Fifty Spiritual Homilies 1 part 11/19

But if anyone compels himself unto prayer only, until he receives a gift from God, yet does not likewise compel and constrain and accustom himself unto the aforesaid things, he cannot do them in truth, purely and blamelessly.

Rather, one must thus prepare himself beforehand as much as possible unto the good;

for sometimes the divine grace comes to him as he asks and prays;

for God is good and kind, and to those who ask him he gives their requests.

But not having accustomed nor prepared himself unto the aforesaid virtues, even if he receives [grace], he loses the grace he received, and falls through being high-minded, or does not progress and grow in the grace given to him, since he does not give himself by choice to the commandments of the Lord.

For the dwelling-place and rest of the Spirit is humility, and love and meekness and the rest of the Lord's commandments.

He, then, who wishes truly to please God and to receive from him the heavenly grace of the Spirit and to grow and be perfected in the Holy Spirit, ought to compel himself unto all the commandments of God and to subject the unwilling heart, according to that which is said:

Therefore I directed myself toward all your commandments; I hated every unrighteous way.

For just as one compels and constrains himself unto perseverance in prayer until he sets it right, so likewise, if he wills, let him compel and constrain and accustom himself unto a good habit in all the practices of virtue;

and so, always asking and praying to the Lord, and obtaining his request, and partaking of the taste of God and becoming a partaker of the Holy Spirit, he makes the gift given to him grow and flourish, resting in his humility, in love, in meekness.

The Spirit itself bestows these things on him and teaches him true prayer, true love, true meekness—the things which he forced himself toward and sought and cared for and meditated upon, and they were given to him;

and so, having grown and been perfected in God, he is counted worthy to become an heir of the kingdom.

For whence has he to fall, being beneath all? High-mindedness is a great humbling, and humility is a great exaltation and honour and dignity.

Let us also therefore compel and constrain ourselves unto humility, with the heart unwilling, and unto meekness and unto love, beseeching and entreating God in faith and hope and love unceasingly, in such expectation and aim, that he may send his Spirit into our hearts, that we may pray and worship God in spirit and truth.

And that the Spirit itself may pray in us, that the Spirit itself may teach us true prayer, which now, even forcing ourselves, we do not have; true humility, which now, even with force, we cannot perform; bowels of mercies, kindness, and all the commandments of the Lord—may it teach us to do them in truth, without toil and without constraint, as the Spirit itself knows how to fill us with its fruits;

and so, the commandments of God being fulfilled by us through his Spirit—the only one who knows the will of the Lord—and the Spirit having perfected us unto itself and being perfected in us when we have been cleansed from every defilement and stain of sin, may it present our souls, like fair brides, pure and blameless to Christ, while we rest in God in his kingdom, and God rests in us unto the endless ages.

Glory to his compassions and mercy and love, that he counted the human race worthy of such honour and glory;

he counted them worthy to be sons of the heavenly Father and called them his own brethren.

To him be glory unto the ages.

If anyone is naked of the divine and heavenly garment, which is the power of the Spirit (as it is said:

if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his), let him weep and entreat the Lord, that he may receive the spiritual garment from heaven, that he may clothe the soul stripped naked of divine working; for he who is not clothed with the garment of the Spirit is wrapped in much shame and dishonour of the passions.

For just as in visible things, if anyone is naked he is in much shame and dishonour, and friends turn away from naked friends, and kinsmen from their own, and children, seeing their father stripped naked, turned away their faces so as not to gaze on the father's naked body, and going away backwards covered him and so turned their faces—so also God has turned away the souls that are not clothed with the garment of the Spirit in full assurance, those not clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ in power and truth.

The first man himself, when he beheld himself naked, was ashamed;

so great a dishonour attaches to nakedness.

If then in bodily things nakedness shows so great a shame, how much more does the soul that is naked of divine power, not wearing and clad with the unspeakable and incorruptible and spiritual garment, even the Lord Jesus Christ himself in truth, become wrapped in greater shame and dishonour of the passions; and everyone who is naked of that divine glory ought thus to be ashamed of himself and to recognize his dishonour, just as Adam was bodily ashamed being naked;

and though he made himself a covering of fig-leaves, yet he bore his shame, recognizing his poverty and nakedness.

Let such a soul therefore ask of Christ, who gives and clothes with glory in unspeakable light, not making for itself a garment of vain reasonings, deceived by an opinion of its own righteousness and supposing it has the robe of salvation.

[He who supposes he has] righteousness (which is the Lord, who, it is said, became for us righteousness and redemption) labours in vain and emptily.

For all the conceit of his righteousness is made manifest as a menstruous rag in the last day, as Isaiah the prophet says:

all our righteousness has become as a menstruous rag.

Let us therefore ask and entreat God to clothe us with the garment of salvation, our Lord Jesus Christ, the unspeakable light;

which souls that have put on shall not be unclothed unto the ages, but in the resurrection their bodies also shall be glorified by the glory of the light, with which the faithful and noble souls are wrapped from now on, as the apostle says:

He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you.

Glory to his unutterable compassion and his unspeakable mercy.

And again, just as the woman with the issue of blood, having believed in truth and touched the hem of the Lord's garment, immediately obtained healing, and the flow of the unclean fountain of blood was dried up, so every soul that has the incurable wound of sin, the fountain of unclean and evil thoughts, if it draws near to Christ and entreats him, believing in truth, obtains saving healing from the incurable fountain of the passions, and that fountain which gushes unclean thoughts is dried up and fails, through the power of Jesus alone.

But for any other to heal this wound is impossible.

For so did the enemy contrive in the transgression of Adam, so as to wound and darken the inner man, the ruling mind that beholds God;

henceforth his eyes looked toward evils and the passions, being shut out from the heavenly good things.

Thus then was he wounded, so that it is possible for none to heal him, except the Lord alone;

for he, having come, took away the sin of the world—that is, he dried up the unclean fountain of the soul's thoughts.

For just as that woman with the issue of blood, having spent all that she had on those who promised to cure her, was healed by none of them, until she drew near to the Lord, believing in truth and touching the hem of his garment, and so immediately perceived the healing and the flow of blood stopped—so the soul, wounded from the beginning with the incurable wound of the passions of evil, none, neither of the righteous nor of the fathers nor of the prophets nor of the patriarchs, was able to heal.

Moses came, but he could not give complete healing;

priests, gifts, tithes, sabbaths, new moons, washings, sacrifices, whole burnt offerings and all the rest of the righteousness was performed under the Law, and the soul could not be healed and cleansed from the unclean flow of evil thoughts, and all its righteousness could not avail to heal it, until the Saviour came, the true physician who heals freely, who gave himself a ransom for the human race.

He alone wrought the great and saving redemption and healing of the soul.

He set it free from bondage and led it out of darkness, glorifying it with his own light.

He dried up the fountain of unclean thoughts within it;

for behold, he says, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

For its own remedies from the earth—that is, its own ordinances alone—could not heal and cure it from so great an invisible wound; but through the heavenly and divine nature of the gift of the Holy Spirit, through this remedy alone was man able to obtain healing and to attain life, being cleansed in heart by the Holy Spirit.

But just as there the woman, though she could not be healed and was wounded, nevertheless had feet to come to the Lord and, having come, to obtain healing;

she sent forth the voice of angels (for she said...).

For just as, if that blind man had not cried out and the woman with the issue of blood had not drawn near to the Lord, they would not have obtained healing, so unless someone, of his own will and whole purpose, comes to the Lord and entreats with full assurance of faith, he does not obtain healing.

For why did those, having believed, find healing at once, while we have not yet truly recovered our sight nor been healed of the hidden passions, although the Lord has more care for the immortal soul than for the body? For if it should recover sight, according to him who says:

Open my eyes—it shall no more be blinded unto the age, and being healed it shall no more be wounded.

For if the Lord, having come upon the earth, took care of corruptible bodies, how much more of the immortal soul, made according to his image.

But because of our unbelief, because of our division of heart, because we do not love him with all the heart nor believe in him in truth, we have not yet obtained the spiritual healing and salvation.

Let us therefore believe in him and draw near in truth, that he may quickly work in us the true healing.

For he promised to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him, and to open to those who knock, and to be found by those who seek; and he who promised is no liar.

To him be glory and might unto the ages.

He who wishes truly to please God and according to truth is at enmity with the opposing side of evil, has his wrestling in two contests and two struggles:

in the visible affairs of this life withdrawing from earthly distractions and from the bonds of worldly love and the passions of sin, and in the hidden things fighting against the very spirits of wickedness, concerning whom the apostle said:

our wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

For in two ways and bonds was man bound, having transgressed the commandment and been banished from paradise: in this life, in the affairs of living and in the love of the world—that is, of fleshly pleasures and passions, wealth and glory and possessions, wife and children, kindred, homelands, places, garments, and in a word all visible things—from which the word of God commands him to be loosed by his own choice;

since each one is voluntarily bound to all the visible things, that, having loosed and freed himself from all these, he may be able perfectly to become master of the commandment.

And in the hidden realm too the soul is hemmed in and fenced about and walled in and bound with chains of darkness by the spirits of wickedness, unable to love the Lord as it wills, nor to believe as it wills, nor to pray as it wills;

for in every man the opposition, both in things manifest and in things hidden, has come down to us from the transgression of the first man.

...of wickedness, and another struggle is set before [him].

And so, abiding and calling upon the Lord in undoubting faith and much patience, and awaiting his help, he is able from there to obtain the inward redemption from the bonds and barriers and fences and darkness of the spirits of wickedness, which are the workings of the hidden passions.

This war can be brought to nought through the grace and power of God.

For by himself it is impossible for anyone to deliver himself from the opposition and deception of thoughts and invisible passions and the devices of the evil one.

But if anyone is entangled in the visible affairs of this world and ensnared in various earthly bonds and carried away by the passions of evil, he does not even recognize that there is another wrestling and combat and war within.

For grant that, when someone takes himself up in struggle and looses himself from these visible worldly bonds and material things and fleshly pleasures, and begins to persevere with the Lord, emptying himself of this world—even then may he be able to recognize the inward wrestling of the passions lodging within, and the inward war and the evil thoughts.

For unless, as we said before, having struggled he renounces the world and looses himself from earthly desires with his whole heart, and wholly and entirely wills to cleave to the Lord, he does not recognize the deception of the hidden spirits of wickedness and the hidden passions of evil, but is a stranger to himself, in that he does not know he has hidden wounds and passions, being ignorant of them;

and he is still bound to visible things and entangled willingly in the affairs of the world.

For he who has truly renounced the world and striven and cast from himself the burden of earth and of vain desires and fleshly pleasures and glory and rule and human honours, taking himself up and leading himself away from these with his whole heart—when in this manifest contest too the Lord secretly helps, according to the measure of the renunciation of the will of the world—and having stood firm in the service of the Lord and persevered wholly and entirely (in body and soul, I mean), that man finds opposition and hidden passions and invisible bonds and unseen war and a hidden struggle and contest;

and so, having entreated the Lord and received weapons from heaven, of the Spirit, which the blessed apostle enumerated—the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation and the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit—and being armed with these, he will be able to stand against the hidden wiles of the devil amid the present wickednesses;

which weapons, procured through all prayer and perseverance and supplication and fasting, and above all through faith, he will be able to overcome the war against the principalities and powers and world-rulers; and so, having conquered the opposing powers through the cooperation of the Spirit and through his own diligence in all virtues, he will become worthy of eternal life, glorifying Father and Son and Holy Spirit, to whom be glory and might unto the ages.

When the soul of a man goes out of the body, a certain great mystery is there accomplished.

For if it is liable in sins, there come bands of demons and angels of the left hand, and powers of darkness take that soul and hold it fast unto their own portion.

And no one ought to be astonished at this;

for if, while living and being in this age, it was subjected and obeyed and became a slave to them, how much more, when it goes out of the world, is it held and mastered by them.

But from the side of the good you ought to understand that the matter stands thus:

even now there are angels abiding [with the saints] and holy spirits encircling and guarding them, and when they go out of the body, the bands of angels take their souls to their own portion, into the pure age, and so bring them to the Lord.

The great and precious and royal pearl, which goes into a royal diadem, has need of the king alone, and the king alone is able to wear this pearl;

but for any other man to wear such a pearl is not permitted.

So, unless one is born of the royal and divine Spirit, and becomes a heavenly and royal race and a child of God (according to that which is written:

but as many as received him, to them he gave authority to become children of God), he cannot wear the heavenly and precious pearl, the image of the light, of the unutterable light, which is the Lord, not having become a son of the King.

For those who have and wear the pearl live together and reign together with Christ unto the ages;

for thus said the apostle:

as we have borne the image of the earthy, let us also bear the image of the heavenly.

For just as a horse, so long as it grazes with the wild beasts in the woods, is unsubdued to men;

but when it is caught to be tamed, they put a heavy bridle on it, until it learns to walk in order and aright.

Then it is trained by an experienced trainer, that it may become useful for war as well;

then they clothe it with armour—the breastplate, I mean, and the trappings—and first they hang up a bridle and shake it before its eyes, that it may grow accustomed and not take fright.

And so, being taught by its rider, it learns to fight enemies;

for without a rider and a breastplate a horse cannot fight.

But when it has learned and grown accustomed to war, whenever it smells and hears the sound of battle, it readily goes of itself against the enemies, so that by the very sound it strikes terror into the foes.

In the same way the soul too, being from the transgression wild and unsubdued, roams in the wilderness of the world among the beasts—the spirits of wickedness—having its service in sin.

But when it hears the word of God and believes, being bridled by the Spirit, it puts off the wild disposition and the fleshly mind, being guided by the rider, Christ.

Then it comes into affliction and taming and straits, to be tested, that little by little it may be tamed by the Spirit, while the sin in it little by little fails and is done away.

And so the soul, putting on the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation and the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, is taught to fight against its enemies.

And so, armed with the Spirit of the Lord, it contends against the spirits of wickedness and quenches the fiery darts of the evil one;

for without the weapons of the Spirit it does not go up to the battle-line.

But having the weapons of the Lord, when it hears and perceives fierce battles, it goes forth with a war-cry and shout, as is said in Job:

that even at the very sound of its supplication the enemies fall down; and so, having striven and conquered the war through the Spirit, it bears off victorious crowns with much boldness, and so rests together with the heavenly King, to whom be glory and might, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit unto the ages.

Christians are like merchants trading for the greatest gains.

For just as those gather earthly gains out of the earth, so these gather from all the earth the scattered thoughts of their own heart in this age, through all virtues and through the power of the Spirit, which is the greatest and truest merchandise.

For this world is opposed to the world above, and this age is set against the age above.

The Christian must therefore, according to the holy Scriptures, having renounced the world, be transferred and pass over in mind from this age—in which the mind lies and is allured since the transgression of Adam—into another age, and be in thought in the world above of the Godhead, as it is said:

but our citizenship is in heaven.

But this can in no way be achieved, unless the soul believes in the Lord with all the heart, having renounced this age.

And the power of the divine Spirit is able to gather the heart that is scattered in all the earth into the love of the Lord, and to transfer the thought into the eternal world.

For from the transgression of Adam the thoughts of the soul were scattered from the love of God into this age, mingled with material and earthly thoughts.

But just as Adam, having transgressed, received into himself the leaven of the evil of the passions, so by participation those born of him and all the race of Adam partook of that leaven;

and henceforth, by advance and increase, the passions of sin grew so great in men that they came even to fornications and licentiousness and idolatries and murders and other monstrous deeds, until humanity was leavened with evil;

and evil grew so great in men that they supposed there was no God at all, but worshipped lifeless stones, nor could they so much as take God into their thought (to such a degree did the leaven of the evil of the passions leaven the race of the old Adam)—in the same manner the Lord was well pleased, in his sojourn, to suffer for all and to purchase them with his own blood, and to put a heavenly leaven of goodness into the faithful souls humbled under sin, and so henceforth, by advance and increase, to accomplish in them all the righteousness of the commandments and all virtues, until they are leavened into one in the good and become one spirit with the Lord, according to the saying of Paul, evil and wickedness being no longer able to come even into the thought of the soul wholly and entirely leavened with the divine Spirit, as it is said:

love takes no account of evil, and what follows.

But without the heavenly leaven, which is the power of the divine Spirit, it is impossible for the soul to be leavened in the kindness of the Lord and to attain to life, just as neither could the race of Adam have been so turned aside into such great evil and wickedness, had not the leaven of evil, which is sin, entered into it, being a certain rational and intelligent power of Satan.

For just as if someone kneads flour but does not put in leaven, however much he may seem to tend and turn and work it, the dough is unleavened and unfit for food;

but when the leaven is put in, it draws to itself the whole lump of flour and makes the whole into leaven, even as the Lord likened the kingdom, saying:

the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until the whole was leavened;

...the nature of the Holy Spirit.

If then there be not mingled and put into the humbled nature of men, from that age and from that homeland, the heavenly leaven of the Spirit and the good and holy salt of the Godhead, the soul will by no means be changed from the stench of evil, nor will it be leavened from the heaviness and unleavenedness of wickedness.

For whatever the soul seems to do and to tend and to practise of itself, relying on its own power alone and supposing it can accomplish perfect achievement by itself without the cooperation of the Spirit, it is greatly deceived.

For it is of no use unto the heavenly places, of no use unto the kingdom—that which supposes by itself and through itself alone, without the Spirit, to accomplish perfect purity.

For unless the man who is wrought upon by the passions draws near to God, having renounced the world, and believes in hope and patience to receive something foreign to his own nature, namely the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Lord instils from above into the soul the life of the Godhead, such a man will by no means perceive true life, nor will he sober up from the intoxication of matter, nor will the illumination of the Spirit shine in the darkened soul and beam in it a holy day, nor will he be awakened from the deepest sleep of ignorance, and so come truly to know God through the power of God and the working of grace.

For unless a man is thus counted worthy through faith to receive grace, he is unfit and unsuited for the kingdom.

And again, having received the grace of the Spirit, if in nothing turned aside and not insulting the grace through negligence and evil-doing, and having thus striven over time so as not to grieve the Spirit, he will be able to attain eternal life.

For just as one perceives the workings of evil from the passions (I mean wrath and lust and envy and heaviness and evil thoughts and the rest of the monstrous things), so he ought to perceive the grace and power of God in the virtues (I mean love and kindness and goodness and joy and lightness and divine exultation), that he may be able to be made like and commingled with the good and divine nature and with the kind and holy working of grace.

And the resolve, being tested in time and seasons by advance and increase—whether it is ever united with grace and found well-pleasing—becomes wholly and entirely in advance in the Spirit, and so henceforth, being wrought holy and pure through the Spirit, it is made worthy of the kingdom.

Glory and worship to the undefiled Father and Son and Holy Spirit unto the ages.

Those in whom the divine law is present, written not in ink and letters but implanted in hearts of flesh, these, the eyes of their understanding being enlightened and ever reaching out not toward the perceptible and visible hope but toward the invisible and intelligible, are strong to overcome the stumbling-blocks of the evil one—not of themselves, but from the invincible power.

But those not honoured with the word of God, nor instructed in the divine law, being vainly puffed up, suppose that by their own free will they can do away with the occasions of sin, which is condemned solely through the mystery in the cross.

For the free will in the power of man lies in resisting the devil, but not in being able to have complete mastery over the passions;

for unless the Lord, it says, build the house and guard the city, in vain has the watchman watched and the builder laboured.