Fifty Spiritual Homilies 1 part 17/19

And grace itself takes possession in the soul and is rooted down to its deepest parts and reasonings, as for many seasons the soul proves itself good and is in concord with grace, until the whole soul is encompassed by the heavenly grace, henceforth reigning in that very vessel.

But if anyone is not in great humility, he is delivered up to Satan and is stripped of the divine grace that was given to him, and is tested in many afflictions, and then his presumption is made manifest, that he is naked and wretched.

He therefore who is rich in the grace of God ought to be in great humility and contrition of heart, and to reckon himself as poor and having nothing;

for it is foreign to him, and another has given it to him, and when He wills He takes it away.

He who thus humbles himself before God and men is able to preserve the grace given to him, as the Lord says:

He who humbles himself shall be exalted.

Although he is one chosen of God, let him be as one disapproved in his own eyes, and being faithful, let him reckon himself unworthy.

For such souls are well-pleasing to God and are quickened in Christ, to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages of the ages.

(Homily 42.) Just as if there were a great city, but desolate, its walls broken down, and it were taken by enemies, its greatness is of no benefit;

one must therefore seek, in proportion to its magnitude, that it should also have strong walls so that the enemies may not enter — so indeed also souls adorned with knowledge and understanding and a most acute mind are like great cities.

But one must inquire whether they are fortified by the power of the Spirit, lest the enemies enter and lay them desolate.

For the wise men of the world, Aristotle or Plato or Isocrates, being prudent in knowledge, were like great cities, but they were desolate, taken by enemies, because of the absence of the Spirit of God in them.

But all who are simple, partakers of grace, are like small cities fortified by the power of Christ;

yet falling away from grace, they perish from two things: either because they do not endure the afflictions that come upon them, or because, having been made to delight in the pleasures of sin, they remained therein.

For those who travel cannot pass through without trials.

And just as in childbirth the beggar-woman and the queen have the same birth-pangs —

Just as the land of the rich man and of the poor man alike, if it does not receive the labor that is due, cannot bring forth worthy fruit, so too in the labor of the soul no one, however wise or rich, reigns in grace except through endurance and afflictions and many toils;

for such ought the life of Christians to be.

Toward those who come to them, whether good or evil, they are kind, as the Lord says:

Be kind, as your heavenly Father is.

For what harms and defiles a person is from within, as the Lord says, that the things which defile a person are from within;

for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts.

Within, therefore, in the soul there creeps and advances a spirit of wickedness, rational and active, which is the veil of darkness, the old man, whom those who flee for refuge to God must put off, and put on the heavenly and new man, who is Christ.

Nothing from without, therefore, can harm a person, except only the living and active spirit of darkness that dwells in the heart.

So then each one ought to maintain the struggle in his thoughts, that Christ may shine in his heart, to whom be glory unto the ages.

As from one fire many lamps and burning torches are kindled, and all the torches and lamps are lit and shine from a single source, so too Christians are kindled and shine from one nature, the divine fire, the Son of God, and they have their torches burning in their hearts and shine before Him while still on earth, even as He Himself does;

for this reason God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness.

For this reason He was called Christ, that, as He Himself was anointed with that same oil, we too, being anointed, might become christs, being, so to speak, of one essence and one body;

for both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one.

Christians, then, in one respect resemble lampstands that have oil in themselves, that is, the fruits of righteousness;

but if they are not kindled from the lamp of the Deity within them, they are nothing.

The Lord was the burning lamp, because of the Spirit of the Deity that abode essentially in Him and set His heart aflame according to His humanity.

Just as a worn-out purse might be filled with pearls, so too Christians, who in the outward person ought to be lowly and despised, inwardly in the inner person possess the precious pearl.

But others resemble whitewashed tombs, painted and beautiful on the outside, but within full of dead bones and great stench and unclean spirits;

they are dead toward God, clothed in every shame and filth and the darkness of the adversary.

The apostle says that the infant, so long as he is small, is under guardians and stewards of the evil spirits, which spirits do not wish the infant to grow up, lest, having become a full-grown man, he begin to seek after the things of the household and to vindicate his lordship.

The Christian ought always to keep the remembrance of God;

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, so that not only when he enters the place of prayer should he love the Lord, but also while walking and conversing and eating he should hold the remembrance of God and love and affection;

for where your mind is, there also is your treasure;

for to whatever thing a person's heart is bound, and wherever desire draws him, that is his god.

If the heart always desires God, He is the Lord of his heart.

But if someone has renounced all and become possessionless and homeless and fasts, yet is still bound in his inner self either to worldly affairs or to a house or to affection for parents,

wherever his heart is bound and his mind taken captive, that is his god;

and he is found to have gone out of the world by the wide door, yet to have come in and fallen back into the world by the side door.

they cannot withstand the power of fire, but are at once consumed; so too the demons, when they wish to make war on a person deemed worthy of the Spirit, are burned and consumed by the divine power of the fire, only let the person always cleave to the Lord and have his confidence and hope toward Him.

And even if the demons be as strong as mountains of iron, by prayer they are burned, just as wax by fire.

But in the meantime a great struggle and warfare lies before the soul against them.

There are rivers of dragons there and mouths of lions; there is fire blazing against the soul.

Just as the consummate evildoer, drunk with the spirit of error, whether murdering or committing adultery, is insatiable in evil, so too Christians, baptized into the Holy Spirit, become inexperienced in evil.

But those who have grace and yet are still mingled with sin, these are under fear and travel through fearful places.

For just as merchants sailing, even if they meet a favorable wind and a calm sea, yet have not reached harbor, are under fear lest suddenly a contrary wind arise and the sea be tossed and the ship be in danger, so too Christians, even if they have within themselves a fair wind of the Holy Spirit blowing, are still under fear lest the wind of the opposing power come blowing and stir up some disturbance and surge in their souls.

Much diligence, therefore, is needed, that we may reach the harbor of rest, the perfect world, the eternal delight, the city of the saints, the heavenly Jerusalem, the church of the firstborn.

But if anyone does not pass through those measures, he is in great fear lest in the meantime the evil power work some fall.

Just as a woman who has conceived holds her infant within, in darkness, so to speak, and in a watery place;

but if it then happens that the child comes forth at the due time, it sees a newer creation, which it had never seen, of heaven and earth and sun, and at once friends and kin with cheerful face receive it into their arms;

but if it happens that the child is convulsed within through some disorder, then the physicians appointed for this must use the knife, and the child is found passing from death to death, and from darkness to darkness; take this likewise in the spiritual sense.

As many as have received the seed of the Deity, these have it invisibly, and because of the indwelling sin they keep it hidden in dark and fearful places.

If, then, they secure themselves and guard the seed, these at the due time are reborn into the open, and thereafter, at the dissolution of the body, the angels and all the choirs above receive them with cheerful faces.

But if, having received the weapons of Christ to fight valiantly, one becomes slack, such a one is at once delivered up to the enemies, and at the dissolution of the body passes from the darkness that now surrounds him into another more grievous darkness and perdition.

Just as there might be a garden having fruit-bearing trees and other fragrant plants, all well cultivated and tended with care, and it has also a little wall serving as a fence to guard it;

but should a rushing river happen to pass by there, and even a little of the water strike the wall and undermine the foundation, it gains a channel and little by little dissolves the foundation, and entering it tears through and uproots all the plants, and ruins the whole cultivation and renders it fruitless; so too is the heart of a person.

It has good thoughts, but the rivers of wickedness are always drawing near to the heart, wishing to overthrow it and cast it down to their own region.

Just as the eye is small in comparison with all the members, and the pupil itself, though small, is a great vessel, for it sees at once heaven, stars, sun, moon, cities and other created things;

likewise the things seen are at once formed and imaged in the small pupil of the eye; so too is the mind within the heart.

And the heart itself is a small vessel, yet there are the dragons and there the lions, there the venomous beasts and all the treasures of wickedness, and there the rough and uneven paths, there the chasms.

Likewise, again, there is God, there too the angels, there life and the kingdom, there light and the apostles, there the heavenly cities, there the treasures of grace; there are all things.

For just as a mist lies over the whole inhabited world, and man does not see man, so too is the darkness of this age lying upon all creation and upon every human nature from the transgression;

wherefore, overshadowed by the darkness, they are in night, and have their dwelling in fearful places.

And just as there is a mass of smoke in one house, so too is sin with its filthy thoughts settled and creeping into the thoughts of the heart, along with a countless multitude of demons.

But just as, in the visible warfare when battle is joined, the wise and the great men do not go there, but fearing death stay behind, and then the recruits and the poor and the common folk are put forward;

and it happens that they win the victory over the enemies and drive them out of the borders, and receive the triumphs and the crowns from the king, and come to advancements and dignities, while those great ones are found behind them; so it is too in the spiritual realm.

The simple, hearing the word from the start, with a truth-loving mind do their work and receive from God the grace of the Spirit.

But the wise who seek out the word subtly, these flee the battle and do not advance, and are found behind those who fought and conquered.

And just as the winds blowing fiercely move all the creatures under heaven and produce a great roar, so the power of the enemy beats upon and carries off the thoughts and shakes the depths of the heart toward its own will, and scatters the thoughts into its own service.

Just as there are tax collectors sitting at the narrow ways and seizing the passers-by and extorting from them, so too the demons watch and detain the souls as they go out of the body;

if they are not perfectly cleansed, they are not permitted to ascend to the mansions of heaven and to meet their Master;

for they are dragged down by the demons of the air.

But if, while still in the flesh, through much toil and struggle they obtain from on high the grace from the Lord, then assuredly these, together with those who have found rest through a virtuous manner of life, will depart to the Lord, as He promised:

Where I am, there shall my servant also be; and they shall reign together unto the boundless ages with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages.

He who comes to God and truly wishes to be an associate of Christ ought to come to Him with this aim: that he be changed and transformed from his former state and manner of life, and be shown to be a good and new man, bearing nothing of the old man;

for if anyone, he says, is in Christ, he is a new creation.

the [soul] overthrown by the passions through the transgression, having mingled it with His own Spirit of the Deity,

a new mind and a new soul, new eyes, new ears, a new spiritual tongue, and in a word new persons He came to make of those who believe in Him, that is, new wineskins, anointing them with His own light of knowledge, that He might put in new wine, which is His Spirit;

for new wine, He says, must be put into new wineskins.

For just as the enemy, having taken a person captive under his hand, made him anew for himself, clothing him with the passions of wickedness and anointing him with the spirit of sin, and poured into him the wine of all lawlessness and evil teaching, so too the Lord, having redeemed him from the enemy, made him anew, anointing him with His own Spirit, and poured into him the wine of life, the new teaching of the Spirit.

For in the way that a shepherd can heal the scabby sheep and guard it from wolves, so the true Shepherd, Christ, when He came, alone was able to heal and turn back the lost and scabby sheep, man, from the scab and leprosy of sin.

For the former priests and Levites and teachers could not heal the soul with the offerings of gifts and sacrifices and sprinklings of blood, seeing that they could not heal even themselves;

for they themselves too were beset with weakness;

for it is impossible, he says, for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

And the Lord said, showing the weakness of the physicians of that time:

You will surely say to me this parable:

Physician, heal yourself; meaning:

I am not like those who could not heal even themselves.

I am the true physician and the good shepherd who lays down My life for the sheep, who is able to heal every disease and every infirmity of the soul.

I am the unblemished lamb, once offered, and able to heal those who come to Me.

For the true healing of the soul comes from the Lord alone;

for behold, he says, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, that is, of the soul that believes in Him and loves Him with all its heart.

The good Shepherd, then, heals the scabby sheep;

but a sheep cannot heal a sheep, and unless the rational sheep, man, be healed, he does not enter into the heavenly church of the Lord.

For so also it has been said in the law, through a shadow and image.

For concerning the leper and the one having a blemish the Spirit hints at and signifies these things:

A leper, he says, or one having a blemish shall not enter into the church of the Lord.

But He commanded the leper to go to the priest, and with much entreaty to bring him into the house of his tent, and to lay his hands upon the leprosy, marking the place of the spot of the leprosy, and to heal it.

In the same way also Christ, the true high priest of the good things to come, bending down to the souls leprous with the leprosy of sin that call upon Him, enters into the tent of their body and heals and cures the passions.

And thus the soul will be able to enter into the heavenly church of the saints of the true Israel.

For every soul bearing the leprosy of the sin of passions and not having come to the true high priest and been healed now, does not enter into the camp of the saints, into the heavenly church;

He seeks souls unblemished and pure.

For blessed, he says, are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

For the soul that truly believes in Christ must be transferred and changed from the present evil state into another good state, and from the present lowly nature into another divine nature, and be made new through the power of the Holy Spirit;

and thus it can be of use for the heavenly kingdom.

And to attain these things shall be ours, if we believe and love Him in truth and walk in all His holy commandments.

For if in the case of Elisha the wood, by nature light, when cast into the waters brought up the iron, by nature heavy, how much more here will the Lord send His light and gentle and good and heavenly Spirit, and through it bring up the soul sunk in the waters of wickedness, and lighten it and give it wings toward the heights of the heavens, and transform and change it from its own nature.

And just as in visible things no one can by himself pass over and traverse the sea unless he has the light and nimble ship made of wood, which alone is able to walk upon the waters;

for he is drowned and perishes, if one steps out into the sea; in the same way it is impossible for a soul by itself to cross and pass over and traverse the bitter sea of sin and the grievous abyss of the evil powers of the darkness of the passions, unless it receive the light and heavenly and well-winged Spirit of Christ, which walks above and passes over all wickedness, through which it will be able to journey straight and aright to the heavenly harbor of rest, to the city of the kingdom.

And just as those in the ship do not draw and drink from the sea, nor have from it their clothing and food, but bring these in from outside into the ship, so the souls of Christians receive heavenly food and spiritual garments not from this age, but from above, from heaven, and living from thence, having embarked in the ship of the good and life-giving Spirit, they pass by the hostile evil powers of the principalities and authorities.

And just as all ships are constructed from one nature of wood, by which men are able to pass over the bitter sea, so from one Deity, the heavenly light, by the various gifts of the one Spirit, all the souls of Christians, being empowered, fly over the whole of wickedness.

And since the ship needs both a helmsman and a temperate and pleasant wind to sail well, all these the Lord Himself is, coming to be in the faithful soul and carrying it through the dread storms and the wild waves of wickedness and the squalls of the violent winds of sin, powerfully and expertly and skillfully, as He Himself knows, dissolving their surge.

For without the heavenly helmsman, Christ, it is impossible for anyone to pass over the evil sea of the powers of darkness and the blasts of the bitter temptations;

for they mount up, he says, to the heavens and go down to the depths.

And He knows all the helmsman's skill and that of wars and temptations, riding above the wild waves;

for He Himself, he says, having been tempted, is able to help those who are tempted.

For the blessed Paul too, concerning his transformation and the apprehension by which he was apprehended by the Lord, writes thus:

I press on, that I may also apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Christ.

of God? Just as if a tyrant should seize and carry off some captive, and then he himself be apprehended by the true king, so too Paul, because he was being worked upon by the tyrannical spirit of sin, was persecuting and despoiling the church;

but since he did it in zeal for God, according to ignorance, as one contending for the truth, he was not overlooked, but the Lord apprehended him, the heavenly and true King shining round about him ineffably and deeming him worthy of His own voice, and, smiting him as a slave, set him free.

Behold the goodness and transforming power of the Master, how He can transform souls entangled in wickedness and grown savage, and in the turn of an hour carry them over into His own goodness and peace;

for all things are possible with God, as happened in the case of the thief;

in the turn of an hour, through faith, he was transformed and restored to paradise.

For this reason the Lord came, that He might change our souls and recreate and make them, as it is written, partakers of the divine nature, and give to our soul a heavenly soul, that is, a Spirit of the Deity guiding us into every virtue, that we might be able to live eternal life.

May it be ours, then, to believe with all our heart in His ineffable promises, that He who promised is faithful.

We ought therefore to love the Lord and to strive in every way in all virtues, and to ask persistently and unceasingly, so as to receive the promise of His Spirit wholly and perfectly, that our souls may be made alive while we are yet in the flesh.

For unless in this world the soul receive the sanctification of the Spirit through much faith and supplication, and become a partaker of the divine nature, mingled with grace, by which it can fulfill every commandment blamelessly and purely, it is unfit for the kingdom of heaven.

For whatever good a person has acquired from here, that very thing will be his life in that day, through the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages.

He who has chosen the solitary life ought to regard all the affairs that revolve in this world as alien and strange to himself.

For he who in truth pursues the cross of Christ, having renounced all things, and even his own soul, ought to keep his mind nailed to the love of Christ, preferring, that is, the Lord above parents, brothers, wife, children, kindred, friends, possessions.

For this Christ declared, saying:

Everyone who has not left father or mother or brothers or wife or children or fields, and does not follow Me, is not worthy of Me.

For in no other is there found salvation and rest for men, as we have heard.

For how many kings have appeared from the race of Adam, ruling over the whole earth, thinking highly of themselves on account of their royal power, and not one of them through such capacity was able to recognize the wickedness that, from the transgression of the first man, entered into the soul and darkened it so that it could not perceive the change.

For at first the mind, being pure, beheld its Master in His dignity, but now, because of the fall, it has been clothed in shame, the eyes of the heart having been blinded so as not to see that glory which our father Adam beheld before the disobedience.

There have also been various wise men in the world, of whom some displayed virtue through philosophy, and others, having practiced sophistry, were admired;

others displayed cleverness in rhetoric; others, becoming grammarians and poets, composed histories according to literary arrangement.

But there have also been various craftsmen who practiced the arts of the world;

and they were eager to display their own skill in [making] images of men;

others undertook to fashion likenesses of statues and of certain other things out of bronze;

others built very great and beautiful edifices;

and others, digging the earth, bring up the perishable silver and gold, and others precious stones;

and others, having beauty of body, exalted over the comeliness of their faces, were all the more ensnared by Satan and fell into sin.

And all these aforesaid craftsmen, held fast by the serpent dwelling within and not knowing the sin that lived together with them, became captives and slaves of the evil power, in nothing profited by their knowledge and craft.

The world, then, filled with every kind of variety, resembles a rich man possessing splendid and great houses, gold and silver and various possessions and abundant service of every sort;

but when he is suddenly seized by diseases and ailments, all his kindred stand by, yet with all his wealth are unable to deliver him from the sickness.

No earnest endeavor, therefore, of the things of this life, brothers, neither wealth, nor strength, nor any of the other things aforesaid, can deliver from sin the soul that has been overwhelmed by sin and is unable to see clearly; only the appearing of Christ can cleanse soul and body.

Being delivered, then, from all the cares of this life, let us give our leisure to the Lord, crying out to Him night and day.

For this visible world and the rest in it, in proportion as they seem to cherish the body, so much do they provoke and increase the passions of the soul and its affliction.

Now a certain prudent man, desiring to take care of his soul, was eager to make trial of all the things that roll about in this age, to see if somehow he might find profit.

He approached kings, rulers, princes, and found there no saving remedy to bring to his soul, and having spent much time with them gained nothing.

He went away again to the wise of the world and the orators;

in the same way he left them too, carrying away no gain.

He passed through the painters and those who bring up gold and silver from the earth, and through all the craftsmen, and was unable to find any cure for his own wounds.

At last, withdrawing from these, he sought for himself a God who heals the passions and diseases of the soul.