73

for those with the gifts of healing and discernment, and simply for all who have been graced by the divine Spirit, each of these charisms has a greater and a lesser; as Paul also gives thanks to God, speaking in tongues more than all, but even he who has the lesser has a gift of God. For “Desire,” says the same apostle again, “the greater gifts,” implying that there are also lesser ones. For if “star differs from star in glory,” that is, in abundance of light, yet none of the stars is without light. Therefore that which was set forth by the philosopher, from which he here attacks the hesychasts, is not true, that the gifts of God are most perfect. For the brother of God among the apostles said “every perfect gift is from above,” not “most perfect.” But this man, daring to add his own words to the oracles, reasonably proceeds also against those who read them through action. I shall ask him, therefore: will not the saints in the age to come advance infinitely in the vision of God? It is surely clear to all that it is infinitely; for Dionysius, the interpreter of heavenly things, also teaches that the angels always receive increase in it, being made more receptive by the preceding one for the clearer (p. 370) illumination. But of those who have been blessed with it on earth, in all of time we have neither seen nor heard of any who did not long for it yet more perfectly. If, then, the longing of those who attain it does not cease, and the preceding grace empowers them for the partaking of greater things, and He who gives Himself is infinite and provides lavishly and abundantly, what way is left for the sons of the age to come not to advance in it infinitely, receiving grace from grace and joyfully ascending the tireless ascent? Therefore “every perfect gift is from above,” but not most perfect; for the most perfect does not admit of addition.

So, then, the first of the arguments stands thus for the philosopher; but he has a second, more valiant one, that “this nails the soul to the body and fills it with darkness, to love the energies which are common to its passible part and to the body.” What pain, what pleasure, what motion in the body, is not a common energy of soul and body? It seems to me, therefore, that the philosopher has pronounced this verdict too inconsiderately, speaking universally about things which are not universal. For there are also blessed passions and common energies of soul and body by which the spirit is not nailed to the flesh, but which draw up the flesh to be near the dignity of the Spirit and persuade it also to incline upwards. Which are these? The spiritual ones, not going from the body to the mind, as we also said before, but passing from the mind to the body and transforming and deifying it for the better through these energies and passions. For just as the divinity of the incarnate Word of God is common to the body and soul, deifying the flesh through the soul as a medium, so that the works of God are also performed through it, so too in spiritual men the grace of the Spirit, being ferried across (p. 372) through the soul as a medium to the body, grants it also to experience divine things and to suffer blessedly along with the soul which has experienced divine things, which, since it experiences divine things, has a certain passible part that is praiseworthy and divine; or rather, the passible part in us being one, it is its nature to be actualized in this way. Having proceeded then to this blessed actualization, it deifies the body also, not then moved by bodily and material passions, though it might seem so to those who have no experience, but rather it turns back to the body itself and leads it away from its relation to worse things and breathes into it through itself an inalienable sanctification and deification, of which the miracle-working tombs of the saints are a clear proof. And of the protomartyr Stephen, while he was still alive, “his face appeared as the face of an angel.” Did not the body, then, also experience divine things? Therefore also this passion and

73

ἰαματικοῖς καί διακριτικοῖς καί ἁπλῶς τοῖς κεχαριτωμένοις ὑπό τοῦ θείου Πνεύματος ἅπασι, κατά τούτων ἕκαστον τῶν χαρισμάτων ἐστί μείζων τε καί ἐλάττων˙ ὡς καί ὁ Παῦλος εὐχαριστεῖ τῷ Θεῷ, πάντων μᾶλλον γλώσσαις λαλῶν, ἀλλά καί ὁ τό ἔλαττον ἔχων, δῶρον ἔχει Θεοῦ. «Ζηλοῦτε» γάρ, αὖθις ὁ αὐτός ἀπόστολος, «τά χαρίσματα τά κρείττονα», φησίν, ὡς καί ἐλαττόνων ὄντων. Εἰ γάρ «καί ἀστήρ ἀστέρος διαφέρει ἐν δόξῃ», τουτέστι φωτός περιουσίᾳ, ἀλλ᾿ οὐδείς τῶν ἀστέρων ἀφώτιστος. Οὐκ ἀληθές ἄρ᾿ ἐκεῖνο τό παρά τοῦ φιλοσόφου προτεταγμένον, ἀφ᾿ οὗ κατά τῶν ἡσυχαζόντων ἐνταῦθ᾿ ἐστιν ὡρμημένος, ὅτι τά τοῦ Θεοῦ δῶρα τελεώτατα. Καί ὁ τῶν ἀποστόλων γάρ ἀδελφόθεος «πᾶν δώρημα τέλειον ἄνωθεν» εἶπεν, οὐ "τελεώτατον". Οὗτος δέ τοῖς λογίοις παρ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ προστιθέναι τολμῶν, εἰκότως καί κατά τῶν διά πράξεως ἀναγινωσκόντων ἐκεῖνα χωρεῖ. Ἐρήσομαι τοίνυν αὐτόν˙ οὐκ ἐπ᾿ ἄπειρον οἱ ἅγιοι κατά τήν θεοπτίαν ἐπί τοῦ μέλλοντος προκόψουσιν αἰῶνος; Παντί που δῆλον ὡς ἐπ᾿ ἄπειρον˙ καί τούς ἀγγέλους γάρ ὁ τῶν οὐρανίων ὑποφήτης ∆ιονύσιος ἐπίδοσιν ἀεί κατ᾿ αὐτήν λαμβάνειν παραδίδωσι, χωρητικωτέροις ὑπό τῆς προλαβούσης ἐπιτελουμένους πρός τήν τρανοτέραν (σελ. 370) ἔλλαμψιν. Ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ τῶν ταύτης εὐμοιρηκότων ἐπί γῆς ἐκ τοῦ παντός αἰῶνος εἴδομέν τινα ἤ ἀκηκόαμεν μή τελεωτέρας ἔτι ταύτης ἐφιέμενον. Εἰ τοίνυν ἡ μέν ἔφεσις τῶν ἐπιτυγχανόντων οὐχ ἵσταται, ἡ δέ προλαβοῦσα χάρις δυναμοποιός ἐστιν αὐτοῖς πρός τήν τῶν μειζόντων μετάληψιν, ὁ δ᾿ ἐπιδιδούς ἑαυτόν ἄπειρός ἐστι καί δαψιλῶς καί ἀφθόνως χορηγεῖ, τίς ὑπολέλειπται τρόπος μή οὐχί προκόπτειν τούς υἱούς τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἐπ᾿ ἄπειρον, χάριν ἐκ χάριτος κομιζομένους καί τήν ἀκάματον ἐπιτερπῶς ἀνιόντας ἄνοδον; Οὐκοῦν «πᾶν δώρημα τέλειον ἄνωθεν», ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τελεώτατον˙ τό γάρ τελεώτατον προσθήκην οὐκ ἐπιδέχεται.

Τό μέν οὖν πρῶτον τῶν ἐπιχειρημάτων οὕτως ἔχει τῷ φιλοσόφῳ˙ δεύτερον δέ αὐτῷ γενναιότερον, ὅτι «τοῦτο προσηλοῖ τήν ψυχήν τῷ σώματι καί σκότους αὐτήν ἀναπίμπλησι, τό ἀγαπᾶν τάς ἐνεργείας, ὅσαι κοιναί εἰσι τοῦ παθητικοῦ αὐτῆς καί τοῦ σώματος». Τί δ᾿ ἄλγος, ποία δ᾿ ἡδονή, τίς δέ κίνησις ἐν σώματι, οὐ κοινή ἐνέργεια ψυχῆς ἐστι καί σώματος; ∆οκεῖ μοι τοίνυν ἀπερισκέπτως ὁ φιλόσοφος καί ταύτην τήν ψῆφον ἐνεγκεῖν, καθόλου περί τῶν μή καθόλου ἀποφηνάμενος.Ἔστι γάρ καί πάθη μακάρια καί κοιναί ἐνέργειαι ψυχῆς καί σώματος οὐ προσηλοῦται τῇ σαρκί τό πνεῦμα, ἀλλ᾿ ἐγγύς τῆς τοῦ Πνεύματος ἀξίας ἀνέλκουσαι τήν σάρκα καί ἄνω νεύειν καί αὐτήν ἀναπείθουσαι. Τίνες αὗται; Αἱ πνευματικαί, οὐκ ἀπό τοῦ σώματος ἐπί τόν νοῦν ἰοῦται, ὅ καί πρότερον εἴπομεν, ἀλλ᾿ ἀπό τοῦ νοῦ ἐπί τό σῶμα διαβαίνουσαι καί τοῦτο διά τῶν ἐνεργημάτων τε καί παθημάτων τούτων ἐπί τό κρεῖττον μετασκεύαζουσαι καί θεουργοῦσαι. Καθάπερ γάρ κοινή ἐστι σώματος καί ψυχῆς ἡ τοῦ ἐνανθρωπήσαντος λόγου τοῦ Θεοῦ θεότης, διά μέσης ψυχῆς θεώσασα τήν σάρκα, ὡς καί Θεοῦ ἔργα ἐκτελεῖσθαι δι᾿ αὐτῆς, οὕτως ἐπί τῶν πνευματικῶν ἀνδρῶν ἡ τοῦ Πνεύματος χάρις, διά μέσης (σελ. 372) ψυχῆς πρός τό σῶμα διαπορθμευομένη, πάσχειν καί αὐτῷ τά θεῖα δίδωσι καί μακαρίως συμπάσχειν τῇ ψυχῇ τῇ τά θεῖα πεπονθυίᾳ, ἥτις, ἐπεί πάσχει τά θεῖα, καί παθητικόν ἔχει τι δήπουθεν ἐπαινετόν καί θεῖον˙ μᾶλλον δέ, ἕν ὄν τό ἐν ἡμῖν παθητικόν, καί τοιοῦτον ἐκτελεῖσθαι πέφυκε. Προελθόν οὖν εἰς τήν μακαρίαν ταύτην ἐντελέχειαν καί τό σῶμα θεουργεῖ, οὐκ ἀπό τῶν σωματικῶν καί προσύλων παθημάτων τότ᾿ αὐτό κινούμενον, εἰ καί τοῖς μή πεῖραν ἐσχηκόσι δόξειεν ἄν, ἀλλ᾿ αὐτό μᾶλλον πρός αὐτό τό σῶμα ἐπιστρέφον καί τῆς πρός τά χείρω σχέσεως ἀπάγον καί ἁγιασμόν αὐτό δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ καί θέωσιν ἐμπνέον ἀναφαίρετον, οὗ τεκμήριον ἐναργές αἱ τῶν ἁγίων θαυματοποιοί σοροί. Τοῦ δέ πρωταγωνιστοῦ Στεφάνου καί ἔτι περιόντος «τό πρόσωπον ἐφάνη ὡσεί πρόσωπον ἀγγέλου». Ἆρ᾿ οὖν οὐχί καί τά θεῖα τό σῶμα ἔπαθεν; Οὐκοῦν καί τό πάθος τοῦτο καί