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according to Saint Macarius, the saints receive. And he calls this same thing both the glory of Christ and considers it beyond sense, even if it appeared according to sense, putting forward that apostolic word with a small addition: “‘But we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord,’” that is, His noetic light, “‘are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory,’ that is, by the abundance of the splendor within us, which proceeds under the divine light to what is ever more radiant.” For what does Saint Diadochos also say? “We must not doubt that, when the intellect begins to be frequently energized by the divine light, it becomes entirely transparent, so that it sees its own light richly; for this happens wholly when the power of the soul has mastered the passions.” And what again of the divine Maximus? “The human intellect would not have had such strength to ascend as to partake of the divine illumination, unless God Himself had drawn it up and enlightened it with the divine rays.” And what again, with Basil the Great, does Nilus, the renowned pillar of truth, say? “Basil the Cappadocian,” he says, “strengthens human knowledge by study and practice, but that which is engendered by the grace of God, by righteousness and mercy; and the former, even the passionate can receive, but of the latter only the dispassionate are receptive, who also during the time of prayer behold the proper radiance of their intellect shining around them.” Do you understand clearly, brother, that an intellect delivered from the passions sees itself as light during prayer and is illumined by divine light? Now therefore, holding an obedient ear, listen again also (p. 166) to the aptly-named Macarius, whom Nilus, so great in divine matters, called a chosen vessel, who says in the Chapters translated by the Metaphrast: “The perfect illumination of the spirit is not merely a revelation of thoughts, but a sure and perpetual illumination of hypostatic light in souls; for, ‘He who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts,’ and, ‘Enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep in death,’ and, ‘Send out Your light and Your truth, they shall lead me to Your holy mountain,’ and, ‘The light of Your countenance has been signed upon us,’ and all such similar things, represent the same.” But he said “hypostatic” in order to stop the mouths of those who think that illumination is only knowledge and who subvert the thought of the many, and above all their own, being misled into taking everything someone might say about that light as referring to knowledge. But I also know knowledge to be called light derivatively from that, as being granted by it, which I also said above.

Therefore no one has ever called the information that comes from the senses, though it is at times knowledge and most certain, light, but only that which is from the intellect and is rational. For we see nothing having the power of reason which is not a noetic light. For the angels are a kind of immaterial and incorporeal fire; what else is this but noetic light? And the intellect itself, seeing itself, sees as light; what then is this, if it does not see itself as noetic light? And God Himself, who is beyond all noetic light and has super-essentially transcended all being, called fire by the sacred theologians, has, in accordance with the faint image of fire among sensible things, that which is hidden and unseen in itself, when there is no matter (p. 168) present to receive the divine manifestation; but whenever He takes hold of suitable matter that is unveiled, and such is every purified noetic nature that does not bear the covering of wickedness, then He Himself is also seen as a noetic light, as we have shown and will show through the saints themselves who both experienced and saw the splendor of God.

And just as fire, if covered by non-transparent matter, is able to heat it, but not to illumine it, so too the intellect, when it has the dark covering of evil passions lying upon it, might be able to provide knowledge, but not light.

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κατά τόν ἅγιον Μακάριον, δέχονται οἱ ἅγιοι. Τό αὐτό δ᾿ οὗτος καί δόξαν τοῦ Χριστοῦ καλεῖ καί ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν ἡγεῖται, εἰ καί κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἐφάνη, τό ἀποστολικόν ἐκεῖνο προβαλλόμενος μετά μικρᾶς προσθήκης˙ «"ἡμεῖς δέ πάντες ἀνακεκαλυμμένῳ προσώπῳ τήν δόξαν Κυρίου"», τουτέστι τό νοερόν φῶς αὐτοῦ, " κατοπριζόμεθα τήν αὐτήν εἰκόνα μεταμορφούμενοι ἀπό δόξης εἰς δόξαν", τῇ περιουσίᾳ δηλαδή τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν λαμπρότητος, ὑπό τοῦ θεϊκοῦ φωτός προϊούσης ἐπί τό τηλαυγέστερον ἀεί». Τί γάρ καί ὁ ἅγιος ∆ιάδοχος λέγει; «Οὐ δεῖ ἀμφιβάλλειν ὡς, ὅταν ὁ νοῦς ἄρξηται πυκνῶς ὑπό τοῦ θείου φωτός ἐνεργεῖσθαι, διαφανής τις ὅλος γίνεται, ὥστε τό ἑαυτοῦ φῶς αὐτόν πλουσίως ὁρᾶν˙ τοῦτο γάρ ὅλως γίνεται, ὅταν ἡ δύναμις τῆς ψυχῆς κατακυριεύσῃ τῶν παθῶν». Τί δ᾿ αὖθις ὁ θεῖος Μάξιμος; «Οὐκ ἄν τοσοῦτον ἴσχυσεν ἀναδραμεῖν ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς ὡς ἀντιλαβέσθαι θείας ἐλλάμψεως, εἰ μή αὐτός ὁ Θεός ἀνέσπασεν αὐτόν καί ταῖς θείαις αὐγαῖς κατεφώτισε». Τί δ᾿ αὖθις σύν τῷ μεγάλῳ Βασιλείῳ Νεῖλος ὁ περιβόητος τῆς ἀληθείας φησίν ὁ στῦλος; «Ὁ καππαδόκης Βασίλειος, φησί, τήν μέν ἀνθρωπίνην γνῶσιν μελέτη καί γυμνασία κρατύνει, τήν δέ ἐκ Θεοῦ χάριτος ἐγγινομένην, δικαιοσύνη καί ἔλεος˙ καί τήν μέν προτέραν δυνατόν καί τούς ἐμπαθεῖς ὑποδέξασθαι, τῆς δέ δευτέρας οἱ ἀπαθεῖς μόνοι εἰσί δεκτικοί, οἵ καί παρά τόν καιρόν τῆς προσευχῆς τό οἰκεῖον φέγγος τοῦ νοῦ περιλάμπον αὐτούς θεωροῦσι». Συνῆκας, ἀδελφέ, σαφῶς ὅτι νοῦς παθῶν ἀπαλλαγείς ὡς φῶς αὐτός ἑαυτόν κατά τήν προσευχήν ὁρᾷ καί θείῳ περιλάμπεται φωτί; Νῦν οὖν πειθήνιον ὑπέχων οὗς αὖθις ἄκουε καί (σελ. 166) τοῦ φερωνύμως Μακαρίου, ὅν σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς ὁ πολύς τά θεῖα Νεῖλος προσηγόρευσεν, ὅς φησιν ἐν τοῖς ὑπό τοῦ Μεταφραστοῦ μεταφρασθεῖσι Κεφαλαίοις˙ «ἡ τελεία τοῦ πνεύματος ἔλλαμψις οὐχ οἷον νοημάτων μόνον ἀποκάλυψίς ἐστιν, ἀλλ᾿ ὑποστατικοῦ φωτός ἐν ταῖς ψυχαῖς βεβαία καί διηνεκής ἔλλαμψις˙ τό γάρ, "ὁ εἰπών ἐκ σκότους φῶς λάμψαι, ὅς ἔλαμψεν ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν", καί τό, " φώτισον τούς ὀφθαλμούς μου μήποτε ὑπνώσω εἰς θάνατον", καί τό, "ἐξαπόστειλον τό φῶς σου καί τήν ἀλήθειάν σου, αὐτά με ὁδηγήσουσιν εἰς ὄρος ἅγιόν σου", καί τό ἐσημειώθη ἐφ᾿ ἡμᾶς τό φῶς τοῦ προσώπου σου", καί πάνθ᾿ ὅσα τούτοις παραπλήσια, τό αὐτό παρίστησιν». Ὑποστατικόν δέ εἶπεν, ἵν᾿ ἐμφράξῃ τά στόματα τῶν τήν γνῶσιν μόνον οἰομένων φωτισμόν καί περιτρεπόντων τήν τῶν πολλῶν διάνοιαν, καί πρό τῶν ἄλλων τήν οἰκείαν, τῷ μεταλαμβάνειν εἰς τήν γνῶσιν παρεξηγουμένους πᾶν ὅ,τιπερ ἄν εἴποι τις περί ἐκείνου τοῦ φωτός. Ἐγώ δέ καί τήν γνῶσιν παρωνύμως ἀπ᾿ ἐκείνου λεγομένην οἶδα φῶς, ὡς ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ χορηγουμένην, ὅ καί ἀνωτέρω εἶπον.

∆ιόπερ οὐδέ τήν ἀπό τῶν αἰσθήσεων προσγινομένην εἴδησιν, καίτοι γνῶσιν οὖσαν ἔστιν ὅπου καί ἀσφαλεστάτην, φῶς πώποτέ τις προσηγόρευσεν, ἀλλά μόνην τήν ἀπό τοῦ νοῦ καί λογικήν. Οὐδέν γάρ ὁρῶμεν λόγου δύναμιν ἔχον, ὅ μή νοερόν ἐστι φῶς. Οἵ τε γάρ ἄγγελοι, πῦρ οἷον ἄυλον καί ἀσώματον˙ τί δ᾿ ἄλλο τοῦτό ἐστιν ἤ φῶς νοερόν; Ὅ τε νοῦς αὐτός ἑαυτόν ὁρῶν, ὡς φῶς ὁρᾷ˙ τί τοίνυν καί οὗτος, εἰ μή νοερόν ἑαυτόν βλέπει φῶς; Καί αὐτός δέ ὁ παντός νοεροῦ φωτός ἐπέκεινα Θεός καί πάσης οὐσίας ὑπερουσίως ἐκβεβηκώς, πῦρ παρά τῶν ἱερῶν θεολόγων ὠνομασμένος, ἔχει μέν, ὡς κατά τήν τοῦ πυρός ἀμυδράν ἐν αἰσθητοῖς εἰκόνα, τό κρύφιόν τε καί ἀθεώρητον καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν, μή προκειμένης ὕλης (σελ. 168) τῆς χωρούσης τήν θείαν ἐμφάνειαν˙ ἡνίκα δ᾿ ἄν ἐπιτηδείας ὕλης ἀπερικαλύπτως ἐχούσης ἐπιλάβηται, τοιαύτη δέ ἐστι πᾶσα νοερά κεκαθαρμένη φύσις, τό τῆς κακίας οὐκ ἐπιφερομένη κάλυμμα, τηνικαῦτα καί αὐτός ὡς φῶς ὁρᾶται νοερόν, ὡς δι᾿ αὐτῶν τῶν καί παθόντων καί ἰδόντων λαμπρότητα Θεοῦ ἐδείξαμέν τε καί δείξομεν ἁγίων.

Ὥσπερ δέ τό πῦρ, ἄν ἐπικαλυφθῇ δι᾿ ὕλης οὐ διαφανοῦς, θερμαίνειν μέν αὐτήν δύναται, φωτίζει δέ οὐχί, οὕτω καί ὁ νοῦς, ὅταν ἐπικείμενον ἔχῃ τό ζοφῶδες κάλυμμα τῶν πονηρῶν παθῶν, γνῶσιν μέν παρέχειν δύναιτ᾿ ἄν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχί καί φῶς.