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having become, and others also clear to those who see from outside, the gentle character, the sweet tear, the encounter full of graces for those who approach, according to the one who said in the Song of Songs, (p. 220) "Honeycombs drip from your mouth, O bride." For not only the soul receives the pledge of the good things to come, but also the body which completes with it the course of the gospel toward these things. But he who does not say this, will both then in the age to come partake of those ineffable good things, and will now surely partake, in a manner appropriate to himself, of the grace given by God to the intellect. For these reasons, then, we say that these things are apprehended by sensation, but we add "intellectually," both because these things are beyond natural sensation, and because the intellect is primarily receptive of them, and because of the elevation of our intellect toward the first intellect; partaking divinely of this as is possible, both our intellect itself and through it the conjoined body are transformed toward what is more divine, showing from this and prefiguring the swallowing up of the flesh by the Spirit in the age to come. For not the eyes of the body, but those of the soul receive the power of the spirit which sees these things; for these reasons we call it intellectual, although it is beyond intellect.

In addition to these things, in order that we might also restrain the minds of our hearers from supposing these spiritual and ineffable energies to be material and corporeal—which is precisely what these men have recently suffered, who, with profane and contrary ears and with a mind that does not know how to believe and to follow the patristic words, having impiously interpreted the things of the holy ones, have both trampled on these things and torn apart those who have shown these things to them, not being persuaded by the great Macarius, and perhaps not even having heard him say: "Spiritual things are untouchable to the inexperienced; but to a holy and faithful soul the communion of the Holy Spirit comes for apprehension, and the heavenly treasures of the Spirit become manifest only to him who has received them through experience, (p. 222) but to the uninitiated it is not possible to conceive of them at all." Therefore, listen reverently concerning them, until it might be that you too, as a believer, are deemed worthy to attain these things; for then you will know by the very experience of the eyes of the soul what good things and mysteries the souls of Christians are able to partake of even here. But when you hear of "eyes of the soul" knowing the heavenly treasures by experience itself, do not think it is the discursive mind. For this makes both sensible and intelligible things equally objects of thought through itself. Just as with a city which you have not yet seen, if you think about it, you have not come to have experience of it by thinking about it, so also concerning God and divine things, you do not come to have experience of them by thinking about them and theologizing. And just as with gold, if you do not acquire it sensibly and hold it sensibly in your hands and see it sensibly, even if you should form the thought of gold in your mind ten thousand times, you in no way possess or see or have acquired gold, so also even if you should think ten thousand times about the divine treasures, but you do not experience the divine things, nor see with the intellectual eyes that are beyond the discursive mind, you neither see, nor have, nor have truly acquired any of the divine things. And I said "intellectual eyes," since in them arises the power of the Spirit, through which these things are seen, since that all-holy spectacle of the most divine and super-luminous light is also beyond the intellectual eyes.

For this reason also the Lord summoned not all, but the chosen ones, to that spiritual vision that came to be on Tabor, ineffable and invisible to the power of sensation. For even if Dionysius the Great from the Areopagus says that in the age to come we are illumined "by the visible theophany of Christ," "as the disciples in the transfiguration," and "partake of the intelligible giving of light in an impassible and immaterial intellect, and of the union beyond intellect in a more divine imitation of the super-celestial intellects," yet not even so shall we suppose (p. 224) the radiance flashing from that adorable body to be so sensible as to be perceptible to sense organs that are not apprehending by the power of the rational soul, which is the only power that is receptive

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γεγονότες, οἱ δέ καί τοῖς ἔξωθεν ὁρῶσι δῆλοι, τό προσηνές ἦθος, τό γλυκύ δάκρυον, ἡ χαρίτων γέμουσα τοῖς προσιοῦσιν ἔντευξις, κατά τόν ἐν Ἆσμασιν εἰπόντα, (σελ. 220) «κηρία μέλιτος ἀπό στόματός σου στάζουσι, νύμφη». Λαμβάνει γάρ οὐχ ἡ ψυχή μόνον τόν ἀρραβῶνα τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν, ἀλλά καί τό σῶμα τό συνδιανύον τόν πρός ταῦτα τοῦ εὐαγγελίου δρόμον. Ὁ δέ μή τοῦτο λέγων, καί τήν ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι αἰῶνι συμμεθέξει τότε τῶν ἀπορρήτων ἐκείνων ἀγαθῶν, καί νῦν δήπου συμμεθέξει καταλλήλως ἑαυτῷ τῆς ἐνδιδομένης πρός Θεοῦ χάριτος τῷ νῷ. ∆ιά ταῦτα γοῦν αἰσθήσει καταλαμβάνεσθαι φαμέν αὐτά, προστίθεμεν δέ «τό νοερᾷ» διά τε τό ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν εἶναι ταῦτα φυσικήν καί διά τό πρώτως τόν νοῦν εἶναι τούτων δεκτικόν καί διά τήν πρός τόν πρῶτον νοῦν ἀνάτασιν τοῦ ἡμετέρου νοῦ, οὐ κατά τό ἐγχωροῦν μεταλαγχάνων θείως, αὐτός τε καί δι᾿ αὐτοῦ τό συνημμένον σῶμα πρός τό θειότερον μετασκευάζεται, δεικνύς ἐντεῦθεν καί προοιμιαζόμενος τήν ὑπό τοῦ πνεύματος ἐπί τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος τῆς σαρκός κατάποσιν. Οὐ γάρ οἱ ὀφθαλμοί τοῦ σώματος, ἀλλ᾿ οἱ τῆς ψυχῆς τήν ὁρῶσαν ταῦτα δύναμιν τοῦ πνεύματος λαμβάνουσι˙ διά ταῦτα νοεράν αὐτήν καλοῦμεν, ὑπέρ νοεράν οὖσαν.

Πρός δέ τούτοις, ὡς ἄν καί τῶν ἀκουόντων τήν διάνοιαν ἀπείρξωμεν τοῦ μή προσύλους καί σωματικάς οἴεσθαι τάς πνευματικάς καί ἀπορρήτους ἐνεργείας ταύτας, ὅπερ καί οὗτοι πεπόνθασιν ἀρτίως, οἵ βεβήλοις καί ἀντέροις ἀκοαῖς καί διανοίᾳ πιστεύειν οὐκ εἰδυίᾳ καί στοιχεῖν ταῖς πατερικαῖς φωναῖς ἀνοσίως τά τῶν ὁσίων ἐκλαβόμενοι, κατεπάτησάν τε ταῦτα καί τούς ταῦτα τούτοις προδείξαντας διέρρηξαν, οὐ πειθόμενοι τῷ μεγάλῳ Μακαρίῳ, ἴσως δέ μηδέ πυθόμενοι αὐτοῦ λέγοντος˙ «ἄψαυστά ἐστι τοῖς ἀπείροις τά πνευματικά˙ ψυχῇ δέ ἁγίᾳ καί πιστῇ πρός κατάληψιν ἔρχεται ἡ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος κοινωνία, καί οἱ ἐπουράνιοι τοῦ Πνεύματος θησαυροί τῷ πείρᾳ παραλαβόντι μόνῳ γίνονται καταφανεῖς, (σελ. 222) ἀμυήτῳ δέ οὐδέ ἐννοῆσαι δυνατόν τό παράπαν». Εὐλαβῶς τοίνυν περί αὐτῶν˙ ἄκουε, μέχρις ἄν καί σοί γένοιτο πιστεύοντι καταξιωθῆναι τούτων τυχεῖν˙ τότε γάρ εἴσῃ αὐτῇ πείρᾳ τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς ὀφθαλμῶν οἵων ἀγαθῶν καί μυστηρίων ψυχαί χριστιανῶν κἀνταῦθα κοινωνεῖν δύνανται. Ὀφαλμούς δέ ψυχῆς ἀκούων αὐτῇ πείρᾳ γινώσκοντας τούς ἐπουρανίους θησαυρούς, μή τήν διάνοιαν νομίσῃς. Αὕτη γάρ καί τά αἰσθητά καί τά νοερά ἐπίσης διανοητά δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς ποιεῖ. Καθάπερ δέ ἥν οὔπω εἶδες πόλιν, εἰ διανοῇ περί αὐτῆς, οὐ τῷ διανοεῖσθαι ταύτην ἐν πείρᾳ γέγονας αὐτῆς, οὕτω καί περί Θεοῦ καί τῶν θείων, οὐ τῷ διανοεῖσθαι ταῦτα καί θεολογεῖν ἐν πείρᾳ τούτων γίνῃ. Καί καθάπερ χρυσόν, εἰ μή αἰσθητῶς κτήσῃ καί αἰσθητῶς ἔχεις ταῖς χεροῖν καί αἰσθητῶς ὁρᾷς, κἄν μυριάκις νόημα χρυσοῦ ἐν διανοίᾳ λάβῃς, ἥκιστα κατέχεις ἤ ὁρᾷς ἤ κέκτησαι χρυσόν, οὕτω κἄν μυριάκις περί τῶν θείων θησαυρῶν διανοήσῃ, μή πάθης δέ τά θεῖα, μηδέ ἴδῃς τοῖς νοεροῖς καί ὑπεράνω τῆς διανοίας ὀφθαλμοῖς, οὔτε ὁρᾷς, οὔτε ἔχεις οὔτε κέκτησαί τι τῶν θείων ἀληθῶς. Νοεροῖς δέ εἶπον ὀφθαλμοῖς, ὡς αὐτοῖς ἐγγινομένης τῆς τοῦ Πνεύματος δυνάμεως, δι᾿ ἧς ὁρᾶται ταῦτα, ἐπεί καί ὑπέρ τούς νοερούς ὀφθαλμούς ἐστι τό πανίερον ἐκεῖνο θέαμα τοῦ θειοτάτου καί ὑπερφαοῦς φωτός.

∆ιό καί ὁ Κύριος οὐ πάντας, ἀλλά τούς ἐκκρίτους πρός τήν ἐν Θαβώρ γεγεννημένην ἄρρητον καί ἀόρατον αἰσθητικῇ δυνάμει πνευματικήν ἐκείνην συνεκάλεσεν ὄψιν. Εἰ γάρ καί ὁ ἐξ Ἀρείου Πάγου ∆ιονύσιος ὁ μέγας ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι αἰῶνι «τῇ μέν ὁρατῇ» φησι «Χριστοῦ θεοφανείᾳ» περιαυγάζεσθαι ἡμᾶς, «ὡς τούς μαθητάς ἐν τῇ μεταμορφώσει, τῆς δέ νοητῆς φωτοδοσίας ἐν ἀπαθεῖ καί ἀΰλῳ τῷ νῷ μετέχειν, καί τῆς ὑπέρ νοῦν ἑνώσεως ἐν θειοτέρᾳ μιμήσει τῶν ὑπερουρανίων νόων», ἀλλ᾿ οὐδ᾿ οὕτως ἡμεῖς οὕτως αἰσθητήν (σελ. 224) ὑποληψόμεθα τήν ἐκ τοῦ προσκυνητοῦ ἐκείνου σώματος ἀπαστράπτουσαν αὐγήν ὡς αἰσθητηρίοις ἀντιληπτήν εἶναι μή δυνάμει λογικῆς ψυχῆς ἀντιλαμβανομένοις, ἥ μόνη δύναμις δεκτική ἐστι