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St Symeon Metaphrastis: Paraphrase of the Homilies of St Makarios of Egypt: IV: The Raising of the Intellect

62. Through the glory of the Spirit that shone from his face in such a way that no one could look at it (cf. Exod. 54:30-31), Moses showed how in the resurrection of the righteous their bodies will be glorified with the glory that their souls already possess inwardly during this present life. For, as St Paul says, 'with unveiled face' - that is to say, inwardly - 'we reflect as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, and are transfigured into the same image from glory to glory' (2 Cor. 3:18). In this connection, too, it is said that Moses did not eat or drink for forty days and forty nights (cf. Exod. 34:28), something that human nature cannot accomplish unless nourished by spiritual food. Such is the food that the souls of the saints already during this present life receive from the Spirit.

63. The glory that in the present life enriches the souls of the saints will cover and enfold their naked bodies at the resurrection and will carry them to heaven. Then with body and soul the saints will rest with God in the kingdom for ever. For God, when He created Adam, did not give him bodily wings, as He gave to the birds: His purpose was to confer the wings of the Spirit on him at the resurrection, so that he might be lifted up by them and carried wherever the Spirit desired. Such spiritual wings are given to the souls of the saints in this present life, so that their understanding may be raised by them to the spiritual realm. For the world of the Christians is a different world, with different garments, different food and a different form of enjoyment. We know that when Christ comes from heaven to resurrect all those who have died during the present age. He will divide them into two groups (cf. Matt. 25:31-33). Those who bear His sign, which is the seal of the Holy Spirit, He will set at His right hand, saying: 'My sheep, when they hear My voice, recognize Me' (cf. John 10:14). Then He will envelop their bodies with the divine glory that, through their good works and the Spirit, their souls have already received in the present life. Thus glorified by the divine light and caught up into the heavens to meet the Lord, they will always be with Him (cf. I Thess. 4:17-18).

64. Those who intend to fulfill the Christian way of life to the best of their ability must first devote all their attention to the rational, discriminative and directing aspect of the soul. Per-fecting in this way their discrimination between good and evil, and defending the purity of their nature against the attacks of the passions that are contrary to nature, they go forward without stumbling, guided by the eye of discrimination and not embroiled with the impulses of evil. For the soul's will is able to preserve the body free from the vitiation of the senses, to keep the soul away from worldly distraction, and to guard the heart from scattering its thoughts into the world, completely walling them in and holding them back from base concerns and pleasures. Whenever the Lord sees someone acting in this manner, perfecting and guarding himself, disposed to serve Him with fear and trembling. He extends to him the assistance of His grace. But what will God do for the person who willingly gives himself up to the world and pursues its pleasures?

65. The five watchful virgins who bore in the vessels of their hearts the oil that was not inherent in their nature - for it is the grace of the Holy Spirit - were able to enter with the bridegroom into the bridal-chamber. But the other foolish and sinful virgins, who remained fixed in their own nature, did not practice watchfulness, nor did they think it important to receive this oil of joyfulness in their hearts, for they still walked according to the flesh. On the contrary, in their negligence, slothfulness and self -righteousness, they were as though asleep, and for this reason they were shut out from the bridal-chamber of the kingdom (cf. Matt. 25: 1-13). It is clear that they were held back by some kind of bond and amity with the world, inasmuch as they could not offer all their love and longing to the celestial bridegroom. For souls aspiring to acquire the sanctifying power of the Spirit that is not intrinsic to human nature direct all their love towards Christ: they walk, pray, think and meditate in Christ, and they turn away from everything else. And if the soul's five senses -understanding, spiritual knowledge, discrimination, patient endurance and compassion - receive the grace and sanctification of the Spirit, they will in truth be wise virgins; but if they are left imprisoned in their own nature then they are indeed foolish virgin-children of the world and subject to the wrath of God.

66. Evil is foreign to our nature; but, given admittance by us through the transgression of the first man, it has with time become as though natural to us. Yet through the celestial gift of the Spirit, that is also foreign to our nature, this nature can once more be completely purged of evil and we can be restored to our original purity. But unless this comes about as the result of great supplication, faith and attentiveness, and by our turning away from the things of the world; and unless our nature, denied as it is by evil, is sanctified by the love that is the Lord, and we continue unfailingly to apply ourselves to His divine commandments, we cannot attain the kingdom of Heaven.

67. I wish to elucidate, so far as I can, a subject that is as subtle as it is profound. The infinite and bodiless Lord, who is beyond being, in His infinite bounty embodies and, so to say, reduces Himself so that He can commingle with the intelligible beings that He has created-with, that is, the souls of saints and of angels - thereby making it possible for them to participate in the immortal life of His own divinity. Now each thing - whether angel, soul or demon - is, in conformity with its own nature, a body. No matter how subtle it may be, each thing possesses a body whose subtlety in substance, form and image corresponds to the subtlety of its own nature. In the case of human beings the soul, which is a subtle body, has enveloped and clothed itself in the members of our visible body, which is gross in substance. It has clothed itself in the eye, through which it sees; in the ear, through which it hears; in the hand, the nose. In short, the soul has clothed itself in the whole visible body and all its members, becoming commingled with them, and through them accomplishing everything it does in this life. In the same way, in His unutterable and inconceivable bounty Christ reduces and embodies Himself, commingling with and embracing the soul that aspires to Him with faith and love and, as St Paul puts it (cf I Cor. 6:17), becoming one spirit with it. His soul united with our soul and His Person with our person. Thus such a soul lives and has its being in His divinity, attaining immortal life and delighting in incorruptible pleasure and inexpressible glory.

68. In a soul of this kind the Lord when He wills is fire, consuming every sinful and alien thing in it, in accordance with the words, 'Our God is a consuming fire' (Deut. 4:24); at other times He is repose, wondrous and indescribable; or else joy and peace, cherishing and embracing it. Only it must aspire to Him with love and devote itself to holy ways of life, and then through direct experience, with its own perception, it will see itself partaking of unutterable blessings that 'the eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard, and man's heart has not grasped' (1 Cor. 2:9). For to the soul that proves itself worthy of Him the Spirit of the Lord is now repose, now intense joy, now delight and life. Just as He embodies Himself in spiritual food, so He embodies Himself in indescribable raiment and beauty, so that He fills the soul with spiritual gladness. As He Himself said: 'I am the bread of life' (John 6:35); and: 'If anyone drinks of the water that I give him ... it will be in him a spring of water welling up for eternal life' (John 4:14).

69. Hence God was seen by each priest and saint as He willed and as was most profitable to the beholder. Thus He was seen in one way by Abraham, in another by Isaac, in another by Jacob, in another by Noah, by Daniel, by Moses, by David and by each of the prophets. He reduced and embodied Himself, giving Himself a different form and appearing to those who loved Him, not as He is in Himself -for He is beyond man's grasp - but according to their capacity and strength; and He did this because of the great, incomprehensible love that He had for them.

70. The soul found worthy to be the dwelling-place of supernal power, and whose members are commingled with that divine fire and with the celestial love of the Holy Spirit, is set free completely from all worldly love. Iron or lead, or gold and silver, melts when put into fire, and its natural solidity is softened, so that it is malleable and pliant so long as it is in the fire. Similarly, once the soul has received the celestial fire of the love of the Spirit, it renounces every attachment to the spirit of this world, breaks free from the bonds of evil, loses the natural obduracy of sin, and regards all worldly things as of no account. So much is this the case that should a soul, conquered by such love, find that certain brothers who are very dear to it impede its dedication to that love, then it will withdraw its affection from them. Nuptial love separates one from the love of father and mother, sister and brother, and any love one may bear them will be slight, since one's whole heart and desire are directed towards one's spouse. If earthly love dissolves all other worldly affection in this way, those wounded by that dispassionate longing will not be held back in the least by the love of anything worldly.

71. Being bountiful and full of love. God awaits with great patience the repentance of every sinner, and He celebrates the return of the sinner with celestial rejoicing; as He Himself says, 'There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents' (cf. Luke 15:7,10). But when someone sees this generosity and patience, and how God awaits repentance and so does not punish sins one by one, he may neglect the commandment and make such generosity an excuse for indifference, adding sin to sin, offence to offence, laziness to laziness. In this way he will reach the furthest limits of sin, and fall into such transgression that he is not able to recover himself. On the contrary, sinking into the lowest depths and finally committing himself to the devil, he destroys himself. That is what happened to the people of Sodom: reaching and even going beyond the furthest limits of sin - for not a single spark of repentance was to be found among them - they were consumed by the fire of divine justice (cf Gen. 19:1- 28). It also happened in the time of Noah: people had surrendered so unrestrainedly to the impulses to evil, piling up such a load of sin on themselves and showing not the least sign of repentance, that the whole earth became corrupt (cf. Gen. 6:5). Similarly, God was bountiful to the Egyptians, although they had sinned greatly and had maltreated His people: He did not hand them over to total destruction, but through gradual chastisement He induced them to repent. Yet when they lapsed and returned enthusiastically to their evil ways and to their original disbelief, finally even pursuing the Lord's people as they departed from Egypt, divine justice destroyed them completely (cf. Exod. 14:23-28). God also showed His habitual forbearance towards the people of Israel, although they too had sinned greatly and had killed His prophets. Yet when they became so committed to evil that they did not respect even the royal dignity of His Son, but laid murderous hands upon Him, they were utterly rejected and cast aside: prophecy, priesthood and service were taken from them and were entrusted to the Gentiles who believed (cf. Matt. 21 :33-43).

72. Let us draw near eagerly to Christ who summons us, surrendering our hearts to Him, and let us not despair of our salvation, deliberately giving ourselves over to evil. For it is a trick of the devil to lead us to despair by reminding us of our past sins. We must realize that if Christ when on earth healed and restored the blind, the paralyzed and the dumb, and raised the dead that were already in a state of decomposition, how much more will He heal blindness of mind, paralysis of soul, and dumbness of the dissolute heart. For He who created the body also created the soul. And if He was so bounteous and merciful to what is mortal and disintegrates, how much more compassionate and healing will He not be to the immortal soul, overpowered by the sickness of evil and ignorance, when it turns to Him and asks Him for help? For it is He who said: 'Will not My heavenly Father vindicate those who call to Him night and day? Yes, I assure you. He will vindicate them swiftly' (cf. Luke 18:7-8); and: 'Ask and it will be given to you, seek; and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you' (Matt. 7:7); and again: 'If he will not give to him out of friendship, yet on account of his persistence he will get up and give him what he needs' (cf. Luke 11:8). Moreover, He came so that sinners should turn back to Him (cf. Matt. 9: 13). Only let us devote ourselves to the Lord, rejecting in so far as we can our evil prepossessions; and He will not overlook us, but will be ready to offer us His help.

73. When a person is so sick and weak that his body cannot accept food and drink, he is reduced to despair and becomes a living image of death, and his friends and relatives mourn over him. Similarly, God and the angels mourn and are full of sorrow for souls incapable of absorbing celestial nourishment. But if you become God's throne and He Himself takes His seat on it; if your whole soul is a spiritual eye, all light; if you nourish yourself on the sustenance of the Spirit and drink living water and the spiritual wine that rejoices the heart (cf. Ps. 104: 15); if you clothe your soul in ineffable light - if inwardly you attain experience and full assurance of all these things, then you will live the truly eternal life, reposing in Christ while still in this present world. If you have not yet attained this state or have not started to acquire it, you should weep bitterly and lament because you still do not as yet possess such riches; and you should constantly be mindful of your poverty and should pray because of it. But even the man who has attained this state should still be aware of his dearth lest, as though sated with divine riches, he becomes negligent. As the Lord says, he who seeks will find and to him who knocks it will be opened (cf. Matt. 7:8).

74. If the oil formed from different spices (cf. Exod. 30:23-25) had such power that those anointed with it attained a royal status (cf. I Sam. 10:1; 16:13), will not those whose intellect and inner being are anointed with the sanctifying oil of gladness (cf. Ps. 45:7), and who have received the pledge of the Holy Spirit, even more surely attain the realm of perfection - that is to say, Christ's kingdom and adoption by Him - and become the King's companions, entering and leaving the Father's presence as they wish? Even if they have not yet entered totally into their inheritance, being still burdened with the weight of the flesh, yet through the pledge of the Spirit they will be fully assured of the things for which they hope, and will not have any doubt that they will reign with Christ and will enjoy the supra-abundant fullness of the Spirit: though still clothed in the flesh, they have had direct experience of that power and that pleasure. For grace, once it has been conferred as a result of the purification of the intellect and the inner being, completely removes the veil in which man was wrapped by Satan after the fall, expelling every defilement and every sordid thought from the soul. Its aim is to cleanse the soul, so enabling it to recover its original nature and to contemplate the glory of the true light with clear, unimpeded eyes. Once this is achieved, man is here and now raised to the eternal world and perceives its beauty and its wonder. Just as the physical eye, as long as it is sound and healthy, gazes confidently at the sun's rays, so such a man, his intellect illumined and purified, always contemplates the never-setting light of the Lord.

75. It is not easy for men to reach this level. It requires much toil, struggle and suffering. In many, although grace is active, evil is still present together with it, lying hidden: the two spirits, that of light and that of darkness, are at work in the same heart. Naturally, you will ask what communion light can have with darkness, or what concord can God's temple have with idols (cf 2 Cor. 6:14,16). I will answer you with the same words: what communion can light have with darkness? Pure and unsullied as it is, in what way is the divine light darkened, obscured or sullied? The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not grasp it' (John I :5). Thus things must not be interpreted in isolation or in a single way. Some repose in God's grace only for as long as they can keep a hold over themselves and can avoid being vanquished by the sinfulness dwelling within them: for a time they can pray diligently and are at rest, but then unclean thoughts become active within them and they are taken captive by sin, which in their case clearly coexists with grace. Those who are superficial, and who have not yet grasped the precise degree to which divine energy is active in them, think they have been delivered once and for all from sin; but those who are intelligent and possess discrimination would not deny that, though God's grace dwells within them, they may also be harassed by shameful and unnatural thoughts.

76. We have often known brethren who have enjoyed such richness of grace that all sinful desire has completely dried up and been extinguished in them for five or six years. Then, just when they thought they had reached a haven and found peace, evil has leapt upon them as though from an ambush so savagely and with such hostility that they have been thrown into confusion and doubt. No one, therefore, who possesses understanding would dare to say that once grace dwells in him he is thereafter free from sin. As we said, both grace and sin may be active in the same intellect, even if the gullible and ignorant, after having had some slight spiritual experience, claim that they have already won the battle. This, in my opinion, is how things are: dark air or mist suddenly rising may obscure the sun's light even when it is shining brightly; in a similar manner those who, although enjoying God's grace, have not yet been completely purified and in their depths are still under the sway of sin, may also be suddenly overcome by darkness. Truly, it needs great discrimination to perceive these things in one's actual experience in a foolproof way.

77. Just as it is impossible for a person without eyes, tongue, ears and feet, to see, talk, hear or walk, so also it is impossible to commune in the divine mysteries, know God's wisdom or be enriched by the Spirit, without God's help and the energy He gives. The Greek sages were trained in the use of words and engaged spiritedly in verbal battles. The servants of God, even if they lack skill in argument, are familiar in every way with divine knowledge and God's grace.

78. I am convinced that not even the apostles, although filled with the Holy Spirit, were therefore completely free from anxiety. In addition to exultation and inexpressible joy they also felt a certain fear, prompted, to be sure, not from the side of evil but by grace itself; for grace was so securely established within them that they could not in fact deviate at all from the right path. And just as a child by throwing a small pebble does no real harm to a wall, or as a feeble arrow can damage a strong breastplate only very slightly, so even if some evil thing assailed them, the attack proved to be utterly ineffectual and vain, since they were well protected by the power of Christ. Yet even though they were perfect they still possessed their free will; contrary to the stupid view expressed by some, the advent of grace does not mean immediate deliverance from anxiety. The Lord asks even from the perfect that the soul's will should serve the Spirit, so that the two come together. 'Do not quench the Spirit', says St Paul (1 Thess. 5:19).

79. To explain things in superficial terms is not difficult or troublesome. For example, it is easy for anyone to say that this loaf is made from wheat; yet to expound stage by stage how bread is made lies within the competence not of everyone but only of those with experience. Similarly, it is easy to speak superficially about dispassion and perfection; but the stages by which they are achieved can be truly understood only by those who have attained them in their actual experience.

80. Those who hold forth about spiritual realities without having tasted and experienced them are like a man traversing an empty and arid plain at high noon on a summer's day: in his great and burning thirst he imagines that there is a cool spring close at hand, full of sweet clear water, and that there is nothing to prevent him from drinking it to his heart's content. Or they are like a man who, without having tasted a drop of honey, tries to explain to others what its sweetness is like. Such indeed are those who try to introduce others to perfection, sanctity and dispassion without having learnt about these things through their own efforts and direct experience. And had God given them even a slight awareness of the things about which they speak, they would at all events see that the truth about them differs greatly from the explanation that they give. Christianity is liable to be misconstrued little by little in this way, and so turned into atheism. But in reality Christianity is like food and drink: the more a man tastes it, the more he longs for it, until his intellect becomes insatiable and uncontrollable. It is as if one were to offer to a thirsty person a sweet drink such that he would want, not simply to slake his thirst, but to go on drinking more and more because of the pleasure it gave him. These things are not to be understood merely in a theoretical way; they must be achieved within the intellect in a mysterious manner through the activity of the Holy Spirit, and only then can they be spoken about.

81. The Gospel commands everyone categorically to do this or not to do that, thus enabling us to become friends of the loving King. 'Do not be angry', it says (cf Matt. 5:22), and, 'Do not lust' (cf Matt. 5:28); and, 'If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other cheek as well' (Matt. 5:39). St Paul, following closely in the steps of these commandments, teaches how the actual work of purification should take place stage by stage, patiently and with long-suffering: first he nourishes the unmstructed with milk (cf I Cor. 3:1-2), next he brings them to maturity (cf Eph. 4:14-15), and then to perfection (cf. Heb. 5:12-14). In this way the Gospel forms as it were a complete woolen garment, while St Paul explains clearly how the wool for this garment is to be carded, woven and made up.

82. There are some who have desisted from outward unchastity, fraud, greed and similar iniquity and who on this account regard themselves as saints, when in fact they are far from being true saints. For evil frequently dwells in the intellects of such people, thriving there and creeping around; and after it has destroyed them it leaves them and goes on its way. The saint is he who is sanctified and totally purified in his inner being. One of the brethren was praying with others when he was seized and taken captive by the divine power, and he saw the heavenly Jerusalem and the resplendent dwelling-places there and the boundless and ineffable light. Then he heard a voice saying that this was the place of repose for the righteous. After this, he became very conceited and full of presumption, and fell deeply into sin and was overcome by many evils. If such a man fell, how can anyone say that because he fasts, lives in voluntary exile, gives away all his property and desists from all outward sins, there is nothing wanting for him to be a saint? For pertection consists not in abstention from outward sins but in the total cleansing of the mind.

83. Understanding these things, enter within yourself by keeping watch over your thoughts, and scrutinize closely your intellect, captive and slave to sin as it is. Then discover, still more deeply within you than this, the serpent that nestles in the inner chambers of your soul and destroys you by attacking the most sensitive aspects of your soul. For truly the heart is an immeasurable abyss. If you have destroyed that serpent, have cleansed yourself of all inner lawlessness, and have expelled sin, you may boast in God of your purity; but if not, you should humble yourself because you are still a sinner and in need, and ask Christ to come to you on account of your secret sins. The whole Old and New Testament speaks of purity, and everyone, whether Jew or Greek, should long for purity even though not all can attain it. Purity of heart can be brought about only by Jesus; for He is authentic and absolute Truth, and without this Trath it is impossible to know the truth or to achieve salvation.