Fifty Spiritual Homilies 1 part 4/19

The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away;

as it seemed good to the Lord, so also it has come to pass.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

For though he was thought to possess much, when tested by the Lord he was shown to possess nothing but God alone.

Likewise Abraham, when commanded by the Lord to go out from his land and from his kindred and from his father's house, immediately, so to speak, stripped off all—homeland, land, kindred, parents—and followed the word of the Lord.

Then, amid many testings and temptations befalling him—now his wife being taken away, now living in a foreign land and being wronged—and being proved through all that he loved God alone above all, afterward, when through a promise and after many years he had gained an only-begotten son according to great desire, being asked for him as a sacrifice he readily offered him up with his own hand, stripping himself and truly denying himself;

for through the offering up of his only-begotten he proved that he loved nothing besides God.

For if he readily stripped off that one, how much more, had he been commanded to leave the rest of his possessions or to distribute them all at once to the poor, would he have done it readily and willingly?

the uprightness of a love perfected by will toward the Lord. So also those who wish to become fellow-heirs with these ought to love nothing besides God, that when they are tested they may be found useful and approved, preserving their love toward the Lord perfect.

Such as these will be able to run through the struggle to the end—those who by their will have loved God alone always, and have loosed themselves from all love of the world.

But very few indeed are found who have taken up such a love and turned away from all the pleasures and lusts of the world and patiently endured the assaults and temptations of the evil one.

For just because many crossing rivers are swept away by the waters, are there not those who pass through the muddy rivers of the world's lusts of every kind and the varied temptations of the spirits of wickedness? And because many ships at sea are sunk, being overwhelmed by the waves, are there not those that cross over and journey above the waves and reach the harbor of peace? Therefore there is need always of much faith and long-suffering and struggle and endurance and labors and hunger and thirst toward the good, and of keenness and importunity and discernment and understanding.

For most men wish to attain the kingdom without toils and struggles and sweat, which is impossible.

Just as in the world some men go to a certain rich man to work at harvest or at some other task, that they may earn what they need for their livelihood, and among them are some who are lazy and slack and idle, not laboring as they ought nor working fittingly—these, having toiled and labored at nothing, wish to receive equal wages in the rich man's house with those who labored manfully and keenly and with all their strength, as though they had already done their work—in the same way, when we read the Scriptures, how this or that righteous man pleased God, how he became a friend and companion of God, and how all the fathers became friends and heirs of God, how many afflictions they endured, how many things they suffered for God, how many brave deeds they did and how they struggled, we count them blessed and wish to obtain the same gifts and dignities as they, and we desire and eagerly long to receive those glorious gifts of grace, while passing over their labors and struggles and afflictions and sufferings, and their honors and dignities—

the things they have gained from God, we wish readily to receive, but their toils and labors and struggles we do not accept.

But I tell you that this is what every man desires and wishes—harlots and tax collectors and unjust men too easily wish to attain the kingdom without toils and struggles.

But for this reason, in the midst, temptations and many testings and afflictions and struggles and sweat are set before us, that those may be made manifest

who in truth, having come even unto death, with all their purpose and power loved the Lord alone and had nothing else longed-for alongside their love toward Him.

Therefore they rightly enter into the kingdom of heaven, having denied themselves according to the Lord's word and having loved the Lord alone above their very breath.

Therefore also with the highest heavenly gifts shall their highest love be requited.

For in the afflictions and sufferings and endurance and faith lie hidden the promises and the glory and the restoration of the heavenly good things, just as in the seed cast into the earth lies the fruit, or in a tree being grafted, which passes through a kind of rotting and dishonor and then displays the comeliness of its foliage and the glory and the multiplying fruit.

For unless they had passed through those things worthy of dishonor and dissolution, they would not have been shown to have the comeliness of adornment and the beauty of appearance and the abounding fruit.

As the apostle also says: Through many afflictions we can enter into the kingdom of heaven; and the Lord:

In your endurance possess your souls; and again:

For there is need of labor and diligence and watchfulness and much attention and keenness and importunity in asking from the Lord, in order to be able to pass through the snares of earthly lusts and the nooses of pleasures and the storms of the world, and to escape the assaults of the wicked spirits, and to know well in what watchfulness and alertness of faith and love the saints, from here, gained the heavenly treasure—that is, the power of the Spirit—in their souls, which is the pledge of the kingdom.

For the blessed apostle Paul, speaking of this heavenly treasure—that is, the grace of the Spirit—and declaring the surpassing greatness of the afflictions, while at the same time showing what each one ought to seek from here and what he ought to gain, says:

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Each one, then, ought to struggle and be diligent through all the virtues and to believe, and from here to gain that house.

For if our house of the body be dissolved, we have no other house into which our soul may take shelter.

If indeed, he says, being clothed we shall not be found naked—that is, from the communion and commingling of the Holy Spirit, in which alone the faithful soul can find rest.

For this reason those who are Christians in truth and power are confident and rejoice in departing from the flesh, because they have that house not made with hands, which is the house, the power of the Spirit dwelling in them.

Even if, then, the house of the body be dissolved, they are not afraid;

for they have the heavenly house of the Spirit and that incorruptible glory, which glory, in the day of the resurrection, will build up and glorify even the house of the body, 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; and again:

That the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh; and that, he says, what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

Let us therefore struggle, through faith and a virtuous manner of life, to gain from here that garment, lest, having put off the body, we be found naked, and there be nothing to glorify our flesh in that day.

For each one, according as he was counted worthy through faith and diligence to become a partaker of the Holy Spirit, so much in that day will his body also be glorified.

For what the soul has now treasured up within, then will be revealed and made manifest outside the body.

Just as the trees, having passed through the winter, when an invisible power from the sun and the winds warms them, put forth and bring forth from within, as garments, leaves and blossoms and fruits, and likewise the flowers of the grass come forth at that season from within, out of the bosoms of the earth, and the earth and the grass are covered and clothed like the lilies, of which the Lord said that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these (for all these are examples and types and images of Christians in the resurrection)—so for all God-loving souls, that is, true Christians, there is indeed a first month, called Xanthikos, which is April, which is the day of the resurrection; and through the power of the Sun of righteousness the glory of the Holy Spirit comes forth from within, covering and overshadowing the bodies of the saints—that glory which they had hidden within in their souls.

For what one now has, that itself comes forth outside the body then. This, he says, shall be the first month among the months of the year;

this month brings joy to all creation;

the bare trees, opening up the earth;

this month brings joy to all living things;

this month shows gladness to all;

this is the first month of the Christians, Xanthikos, which is the season of the resurrection, in which their bodies shall be glorified through the unspeakable light now in them, that is, the power of the Spirit, which shall then be to them garment, food, drink, exultation, joy, peace, clothing, eternal life.

For all the loveliness of heavenly brightness and comeliness becomes to them then the Spirit of the Godhead, which they were counted worthy to receive from now.

How then should not each one of us believe and struggle and be diligent in every virtuous manner of life and look forward in hope and much endurance to be counted worthy now to receive the power from heaven and the glory of the Holy Spirit within in the soul, so that then, when the bodies are dissolved, we may have that which will clothe and give life to us? If indeed, he says, being clothed we shall not be found naked, and He will give life to our mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwells in us.

For blessed Moses showed the type, through the glory of the Spirit resting upon his face, on which no man could gaze, of how in the resurrection of the righteous the bodies of the worthy shall be glorified—that glory which from now, within, upon the inner man, the souls of saints and faithful are counted worthy to have;

for we all, he says, with unveiled face, that is, with the inner man, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory; likewise again:

Forty days and forty nights he ate no bread, as it is written, and drank no water.

But it is impossible for the nature of the body to live so long without bread, unless he partook of another, spiritual food, of which food the souls of the saints now invisibly partake from the Spirit.

In two ways, then, blessed Moses showed what glory of light and intelligible food of the Spirit true Christians shall have in the resurrection, of which even now they are secretly counted worthy;

therefore then also it shall be manifested upon their body.

For the glory which the saints have from now in their souls, as has been said, that same glory shall cover and clothe even the naked bodies and snatch them up into the heavens, and thereafter, in body and soul, we shall rest in the kingdom unto the ages together with the Lord.

For God, when He created Adam, did not fashion for him bodily wings as for the birds, having prepared beforehand for him the wings of the Holy Spirit, that is, those which He is to give him in the resurrection, that they may lift him up and snatch him away wherever the Spirit wills;

which wings the souls of the saints are counted worthy to have from now, flying up in mind to the heavenly disposition.

For the world of Christians is another, and another table and other garments and another enjoyment and another fellowship and another disposition;

therefore also they are better than all men.

And the power of these things they are now counted worthy to receive within in their souls through the Holy Spirit;

therefore also in the resurrection the bodies shall be counted worthy of those eternal good things of the Spirit and shall be commingled with that glory, of which their souls received the experience from now.

Each one of us, then, ought to struggle and toil and be diligent in all virtues and to believe and to seek from the Lord that the inner man may become a partaker from now of that glory, and that the soul may have fellowship in that holiness of the Spirit, so that, being cleansed from the defilements of wickedness, we may have at least in the resurrection that which will clothe our naked bodies as they rise, and clothe their unseemliness and give them life and give them rest unto the ages in the kingdom of heaven.

those who have slept from the beginning of the age, according to the holy Scriptures;

and He will set all in two parts, and those who have the proper mark, that is, the seal of the Spirit, these, addressing them as His own, He will set on the right;

for, He says, My sheep hear My voice, and I know My own and am known by My own.

And then the bodies of these shall be clothed with divine glory from their good works, and shall be full of the glory of the Spirit, which from now they had in their souls.

And thus, having been glorified in the divine light and snatched up into the heavens to meet the Lord in the air, according to what is written, we shall be always with the Lord, reigning with Him unto the unending ages.

Those who draw near to the Lord ought to make their prayers in stillness and peace and much composure, and not with improper and confused shouting, but to attend to the Lord with travail of heart and sober thoughts.

And just as one who has ailments and is being cauterized or operated on bears the pain inflicted bravely and patiently, without uproar and disturbance, controlling himself;

but there are others having the same ailment who, when being cauterized or operated on, use improper shouting—and the pain is the same for the one who cries out and the one who does not, for the one disturbed and the one not disturbed—so there are some who have affliction and pain and bear it composedly, without disturbance, keeping their mind under control in their thoughts;

but there are others having the same affliction and bearing it impatiently, making their prayers with uproar and disturbance, so as even to scandalize those who hear;

and there are others having no pain, but for display or ignorance use disorderly shouting, as though through these they could please God.

But the servant of God ought not to be in such disorder, but in all gentleness and wisdom, as the prophet said:

Upon whom shall I look, but upon the meek and quiet one who trembles at My words? And in the case of Moses and Elijah too we find that, in the manifestation that came to them, when there was much ministry of trumpets and powers before the majesty of the Lord, in all these the presence of the Lord was distinguished and made manifest in peace and stillness and rest.

For behold, it says, there came the voice of a gentle breeze, and in it the Lord.

It is shown, therefore, that the rest of the Lord is in peace and composure;

for the foundation which a man lays and the beginning which he makes, in that he remains until the end.

If he begins to make his prayer with shouting and disturbance, he keeps the same habit until the end.

But since the Lord is a lover of mankind, it happens that He gives help even to such a one.

These, then, on account of the prompting of grace, have used the same habit until the end.

But we see that this part belongs to the unskilled, because it both scandalizes others and makes themselves pray in disturbance.

But the true foundation of prayer is this: to attend to one's thoughts and to make prayer in much stillness and peace, so as not to scandalize those outside.

For such a one, if he receives the grace of God and makes the perfecting unto the end in stillness, will edify the many more.

for God is not a God of disorder but of peace.

For those who use shouting are like boatswains, not able to pray everywhere, neither in churches nor in villages, but only perhaps in deserts according to their own will;

but those who pray in stillness edify all in every place.

of the thoughts, but to gather them in as they wander from every quarter, distinguishing the natural thoughts from the wicked ones.

For the soul under sin draws near, as it were, to a place where on a mountain there is great brushwood, or in a river reed-beds, or certain thickets of thorns and undergrowth;

those, then, who wish to pass through that place must stretch out their hands and, with force and labor, push aside the surrounding brushwood;

so also the brushwood of the thoughts of the opposing power surrounds the soul.

There is need, then, of much diligence and attention of mind, that one may distinguish the alien thoughts of the opposing power.

For there is one who, trusting in his own power, thinks to cut down by himself the surrounding mountains;

but there is another who, out of composure and discernment, governs by his mind and, without weariness, accomplishes his work more than that one.

So also in prayers there are some who use improper shouting, as though trusting in bodily strength, not knowing the thefts of the thoughts, but thinking by their own power to accomplish the perfect achievement;

but there are others who attend to their thoughts and make the whole struggle within;

these, through their understanding and discernment, are able to set things right and to shake off the thoughts that rise up against them and to walk according to the will of the Lord.

And we find in the apostle that he calls the one who edifies the other the greater;

he who speaks in tongues edifies himself;

but he who prophesies edifies the church.

And he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks in tongues.

Each one, then, should choose to edify others, and is counted worthy of the kingdom of heaven.

Question: Since some say that the thrones and crowns are created things and not spirits, how ought we to understand it? Answer: The throne of the Godhead is our mind, and again the throne of the mind is the Godhead and the Spirit.

Likewise also Satan and the powers and the rulers of darkness, ever since the transgression of the commandment, have seated themselves in the heart and in the mind and in the body of Adam as upon their own throne.

For this reason, then, the Lord came and took the body from the Virgin.

For if He had wished to come down in the naked Godhead, who could have endured it? But through the instrument of the body He spoke to men.

Then, therefore, the spirits of wickedness which were seated in the body, the Lord cast down from the thrones of the thoughts and reasonings in which they had their citizenship, and He cleansed the conscience and made for Himself a throne of the mind and the thoughts and the body.

Question: What, then, is it that He said:

You shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel? Answer: This we find took place on earth, when the Lord was taken up into the heavens.

For He sent the Spirit, the Paraclete, into the twelve apostles, and the holy power, which coming dwelt and seated itself upon the thrones of their thoughts.

And when the bystanders said that these were full of new wine, then Peter began to judge them, saying concerning Jesus that 'a man mighty in word and signs you crucified, hanging Him on a tree.'

And behold, there He works wonders, He rends the stones of the tombs and raises the dead.

In the last days I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

Many, then, having been instructed by Peter, came to repentance, so that there came to be a new world, a chosen people of God.

You see how the beginning of judgment appeared;

for there a new world appeared.

For here authority was given to them to sit in this world and to judge, although they are yet to sit and execute judgment at the coming of the Lord in the resurrection of the dead;

and here it comes to pass, the Holy Spirit having seated itself upon the thrones of their thoughts.

what the Christians receive in that age are not created things (and those who say so speak wrongly), but the Spirit, being transformed, displays these things.

What does the apostle Paul say concerning the heavenly Jerusalem? That she is the mother of us all, into which we make our confession.

And concerning the garment which Christians wear, it is clear that the Spirit itself clothes them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit unto the ages.

Just as if someone enters into royal houses and sees the paintings there and the beauties, and treasures laid up elsewhere, and reclines with the king and there are set before him most delightful foods and drinks, and he is refreshed in every way by the spectacles and the beauties, but afterward is dragged away from there and found carried off to foul-smelling places;

or as if there were a beautiful maiden, wiser and richer than all, and she took a poor husband, lowly, ill-favored, clothed in rags, and stripped off his filthy garments and clothed him in royal apparel and placed a diadem upon him and became his partner—then that poor man begins to be amazed and to say:

To me, the wretched and poor and mean and lowly, has such a partner been given? Thus also God did for the wretched and lowly man.

He gave him to taste of another age, of another most delightful food, He showed him glories and royal beauties, unspeakable, heavenly; and thereafter, comparing those spiritual things with the things of this age, he casts all away—whether he sees a king or rulers or wise men—looking off to the heavenly treasure.

For since God is love, the soul received the heavenly and divine fire of Christ and was given rest and rejoiced, and there it is bound fast.

Question: Whether Satan is together with God, whether in the air or in men? Answer: This sun, being a created thing and shining into miry places, is in no way harmed; how much more the Divine, being together with Satan, is neither defiled nor stained;

but He permitted evil to exist for the exercise of men.

Yet the evil is darkened and blinded and cannot see the pure and subtle nature of God.

But if anyone says that Satan has his own place and God His own, he makes Him also circumscribed within that place where the evil one dwells.

But how do we say that the Good is uncircumscribed and incomprehensible and that all things are in Him, and that the Good is not defiled by the evil? For surely, because the heaven and the sun and the mountains are in God Himself and subsist through Him, did they too become God? The created works are fixed in their own order, and the Creator, being together with the creatures, is God.

Question: Since sin transforms itself into an angel of light and is like grace, how is a man to discern the wiles of the devil, and how shall he receive and distinguish the things of grace? Answer: The things of grace have joy, have peace, have love, have truth;

truth itself constrains a man to seek truth.

But the forms of sin are full of disturbance, and have no love and joy toward God.

Just as the bitter herb is like the lettuce (the one sweet, the other bitter, even if alike), so even in grace itself there are things like to truth, and there is the very substance of truth.

It is like the radiance of the sun and the disk itself;

the radiance shines in one way, and the light stored in the disk in another.

There is a lamp lighting a house;

the radiance that shines everywhere is one thing, and the light in the lamp itself, brighter and clearer, is another.

So there are certain things of grace, that from afar a man beholds them as it were as visions, and rejoices in those visions;

for the power of God enters into him and possesses his members and his heart and takes captive the mind into the love of God.

When they seized Peter and put him in prison, as he was shut up, an angel came and broke his chains and brought him out, and he, as though in ecstasy, thought it was a vision.

Question: And how do those who are energized by the grace of God fall? Answer: The thoughts themselves, pure in their own nature, slip and fall.

For one begins to be lifted up, to condemn, to say:

You are a sinner—holding himself to be righteous.

Do you not know what Paul says:

There was given me a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure? For the pure nature has the tendency to be lifted up.

Question: Whether a man can see his own soul by light, since some do away with revelation and say that the seeing is by knowledge and perception? Answer: There is perception, and there is seeing, and there is illumination.

And he who has the illumination is greater than he who has the perception.

For his mind has been illumined, in that he received a greater portion than the one having the perception, since he saw within himself a certain full assurance of visions.

But revelation is yet another thing;

in that great matters and mysteries of God are revealed to the soul.

Question: Whether one sees the soul through revelation and divine light? Answer: Just as these eyes see the sun, so also those who have been illumined see the image of the soul; but these things few Christians behold.

Question: Whether the soul has a form? Answer: It has an image and a form resembling the angel.

Just as the angels have an image and a form, and just as the outer man has an image, so also the inner man has an image like the angel and a form like the outer man.

Question: Whether the mind is one thing and the soul another? Answer: Just as the members of the body, being many, are called one man, so also the members of the soul are many—mind, conscience, will, thoughts that accuse and defend—but all these are bound together into one reasoning;

they are members of the soul, but the soul is one, the inner man.

And just as the outer eyes foresee from afar the thorns and the precipices and the pits, so also the mind, being more alert, foresees the devices and the contrivances of the opposing power and safeguards the soul in advance, being as it were the eye of the soul.

Let us send up glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages.