but also for all who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one.'

As you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one.

And to make this clearer, he adds:

And the glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one:

I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; and a little later:

Father, those whom you have given me, I desire that where I am, they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which you have given me; and again:

That the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.

Have you perceived the manner of union that is beyond the mind and beyond every conception?

O the wonder, brothers! O the ineffable condescension of the love which the God who loves mankind bears toward us! For such union as he has by nature with his own Father, he promises that he himself will likewise have, by grace, toward us, if we are willing; and we in turn shall have the same toward him, by working his commandments.

For what he has by nature toward the Father, this he gives to us toward himself by adoption and by grace.

O awesome promise! For the glory which the Father gave to the Son, the Son also gives to us by divine grace!

And what is even greater, that just as he is in the Father and the Father in him, so also the Son of God will be in us, and we will be in him, the Son, by grace, if we are willing.

O grace beyond all surpassing! For the love with which God the Father loved his only-begotten Son, who is also our God, that very love, he says, will be in us — and that very Son of God himself will be in us.

For having once become our kinsman in the flesh, and having made us partakers of his divinity, he has made all such people his own kinsmen.

Moreover, since the divinity imparted to us through communion is undivided and inseparable, it is altogether necessary that we too, who have truly partaken of it, be, inseparably, in one Spirit, one body with Christ.

And that this is so, hear Paul saying:

For in Christ Jesus there is neither slave nor free, neither Jew nor Greek, neither Scythian nor barbarian, but Christ is all, and in all.

Do you see how he did not say, 'but all are Christians,' but 'Christ is one,' as one body made of many members?

And hear him again, in another place, declaring this same thing.

'To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for what is profitable'; and after enumerating the varieties of the gifts, he goes on again afterward to add:

But all these are worked by the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each individually as he wills.

Having made known to us the operations given through the Spirit to the very holy members of Christ, he adds and says:

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

For indeed in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one drink.

For indeed the body is not one member, but many.

And just as again, as we said before, the allotted portion is given by God to each one according to his worth in the incorruptible mansions, so also in the body of the Church each will be numbered in that part of Christ of which he is worthy.

And this he himself shows a little later in this same epistle of his, saying:

But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he willed:

many members, then, but one body.

And in order also to demonstrate the differences of the members, and what these are and who they are, he said:

Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually,

and those whom God has appointed in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then works of power, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, kinds of tongues.

Have you seen the differences among the members of Christ?

Have you learned who his members are?

Hear him also declaring, in accordance with the Master, the union of the members as well.

For he taught that just as that Master has union with his own Father, we too should likewise have such union with him; while his disciple and apostle taught us of the union which the husband has with his wife and the wife with her husband:

Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church, he himself being the savior of the body; and again:

[Christ loved the] church, and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, and present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she might be holy and without blemish.

'He who loves his own wife' — attend with me, I beg you, to the depth of this saying!

For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord also does the church, because we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones.

Do you see how he showed us that, just as Eve was taken from the flesh and the bones of Adam, and the two became one flesh, so also Christ, imparting himself to us for our partaking, from his flesh and from his bones — which he showed to the apostles after he rose from the dead, speaking thus:

'Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see me having.' From that very flesh and bones he gives us to eat, and through this communion he makes us also one with himself.

And wishing furthermore, in surpassing measure, to show our conjunction with God, he adds, saying:

'For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother' — for the sake of Christ, he says, shall he leave them — 'and shall be joined to his wife,' that is, to the Church, 'and the two shall become one flesh' — evidently, the flesh of Christ and God.

And that the saying truly holds this meaning, and that we do not utter these things from mere reasoning, he himself adds and says:

This mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.