Maximus the Confessor, Life

Page 244 Vol. II.

To Thalassius the most devout presbyter and abbot, Concerning various difficult passages of the divine Scripture.

To the most devout servant of God, the lord Thalassius, presbyter and abbot, Maximus, a humble monk, greetings.

Having rationally withdrawn the soul from its relation to the flesh, and having wholly drawn the mind out of sense perception through the spirit, O man of God; the one you have made a most precious mother of virtues, the other you have revealed as an ever-flowing spring of divine knowledge, making the soul's union with the flesh serve only the economy of higher things, (248) and possessing sense perception as an instrument for understanding the magnificent works of visible things. The one receiving practically, through your character, the glory of the soul which is formed according to virtue, and showing it forth to those outside, so that we might have an image of virtue, your life set forth for imitation; the other symbolically inscribing the principles of intelligible things in the forms of visible things, and through them raising the mind to the simplicity of intelligible contemplations, once it is purely released from all the variety and composition in visible things; so that we might have your knowledge as an unerring way of truth for the passage to intelligible things. Hence, after the complete divestment of relational attachment to both sense perception and the flesh, you swim vigorously in spirit through the infinite sea of the oracles of the Spirit with knowledge, searching with the spirit the things of the Spirit; from whom having received the manifestation of the hidden mysteries, out of great humility, it seems, you filled a sheet with many difficult chapters of the holy Scripture and sent it, seeking also from me, who am destitute of all virtue and knowledge, a written response to each chapter according to the anagogical contemplation.

Having received and read it, and being astounded in mind, hearing, and thought, I begged you earnestly for forgiveness for my refusal; saying that the things sought were barely accessible even to those who have advanced very far in contemplation, and have reached somewhere near the end of that most high and unattainable knowledge; let alone to me, who am cast upon the earth; and like the serpent, having, as the ancient curse says, no other food after the earth of the passions, and who, like a worm, wallow in the decay of pleasures. And having done this often and for a long time, when I found that you did not accept my entreaty concerning this, fearing lest the matter of love might suffer something, by which being united to one another, we have one soul, even if we bear two bodies, since my refusal might naturally be considered by you as a pretext for disobedience, I dared, even unwillingly, what is beyond my powers; considering it better to be accused of rashness and to be laughed at by those who wish to, than for love to suffer any agitation and diminution; than which nothing after God is more precious to those who have sense; or rather, more beloved by God; since it gathers the divided into one, and is able to create in the many, or in all, an unshakeable identity of mind.

Σελ. 244 Τόμ. Β΄.

Πρός Θαλάσσιον τόν ὁσιώτατον πρεσβύτερον καί ἡγούμενον Περί ∆ιαφόρων ἀπόρων τῆς θείας Γραφῆς.

Τῷ ὁσιωτάτῳ δούλῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ, κυρίῳ Θαλασσίῳ πρεσβυτέρῳ καί ἡγουμένῳ, Μάξιμος ταπεινός μονάζων, χαίρειν.

Τῆς σαρκός κατά τήν σχέσιν λογικῶς τήν ψυχήν ἀποχωρήσας, καί τῆς

αἰσθήσεως ὁλικῶς διά τοῦ πνεύματος ἐκσπάσας τόν νοῦν, ἄνθρωπε τοῦ Θεοῦ· τήν μέν, ἀρετῶν κατέστησας μητέρα πολύτιμον, τήν δέ, θείας πηγήν ἀένναον ἀνέδειξας γνώσεως, εἰς χρῆσιν μόνον τῆς τῶν κρειττόνων (248) οἰκονομίας, τήν πρός τήν σάρκα τῆς ψυχῆς συζυγίαν ποιούμενος, καί πρός κατανόησν τῆς τῶν ὁρωμένων μεγαλουργίας ὄργανον κεκτημένος τήν αἴσθησιν. Τήν μέν πρακτικῶς διά τοῦ ἤθους πρός εἶδος τυπούμενον τό κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τῆς ψυχῆς δεχομένην κλέος, καί τοῖς ἔξω προφαίνουσαν, ἵνα ἔχωμεν ἀρετῆς εἰκόνα, πρός μίμησιν προβεβλημένον τόν ὑμέτερον βίον· τήν δέ, τοῖς τῶν ὁρομένων σχήμασι τούς λόγους τῶν νοητῶν συμβολικῶς ἐγχαράττουσαν, καί δι αὐτῶν πρός τήν ἁπλότητα τῶν νοητῶν θεαμάτων τόν νοῦν ἀναβιβάζουσαν, πάσης καθαρῶς ἀπολυθέντα τῆς ἐν τοῖς ὁρωμένοις ποικιλίας τε καί συνθέσεως· ἵν᾿ ἔχωμεν ἀληθείας ὁδόν ἀπλανῆ τήν ὑμετέραν γνῶσιν τῆς πρός τά νοητά διαβάσεως. Ἐντεῦθεν μετά τήν τελείαν τῆς πρός αἴσθησίν τε καί σάρκα σχετικῆς προσπαθείας ἀπόθεσιν, τῷ ἀπείρῳ πελάγει τῶν λογίων τοῦ πνεύματος μετ᾿ ἐπιστήμης κατά νοῦν εὐτόνως διανηχόμενος, ἐρευνᾷς μετά τοῦ πνεύματος τά τοῦ Πνεύματος· παρ᾿ οὗ δεξάμενος τήν τῶν κεκρυμμένων μυστηρίων φανέρωσιν, διά πολλήν, ὡς ἔοικεν, ταπεινοφροσύνην, πολλῶν τῆς ἁγίας Γραφῆς ἀπορουμένων κεφαλαίων χάρτην πληρώσας ἀπέστειλας, ζητῶν καί παρ᾿ ἐμοῦ τοῦ πάσης ἀρετῆς ἐρήμου καί γνώσεως, ἑκάστου κεφαλαίου κατά τήν ἀναγωγικήν θεωρίαν τήν ἀπόκρισιν ἔγγραφον.

Ὅν δεξάμενος, καί ἀναγνούς, καταπλαγείς καί νοῦν καί ἀκοήν καί διάνοιαν, ᾔτουν ὑμᾶς ἐκλιπαρῶν περί τούτου συγνώμην τῆς παραιτήσεως· μόλις εἶναι λέγων προσιτά τά ζητούμενα, καί τοῖς ἄγαν ἐπί πλεῖστον ἐν θεωρίᾳ διαβεβηκόσι, καί περί τό τέλος που τῆς ὑψηλοτάτης καί ἀνεφίκτου τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐφθακόσι γνώσεως· μή ὅτι γε ἐμοί τῷ κατά γῆν ἐῤῥιμμένῳ· καί κατά τόν ὄφιν, ἄλλην, ὡς ἡ παλαιά κατάρα, μετά τήν γῆν τῶν παθῶν βρῶσιν οὐκ ἔχοντι, καί σκώληκος δίκην ἱλυσπωμένῳ τῇ σήψει τῶν ἡδονῶν. Καί τοῦτο πολλάκις καί ἐπί πολύ ποιήσας, ὡς εὗρον μή δεχομένους ὑμᾶς τήν ἐμήν περί τούτου παράκλησιν, δείσας μή τι πάθῃ το χρῆμα τῆς ἀγάπης, καθ᾿ ἥν ἀλλήλοις συγκραθέντες, μίαν ἔχομεν ψυχήν, κἄν δύο σώματα φέρωμεν, εἰς πρόφασιν ἀπειθείας ὡς εἰκός νομισθείσης ὑμῖν τῆς παραιτήσεως, κατετόλμησα καί μή θέλων τῶν ὑπέρ δύναμιν· κατηγορηθῆναι μᾶλλον προπέτειαν, καί γελᾶσθαι κρεῖττον ἡγούμενος παρά τῶν βουλομένων, ἤ τήν ἀγάπην κατά τι δέξασθαι σάλον καί μείωσιν· ἧς οὐδέν τῶν μετά Θεόν ἐστί τοῖς νοῦν ἔχουσι τιμιώτερον· μᾶλλον δέ, τῷ Θεῷ προσφιλέστερον· ὡς τούς διῃρημένους, εἰς ἕν συναγούσης, καί μίαν ἐν τοῖς πολλοῖς, ἤ τοῖς πᾶσιν ἀστασίαστον κατά τήν γνώμην δημιουργῆσαι δυναμένης ταυτότητα.