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a punishment for our sins. Therefore, turn us back, Lord, delaying nothing in regard to grace. For "How long?" signifies to hasten the grace, "And be entreated," he says, "for your servants." For not with strangers, he says, but with your own servants will you be reconciled. Then, as if he had already obtained grace and seen that light, by which the darkness of those who wander in this life is illuminated, and from which the day of virtue begins, "We were filled," he says, "in the morning with your mercy, and we rejoiced and were glad, in all our days we were glad." For joy in you has succeeded the time in the humiliation of 5.51 sin, and the years of wickedness have passed away. For thus we understand, "In return for the days you humbled us, the years in which we saw evil." and thus he is confident, naming those enlightened through conversion children of the works of God. For "Look," he says, "upon your servants and upon your works;" he points to the patriarchs around Abraham. For these are truly the works of God. "And guide their sons." For those who do the works of Abraham become children of the patriarchs, being adopted into their kinship through virtue. Then in the final parts he joins the human to God through purity, praying that the brightness of God might also shine upon our life through a pure life; "For let," he says, "the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us," so that all the pursuits of our life may bear salvific fruit and all that we do may look to one end. for this reason, having spoken in the plural, "And the works of our hands establish upon us," he draws the many together into one work and adds, "And the work of our hands establish." For the varied and multifaceted cultivation of virtues becomes one work. And this is the salvation of the one who succeeds. And so, on the fourth step of the psalmic ascent, the prophet, having raised the thought of those ascending with him, and having surpassed all the vanity pursued by the many in this life, by showing the spider-like and unsubstantial deceit of the material life, which proceeds to no good end for those who live in vanity. 5.52

CHAPTER 8

By a consecutive path, as if to some peak, to the highest degree of contemplation through

the fifth part he brings the one who is able to follow to the height, flying through the webs of worldly spider-webs with a firm wing. For those who are flimsy and fleeting, in a weak and feeble flight, like flies licking around the sticky things of life, become entangled and bound as if in nets by the envelopment of such threads; I mean, being enmeshed in luxuries and honors and glories and various desires as if in certain spider-like fabrics, becoming prey and food for that beast who hunts through such things. But if someone, being eagle-like in nature, looking more keenly at the ray of light with the unswerving eye of the soul and straining himself toward the height, should approach such spider-webs, by the mere breeze of his swift wings in the rush of his flight he makes all such things disappear, whatever he might approach, by the force of his wings. Therefore, the lofty prophet, having lifted such a person up with himself, leads him to the summit of the fifth ascent, in which there is, as it were, a certain entire completion and recapitulation of human salvation, for in what came before this, having philosophized much through the voice of Moses about the mutable and the immutable, how the one always is what it is, while the other is always becoming what it is not (for this is change, the transition from that in which it is to that in which it is not) and having shown that by the same power 5.53 of free will nature flows toward evil, and again through conversion is led back to the good, as

12

ἁμαρτήμασιν ἡμῶν τιμωρία. οὐκοῦν ἐπίστρεψον ἡμᾶς, κύριε, μηδὲν πρὸς τὴν χάριν ἀναβαλλόμενος. τὸ γὰρ Ἕως πότε σημαίνει τὸ ἐπισπεῦσαι τὴν χάριν, Καὶ παρακλήθητι, φησίν, ἐπὶ τοῖς δούλοις σου. οὐ γὰρ ἀλλοτρίοις, φησίν, ἀλλ' ἰδίοις καταλλαγήσῃ δούλοις. εἶτα ὡς τυχὼν ἤδη τῆς χάριτος καὶ ἰδὼν ἐκεῖνο τὸ φῶς, δι' οὗ τὸ σκότος τῶν ἐν τῷ βίῳ πλανωμένων καταφωτίζεται, καὶ ὅθεν τε ἡ κατ' ἀρετὴν ἡμέρα ἄρχεται, Ἐνεπλήσθημεν, φησίν, τὸ πρωῒ τοῦ ἐλέους σου, καὶ ἠγαλλιασάμεθα καὶ εὐφράνθημεν, ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἡμέραις ἡμῶν εὐφράνθημεν. διεδέξατο γὰρ ἡ ἐν σοὶ χαρὰ τὸν ἐν τῇ ταπεινώσει τῆς 5.51 ἁμαρτίας χρόνον, καὶ παρῆλθε τὰ τῆς κακίας ἔτη. οὕτω γὰρ νοοῦμεν τὸ Ἀνθ' ὧν ἡμερῶν ἐταπείνωσας ἡμᾶς, ἐτῶν ὧν εἴδομεν κακά. καὶ οὕτω θαρσεῖ, τέκνα τῶν ἔργων τοῦ θεοῦ τοὺς δι' ἐπιστροφῆς πεφωτισμένους κατονομάζων. Ἴδε γάρ, φησίν, ἐπὶ τοὺς δούλους σου καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ ἔργα σου· τοὺς περὶ τὸν Ἀβραὰμ πατριάρχας ἐνδείκνυται. οὗτοι γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς θεοῦ ἔργα εἰσί. Καὶ ὁδήγησον τοὺς υἱοὺς αὐτῶν. οἱ γὰρ τὰ ἔργα ποιοῦντες τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ τέκνα γίνονται τῶν πατριαρχῶν, δι' ἀρετῆς πρὸς τὴν συγγένειαν αὐτῶν εἰσποιούμενοι. εἶτα ἐν τοῖς τελευταίοις συνάπτει διὰ καθαρότητος τῷ θεῷ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον, ἐπευχόμενος τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν λαμπρότητα καὶ τῷ ἡμετέρῳ βίῳ διὰ καθαρᾶς ζωῆς ἐπαστράπτειν· Ἔστω γάρ, φησίν, ἡ λαμπρότης κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν ἐφ' ἡμᾶς, ὡς πάντα τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα τῆς ζωῆς ἡμῶν καρπὸν φέρειν σωτήριον καὶ πάντα ἃ πράττομεν πρὸς ἕνα σκοπὸν βλέπειν. διὰ τοῦτο πληθυντικῶς εἰπὼν ὅτι Καὶ τὰ ἔργα τῶν χειρῶν ἡμῶν κατεύθυνον ἐφ' ἡμᾶς, εἰς ἓν ἔργον τὰ πολλὰ συστείλας ἐπάγει, ὅτι Καὶ τὸ ἔργον τῶν χειρῶν ἡμῶν κατεύθυνον. ἡ γὰρ ποικίλη τε καὶ πολυειδὴς τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐπιμέλεια ἓν ἔργον γίνεται. τοῦτο δέ ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ κατορθοῦντος σωτηρία. Οὕτω δὲ τετάρτῳ βαθμῷ τῆς ψαλμικῆς ἀναβάσεως ἐπάρας ὁ προφήτης τῶν συνανιόντων αὐτῷ τὴν διάνοιαν, καὶ ὑπερθεὶς πάσης τῆς κατὰ τὸν βίον τοῦτον σπουδαζομένης τοῖς πολλοῖς ματαιότητος, ἐν τῷ δεῖξαι τὴν ἀραχνώδη τε καὶ ἀνυπόστατον τοῦ ὑλικοῦ βίου ἀπάτην εἰς οὐδὲν πέρας ἀγαθὸν προϊοῦσαν τοῖς ματαιάζουσι. 5.52

ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ Ηʹ

∆ι' ἀκολούθου καθάπερ τινὶ κορυφῇ τῷ ὑψηλοτάτῳ τῆς θεωρίας βαθμῷ διὰ

τοῦ πέμπτου μέρους προσάγει τὸν ἀκολουθῆσαι πρὸς τὸ ὕψος δυνάμενον, διαπτάντα τὰς τῶν βιωτικῶν ἀραχνίων διαπλοκὰς στερρῷ τῷ πτερῷ. οἱ γὰρ χνοώδεις τε καὶ ἐξίτηλοι ἐν ἀσθενεῖ καὶ ἀτόνῳ τῇ πτήσει μυιῶν δίκην τὰ γλίσχρα τοῦ βίου περιλιχνεύοντες ἐμπλέκονται καὶ ἐνδεσμοῦνται καθάπερ τισὶ δικτύοις τῇ τῶν τοιούτων νημάτων περιβολῇ· λέγω δὴ τρυφαῖς καὶ τιμαῖς καὶ δόξαις καὶ ταῖς ποικίλαις ἐπιθυμίαις οἷόν τισιν ἀραχνίοις ὑφάσμασιν ἐνειλούμενοι, θήραμα καὶ βρῶμα γινό μενοι τοῦ θηρίου ἐκείνου τοῦ διὰ τῶν τοιούτων θηρεύοντος. εἰ δέ τις ἀετώδης τὴν φύσιν ὢν ὀξυτέρως πρὸς τὴν ἀκτῖνα τοῦ φωτὸς βλέπων ἀτρέπτῳ τῷ τῆς ψυχῆς ὀφθαλμῷ καὶ πρὸς τὸ ὕψος ἑαυτὸν συντείνων τοῖς τοιούτοις ἐμπελάσειεν ἀραχνίοις, μόνῃ τῇ αὔρᾳ τῶν ὠκυπτέρων ἐν τῷ ῥοίζῳ τῆς πτήσεως ἐξαφανίζει πᾶν τὸ τοιοῦτον, ὅτι περ ἂν πλησιάσῃ, τῇ τῶν πτερύγων ὁρμῇ. τὸν οὖν τοιοῦτον ἑαυτῷ συνεπάρας ὁ ὑψηλὸς προφήτης ἐπὶ τὴν ἀκρώρειαν τῆς πέμπτης ἀναβά σεως ἄγει, ἐν ᾗ πᾶσα οἷόν τις συμπλήρωσίς τε καὶ ἀνακεφα λαίωσις τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης σωτηρίας ἐστίν, ἐν γὰρ τῷ πρὸ τούτων διὰ τῆς τοῦ Μωυσέως φωνῆς πολλὰ περὶ τοῦ τρεπτοῦ τε καὶ ἀτρέπτου φιλοσοφήσας, ὡς τοῦ μὲν ἀεὶ ὄντος ὅπερ ἐστίν, τοῦ δὲ πάντοτε γινομένου ὅπερ οὐκ ἔστιν (τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν ἡ τροπή, ἡ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐν ᾧ ἐστιν εἰς τὸ ἐν ᾧ οὐκ ἔστι μετάβασις) καὶ δείξας ὅτι τῇ αὐτῇ δυνάμει 5.53 κατ' ἐξουσίαν ἡ φύσις πρός τε τὸ κακὸν ἀπορρέει, καὶ πάλιν δι' ἐπιστροφῆς πρὸς τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἐπανάγεται, ὡς