Catecheses 1 part 11/23

Brethren and fathers, now that Pascha, the day of joy, the day of all gladness and cheer, the day of the resurrection of Christ—which comes ever according to the cycle of the year, or rather comes daily and unceasingly among those who know its mystery—has filled our hearts with unutterable joy and exultation, having brought at once to a close the labour of the all-venerable fast, or rather having perfected it and at the same time comforted our souls; wherefore also, calling together all the faithful alike to rest and thanksgiving, as you see, it has come and passed.

Let us, then, give thanks to the Lord, who has brought us across the sea of the fast and has led us with good cheer into the harbour of His resurrection.

Let us give Him thanks—both we who have well and eagerly, with fervent purpose and struggles of virtue, completed the course of the fast, and those who have been weak in these things through faint-heartedness and weakness of soul—since it is He who gives to the diligent, beyond all measure, the crowns and the worthy rewards of their works, and again bestows pardon upon the weaker, as being merciful and lover of mankind.

...gifts, either making some one of the diligent renowned and glorious, or leaving him yet lowly and in need of more toilsome purification.

But let us see, if it seems good, and examine well, what is the mystery of the resurrection of Christ our God—which ever comes to pass mystically in us who are willing—and how Christ is buried in us as in a tomb, and how, being united to our souls, He rises again, raising us also together with Himself.

And the aim of the discourse is this.

Christ our God, having been hung upon the cross and having nailed to it the sin of the world, having tasted death, descended into the lowest parts of Hades.

Just, then, as, coming up again out of Hades, He entered into His own undefiled body, from which, though He had descended thither, He was in no way separated, and straightway He rose from the dead, and after these things ascended into the heavens with great glory and power—so also now, when we go forth from the world and enter, through the likeness of the sufferings of the Lord, into the tomb of repentance and humility, He Himself, that same One, descending from the heavens, enters as into a sepulchre into our body, and being united to our souls, He raises them up, though they are confessedly dead; and then He grants to the one who has thus risen with Christ to behold the glory of His mystical resurrection.

The resurrection of Christ, therefore, is our resurrection—the resurrection of us who lie below.

For He, having never fallen into sin, as it is written, nor having been altered from His own glory in any way whatsoever—how could He ever rise or be glorified, who ever is supremely glorified and abides likewise above all rule and authority?

The resurrection and glory of Christ is, as has been said, our glory—which comes to pass through His resurrection within us, and is shown forth and beheld by us.

For once He has made our concerns His own, those things which He Himself does in us, these He ascribes to Himself.

And the resurrection of the soul is its union with life.

For just as the dead body, unless it receive within itself the living soul and be mingled with it without confusion, is neither said to live nor is able to live, so neither can the soul alone live by itself, unless it be united to God—the truly eternal life—ineffably and without confusion.

For before the union in knowledge and vision and perception, it is dead, even though it is intellectual and by nature immortal.

For there is neither knowledge apart from vision, nor vision apart from perception.

And what is meant is this:

vision, and in the vision knowledge and perception (I say this concerning spiritual things; for in bodily things perception comes even apart from vision).

A blind man striking his foot against a stone perceives it, but a dead man does not.

In spiritual things, however, unless the mind comes into contemplation of the things that are beyond conception, it does not perceive the mystical operation.

He, then, who claims to have perception in spiritual things before the contemplation of the things beyond mind and reason and conception, is like one maimed in his sight, who perceives indeed the good or evil things he suffers, but is ignorant of the things in his hands or feet, and of the things that become for him the causes of life or death;

for the evils or goods that come upon him he in no way perceives, being deprived of the power and sense of sight; whence also often, lifting up his staff for defence against the enemy, he sometimes strikes his own friend instead of that one, while the enemy stands before his eyes and laughs him to scorn.

The resurrection of Christ the greater part of men believe, but very few there are who also behold it purely; and those who have not beheld it are not even able to worship Jesus Christ as holy and Lord.

For no one, it says, can call Jesus Lord except in the Holy Spirit; and elsewhere:

those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.

For the most sacred saying, which we carry daily upon our lips, does not say:

'Having believed in the resurrection of Christ,' but what?

'Having beheld the resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the only sinless One.'

How, then, does the Holy Spirit now urge us to say, as though we had seen the very thing which we did not see:

'Having beheld the resurrection of Christ'—Christ having risen once, a thousand years ago, and no one having seen Him then rising?

Is it, then, that the divine Scripture wishes us to lie?

Far from it! Rather it enjoins us all the more to speak the truth, since the resurrection of Christ evidently comes to pass in each one of us who believe—and this not simply, but hourly, so to speak, the very Master Christ rising up within us, radiant and flashing forth the lightnings of incorruption and Deity.

For the light-bearing presence of the Spirit shows forth—or rather grants us to behold—that very One who rose again.

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

To those, then, to whom Christ appears having risen, He is altogether shown as beheld spiritually, by their very spiritual eyes.

For when He comes to be in us through the Spirit, He raises us from the dead and makes us alive, and grants us to behold Him whole, living within us—the immortal and imperishable One; and not only this, but He also graciously grants us clearly to know that He raises us up together with Himself and glorifies us together with Himself, even as all divine Scripture testifies.

These, then, are the divine mysteries of Christians; this is the hidden power of our faith, which the unbelieving, or the ill-believing, or rather, so to speak, the half-believing, do not see, nor indeed are they in any way able to see.

And the unbelieving, the ill-believing, and the half-believing are these: those who do not demonstrate their faith through works.

'For we know You,' they say, 'the Son of God'; and elsewhere:

'These men are servants of God the Most High.'

But nevertheless, such faith will profit neither the demons nor those men themselves.

For there is no benefit in this faith, since it is dead, according to the divine apostle:

'For faith,' he says, 'apart from works is dead, just as also works apart from faith.'

Because it does not have within itself the God who gives life, because it has not acquired within itself Him who said:

'He who loves Me will keep My commandments, and I and the Father will come and make Our abode with him'—it has not acquired Him within itself, so that by His presence He might raise from the dead the one who has acquired it, and make him alive, and graciously grant him who has thus risen in it, and in whom He Himself has raised it up, to behold Him.

Such a faith, then, is dead for this very reason; or rather, dead are those who possess it apart from works.

For faith in God is ever living, and being alive it gives life to those who come to it and receive it with good purpose. Even before the working of the commandments, this faith has raised many from death to life and has revealed to them Christ and God.

And they would indeed—had they remained in His commandments and kept them until death—themselves have been preserved by them, remaining such as they had plainly become by faith alone.

But since they turned aside like a crooked bow and became entangled again in their former deeds, they were rightly found straightway to have made shipwreck concerning faith, and wretchedly deprived themselves of the true riches, which is Christ our God.

May it be granted to us all to attain this by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory unto the ages.

On repentance and the beginning of the monastic life.

And how one who advances toward virtue in an orderly way, by walking the path of keeping the commandments, comes to perfection.

Brethren and fathers, he who has despised all visible things and even his own soul, so that he may be able to show forth genuine repentance according to the commandment of the Lord and to begin this work, does not suppose that he can learn this of himself. Rather, having come to a skilled and experienced man and submitted himself to him with much fear and trembling and with intense attentiveness, he learns from him and is taught the spiritual working of virtuous deeds, and what the penitent ought to do.

By fear and trembling I mean this: that he should not fall short of so great a good, nor be condemned to the eternal fire as an unproven laborer of the commandments.

For reckoning that man's words come forth as from the mouth of God, and are the cause of life and of death according as they are kept or disregarded, he keeps them with exactness.

And thus—that I may not lengthen my discourse by saying much—having begun, and hanging with unwavering faith upon the promises of God, he advances daily according to God, and walking the path he grows in spiritual stature, and becomes a perfect man in Christ our God.

What, then, are the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God?

Listen understandingly to what sort of things He promises us.

'Verily I say unto you, there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth'; and again:

'Him that cometh to me'—by such a path, that is—'I will in no wise cast out'; and again:

'He that thirsteth, let him come to me and drink'; and:

'He that believeth in me shall never see death'; and elsewhere:

'Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you'; and:

'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest'; and in another place:

'He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me;

and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I and the Father, through the Spirit, will come and make our abode with him'; and:

'If ye then,' He says, 'being evil men, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?'

Therefore, hoping with unwavering faith in these pledges and promises of God, as we have said, with great eagerness and irrepressible impulse fulfill all His commandments without slackness.

And this is the first commandment:

'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand'; and again:

'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you;

for every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.'

And wishing to teach us further concerning these things—how one ought to ask, and with what words and works—He said:

'Whosoever among you would be first, let him become last of all, and servant of all, and minister of all.'

'For he that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.'

...of the world, of the affairs of life, of possessions, of kinsfolk and one's own—and he associates proportionately with things spiritual.

Advancing thus day by day, he perceives how little by little the thoughts arising from his preconceptions withdraw; then how these preconceptions themselves diminish, and the heart, being softened, comes to humility;

and how again this heart in turn gives birth to thoughts that produce humility of mind.

And this work, accomplished through the fulfillment of the commandments, washes away—O the wonder!—

every defilement from the soul, and drives away every passion and every evil desire—I mean both bodily and worldly.

And thus the man becomes free in soul from every earthly desire;

not only from bodily bonds, but as when one strips off a garment and becomes wholly naked.

For the soul strips off first that insensibility which the divine Apostle calls a veil, which lies upon the hearts of the unbelieving Jews. Indeed, even now everyone who does not perform the commandments of the new grace with all his power and with a fervent heart has such a veil laid upon the intellectual faculty of his soul, and cannot be raised up to the height of the knowledge of the Son of God.

Then, just as one who has stripped bodily beholds the wounds upon his body, so also this man then clearly sees the passions present in his soul—such as vainglory, love of money, resentment of wrongs, hatred of the brethren, envy, jealousy, strife, self-conceit, and all the rest in order.

Applying the commandments as remedies, and temptations as cauteries upon these passions, and humbling himself and mourning and fervently seeking God's help, he sees clearly the grace of the Holy Spirit coming and plucking up and making these vanish one by one, until it renders his soul entirely free of them all.

For the sojourning of the Comforter does not deem the soul worthy of freedom in part, but perfectly and purely; for together with the aforesaid passions He also drives away all listlessness, all negligence, all sloth and ignorance and forgetfulness and gluttony and all love of pleasure, and thus renews and makes new the man both in soul and in body, so that such a one seems to be clothed not with a corruptible and heavy body, but with a spiritual and immaterial one, already fit for rapture.

And the grace of the Spirit works in him not this alone, but it does not even permit such a one to look upon anything of the things of sense; rather, it makes him continue, while looking, as one who does not look with the senses.

For whenever the mind is joined to intelligible things, it becomes wholly outside the things of sense, even if it seems to be looking upon sensible things.

Thus, then, abiding in these things, according to the saint who says:

'Our citizenship is in the heavens'—we regarding not the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen—he is illumined, enlightened, and daily grows in spiritual stature, doing away with the things of a childish mind, and advancing toward manly perfection.

Wherefore also, according to the measure of his stature, he is altered in his soul's powers and energies, and becomes more manly and more mighty toward the practice of the commandments of God.

Fulfilling these daily, then, in proportion to the working of them he is yet again cleansed, made resplendent, illumined, and counted worthy to behold revelations of great mysteries, whose depth no one has ever seen, nor indeed can see at all—of those who have not striven to be raised up to such purity.

For he acquires from the renewing Spirit new eyes, and likewise new ears, and henceforth no longer beholds sensible things sensibly as a man, but as one who has become above man, he beholds sensible things spiritually and as images of the invisible, and the forms present in them as formless and shapeless.

And he hears—not, as one might say, the voice of a man or of voices—but only that of the living Word, whenever it comes forth through the voice of a man.

For this alone, as being familiar and beloved, does the soul receive through hearing, and yields it entrance, and gladly embraces it once it has come within, even as the Lord said:

'My sheep hear my voice, but a stranger's they will not hear.'

But neither does it allow these at all to enter within; rather, turning them away empty, it sends them off;

and there are times when it does not even perceive their presence or their knockings, but is disposed toward them as one deaf who does not hear—though indeed it does hear them.

Therefore, when he has become such, God straightway dwells in him and becomes to him all that he could ever will—nay rather, even beyond what he wills.

For God, being all good, fills with every good the soul in which He dwells, according to what our nature can contain, since God is uncontainable and unbearable by every created nature.

And by 'good things' I mean those which eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man—of the man, that is, who has not become such.

Therefore also God, having dwelt in such a man, teaches him concerning things to come and things present, not by word but by deed and experience and reality.

For unveiling his intellectual eyes, He shows him as much as God wills and as much as is expedient for him, but persuades him not to search out, nor to seek, nor to be over-curious about the rest, since he cannot even behold shamelessly the very things which God unveils and shows him;

but stooping to peer into the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God, he straightway grows dizzy and is astounded, considering himself—who he is, and of whom he has been deemed worthy to become a beholder.

For gazing upon the greatness of God's love for mankind and being amazed, and reckoning himself in his soul unworthy of the sight of such good things, he does not even wish to gaze clearly upon them nor to study them, but constrained by trembling and fear and reverence, he cries: 'Who am I, O Lord, and what is the house of my father, that Thou hast entrusted such mysteries to one unworthy, and hast made me not only a beholder but also, beyond all expectation, a partaker and communicant of such good things of Thine?'

Such a one, then, having become above all creation, does not wish to turn back and be over-curious about the things of creation.

For having acquired the Master of the angels, he does not endure to search out the essence and nature of the angels that minister to Him, since he knows that this is not pleasing to God—for a man to be over-curious about the things above man;

for if we have been commanded not to be over-curious about the divine Scriptures, how much more ought we by no means to busy ourselves about the things beyond what is written.

Such a one beholds God, as far as it is possible for a man to see, and as far as seems good to God Himself, who also strives to behold Him continually and even after his end prays ever to see Him, being content indeed with His sight alone and needing nothing else; whence he does not even desire to leave the Master and God, by whom he is filled with light and from whom he has the enjoyment of incorruptible life, and to turn his gaze upon his fellow servants.

For every holy soul is delivered from all vainglory, since, being clothed with the most luminous and kingly tunic of the Spirit and filled with the surpassing glory of God, it not only disregards the glory of men, but does not even turn toward it at all when it is offered to it by them.

For being beheld by God and itself beholding Him again in return, it will by no means ever desire to look toward any other of men, or to be gazed upon by any other.

Wherefore I exhort you, brethren in Christ: let us not wish to learn the ineffable things by words alone, which is a thing impossible alike for those who teach concerning such matters and for those who listen to them.

For neither can those who teach concerning intelligible and divine matters give accurate and vivid demonstrations from examples and set forth their very truth in a real way, nor can those who are taught learn from word alone the working of the things spoken; but let us hasten to grasp these things by practice and toil and labors, and to come to be in the contemplation of them, that from thence we may be initiated into the mysteries of the discourses concerning such things, and that God may be glorified thus dwelling in us, and that we, through the knowledge of such things, may glorify Him, and He may glorify us in Christ our God Himself, to whom belongs all glory unto the ages.

On the passionate, unbelieving, and wicked disposition.

And what is the union of God with the sons of light, and in what manner this comes to be in them.

Brethren and fathers, opposites are ever set against one another: darkness against light, unbelief against faith, ignorance against knowledge, and hatred against love.

For when God said in the beginning, 'Let there be light,' there was light;

and again, when the light withdrew, there came to be night.

Now Adam, so long as he was guarded by faith toward God, dwelt in immortal glory and was in Paradise; but being turned aside by the enemy into unbelief, he is condemned to death and cast out of Paradise, and in place of the divine and spiritual knowledge he received the knowledge of the flesh.

For being blinded in the eyes of his soul and having fallen from imperishable life, he received sight through his bodily eyes;

and casting the gaze of his eyes upon visible things with a passionate perception, he knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain.

This knowledge, then, is truly ignorance of every good;

for had he not first fallen away from the knowledge and contemplation of God, he would not have been brought down into this knowledge.

So too Cain his son: had he not first been inflamed with hatred and envy against his brother Abel, he would not have slain him.

As many, therefore, as are held fast by the darkness they bear from birth, and refuse to gaze upon the intelligible light from which our forefather fell away, these reckon those who have come to be in that light and who discourse of the things of the light as adversaries and enemies, being stung by their words.

For [the word of truth] comes into the heart of a carnal man, producing pain in it and stirring it up to contradiction and hatred by reason of the ignorance and unbelief within it.

And he who supposes that he knows something while knowing nothing, even if he should see an angel come down to him from heaven, sends him away as an evil demon; and even an apostle or a prophet of God he turns away from as though he were another Simon Magus.

Oh, the uttermost insensibility! The blind man deems the one who sees to be blind, and he who is in very truth a driveller deems the seer's words to be drivel.

And just as at night, when some say that the sun is not shining, the blind man who hears does not believe them; and again when he is in broad daylight and men say it is night, he again disbelieves, supposing himself to be deceived by both, and whether he hears that it is light by day or darkness by night, in doubt he shakes off those who speak—

so too those who sit in the darkness of the passions and have a mind blinded by ignorance—or rather, who have not acquired the mind of Christ—reckon the one who has the mind of Christ to be mindless, and the one who does not have it to be sensible; concerning whom the prophet David fittingly says:

'The foolish and the senseless shall perish together.'

Such men, therefore, twist all Scripture according to their own desires, and corrupt themselves in their own passions—though the divine Scripture does not suffer this, but rather those who falsify it.

How then, tell me, shall the blind, who bring an upright judgment to matters, ever rightly read of themselves the meanings of the light, when out of self-conceit they will not consent to be taught?

How shall he who is blind in his eyes and does not see the light read the letters written in the light?

And he who is blind in mind and does not have within himself the mind of Christ, how can he reckon up the meanings that are laid up in the light of Christ?

Even if ten thousand times he should sensibly read them as written for his bodily eyes, never, I think, would such a one be able to behold in a material and darkened place things that are spiritual and immaterial and full of light.

God is light, and to those to whom He is united He imparts of His own splendour in proportion to their purification.

And then the extinguished lamp of the soul—that is, the mind—knows that a divine fire has laid hold of it and has been kindled within.

O the wonder, that man is united to God both spiritually and bodily, seeing that the soul is not separated from the mind, nor the body from the soul; but by the union according to essence man too becomes, by grace, of three hypostases—one god by adoption, of body and soul and the divine Spirit of which he has partaken—and then is fulfilled the word spoken by the prophet David:

'You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High'—sons of the Most High, that is, according to the image and likeness of the Most High, divine offspring from the divine Spirit—to whom the Lord fittingly said, and ever says:

'Abide in Me, that you may bear much fruit'—by fruit He means the multitudes of those saved through them—'the branch,' He says, 'if it abide not in the vine, is withered and cast into the fire;'

'abide, therefore, you in Me and I in you.'

How then He abides in us, and how again we abide in Him, the Lord Himself taught, saying:

'You, Father, in Me and I in You, and these in Me and I in them.'

'They in Me and I in them, even as You, Father, in Me and I in You'; and further, for the full assurance of His hearers, He adds, saying:

'As You have loved Me, I have loved them; and they have known that You sent Me.'

[Are they not truly] brethren and sons of God and gods by adoption, abiding in God, and God in them, according to grace?

Those, then, who have not become such, nor been at all transformed in practice and knowledge and contemplation, how are they not ashamed to call themselves Christians?

And how do they dare to open their mouth and speak shamelessly concerning the hidden mysteries of God, while lying upon negligence as upon a bed?

How do they not blush to be numbered with Christians?

How do they not shudder to become fellow-sitters with the priests and celebrants and ministers of the Master's Body and Blood?

In all this I am utterly perplexed; but the blinding of the mind, as has been said, and the insensibility and ignorance that follow upon it, and the self-conceit begotten of these, cause them to trample as upon mud upon Him who is truly gold, the most precious stone, our very Lord Jesus, the Christ.

Oh, the fearful audacity, which makes them mount upon a lofty platform and stand upon it, that each of them may be shown surpassing the many and be conspicuous!

But these things we have set forth, as though upon a monument by our discourse, against those who undertake to know and say everything and who suppose themselves to be something while being nothing—showing what manner of men Christians are, and of what sort—that comparing themselves to the archetype, they may know how far they fall short of the Christians who are in truth.

But to you, the servants of Christ, who long to learn and have made ready your ears, the very Master of all cries out through His holy Gospels, saying:

'While you have the light, run to the light, that darkness may not overtake you.'

Run through repentance in the way of His commandments; run, run while the season of His shining lasts, before the night of death overtakes you and you are consigned to eternal darkness.

Run, seek, knock, that the gate of the kingdom of heaven may be opened to you, and that you may come to be within it and possess it within yourselves.

For those who depart from this life before acquiring it—where, having gone thither, shall they ever find it?