Fifty Spiritual Homilies 1 part 13/19

but the one not bearing fruit he uproots and gives to the burning.

Moreover, this is for man: whether he fasts or keeps vigil or prays or does any good thing, to ascribe it all to the Lord, saying this: 'Unless God had strengthened me, I could not have fasted or prayed or gone out from the world.'

And thus, God, seeing your good disposition, that you ascribe to God the things you do by nature, again Himself bestows on you His own things—the spiritual, the divine and heavenly things.

And what are the fruits of the Spirit? Exultation, gladness.

Question: But since there are natural fruits similar to these—love, faith, prayer—distinguish for us how the natural things are and how the spiritual. Answer: The things which you do are good and acceptable to God, but they are not pure.

For instance, you love God, but not perfectly;

the Lord comes, giving you unchanging, heavenly love.

You pray naturally, with wandering and reasoning;

God gives you the pure prayer, in spirit and in truth.

In visible things, the earth for the most part brings forth thorns of itself; the farmer digs, works diligently, casts seed, but the thorns, though not sown, spring up and multiply;

for after the transgression it was said to Adam:

'The earth shall bring forth thistles and thorns for you.'

Again the farmer toils over the earth, digs up the thorns, and they multiply yet more.

Take this spiritually.

For after the transgression the ground of the heart brings forth thorns and thistles; man works, toils, and still the thorns of the evil spirits spring up.

Then the Holy Spirit Himself takes hold together to help the weakness of men, and the Lord casts into that ground of the heart a heavenly seed and works it; and when the seed has fallen, the thistles and the thorns still spring up.

Again the Lord Himself and the man work the ground of the soul, and still the evil spirits and the thorns well up there and spring up, until summer comes and grace abounds, and the thorns are dried up by the heat of the sun.

For even if wickedness coexists with the nature, yet it does not in such a way lord it over the nature or have its pasture.

For the tares can choke the tender shoots of the wheat; but when summer has come, after the fruits have ripened, the tares do the wheat no harm.

For if it happen that there be thirty measures of pure wheat, and there is a mixture there of tares about a quart, what does it amount to? For it is buried by the abundance of the wheat.

When the gift of God and grace abound in a man, and he is rich toward the Lord, while wickedness coexists in part, it cannot harm the man nor has it any strength or pasture against him.

For the coming of the Lord and His providence came about for this reason: that He might free those who were enslaved to wickedness, and guilty, and subjected, and make them conquerors of the death of sin.

The brethren, then, ought not to be astonished if they are afflicted by some, that they may be delivered from wickedness.

For indeed, in the old time, Moses and Aaron, who held the priesthood, suffered many things;

but Caiaphas, who held their seat, himself persecuted and condemned the Lord;

yet the Lord, honoring the priesthood, let him exercise the priestly office.

Likewise the prophets were persecuted by that very nation.

And so Peter succeeded Moses, being entrusted with the new church of Christ and the true priesthood.

For now there is a baptism of fire and of Spirit, and a certain circumcision taking place in the heart; for the divine and heavenly Spirit comes to dwell in the mind.

Yet not even these, the perfect, so long as they are in the flesh, are without care, because of free will, but they are full of fear; wherefore they are also permitted to be tempted.

Only when one departs is he able to be without affliction and trials;

for there is there no longer care or affliction or toil or old age or Satan or warfare, but rest, joy, peace and salvation.

For the Lord is in their midst, who is called Savior because of saving the captives, and is called Physician, since He gives a heavenly and divine medicine and heals the passions of the soul;

for in some they still lord it over the man.

Jesus is King and God, but Satan is a tyrant and an evil ruler.

So then, God and His angels wish to make this man a familiar of their own in the kingdom;

likewise the devil and his angels wish to make him their own.

The soul, then, is in the middle of the two hypostases, and so, to whichever side the will of the soul inclines, of that one it becomes possession and son.

And just as if a father send his own son into a foreign land, where wild beasts meet him on the way, and he gives him medicines and antidotes, so that if the beasts or serpents come upon him, he may apply the medicine and kill them, so also do you be diligent to receive the heavenly medicine, the healing antidote of the soul, that by it you may kill the venomous beasts of the unclean spirits.

For it is no easy matter to acquire a pure heart, except through much struggle and labor, that a man may acquire a clean conscience and a pure heart, that evil may be wholly uprooted.

For it happens that there is grace in someone, and yet the heart is not cleansed; and for this reason those who have fallen have fallen, because they did not believe that, even after grace, the smoke and sin still coexisted with them.

But all the righteous, through the narrow and afflicted way, were well pleasing to God unto the end.

Likewise all the prophets and apostles were ill-treated and reproached.

The Lord Himself, who is the way and God, having come not for His own sake but for yours, that He might become to you a pattern of all good—behold to what humiliation He came, taking the form of a slave, God the Son of God, King the Son of the King, Himself giving the healing medicines and tending the wounded, while outwardly appearing as one of the wounded.

But do not despise the divine dignity, seeing Him outwardly humbled as like to us.

For our sake He appeared thus, not for His own.

Consider, in the hour when they were crying:

'Crucify, crucify Him,' and the crowd was gathering, how He was humbled beyond all.

Just as in visible things, if there be an evildoer and he receives sentence from the ruler, he is thereafter abominable to the whole populace and brought to nought; so the Lord, in the hour of the cross, as a man about to die, was made of no account by the Pharisees.

And when again they spat in His face and put on Him a crown of thorns and struck Him, what humiliation did He not surpass? For it is written: 'I gave My back to scourges, and I turned not away My face from the shame of spittings, and My cheeks from blows.'

But if God descended to such insults and sufferings and humiliation, you, who are by nature mire and of mortal nature, however much you may humble yourself, you do nothing like your Master. God humbled Himself for your sake, and do you not humble yourself for your own sake, but exalt yourself and are puffed up? For He came to take your afflictions and burdens and to give you His own rest;

and will you not bear toils and suffer, that thus your wounds may obtain healing? Glory to His forbearance and longsuffering unto the ages.

Know your nobility, O man, and your dignity—how precious you are: a brother of Christ, a friend of the King, a bride of the heavenly Bridegroom.

For he who has been able to recognize the dignity of his own soul, this one is able to recognize the power and the mysteries of the Godhead, and rather to be humbled thereby;

since by the power of God one beholds his own fall.

But in the way that He Himself passed through sufferings and the cross, and so was glorified and sat at the right hand of the Father, so also must you suffer with Him and be crucified with Him, and so ascend and sit together and be joined to the body of Christ, and reign with Him forever in that age, if indeed we suffer together, that we may also be glorified together.

For as many as are able to surmount and pass through the walls of wickedness enter into the heavenly city, the peaceful and full of many good things, where the spirits of the righteous rest.

It is necessary, then, to labor greatly for this and to struggle;

for it is not right that the Bridegroom, having come for your sake, should suffer and be crucified, while the bride, for whose sake the Bridegroom came, should be slack and given to wandering.

For just as in visible things, if there be a harlot, she gives herself disorderly to all, so also the soul has given itself to every demon and is corrupted by the spirits.

For there are those who have sin and evil by their own choice, and some against their choice.

And what is this? Those who have evil by their own choice are those who give over their own will to wickedness, and delight in it and befriend it;

these have peace with Satan and make no war in their reasonings against the devil.

But those who are against their choice, these have the sin that is in them warring in their members, according to the apostle;

and there is the misty power and the veil against their choice, and they do not agree in their reasonings, nor delight in it, nor obey, but gainsay and oppose, resist, and are angry with themselves;

these are far better and more honorable in God's sight than those who by their own choice give over their will to wickedness and delight in it.

Just as if there be a king and he find some poor girl clad in rags, and he is not ashamed, but takes off her filthy garments and washes off the grime and adorns her with bright garments and makes her a consort of the king and of his table, and shares with her the banquet, so also the Lord found the soul wounded and stricken, and gave it medicine and stripped off its black garments and the foulness of wickedness, and clothed it with royal garments, the heavenly garments of the Godhead, shining and glorious, and placed upon it a crown and made it a sharer of the royal table, unto joy and exultation.

And just as when there is a paradise and it has there fruit-bearing and wholly fragrant trees, and there are there many delightful places, all beautiful and full of fragrance and rest, and whoever goes there is gladdened and rests, so do the souls become in the kingdom.

They are all in joy, in gladness and peace, kings and lords and gods;

King of those who reign and Lord of those who rule.

Christianity, then, is no chance thing;

for this mystery is great.

Recognize, then, your nobility, that you have been called to a royal dignity, a chosen race, a priesthood and a holy nation;

for the mystery of Christianity is foreign to this world.

For the visible glory of the king and his wealth are earthly and corruptible and passing away; but that kingdom and wealth are divine things, heavenly and glorious things, never passing away or dissolving;

and He is the firstborn from the dead, and they too are firstborn.

But although they are such, chosen and approved in God's sight, in their own eyes they are least and utterly rejected.

And this is to them as something natural and firmly fixed: to esteem themselves as nothing.

Question: Do they not know, then, that they have received an addition, and have acquired what they did not have, something foreign to their nature? Answer: I tell you that they are not yet approved, and are not in advancement, and are unaware that they have acquired what they did not have;

but grace itself, having come to such men, teaches them not to hold their soul as precious, though they are in advancement, but naturally to esteem themselves as without honor;

and though honorable in God's sight, in their own eyes they are not.

And being in advancement and in the knowledge of God, they are as though knowing nothing; and being rich in God's sight, in their own eyes they are poor.

And just as Christ, taking the form of a slave, conquered the devil through humility, so from the beginning the serpent, through pride and conceit, overthrew Adam.

And now the same serpent, lurking in hearts through conceit, casts down and destroys the race of Christians.

For just as if there be one free and noble according to the world, having much wealth, and he is yet further enriched and brings in produce, this one is beside himself and presumes upon himself, and being insufferable he kicks and buffets all, so there are some who, having no discernment, having found a little rest and prayer, began to be conceited and presumptuous and condemning, and so fell down into the lowest parts of the earth.

For the same serpent who cast out Adam through pride, saying 'You shall be as gods,' this same one now also instils pride in hearts, saying:

'You are perfect, it is enough for you, you have become rich, you have no need, you are blessed.'

But there are others who, according to the world, have wealth, and yet, increasing it in much produce, hold themselves in discernment and neither boast nor are exalted, but remain even;

for they know that after the increase comes barrenness.

And again, when they fall into loss and barrenness, they are not grieved, but remain even;

for they know that abundance again succeeds.

And having been much exercised in these things, they are neither astonished when in increase and abundance they are exalted, nor, if loss comes, are they astonished.

The matter of Christianity, then, is something such as this:

a tasting of truth, a food and drink from truth; it is to eat and to drink through power and energy.

Just as if there be a spring, and one being there, thirsting, begins to drink, then in the meanwhile someone draws him away and does not let him be filled as much as he wishes, he is thereafter the more inflamed, having tasted the water, and seeks it the more earnestly; so also in the spiritual realm, one tastes and partakes of heavenly food, then in the meanwhile it is withdrawn, and no one lets him be filled.

Question: Why does He not let him be filled? Answer: The Lord knows the weakness of man, that he is quickly puffed up;

for this reason He withdraws and permits the man to be exercised and afflicted.

For if you receive a little and no one can bear with you, but you are puffed up, how much more, if at one time someone let you be filled, no one would be able to endure you.

But God, knowing your weakness, dispenses to you afflictions, that you may become humble and more earnest in seeking God.

For indeed, according to the world, a poor man, having found a purse of gold, out of light-mindedness began to proclaim:

'I have found a purse, I am rich.'

Then, from the report, the one who had lost it heard and took it back.

Another, being rich, was beside himself and kicked against the goad and began to insult all and to exalt himself over some; whence the king, hearing of it, confiscated his possessions.

So also in the spiritual realm.

If some taste a little rest, they do not know how to manage it, but lose even that which they received;

for sin tempts them and darkens their mind.

Question: Is Satan shown to be much weaker? For where there is day, how can there be night? Answer: It is not that grace is quenched or grows weak, but that, in order that your free will and liberty may be tested as to where it inclines, He yields to wickedness.

And again you, by your own will drawing near to the Lord, urge grace to visit you;

that is unquenchable and full of light, but you, by your own will, being negligent and not consenting, are quenched of the Spirit.

Grieve not the Holy Spirit, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.

You see that it lies in your will and in your free choice to honor the Holy Spirit and not to grieve Him.

But I tell you that even with the perfect Christians, who are taken captive and made drunk unto the good, free will coexists; whence, having been tested by countless evils, they turn to the good.

Just as when there are some who are dignitaries and rich and noble, and these, of their own will and choice, leave their wealth and their nobility and their dignities, and go away and put on filthy and poor garments and dishonor instead of glory, and live wretched and brought to nought;

this is left to their own will.

But I tell you that even the apostles, who were perfected in grace, grace did not hinder from doing what they wished, if indeed those very men were willing to do something not pleasing to grace.

For indeed our nature is receptive of good and of evil, and the adverse power is persuasive, not compulsory.

So then you have free will, to incline wherever you wish.

Do you not see that Peter was condemned, and Paul, having come, rebuked him? And such a one was still under condemnation.

And Paul, being spiritual, of his own will fell into a dispute with Barnabas, and being provoked they departed from one another.

You who are spiritual, restore such a one, looking to yourself, lest you also be tempted.

Behold, the spiritual are tempted, because free will still remains, and the enemies press upon them, as long as one is in this age.

Question: Could not the apostles have sinned if they wished, or was grace stronger even than their will? Answer: Sin, indeed, they could not;

for they did not choose to, being in light and in such grace.

Yet we do not say that grace was weak in them, but we say that grace permits even the perfect spiritual ones to have the will and the authority to do what they wish and to turn wherever they choose.

And human nature itself, being weak, has the authority, even with the good present, to turn.

Just as if there be some clad in full armor, breastplate and weapons, they are thereafter secure within, and enemies do not come upon them;

or they do come upon them, but then it lies in their will either to use the weapons and to contend and wrestle against the enemies and carry off the victory, or to be pleased and make peace with the enemies and not fight, although they have weapons; so also Christians, clad in the perfect power and having the heavenly weapons, if they wish, are pleased with Satan and make peace with him and do not fight;

and if one wishes, he becomes a son of God, or again a son of perdition, because free will remains.

It is one thing to discourse about bread and a table, and another to eat and to receive the savor of the bread and to be strengthened in all one's members.

It is one thing to speak in words about a most pleasant drink, and another to go and draw from the spring itself and to be filled with the very taste of the most pleasant drink,

and to give and to carry off the victory.

So also in spiritual things: it is one thing to discourse on words by some knowledge and intellect, and another to have, in substance and in deed and in full assurance and in the inner man and the mind, the treasure and the grace and the taste and the energy of the Holy Spirit.

For those who speak mere words imagine things and are puffed up by their own mind.

For our word, he says, and our preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of Spirit and of power; and again elsewhere he says:

But the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and unfeigned faith.

For to many who sought out God a door was opened, and they saw a treasure and entered into it; and as they were in joy, saying:

He shut the doors against them, and they began to cry out and to mourn and to seek, saying:

'We found a treasure and we have lost it.'

For by a dispensation grace withdraws, that we may seek the more;

for the treasure is shown for the sake of urging on the seeking.

Question: Since some say that after grace one has passed from death to life, can one who is in light have filthy reasonings? Answer: It is written: 'Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected in the flesh?' And again it says:

Put on the whole armor of the Spirit, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

By way of illustration, there are two states: that in which he has put on the weapons, and that in which he wars against the principalities and the authorities;

'that you may be able to quench the flaming darts of the evil one'; and again:

'Grieve not the Holy Spirit'; and again:

It is impossible to renew again those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the gift of God and become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have fallen away.

Behold, those who were enlightened and have tasted, fall away.

You see that he has the will to agree with the Spirit, and he has the will to grieve Him.

For he certainly receives weapons to go out to war and to contend against the enemies;

he was certainly enlightened, that he might wage war against the darkness.

Question: How is it that the apostle says:

'If I have all knowledge and all prophecy and speak with the tongues of angels, I am nothing'? Answer: We ought not so to understand that the apostle is nothing, but that, in comparison with that love which is perfect, these things are small, and he who is in these measures falls;

but he who has love is unfalling.

And I tell you, that I have seen men who came into all the gifts of grace and partakers of the Spirit, and these, not having attained to perfect love, fell.

For a certain one of the nobility, having renounced, sold his possessions, freed slaves, being prudent and intelligent.

He was thereafter renowned for a holy life, and in the meanwhile, having a high opinion of himself and being puffed up, he at last fell down into licentiousness and countless evils.

Another, in time of persecution, gave up his body, and being a confessor, after these things, when peace had come, he was released and was renowned;

for his eyelids were damaged, since they had been smoked.

This one thereafter, being glorified and invited to the prayers, would take a morsel and give it to his servant;

and so his mind was as though he had never heard the word of God.

Another gave his body in time of persecution and was hung up and scraped, then was cast into prison.

A certain canoness, then, ministered to him according to faith; and having formed an intimacy with her while in the prison, he fell into fornication.

Behold the rich man who sold his possessions, and the one who gave his body unto martyrdom, how they fell.

And a certain other prudent ascetic, dwelling with me in the house and praying with me, was so rich in grace that, as he prayed near me, he was pierced to compunction;

for grace was seething within him.

he drove them away, and even those who were bound hand and foot and afflicted with terrible passions he healed through the laying on of hands.

Then, growing careless and being glorified by the world and taking pleasure in it, he became puffed up with pride and fell into the very deepest parts of sin.

See, even one who possessed the gift of healings fell.

Do you see how people fall before they have come to the full measure of love? For he who has attained to love is bound and made drunk; such a one is submerged and is a captive carried away into another world, as though he no longer perceives his own nature.

Question: What is that which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which has not entered into the heart of man? Answer: In that time the great and righteous men, the kings and prophets, knew indeed that the Redeemer was coming;

but that he should suffer and be crucified and that blood should be poured out upon the cross, this they neither knew nor heard, nor did it enter into their heart; nor that there would be a baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit, and that in the Church bread and wine are offered as the antitype of his flesh and blood, and that those who partake of the visible bread eat spiritually the flesh of the Lord; nor that the apostles and Christians receive the Paraclete and are clothed with power from on high and are filled with the Godhead, and that souls are mingled with the Holy Spirit.

This the prophets and kings did not know, nor did it enter into their heart.

For now Christians are rich in another way and long after the Godhead; yet even while possessing such joy and consolation, they are in fear and trembling.

Question: Under what kind of fear and trembling are they? Answer: That they may not stumble in anything, but may be in harmony with grace.

It is just as when someone possessing treasures travels through places where there are robbers: he rejoices indeed because of his wealth and treasure, yet he is in fear lest the robbers fall upon him and plunder him; and he is like one carrying his own life-blood in his hands—so it is with him.

Behold, in things visible we have all renounced the world and are strangers and possessionless and deprived of fleshly fellowship.

Now then, behold, the body lies prostrate in prayer.

The brethren ought to ask whether the mind is in harmony together with the body.

For just as, for the most part, worldly craftsmen and workshop masters have their body bound fast to their craft, so likewise their mind, night and day,

even so, examine yourself: having your body a stranger to this world, do you also have your mind alien to this present age, and do you not roam wandering into the world?

For every worldly person—whether soldier or merchant—wherever he has his body, there he also has his mind bound fast, and there his treasure is for him;

for where the treasure is, there is the heart also.

Now then, in what treasure is your mind? Is it wholly and entirely directed toward God, or not? And if it is not, you must tell me what it is that hinders it.

Doubtless it is the evil spirits, Satan and the demons, that hold the mind captive and trip up the soul.

For the intricate devil, possessing his snares and his trap-doors and great manifold cunning, seizes the pastures of the soul and the thoughts, and does not allow it to pray rightly and to draw near to God.

For this very nature of ours is capable of fellowship with the demons and the spirits of wickedness, and likewise with angels and the Holy Spirit;

it is a temple of Satan, and a temple of the Holy Spirit.

Now then, examine our mind, brethren: of whom are you partakers, of angels or of demons?

Of whom are you a temple and a dwelling place, of God or of the devil?

With what treasure is the heart filled, with grace or with Satan?

Just as, then, a house full of foul stench and dung must be wholly cleansed and adorned and filled with all sweet fragrance and treasures, so that the Holy Spirit may come in place of Satan and find rest in the souls of Christians.

But it is not the case that someone, as soon as he has heard the word of God, has immediately become part of the good portion.

(If it were so simply a matter of) the portion, there would no longer be any contests or seasons of warfare or running the race; but effortlessly, if only he had heard, he would have come into rest and the perfect measures.

But the matter is not so.