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| Saint Isaac the Syrian. |
If a soul confined in the
realm of the passions could truly love God, she would have much need to ask
questions and to learn the mysteries of the spiritual world. But it is clear
that learning and knowledge bring no profit amid the passions, nor do they
suffice to open the door closed in the face of purity. But if the passions
are removed from the soul, the intellect is illumined, stands firmly in the
pure region of its nature, and has no need of questioning, since it distinctly beholds
the good things treasured in this region. Our outward senses do not perceive
by learning and questioning the natures and the things that are kindred to
them, but each sense naturally, and not by questioning, perceives what confronts
it. Indeed, instruction does not mediate between the senses and things
perceived. However, much one may tell a blind man about the glorious light of
the sun, the moon, and the choir of the stars, and of the lustre of precious
stones. He can grasp, judge, and conceive of their beauty only by their
appellation, yet his knowledge and his discerning faculty remain divorced from
the sweetness of their sight. In the same manner I conceive of the divine
vision of the spirit. For if the intellect, which beholds hidden spiritual mysteries,
is in its natural state of health, it distinctly beholds the glory of Christ.
It does not question or receive instruction, but more than in the freedom of
the will it delights in the sweetness of the mysteries of the new world
according to the fervour of its faith and hope in Christ. Even so the blessed
Paul wrote "That which we see, why do we yet hope for? With patience we
wait for it".
We ought, therefore, earnestly
to wait and persevere in a solitary manner with simplicity with regard to our
inner man, wherein there are no impressions of thoughts or sight of complex
objects. For in relation to what the intellect sees, it receives patterns.
When it looks toward the
world, the intellect receives impressions and representations according to the
diversity of the forms which it ponders. These stir up thoughts in the intellect
in proportion to their multiplicity and the diversity of their variations. And
when the thoughts are set in motion, they place their seal upon the intellect.
But if the intellect looks steadfastly into the inner man, where there is
nothing which could give rise to changing forms and no distinction of complex
objects differing from one another by their shapes, but Christ is all in all,
it is clear that the intellect will enjoy simple divine vision. There is
nothing which so makes the soul's depths fragrant and is wont to give her such
boldness in the hour of prayer as this, for simple theoria is the nourishment
of the soul. When the soul stands firmly in the realm of the knowledge of the
truth, she has no need of questioning. For just as the eye of the body does not
question when it sees the sun, so the eye of the soul does not first
investigate and afterward behold spiritual knowledge. It is in this manner
also, O holy man that the mystical divine vision for which you yearn is
revealed in the intellect after the soul has returned to health. But
intellectual vision, which endeavours to learn such mysteries through
investigation and inquiry, is [nothing but] folly of soul. The blessed Paul did
not say that by instruction or in a material place he saw and heard mysteries
and "unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter, but in
rapture he was caught up into the spiritual realm and beheld the revelation of
mysteries."
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| "labour in the vineyard of your heart" |
Therefore, O holy man if you
love purity, by love cut yourself off from all love that is poured out toward
all things, and having entered, labour in the vineyard of your heart, pluck out
the passions from your soul, and strive to be ignorant of human wickedness. Purity
which sees God does not arise and blossom forth in the soul by searching for
it, but by being ignorant of every man's wickedness. But if you wish your
heart to be a dwelling place of the mysteries of the new world, first become
rich in the works of the spirit, soul, and body; fasting, vigil, liturgy,
ascetical struggle, patience, purging of thoughts, and so forth. Fetter your
intellect by reading the Scriptures and pondering upon them, inscribe the
commandments before your eyes, and pay the debt of the passions when you are defeated
and when you are victorious? By the constant converse of prayer and supplication
and by your rumination therein, uproot from your heart every image and every
likeness which you have received afore time. Accustom your intellect always to
muse upon the mysteries of our Saviour's Economy; leave off your search for
knowledge and divine vision, which, in their time and place, exceed all verbal
description; pursue the practice of the commandments and labours on behalf of
purity; and beg the Lord in heartfelt prayer that the very same fire which He
set into the hearts of the Apostles, the Martyrs, and the knowledge cannot
comprehend are received by us through faith, and we gain knowledge of them in
that divine vision which we enjoy after purification.
For the sake of the mysteries
of the Spirit, which are above knowledge and cannot be apprehended by the
senses of the body or by the reasoning power of the intellect, God has given us
faith, whereby we know only that these mysteries exist. But this faith gives
birth in us to hope for them. By faith we profess that God is the Lord, Master,
Creator, and Fashioner of all things. By knowledge we determine that we must
keep His commandments and understand that fear keeps the old commandments, but
love keeps the life-giving commandments of Christ, as He Himself said, "I
have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." It is evident
that the Son does not keep the commandments of His Father from fear, but from
love. For this reason He admonishes us that we should also keep His commandments
out of love when He says: "If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will
entreat the Father and He shall give another Comforter". By the coming of
the Comforter He indicates the gifts of the revelation of the mysteries of the
Spirit, since it was by the reception of the Spirit that the apostles received
the perfection of spiritual knowledge. The Lord promised to ask His Father to
give the Comforter to them, to abide with them unto the ages, after the doing
of the commandments and purification. Do you see that by the keeping of the
commandments the intellect is accounted worthy of the gift of mystical divine
vision and the revelations of spiritual knowledge? Indeed, it is not as your
wisdom supposed, namely, that the work of keeping the commandments is a
hindrance to the divine vision of the divine mysteries which are accomplished
in stillness.
Therefore I entreat you, if
you perceive in your soul that you have reached the realm of love, keep the new
commandments of love for Him Who decreed them, and not from fear, even as the
blessed Paul said when he was aflame with divine love: "Who shall separate
me from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or prison, or persecution...”
Furthermore he adds, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to
come shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Jesus
Christ our Lord."Amen.
Reference:
The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the
Syrian. Holy Transfiguration Monastery. (1984)