Fifty Spiritual Homilies 1 part 12/19

...to man, who has cleansed himself and been strengthened by him who said to the apostles:

Behold, I have given you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.

For if the nature of humanity were strong enough, apart from the full armour of the Holy Spirit, to stand against the wiles of the devil, it would not have been said by the apostle:

And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly; and again:

whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth.

Wherefore indeed we were also commanded to pray to the Lord:

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

For unless, delivered through the superior help from the fiery darts of the evil one, we are counted worthy of adoption as sons, we live our life in vain, being far from the power of God.

He, then, who wishes to become a partaker of the divine glory and to behold the form of Christ as in a mirror in his own ruling faculty, ought with insatiable longing and unwearied disposition, with all his heart and strength, night and day, to seek the help that is from God in power; in which it is impossible to share, unless, as I said before, one first abstains from the soft pleasure of the world, from the desires of the opposing power, which is alien to the light and is a working of wickedness, foreign and altogether estranged from good working.

If therefore you wish to learn for what cause, having been created in honour and settled in paradise, we were at last compared to the senseless beasts and made like to them, having fallen from the undefiled glory, know that through disobedience we became slaves of the passions of the flesh and shut ourselves out of the blessed land of the living, and, being in captivity, we still sit by the rivers of Babylon, and because we are still held in Egypt we have not yet inherited the land of promise flowing with milk and honey.

We have not yet been kneaded with the leaven of sincerity, but are still in the leaven of wickedness.

Our heart has not yet been sprinkled with the blood of God, for the snare of Hades and the hook of evil are still fixed in it.

We have not yet received the joy of the salvation of Christ, for the sting of death is still rooted in us.

We have not yet put on the new man created according to God in holiness, since we have not yet put off the old man that is corrupt according to the lusts of deceit.

Not yet having borne the image of the heavenly, we have not become conformed to his glory.

We have not yet worshipped God in spirit and truth, because sin reigns in our mortal body.

We have not yet beheld the glory of the incorruptible, for we are still wrought upon by the moonless darkness.

We have not yet put on the weapons of light, since we have not yet put off the weapons and darts and works of darkness.

We have not yet been transformed by the renewing of the mind, for we are still conformed to this age in the vanity of the mind.

We have not yet been glorified together with Christ, because we do not suffer together with him.

We do not yet bear his marks in our body, having come to be in the mystery of the cross of Christ;

for we are still in the fleshly sufferings and lusts.

We have not yet become heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ;

for there is still in us a spirit of bondage and not of adoption.

We have not yet become a temple of God and a dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit;

for we are still a temple of idols and a receptacle of spirits of wickedness, because of our impulse toward the passions.

For truly we have not yet acquired integrity of disposition and brightness of understanding.

We have not yet been counted worthy of the guileless and rational milk and of the spiritual growth.

Day has not yet dawned upon us, nor has the morning star risen in our hearts.

We have not yet been commingled with the Sun of righteousness, nor have we shone together with his beams.

We have not yet become a guileless royal purple, nor an unadulterated divine image.

We have not yet been wounded with divine love, nor smitten by the spiritual love of the bridegroom.

We have not yet known the unspeakable communion, nor have we come to know the power and peace that is in sanctification.

And, to say all in brief, we are not yet a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's possession, since we are still serpents, a brood of vipers.

And how are they not serpents who are found not in obedience to God, but in the disobedience that came through the serpent? Over these things, then, how I may worthily lament the calamity, I do not find.

And how, crying out, I may weep before him who is able to drive out the deception lodging within me, I know not.

And how shall I sing the song of the Lord in a strange land? How shall I lament for Jerusalem? How shall I flee the grievous bondage of Pharaoh? How shall I leave the shameful sojourning? How shall I renounce the bitter tyranny? How shall I go out from the land of Egypt? How shall I cross the Red Sea? How shall I pass the great wilderness? How shall I not perish, bitten by the serpents? How shall I conquer the aliens? How shall I utterly destroy the nations within me? How shall I receive on my own tablets the oracles of the divine law? How shall I see the true pillar of light and of the cloud from the Holy Spirit? How shall I enjoy the manna of everlasting delight? How shall I drink the water from the life-giving rock? How shall I pass the Jordan and enter into the good land of promise? How shall I see the commander of the Lord's host, whom Joshua the son of Nun, when he saw him, fell down at once and worshipped? For unless, having passed through all these things, I utterly destroy the nations within me, I shall by no means enter and find rest in the sanctuary of God, nor become a partaker of the King's glory.

Therefore strive to become a blameless child of God and to enter into that rest, where Christ entered as a forerunner on our behalf.

Strive to be enrolled in the church in the heavens with the firstborn, that you may be found at the right hand of the majesty of the Most High.

Strive to enter into the holy city, the peaceful and highest Jerusalem, where also is paradise.

For of these wonderful and blessed examples you shall in no other way be counted worthy, unless you shed tears day and night, according to him who says:

I will wash my bed every night; with my tears I will water my couch.

For you are not ignorant that those who sow in tears shall reap in joy? Wherefore the prophet says with boldness:

Be not silent at my tears; and again:

You have put my tears [in your bottle], as also in your promise; and:

My tears have been my bread day and night; and in another psalm:

I mingled my drink with weeping.

For the tear that is truly poured out from much affliction and anguish of heart in the knowledge of truth, together with a burning of the inward parts, is food of the soul, supplied from the heavenly bread, of which Mary preeminently partook, sitting at the feet of the Lord and weeping, according to the testimony of the Saviour himself:

Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.

O those precious pearls in the flow of the blessed tears!

O that upright and obedient hearing!

O the manly and wise understanding!

O sharpness of the Spirit of the Lord, of a love vehemently drawn toward the undefiled bridegroom!

O sting of the soul's longing toward God the Word!

O speedy communion of the bride with the heavenly bridegroom!

Imitate her as a child; imitate her, looking to nothing else, except only to him who said:

I came to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled;

for there is a burning of the Spirit that rekindles the hearts.

For our God is a consuming fire, rendering vengeance in a flame of fire to those who do not know him and to those who do not obey his gospel.

This fire wrought in the apostles, when they spoke with tongues of fire.

This fire, shining around Paul through the voice, enlightened his understanding but dimmed the sense of his sight;

for not without [hindrance to] the flesh did he see the power of that light.

This fire appeared to Moses in the bush.

This fire, in the form of a chariot, caught up Elijah from the earth.

Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my reins and my heart with fire.

This fire warmed the heart of Cleopas and of those with him, when the Savior spoke with them after the resurrection; whence also the angels and the ministering spirits partake of the radiance of this fire, according to what is said:

He who makes His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire.

This fire, burning up the beam that is in the inner eye, restores the mind pure, so that, recovering its natural power of discernment, it may behold continually the wondrous works of God, according to him who says:

Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law.

This fire, therefore, is that which puts demons to flight and destroys sin; it is the power of the resurrection and the energy of immortality, the illumination of holy souls and the establishing of the rational powers.

Let us pray that this fire may reach us also, so that, always walking in the light, we may never even for a little while strike our feet against a stone, but, shining as lights in the world, may hold forth the word of eternal life; that, enjoying the good things of God together with the Lord, we may rest in life, glorifying the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, whose is the glory and the might unto the ages.

Do not regard lightly the intellectual substance of the soul, beloved; the immortal soul is a precious vessel.

See how vast are heaven and earth, yet God was not well pleased to dwell in them, but in you alone.

Behold your dignity and nobility: that not through angels, but by Himself, the Lord came as ambassador on your behalf, to call back you who were lost and wounded, and to restore to you the first fashioning of the pure Adam.

For man was lord over heaven and over the things below, discerning of the passions and a stranger to demons, pure from sin, the image and likeness of God; but through the transgression he became lost and wounded and dead.

For Satan darkened the mind.

In one respect he is in this state, and in another he yet lives and discerns and has a will.

Question: When the Holy Spirit comes, is not the natural desire also uprooted together with sin? Answer: I said before that sin too is uprooted together, and man recovers the first fashioning of the pure Adam.

Thus indeed, through the power of the Spirit and the spiritual regeneration, he comes to the measure of the first Adam and becomes greater than he;

for man is made a god.

Question: Is Satan let loose by measure, or does he war as he wishes? Answer: His assault is not only against Christians, but also against idolaters and against the whole world.

If, then, he were permitted to war as he wishes, he would utterly destroy all.

Why? Because this is his work and his will.

But as the potter sets in his vessels and heats the furnace by measure—not too much, lest being over-baked they crack, nor too little, lest being unbaked they perish—

and silver too is watered down and ruined—

and if the human mind knows how to apportion loads to the beast of burden and the camel or any other animal, according as it is able to bear the loads in proportion, how much more does God, knowing the vessels of men, in like manner let loose the adverse power in varying degrees.

And as the earth, though one, is in one place rough and in another fine-soiled, and one part is suited for planting a vineyard and another for sowing wheat and barley, so also are the hearts and the wills of men different;

and so too the gifts of grace are bestowed from above:

to one is given the ministry of the word, to another discernment, to another gifts of healings.

For God knows how each one is able to administer, and thus He bestows the various gifts of grace.

Likewise also in the conflicts: by some measure, according as each is able to receive and endure, the adverse power is let loose against them.

Question: If one who has received the divine power and been partly transformed still remains in his nature? Answer: In order that the will, even after grace, may be tested as to where it inclines and with what it agrees, the nature remains in its sameness—the hard man in his hardness and the light man in his levity.

And it happens that one who is unlearned is born again spiritually and is transformed into wisdom, and hidden mysteries are made known to him, though by nature he is unlearned.

Another, being by nature hard, gives his will to the fear of God, and God receives him; yet his nature remains in its hardness, and God is well pleased with him.

Another is of good character, gentle, kind; he gives himself to God, and the Lord indeed receives him.

But if he does not abide in good works, God is not well pleased; for the whole nature of Adam is changeable toward good and toward evil, receptive of evil, yet—if it so wills—not bound to accomplish it.

It is like a writing-tablet that is written upon in various ways;

you wished and you wrote, again you erased—for the tablet receives every writing—so also the hard man gave his will toward God, turned to the good, and was received by God.

For God, that He may show His own compassion, receives all, every disposition of will.

Whatever city the apostles entered, they would stay some time and heal some of the sick, but others not;

for the apostles themselves wished to raise all their dead to life and to bring all the sick to health, yet their will was not entirely accomplished;

for it was not permitted to them to do all that they wished.

Likewise also Paul, when he was held fast by the ethnarch, had the grace that was with him wished it, could have turned the ethnarch to stone and burst the wall asunder, being a man having the Paraclete;

yet the apostle is let down through a basket.

And where then was the divine power that was with him? These things came to pass by a dispensation: that in some matters they should work signs and wonders, and in some be powerless, so that thereby the faith of unbelievers and of believers might be tested, and free will might be proved and made manifest—provided that in the weaker matters some are not made to stumble.

For if the apostles had done all they wished, they would have planted men in godliness by a compelling power through the signs, and there would be no free will, and no longer faith and unbelief;

for Christianity is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

Moreover, what is written concerning Job is not without significance—how Satan asked for him;

for he could not of himself do anything without permission.

But what does the devil say to the Lord? 'Give him into my hands, and surely he will bless You to Your face.'

So also now: the same Job, and the same God, and the same devil.

As long, then, as one enjoys God's help and is eager and fervent in grace, Satan asks for him and says to the Lord:

'Because You help him and uphold him, he serves You.'

'Let him alone and hand him over to me, and surely he will bless You to Your face.'

Then, as the soul is being consoled, grace withdraws, and the soul is given over to temptations:

despair, evil reasonings, afflicting the soul, so as to enervate it and estrange it from the hope of God.

But the prudent soul, though in evils and in affliction, does not despair, but holds fast to what it holds; and whatever may be brought upon it through countless temptations, enduring it says:

'Even if I die, I will not let Him go.'

And then, if the man endures to the end, the Lord begins to converse with Satan:

'You see how many evils and afflictions you brought upon him, and he did not obey you, but serves Me and fears Me?' Then the devil is put to shame and has nothing more to say.

For indeed, in the case of Job, had he known that, falling into the temptations, the man would endure and not be overcome, he would not have asked for him, lest he be put to shame.

So also now, in the case of those who endure afflictions and temptations, Satan is put to shame and repents that he accomplished nothing.

For the Lord begins to make account with him:

'See, I yielded to you; see, I permitted you to tempt him.'

'Were you able to do anything? Did he obey you?' Question: Does Satan, then, know all the reasonings of man and his thoughts? Answer: If man dwells with man and knows his affairs, and you, being twenty years old, know your neighbor's matters, does Satan himself, who has been with you from your birth, not know your reasonings? For he is already six thousand years old.

Yet we do not say that, before tempting the man, he knows what the man is going to do.

For the tempter tempts, but he does not know whether the man will obey him or not, until the soul gives over its will as a slave.

Nor again do we say that the devil knows all the reasonings of the heart and its imaginations.

For just as if there be a tree having many branches and many members,

and one can grasp, so to speak, two or three branches of the tree, so also the soul has many branches and many members.

So then, there are certain branches of reasonings and thoughts, and Satan holds these, and there are other reasonings and thoughts not held by Satan.

For in one man the portion of wickedness is stronger in welling up the reasonings;

in another, again, the reasoning of the man prevails, receiving help and deliverance from God and gainsaying the wickedness;

in one respect he is held captive, and in another he has a will.

For he draws near, there are times, fervent toward God, and Satan knows and sees that he acts against him, yet cannot restrain the man.

Why? Because he has the will to cry out to God; he has natural fruits—to love God, to believe, to seek and to draw near.

For indeed, in visible things, the farmer works the earth; yet even if he works, he needs rains and showers from above;

for if it does not rain from above, the farmer has profited nothing by working the earth.

So also in the spiritual realm, matters are understood as involving two persons.

Man, then, must of his own choice till the ground of his heart and labor.

For God seeks the toil and the labor and the working of man.

But unless heavenly clouds and showers of grace appear from above, the farmer who has labored has profited nothing.

And this is the sign of Christianity: that however much one may labor and whatever righteous deeds one may do, one should regard himself as having done nothing, and while fasting should say:

'I have not fasted in prayer, I have not prayed by persevering in prayer, I have not persevered, and I am still but at the beginning of asceticism and labor.'

Even if he be righteous before God, he ought to say:

'I am not righteous, nor do I labor, but each day I am beginning.'

And he ought to have day by day the hope and the joy and the expectation of the coming kingdom and redemption, and to say:

'If today I have not been redeemed, tomorrow I shall be redeemed.'

Likewise too, he who builds a house and he who farms first scatters much of his own resources for the hope of the coming income; so also here, unless one has before his eyes the joy and the hope that 'I shall obtain redemption and life,' he cannot endure the afflictions, nor take up the burden and the narrow way;

for the hope and joy that are present make him labor and endure the afflictions.

And just as it is not easy for a firebrand to escape from the fire, so neither for a soul to escape from the fire of death, except through much labor.

And for the most part Satan, as if on the pretext of good reasonings—that by this you can please God—suggests to the soul and steals it away into subtle and plausible-seeming thoughts; and the soul, being stolen away, does not know how to discern, and so falls into the snare and ruin of the devil.

But the most timely weapon of the athlete and contestant is this: that entering into the heart he should make war against Satan, and hate himself and deny his own soul, and be angry with it and rebuke it, and set himself against the desires that are present and wrestle against the reasonings and do battle with him.

But if outwardly you keep your body from corruption and fornication, while inwardly you commit adultery against God, you have committed adultery and fornication in your reasonings, and you have profited nothing by keeping the body a virgin.

Just as if there be a maiden and a young man, and having beguiled her by deceit he corrupts her, she is thereafter abominable to the bridegroom because she has been defiled; so also the bodiless soul, having fellowship with the serpent that lurks within—that is, with the evil spirit—commits fornication away from God; and it is written:

'Everyone who looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.'

For there is fornication accomplished through the body, and there is fornication of the soul that has fellowship with Satan;

for the same soul is a partaker and sister either of demons or of God and the angels.

And so, committing adultery with the devil, it is useless to the heavenly bridegroom.

Question: Does Satan ever rest, and is man set free from the warfare, or, as long as he lives, does he have warfare? Answer: Satan never rests from warring;

as long as anyone lives in this age and bears the flesh, he is warred against.

But when the flaming darts of the evil one are quenched, what then harms the man, even if Satan comes? By way of illustration, there is one who is a friend of the king and has a lawsuit against an adversary;

when, then, he has the king favorably disposed and as his friend, who helps him, he is harmed in nothing.

For when one has succeeded in passing through all the ranks and the degrees and has become a friend of the king, what harm does he thereafter suffer from anyone? In visible things there are cities that receive gifts and provisions from the king;

if, then, they perform some small service, they are in no way the losers, seeing that they obtain and receive so much from the king.

So also Christians: even if they are warred against by the enemy, yet they themselves have come to lodge in the Godhead, and have put on the power from on high and rest, and they take no thought of the warfare.

For just as the Lord put on a body, leaving aside all rule and authority, so also Christians put on the Holy Spirit and are in rest.

And even if warfare comes, and Satan knocks from without, yet they themselves are made secure within by the power of the Lord and take no thought of Satan.

Just as there in the wilderness he tempted the Lord forty days, what did it harm Him that the tempter approached His body from without? For within He was God; so also Christians, even if they are tempted from without, yet within they are filled with the Godhead and suffer no injury.

And whoever has attained to these measures has reached to the perfect love of Christ and to the fullness of the Godhead.

But he who is not such still has warfare within;

one hour he is at rest in prayer, and at another hour he stands in affliction and warfare.

For thus the Lord wills:

He trains him in the conflicts, and the two persons well up within—both the light and the darkness, both the rest and the affliction.

They pray in rest, and at another hour they are in turmoil.

Do you not hear what Paul says? 'If I have all the gifts of grace, if I deliver up my body to be burned, if I speak with the tongues of angels, but have not love, I am nothing'; for these gifts are but a spur, and those who stand in them, even if in light, are babes.

For many of the brethren came to such measures and had gifts of healings and revelation and prophecy, and because they did not attain to perfect love, where is the bond of perfection, warfare came upon them and, having grown negligent, they fell.

But if one attains to perfect love, he is thereafter bound and held captive to grace.

But if one draws but a little near to the measure of love, yet does not attain to being bound to love itself, such a one is still under fear and warfare and falling; and unless he is on his guard, Satan casts him down.

For thus many have been led astray;

grace having come to them, they supposed that they had attained perfection and said:

but the Lord has neither end nor comprehension, and Christians do not presume to say 'We have attained,' but are humbled, seeking night and day.

In visible things, letters are without end, and no one knows this except the scholar who has learned letters moderately.

So also here, to no one is God comprehensible and measurable, except to those who have tasted of that very One whom they received, and they recognize their own weakness.

If one goes to a village knowing a little learning, where there are unlearned people, he is glorified by them as a scholar, because they are rustics, wholly unable to judge.

But this same man who knows little learning, if he goes to a city where there are orators and scholars, does not dare to show himself to them nor to speak;

for he is judged as a rustic by the scholars.

Question: If a man who is in warfare and has the two persons in his soul—of sin and of grace—departs from this world, where does he proceed, being held by the two parts? Answer: Wherever the mind has its aim and wherever it loves, there it proceeds.

Only, if affliction and warfare come upon you, you ought to gainsay and to hate;

for the coming of the warfare is not yours, but the hating is yours.

And then the Lord, seeing your mind, that you strive and love Him with all your soul, separates death from your soul in one hour (for to Him it is not difficult), and takes you into His bosom and into the light;

for He snatches you in the twinkling of an hour out of the mouth of darkness, and at once translates you into His kingdom;

for to God, in the twinkling of an hour, all things are easy to do, only that you have love toward Him.

For God has need of the working of man, since the soul is a partaker of the Godhead.

And just as we have often told the parable of the farmer, that having labored and cast the seed into the ground, he must also await the rain from above;

for unless clouds appear and winds blow, the labor of the farmer profits nothing, for the seed lies bare—take this also into the spiritual realm.

If man remains only in his own working and does not receive something foreign to his nature, he cannot render fruits worthy to the Lord.

And what is the working of man? To renounce, to go out from the world, to persevere in prayer, to keep vigil, to love God and the brethren;

but if he remains in his own working and does not hope to receive anything else, and the winds of the Holy Spirit do not blow upon the soul, and unless heavenly clouds appear and rain comes down from heaven and waters the soul, man cannot render fruits worthy to the Lord.

And it is written that the farmer, when he sees the branch bearing fruit, prunes it, that it may bear more;