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The Lord's transfiguration on Tabor was a visible theophany of God, and the apostles were deemed worthy to perceive this with the eyes of the body, why then should not those who are pure in heart now receive with the eyes of the soul the prelude and pledge of His noetic theophany? Since the Son of God—oh, the ineffable love for mankind!—not only united His own divine hypostasis to our nature, and taking an ensouled body and (p. 230) an intelligent soul, "was seen on earth and conversed with men," but—oh, a wonder leaving no room for hyperbole!—He is also united to human hypostases themselves, commingling Himself with each of the faithful through the communion of His holy body, and becomes one body with us and makes us a temple of the whole divinity (for indeed in the body of Christ itself "dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily") how will He not, by shining around the souls of those who worthily partake with the divine radiance of His body which is in us, illumine them, just as He illumined even the bodies of the disciples on Tabor? For at that time, that body which possesses the source of the light of grace, not yet being mingled with our bodies, illumined from without those worthy who drew near, and sent the illumination to the soul through the eyes of sense; but now, being commingled with us and existing in us, it fittingly illuminates the soul from within.

And what of it? Shall we not see the invisible one face to face in the age to come, as it is written? Therefore, even now, receiving the pledge and prelude of this, those who are pure in heart see His intellectual and, to sense, invisible formation occurring within them. For the intellect, being an immaterial nature and a light akin, if one may say so, to the first and highest and participable by all and absolute light of the universe, and through its total elevation towards the true light, by means of immaterial, unceasing, and purified prayer, having ascended without turning back to God Himself and having thus been transformed already to angelic dignity, being illumined in an angelic manner by that first light itself, it appears by participation to be that which the archetype is by cause, and through itself it reveals the beauty of that hidden loveliness and its most manifest and unapproachable radiance, which the divine psalmist David, (p. 232) perceiving intellectually in himself, rejoicing, taught the faithful this great and ineffable reality, saying: "The brightness of our God be upon us." For who, not having experienced and seen the brightness of God in himself, but instead seeking it through divisions and syllogisms and analyses, and not believing the fathers with simplicity of heart, would ever endure to accept by hearing that any man could possess the brightness of God? Well, therefore, did John through the Apocalypse reveal to us that what is on the white stone, which he who conquers receives from God, no one can know except he who receives it, for not only can he who has not possessed it not know it, but if he does not lend a faithful ear to those who have been so blessed, he does not even think it exists at all, considering the truly existing contemplation to be blindness, not as something beyond sense and knowledge, like a sacred darkness, but as being in no way and nowhere existent. But if, in addition to his inexperience and disbelief, he be skilled in doing evil, full of a meddlesome spirit, utterly audacious and a despiser of the most venerable things, he not only condemns it to non-existence, but even mistakes the divine brightness, alas, for a demonic fantasy, which you say, brother, some have now suffered.

And their latest pretext is that God is invisible, but the devil disguises himself as an angel of light; not understanding this, that truth pre-exists all hypocrisy. If, therefore, the devil, by feigning the existing truth, disguises himself as an angel of light, it follows that there is, in truth, an angel of light, the good angel.

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ὁρατῆς Θεοῦ θεοφανείας ἡ ἐν Θαβωρίῳ τοῦ Κυρίου μεταμόρφωσις, καί ταύτην οἱ ἀπόστολοι ὀφαλμοῖς σώματος λαβεῖν κατηξιώθησαν, διατί μή καί τό προοίμιον καί τόν ἀρραβῶνα τῆς κατά νοῦν αὐτοῦ θεοφανείας ὀφθαλμοῖς νῦν λήψονται ψυχῆς οἱ κεκαθαρμένοι τήν καρδίαν; Ἐπεί δέ μή μόνον τήν ἑαυτοῦ θεϊκήν ὑπόστασιν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Υἱός, βαβαί τῆς ἀνεικάστου φιλανθρωπίας, ἥνωσε τῇ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς φύσει, καί σῶμα λαβών ἔμψυχον καί (σελ. 230) ψυχήν ἔννουν «ἐπί γῆς ὤφθη καί τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συνανεστράφη», ἀλλ᾿ ὤ θαύματος οὐδεμίαν ἀπολείποντος ὑπερβολήν, καί αὐταῖς ταῖς ἀνθρωπίναις ὑποστάσεσιν ἑνοῦται, τῶν πιστευόντων ἑκάστῳ συνανακιρνῶν ἑαυτόν διά τῆς τοῦ ἁγίου σώματος αὐτοῦ μεταλήψεως, καί σύσσωμος ἡμῖν γίνεται καί ναόν τῆς ὅλης θεότητος ἡμᾶς ἀπεργάζεται (καί γάρ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ τοῦ Χριστοῦ σώματι «κατοικεῖ πᾶν τό πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς» πῶς οὐχί διά τῆς θεϊκῆς αὐγῆς τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν σώματος αὐτοῦ τάς ψυχάς περιαστράψας φωτίσει τῶν ἀξίως μετεχόντων, ὡς τῶν μαθητῶν ἐν Θαβώρ καί τά σώματα ἐφώτισε; Τότε γάρ μήπω φυραθέν ἡμῶν τοῖς σώμασι τό τήν πηγήν ἔχον τοῦ φωτός τῆς χάριτος ἐκεῖνο σῶμα τῶν ἐγγιζόντων τούς ἀξίους ἔξωθεν ἐφώτιζε καί διά τῶν αἰσθητῶν ὀμμάτων ἐπί τήν ψυχήν εἰσέπεμπε τόν φωτισμόν˙ νῦν δ᾿ ἀνακραθέν ἡμῖν καί ἐν ἡμῖν ὑπάρχον εἰκότως ἔνδοθεν περιαυγάζει τήν ψυχήν.

Τί δέ; Οὐ πρόσωπον πρός πρόσωπον ἐπί τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος ὀψόμεθα τόν ἀόρατον κατά τό γεγραμμένον; Οὐκοῦν καί νῦν τούτου λαμβάνοντες τόν ἀρραβῶνά τε καί τό προοίμιον οἱ κεκαθαρμένοι τήν καρδίαν ὁρῶσι τήν αὐτοῖς ἐγγινομένην νοεράν αὐτοῦ καί ἀόρατον αἰσθήσει μόρφωσιν. Φύσις γάρ ὤν ἄϋλος ὁ νοῦς καί φῶς συγγενές, εἰ χρή λέγειν τῷ πρώτῳ καί ἀνωτάτῳ καί μεθεκτῷ πᾶσι καί ἀπολελυμένῳ τοῦ παντός φωτί, καί διά τῆς πρός τό ὄντως φῶς ὁλικῆς ἀνατάσεως, τῇ ἀΰλῳ καί ἀδιαλείπτῳ καί ἀπειλικρινημένῃ προσευχῇ, πρός αὐτόν τόν Θεόν ἀνεπιστρόφως ἀνανεύσας καί οὕτω πρός ἀγγελικήν ἤδη μετασκευασθείς ἀξίαν, ἀγγελοπρεπῶς ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ τοῦ πρώτου φωτός καταλαμφθείς, αὐτό φαίνεται κατά μέθεξιν, ὅ τό ἀρχέτυπον κατ᾿ αἰτίαν ἐστί, καί δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ φαίνει τοῦ κρυφίου κάλλους ἐκείνου τήν ὡραιότητα καί τήν φανοτάτην καί ἀπρόσιτον αὐγήν, ἥν καί ὁ θεῖος ᾠδικός ∆αυίδ (σελ. 232) νοερῶς αἰσθόμενος ἐν ἑαυτῷ, γηθόμενος τούς πιστούς τό μέγα τοῦτο χρῆμα καί ἀπόρρητον ἐδίδασκε λέγων˙ «ἡ λαμπρότης τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν ἐφ᾿ ἡμᾶς». Τίς γάρ μή λαμπρότητα Θεοῦ ἐν ἑαυτῷ παθών τε καί ἰδών, εἶτα διαιρέσεσι καί συλλογισμοῖς καί ἀναλύσεσιν αὐτήν ζητῶν, ἀλλά μή ἐν ἁπλότητι καρδίας πιστεύων τοῖς πατράσιν, ἀκοῇ γοῦν ἀνάσχοιτό ποτε παραδέξασθαι λαμπρότητα Θεοῦ σχεῖν τινα ἀνθρώπων; Καλῶς ἄρα Ἰωάννης διά τῆς Ἀποκαλύψεως ἀπεκάλυψεν ἡμῖν ὅτι τά ἐν τῇ ψήφῳ τῇ λευκῇ, ἥν ὁ νικῶν παρά Θεοῦ λαμβάνει, γνῶναι δύναται οὐδείς, εἰ μή ὁ λαβών, μή ὅτι γάρ ὁ μή ἐσχηκώς αὐτήν οὐδέ γνῶναι δύναται αὐτήν, ἀλλ᾿ εἰ μή πιστόν ὑπέχοι τοῖς εὐμοιρηκόσιν οὗς, οὐδ᾿ εἶναι ὅλως οἴεταί τι, τήν ὄντως οὖσαν θεωρίαν ἀβλεψίαν λογιζόμενος, οὐχ ὡς ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν καί γνῶσιν οὖσαν, οἷόν τινα γνόφον ἱερόν, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς μηδαμῇ οὖσαν μηδαμῶς. Εἰ δέ πρός τῇ ἀπειρίᾳ τε καί ἀπιστίᾳ καί δεινός ᾖ κακουργεῖν, περιέργου γέμων φρονήματος, πάντολμός τις καί καταφρονητής τῶν σεβασμιωτάτων, οὐηκ ἀνυπαρξίαν μόνον αὐτῆς καταψηφίζεται, ἀλλά καί πρός δαιμονιώδη φαντασίαν, φεῦ, τήν θεϊκήν λαμπρότητα παραγνωρίζει, ὅ καί νῦν τινας λέγεις, ἀδελφέ, παθεῖν.

Καί ἡ τελευταία πρόφασις αὐτοῖς ὅτι ὁ μέν Θεός ἀόρατος, ἄγγελον δέ φωτός ὑποκρίνεται ὁ διάβολος˙ οὐδέ ταῦτο συνιέντες, ὅτι πάσης ὑποκρίσεως προϋφέστηκεν ἡ ἀλήθεια. Εἰ τοίνυν τήν οὖσαν ἀλήθειαν ὑποκρινόμενος ὁ διάβολος ἄγγελον ὑποκρίνεται φωτός, λοιπόν ἔστιν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ φωτός ἄγγελος, ὁ ἀγαθός ἄγγελος.