Fifty Spiritual Homilies 1 part 6/19

He commands us, then, to come out of the world and to become poor with respect to all visible things, and to have no earthly care, but night and day to stand at the door and to wait expectantly for when the Lord will open the closed-up hearts and pour out upon us the gift of the Spirit.

He said, then, to leave gold, silver, kindred; to sell one's possessions and distribute to the poor, and to lay up treasure and seek it in the heavens;

"for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

For the Lord knew that from this source Satan prevails over the thoughts, to drag them down into the concern for material and earthly things.

Therefore God, providing for your soul, said to renounce all things, that even against your will you might seek the heavenly riches and have your heart toward God.

For even if you should wish to turn back to possessions, you find nothing of the visible things in your keeping.

Where you have laid up and stored these things, there you are compelled to send your mind—toward the heavenly One;

"for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

For indeed, in the law God commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent and to lift it up and fasten it on the topmost of the wood;

and as many as were struck by the serpents, by looking to the bronze serpent, obtained healing.

This came about by way of dispensation, so that those held fast in earthly cares and in idolatries and in the pleasures of Satan and in all ungodliness might, in this manner, partially lift up their heads to the things above, and, being refreshed from the things below, attend to the lofty things, and again from those advance to the loftiest, and thus, advancing little by little, come to recognize the higher and more exalted nature—that there is One Most High above all creation.

So also He commanded you to become poor and, having sold all, to give to the poor, that thereafter, even if you should wish to incline downward to the earth, you might not be able.

For having searched into your heart, you begin to converse with your thoughts:

"Since we have nothing on earth, let us go up to heaven, where we have our treasure, where we have done our trading."

Your mind begins to look upward toward the height, to seek the higher things and to advance therein.

Did the dead serpent fastened on the topmost of the wood heal those who were stricken? The dead serpent overcame the living—so that it is a type of the body of the Lord.

For the body which He took from Mary, He bore up upon the cross and hung it and fastened it on the wood; and the living, crawling serpent in the heart, the dead body overcame and slew.

Here is a most great wonder: how the dead serpent slew the living one!

But as Moses made a new work (he made a likeness of the living serpent), so also the Lord made a new work from Mary and put it on;

yet He did not bring the body from heaven.

The heavenly Spirit, entering into Adam, wrought, and blended him with the Godhead, and put on human flesh and formed it in the womb.

As, then, the bronze serpent was not commanded by the Lord to come into being in the world until Moses, so neither did a new and sinless body appear in the world until the Lord.

For when the first Adam transgressed the commandment, death reigned over all his children.

The dead body, then, overcame the living serpent.

And this marvel is to the Jews a stumbling-block, but to the Greeks foolishness.

For in the dead body is life;

here is the redemption, here is the light; here the Lord comes to death and converses with it, and commands it to cast the souls out of Hades and death and to render them up to Him.

Behold, then, this one, being troubled at these things, goes in to his ministers and gathers all the powers; and the prince of wickedness brings forth the bonds and says:

"See, these men obeyed my word;

see where these people worshiped us."

But God, being a righteous Judge, there too shows His justice and says to him:

"Adam obeyed you, and you held fast all his hearts;

humanity obeyed you.

But what does My body do here? This is without sin.

That body of the first Adam was indebted to you, and rightly do you hold its bonds;

but concerning Me, all bear witness that I did not sin;

and that I am the Son of God, all bear witness to Me.

For from above the heavens a voice came down upon the earth and bore witness:

'This is My beloved Son.'

'Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world'; and again the Scripture:

'who did no sin, neither was guile found in Him'; and that 'the ruler of the world comes, and in Me he will find nothing.'

And you yourself, Satan, bear witness to Me, saying:

'I know who You are, the Son of God'; and again:

'What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come before the time to torment us?' Three bear witness to Me:

He who is above the heavens sends forth a voice, those on the earth, and you yourself.

I therefore redeem the body that was sold to you through the first Adam; I annul your bonds.

For I have paid Adam's debts, having been crucified and having descended into Hades.

And I command you, O Hades and Darkness and Death: cast out the imprisoned souls of Adam."

And so thereupon the evil powers, trembling, give back the imprisoned Adam.

But when you hear that at that time He rescued the souls from Hades and from the darkness, and that the Lord descended into Hades and did a glorious work, do not suppose these things to be far from your own soul.

For the human being is capable of containing and receiving the evil one;

for death holds fast the souls of Adam, and within the darkness are the thoughts of the soul imprisoned.

And when you hear about tombs, do not think only of the visible ones;

for your heart is a tomb and a sepulchre.

For when the prince of evil and his angels lurk there, and when they make their paths and passages there, where the powers of Satan walk about into your mind and into your thoughts—are you not Hades and grave and tomb and dead to God? For there Satan has stamped counterfeit coin; in this soul he has sown seeds of bitterness; it has been leavened with old leaven; there a fountain of mire gushes forth.

The Lord, then, comes into the souls that seek Him, into the depth of the Hades of the heart, and there commands death, saying:

"Cast out the imprisoned souls that seek Me, which you hold by force."

He then breaks asunder the heavy stones that lie upon the soul, opens the tombs, raises up the true dead, casts out from the dark prison the imprisoned soul.

As if a person were bound hand and foot with chains, and someone came who loosed his bonds and let him go free to walk about at ease—so the soul bound with the chains of death the Lord looses from its bonds, and sets it free, and frees the mind to walk without toil, in rest, in the divine air.

As if a person were in the midst of a river in flood, and being plunged into the water lay dead, drowned among fierce beasts;

and if another person, unskilled in swimming, should wish to rescue the one who had fallen in, he too perishes together and is drowned;

[but one skilled] will dive down there into the bosom of the water and bring up the one who has been drowned and is among the beasts;

and the water itself, when it sees one experienced and knowing how to swim, helps him and bears him up to the higher parts—so the soul, plunged into the abyss of darkness and into the depth of death, is drowned and is dead to God, among fierce beasts.

And who can descend into those storehouses and the depths of Hades and death, except the very Craftsman who made the body? He comes into the two parts: into the depth of Hades, and again into the deep bosom of the heart, where the soul is held by death together with its thoughts; and He brings up from the dark abyss the deadened Adam.

And death itself, through this exercise, becomes a help to the person himself, just as the water is to the swimmer.

For what is difficult for God, to enter into death and again into the deep bosom of the heart, and from there to call back the deadened Adam? For in the visible age there are houses and buildings where humanity dwells;

and there are places where beasts are—lions or dragons and other venomous beasts.

If, then, the sun, being a created thing, enters everywhere through the windows or doors, and into the dens of lions and into the holes of reptiles, and comes out and is in no way harmed—how much more does God, the Master of all, enter into the lairs and houses where death has encamped, and into the souls, and from there, rescuing Adam, is in no way wronged by death!

And the rain that descends from heaven reaches down into the lower parts of the earth, and from there moistens and renews the dried-up roots and produces there new growth.

There is one who has struggle and affliction and war against Satan;

this one has his soul contrite;

for he is in care and mourning and tears.

Such a one stands facing two ways.

If, then, such a one stands amid such things, the Lord is with him in the warfare and guards him;

for he diligently seeks and knocks at the door, until it is opened to him.

And again, if a brother appears good to you, here he is one established by grace;

but he who has no foundation has not so much fear of God; his heart is not contrite, nor is he in fear, nor does he make his heart and his members secure against walking disorderly.

This one still has his soul at large;

for he has not yet entered into the struggle.

There is, then, one who is in struggle and affliction, and another who knows not what war is.

For indeed the seeds, when they are cast into the earth, endure affliction in the frosts, in the winter, in the coldness of the air, and at the proper season the produce is brought back to life.

And it happens that Satan converses with you in the heart:

"See how many evils you have done! Behold, your soul is filled with how many madnesses, and you are weighed down with sins, so that you can no longer be saved."

He does this in order to bring you to despair, and [to make you think] that your repentance is not acceptable.

For since, through the transgression, evil entered in, thereafter every hour it converses with the soul as a person with a person.

Answer him, you too: "I have the testimonies of the Lord in writing, that 'I do not desire the death of the sinner, but rather the repentance and that he turn from the evil way and live.'"

For this is the reason He Himself descended: that He might save sinners, raise up the dead, give life to those who were put to death, enlighten those in darkness.

For truly, having come, He called us to sonship, to a holy city at peace, to a living city that never dies, to incorruptible glory.

Only let us give to our beginning a good end; let us abide in poverty, in pilgrimage, in ill-treatment, in petition toward God, knocking at the door with importunity.

The Lord is very near to coming and opening the closed doors of the heart and bestowing on us the heavenly riches.

For He is good and a lover of mankind, and His promises are without falsehood—only if we endure to the end, seeking after Him.

Glory to the compassions of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of the ages.

Adam, having transgressed the commandment, perished in two ways:

in one, that he lost the pure possession of his nature—the beautiful one, that which was according to the image and likeness of God;

in the other, that he lost the very image in which, according to the promise, the whole heavenly inheritance had been laid up for him.

As if there were a coin bearing the image of the king, and it were defaced—both the gold is lost and the image is of no use—such was what Adam also suffered;

for great riches and a great inheritance had been prepared for him.

As if there were a great estate having many revenues—there a flourishing vineyard, there fertile lands, there herds, there gold and silver—so honorable was the estate before the disobedience, that very vessel of Adam.

But since he had evil intentions and thoughts, he was lost from God.

Yet we do not say that the whole was utterly lost and effaced and died;

he died to God, but to his own nature he lives.

For behold, the whole world walks about on the earth and conducts its affairs, but the eye of God beholds their mind and their intentions; and as it were He looks, yet looks past, and makes no fellowship with them, since they reckon nothing well-pleasing to God.

As if there were inns and brothels and places where disorders and dissipations occur;

then the God-fearing, passing by, are disgusted, and looking they do not look;

for to them these are as dead—so also God, upon those who have apostatized from His word and from the commandment, looks indeed, but looks past them, and makes no fellowship there, nor does the Lord rest upon their thoughts.

Question: How can someone be poor in spirit, especially when he perceives in himself that he has been transformed and has made progress and has come to a knowledge and understanding that he did not previously have? Answer: As long as one is acquiring these things and making progress, he is not poor in spirit, but thinks highly of himself.

But when he comes to this understanding and progress, grace itself teaches him to be poor in spirit.

Question: What is the interpretation of being poor in spirit? Answer: That one, being righteous and chosen of God, should reckon himself to be nothing, but should hold his soul as worthless and despised, as one who knows nothing or has nothing—and that though he knows and has.

And this comes to be in the mind of such people as something natural and fixed.

Do you not see? Our forefather Abraham, being chosen, called himself earth and ashes.

Those, then, who wish to be fellow-heirs with these and fellow-citizens of the heavenly city, and to be glorified together with them, ought to have this humility and not to suppose themselves to be anything, but to have a contrite heart.

For even if grace works differently in each of the Christians, and has different members, yet all are of one city, of one soul, of one tongue, recognizing one another.

As there are many members in a body, but one soul in all of them moving these, so one Spirit works in all of them diversely, yet they are of one city, of one tongue, of one way;

[some] in caves, in the holes of the earth.

And likewise the apostles also, up to the present hour, say: "We both hunger and thirst and are naked and are reviled and have no fixed abode."

Of whom some were beheaded, others were crucified, and others were afflicted in various ways.

And the very Master of prophets and apostles, as it were forgetting His divine glory, in what manner He journeyed, becoming a pattern for us!

Through insults He wore a crown of thorns upon His head; He endured being spat upon, blows, the cross.

If God journeyed thus upon the earth, you too ought to become an imitator of Him;

for the apostles and prophets also journeyed thus.

And we too, if we wish to be built upon the foundation of the Lord and of the apostles, ought to become their imitators.

For the apostle says in the Holy Spirit:

"Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ."

But if you love the glories of men and wish to be revered and seek ease, you have turned aside from the way.

For you must be crucified together with the Crucified, suffer together with the One who suffered, that thus you may be glorified together with the One who was glorified.

For the bride must of necessity suffer together with the Bridegroom, and thus become a partner and fellow-heir of Christ.

For it is not possible, apart from sufferings and the rough and narrow and afflicted way, for anyone to enter into the city of the saints and to find rest and to reign together with the King unto the boundless ages.

Question: Since you said that Adam lost both his own image and the heavenly one, then if he had communion with the heavenly image, did he have the Holy Spirit? Answer: As long as the Word of God was with him, and the commandment, he had all things;

for the Word Himself was to him an inheritance, He a garment and glory covering them, He a teaching.

For He suggested to him to name everything:

"This call heaven, this sun, this moon, this earth, this bird, this beast, this tree."

As he was taught, so also he spoke.

Question: Did he have perception and communion of the Spirit? Answer: The Word Himself, being with him, was all things to him—whether knowledge, or perception, or inheritance, or teaching.

And what does John say concerning the Word? "In the beginning was the Word."

You see that the Word was all things.

And if glory was also with him outwardly, let us not be scandalized at this;

for indeed it says that they were naked and did not see one another, and after transgressing the commandment, then they saw themselves naked and were ashamed.

Question: Were they then, before this, clothed with the glory of God instead of with a garment? Answer: As the Spirit worked in the prophets and taught them and was within them and appeared outwardly to them, so also it was with Adam.

When the Spirit willed, it was with him and taught and suggested;

for the Word was all things to him, and as long as he abided in the commandment, he was a friend of God.

And what wonder is it, if being in these things he transgressed the commandment, when even those who are filled with the Holy Spirit have the natural thoughts and have a will to consent? So he too, being with God in paradise, transgressed of his own will, by his own free choice, and obeyed the evil part.

Yet even after the transgression he had knowledge.

Question: What kind? Answer: As when a robber is seized and brought to court and begins to be judged, the magistrate says to him:

"When you did these evils, did you not know that you would be seized and put to death?" That one does not dare to say, "I did not know" (for he does know); and being punished, he confesses, remembering everything.

And does the fornicator not know that he does evil? And does the thief not know that he sins? So also, even without the Scriptures, do not people, from the natural reasoning, know that there is a God? In that day they cannot say:

"Because of the thunders and lightnings that come from heaven, did you not know that there is a God who governs the creation?" What, then, did the demons cry out? "You are the Son of God."

Yet still in the testimonies they say:

"Did they then not know the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?" The transgression of Adam gave the knowledge.

For each one begins to inquire, as it were, in what state Adam was, and what he did; for Adam himself received the knowledge of both good and evil.

Thereafter we hear from the Scriptures that he was in honor and in purity, and having transgressed the commandment, he was cast out of paradise, and God was angry with him.

Thereafter he learns both his good things and, having learned his evil things, he secures himself, so that he may no longer sin and fall into the judgment of death.

And we know that all the creation of God is administered through Him;

for He made heaven, earth, animals, reptiles, beasts—which we behold;

for what person knows, except God alone who is in all things, even about the embryos of the animals? Does He not Himself understand the things beneath the earth and above the heavens? Leaving these things, then, let us rather seek, like good merchants, to gain a heavenly inheritance and the things profitable for our souls.

Let us learn to acquire possessions that abide together with us.

For if you begin, being a human being, to search out the reasoning of God and to say:

"I have found something and comprehended it," the human mind will be found overstepping the reasoning of God.

In this it greatly errs; and however much you wish to search out and enter in through knowledge, you go into a depth and comprehend nothing.

For the very visitations that come to you—what do they work in you each day? And how unutterable they are and incomprehensible!

Is it not rather to receive them with thanksgiving and to believe? For your own soul, from when you were born until now, have you been able to know it? Then tell me, from morning until evening, the thoughts that well up in you; tell me the imaginations of three days.

If, then, you have not been able to comprehend the thoughts of your own soul, how can you find out the thoughts of God and His mind? But you—however much bread you find, eat, and leave the whole earth alone; and go to the brink of the river and drink as much as you need, and pass on, and do not seek out whence it comes or how it flows.

Be eager to be healed of the foot or of the pain of your eye, that you may see the light of the sun;

but do not seek how much light the sun has or how high it rises.

Take the animal that comes your way for your use;

and why do you go off into the mountains and seek how many wild asses or beasts feed there? And the child, when it comes to its mother's breast, takes the milk and is nourished, but does not know how to search out the root or the source, whence it flows in so;

for it sucks the milk and empties out all the whey;

and again at another hour the breast is filled.

This neither the child knows nor its mother, although in fact the milk comes forth from all the members of the mother.

If, then, you seek the Lord in the depth, there you find Him.

If you seek Him in the water, there you find Him working signs.

If you seek Him in the fire, there you find Him helping His servants.

If you seek Him in the mountain, there you find Him with Elijah and Moses.

He is everywhere, then—both beneath the earth and above the heavens, and within us;

so also the soul is near you, and is within you and is outside you;

for wherever you will, into distant countries, there is your mind;

whether to the west or to the east or into the heavens, there it is found.

Let us, then, seek above all to have within ourselves the brand of the Lord and the seal.

For at the time of the judgment, when God's severance takes place and all the tribes of the earth, of the whole Adam, are gathered together, when the shepherd calls his own flock, as many as have the brand recognize their own shepherd, and the shepherd recognizes those who have his own seal and gathers them together from among all the nations.

For his own hear his voice and go after him.

The world stands divided into parts, and there comes to be one dark flock that goes into eternal fire, and one full of light that is led up to the heavenly portion.

That very thing, then, which we now acquire in our souls, that same thing shines forth and is made manifest and clothes the bodies with glory.

As in the time of the month Xanthikos the roots buried in the earth put forth their own fruits and their own flowers and beauties and bear fruit, and the good roots become manifest and those bearing thorns become manifest—so in that day each one, through his own body, makes manifest whatever he did, and both the good and the evil are made manifest.

For there is all the judgment and the recompense.

For there is another food besides this visible one, and there is another heavenly table besides this visible one.

For indeed Moses, when he went up into the mountain, fasted forty days;

he went up a man, and came down having God.

And behold, we see in ourselves that in a few days, unless the body is sustained with food, it perishes.

And he, having fasted forty days, came down stronger than all;

for he was nourished by God, and his body was sustained by another, heavenly food;

for the Word of God became food to him, and he had glory upon his face.

For that glory now shines within, in the hearts of Christians;

for the bodies, rising in the resurrection, are covered with another, divine garment and nourished with heavenly food.

Question: What does it mean that a woman prays with her head uncovered? Answer: Since in the time of the apostles they had their hair let down instead of a covering, for this reason the Lord and the apostles came to the creation and brought it to sobriety.

Moreover, the woman is set as a type of the Church.

And as, in the visible realm in that time, those women had their hair spread out instead of a covering, so also the Church clothes her children and wraps them in divine and glorified garments.

And in the old [time] of the Church, Israel was one congregation and was covered by the Spirit, and they were clothed with the Spirit instead of with glory—even though they themselves did not walk accordingly.

"Church," then, is spoken of both with reference to many and to a single soul.

For the soul itself gathers together all its thoughts and is a church to God;

for the soul has been joined into fellowship with the heavenly Bridegroom and is blended with the heavenly One.

And this is understood both of the many and of the one.

For indeed the prophet says concerning Israel:

"I found you desolate and naked, and I clothed you," and what follows—as he said of a single person.

Question: What is it that Martha said to the Lord concerning Mary, that "I am toiling at many things, and she sits beside You"? Answer: What Mary ought to have said to Martha, the Lord, anticipating, said to her—that she had left all things and was sitting at the Lord's feet and was blessing God the whole day.

Do you see the constant attendance born of love? But that the word of God may be more clearly illuminated, listen.

If anyone loves Jesus and attends to Him rightly, and not merely attends but also abides in love, already God too reckons, in return for that love, to give something to that soul, even though the person does not know what he is going to receive or what portion God is going to give to the soul.

For to Mary also, loving Him and sitting beside His feet, it was not simply added; rather, He gave her a certain hidden power out of His own substance.

For the very words which God spoke in peace to Mary were spirit and a certain power;

And these words, entering into the heart, became soul to soul and spirit to spirit, and the divine power filled her heart.

For of necessity, wherever that power comes to dwell, it abides permanently as a possession that cannot be taken away.

Therefore the Lord, knowing what He had given her, said:

And after a time, those things which Martha did eagerly in her service brought her into that same gift;

for she too received a divine power in her soul.

And what wonder is it if those who drew near to the Lord and clung to Him bodily received power, when the apostles spoke a word and the Holy Spirit fell upon those who believed? Cornelius received power from the word he heard.