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just as the misuse of the knowledge of beings also makes wisdom foolish; (p. 390) but if one uses these well, through the knowledge of beings apprehended spiritually he will obtain the knowledge of God, and through the passible part of the soul, moved for the purpose for which it was made by God, he will work the appropriate virtues, embracing love with the desiderative part, and acquiring patience with the irascible part. Not the one who has put it to death, therefore, since he will be both motionless and inactive toward the divine states and relations and dispositions, but the one who has subordinated this, so that by obeying the intellect, which by nature has received the ruling power, it is led by God where it must, and is stretched out toward God through the unceasing remembrance of God and through this remembrance arrives at the state of the divine disposition and advances this to the best state, which is love for God, through which, according to the saying, he fulfills the commandments of the beloved, from which he is taught and acts and acquires sincere and perfect love for his neighbor, for dispassion not to be present with these is among the impossible things.

This way, then, to perfect love through dispassion is distinct and ascends upward and is especially suited to those who have withdrawn from the world; for having given their leisure to God and having persevered in communion with him with an untroubled mind, through this association they easily put away the rabble of evil passions and store up love for themselves. But for those who are occupied in the world, it is by compelling themselves according to the commandments of God to use the things of the world. Therefore, the passible part of the soul, sharing in this compulsion, will also act according to them. And this compulsion, becoming chronic through habit, creates a pleasant relation to the commandments of God and transforms the disposition into a state; and this bestows a most steadfast hatred for evil states and relations, and such hatred for evil things bears the fruit of dispassion, from which love for the (p. 392) only good One is born. Therefore, one must present the passible part of the soul to God as living and active, so that it may be a living sacrifice, which is what the apostle also said about our body; “I beseech you,” he says, “by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to God.” How then could our body be presented as a living sacrifice, well-pleasing to God? When our eyes see smooth things, according to what is written, “he who looks on smooth things will receive mercy,” and they draw down mercy from above and provide it to us, and our ears are subject to the divine teachings, not so as only to hear them, but so as, according to the Davidic word, to remember the commandments of God to do them, not becoming a forgetful hearer according to what was said by the brother of God among the apostles, but “one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is blessed in his doing,” and the tongue and hands and feet serve the divine wills. What then are these activities of the commandments of God? Are they not common activities of soul and body? How then do all the common activities of soul and body fill the soul with darkness and blind it?

And the apostle says, “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?” Are these things not, then, a common activity of both the body and the passible part of the soul? Shall we, then, consider it for evil and to the harm of the soul? And yet this is a precise sign of loving one’s neighbor as oneself, which is the second commandment of God, but, according to the divinely delivered saying, like the first and great commandment. For this reason the same apostle, writing to the Romans, says, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart for my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” Do you see the passible part of that dispassionate and godlike soul living and active? But if he prayed unceasingly with that (p. 394) and was unceasingly in anguish, then he had the anguish of the soul coexisting in himself with prayer; that it is not

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καθάπερ καί τήν μεμωραμένην σοφίαν ἡ τῆς γνώσεως τῶν ὄντων παράχρησις˙ (σελ.390) εἰ δέ τις καλῶς ταύταις χρῷτο, διά μέν τῆς γνώσεως τῶν ὄντων πνευματικῶν ἐκλαμβανομένων τήν θεογνωσίαν πορίσεται, διά δέ τοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς παθητικοῦ, δι᾿ ὅ πρός Θεοῦ πεποίηται κινουμένου, τάς καταλλήλους ἀρετάς ἐργάσεται, τῷ μέν ἐπιθυμητικῷ τήν ἀγάπην ἐνστερνιζόμενος, τῷ δέ θυμοειδεῖ τήν ὑπομονήν κατακτώμενος. Οὐχ ὁ νεκρώσας τοίνυν, ἐπεί καί πρός τάς θείας ἕξεις καί σχέσεις καί διαθέσεις ἔσται ἀκίνητός τε καί ἀνενέργητος, ἀλλ᾿ ὁ τοῦθ᾿ ὑποτάξας, ὥστε διά τοῦ πείθεσθαι τῷ νῷ, φύσει λαχόντι τήν ἡγεμονίαν, πρός Θεοῦ ἀγόμενον ᾗ δέον, ἀνατείνεσθαι διά τῆς ἀδιαλείπτου μνήμης τοῦ Θεοῦ πρός τόν Θεόν καί δι᾿ αὐτῆς εἰς ἕξιν ἀφικνεῖσθαι τῆς θείας διαθέσεως καί εἰς ἀρίστην ἕξιν προβιβάζειν ταύτην, ἥτις ἐστίν ἡ πρός Θεόν ἀγάπη, δι᾿ ἥν πληροῖ κατά τό λόγιον τάς τοῦ ἀγαπωμένου ἐντολάς, ἐξ ὧν διδάσκεται καί ἐνεργεῖ καί κτᾶται τήν εἰλικρινῆ τε καί τελείαν πρός τόν πλησίον ἀγάπην, αἷς μή συνεῖναι τήν ἀπάθειαν, τῶν ἀδυνάτων.

Αὕτη μέν οὖν ἡ πρός τήν τελείαν ἀγάπην δι᾿ ἀπαθείας ὁδός ἐξηλλαγμένη τέ ἐστι καί ἄνω βαίνουσα καί τοῖς ἀνακεχωρηκόσι τοῦ κόσμου μάλιστα ἁρμόσει˙ σχολάσαντες γάρ Θεῷ καί ἀνεπιθολώτῳ νῷ τῇ πρός αὐτόν ὁμιλίᾳ διακαρτερήσαντες, διά τῆς συνουσίας ταύτης εὐχερῶς τόν συρφετόν τῶν πονηρῶν παθημάτων ἀποτίθενται καί τήν ἀγάπην σφίσιν αὐτοῖς ἐνθησαυρίζουσι. Τοῖς δ᾿ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ στρεφομένοις ἐστί βιαζομένους ἑαυτούς κατά τάς ἐντολάς τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῖς τοῦ κόσμου χρῆσθαι πράγμασιν. Οὐκοῦν καί τό παθητικόν τῆς ψυχῆς τῆς βίας ταύτης κοινωνοῦν ἐνεργήσει κατ᾿ ἐκείνας. Αὕτη δέ ἡ βία ἐγχρονίσασα τῇ συνηθείᾳ ἡδεῖαν τήν πρός τάς ἐντολάς τοῦ Θεοῦ σχέσιν ἐμποιεῖ καί τήν διάθεσιν εἰς ἕξιν μετατίθησιν˙ ἡ δέ χαρίζεται τό πρός τάς πονηράς ἕξεις τε καί σχέσεις μονιμώτατον μῖσος, τό δέ πρός τά πονηρά τοιοῦτον μῖσος τήν ἀπάθειαν καρποφορεῖ, παρ᾿ ἧς ἡ πρός τόν (σελ. 392) τόν μόνον ἀγαθόν ἀγάπη τίκτεται. Ζῶν τοίνυν καί ἐνεργόν παραστῆσαι δεῖ τῷ Θεῷ τό τῆς ψυχῆς παθητικόν, ἵνα ᾖ θυσίᾳ ζῶσα, ὅπερ ὁ ἀπόστολος καί περί τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν εἶπε˙ «παρακαλῶ» γάρ, φησίν, «ὑμᾶς διά τῶν οἰκτιρμῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ παραστῆσαι τά σώματα ὑμῶν θυσίαν ζῶσαν, ἁγίαν, εὐάρεστον τῷ Θεῷ». Πῶς οὖν τό ἡμέτερον σῶμα ζῶν ἄν παρασταίη θυσία τῷ Θεῷ εὐάρεστος; Ὁπότε λεῖα μέν ὁρῶσιν ἡμῶν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί, κατά τό γεγραμμένον, «ὁ βλέπων λεῖα ἐλεηθήσεται», καί τόν ἄνωθεν ἔλεον ἐπισπῶνται καί πορίζουσιν ἡμῖν, ὦτα δ᾿ ὑπόκειται τοῖς θείοις διδάγμασιν, οὐχ ὥστε ἀκοῦσαι μόνον αὐτῶν, ἀλλ᾿ ὥστε κατά τό δαβιτικόν μεμνῆσθαι τῶν ἐντολῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ποιῆσαι αὐτάς, οὐκ ἀκροατήν ἐπιλησμονῆς κατά τό εἰρημένον τῷ ἀδελφοθέῳ τῶν ἀποστόλων γενόμενον, ἀλλά «παρακύψαντα εἰς νόμον τέλειον τῆς ἐλευθερίας καί παραμείναντα καί μακάριον ὄντα ἐν τῇ ποιήσει αὐτοῦ», γλῶσσα δέ χεῖρές τε καί πόδες ὑπηρετῶσι τοῖς θείοις θελήμασι. Τί οὖν αἱ ἐνέργειαι αὗται τῶν ἐντολῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ; Οὐ κοιναί εἰσιν ἐνέργειαι ψυχῆς καί σώματος; Πῶς οὖν αἱ κοιναί ἐνέργειαι ψυχῆς καί σώματος ἅπασαι σκότους ἐμπιπλῶσι καί ἐκτυφλοῦσι τήν ψυχήν;

Ὁ δέ ἀπόστολος, «τίς ἀσθενεῖ καί οὐκ ἀσθενῶ;» φησί, «τίς σκανδαλίζεται καί οὐκ ἐγώ πυροῦμαι;» Ἆρ᾿ οὖν οὐ κοινή ἐνέργεια ταῦτα τοῦ τε σώματος καί τοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς παθητικοῦ; Πρός κακοῦ τοίνυν αὐτήν νομιοῦμεν καί ἐπί βλάβῃ τῆς ψυχῆς; Καί μήν τοῦτό ἐστι δεῖγμα ἀκριβές τοῦ τόν πλησίον ἀγαπᾶν ὡς ἑαυτόν, ὅ δευτέρα μέν ἔστιν ἐντολή Θεοῦ, ὁμοία δέ κατά τό θεοπαράδοτον λόγιον τῇ πρώτῃ καί μεγάλη ἐντολῇ. ∆ιόπερ ὁ αὐτός ἀπόστολος Ρωμαίοις γράφων, «λύπη μοί ἐστι», φησί, «μεγάλη καί ἀδιάλειπτος ὀδύνη τῇ καρδίᾳ μου ὑπέρ τῶν ἀδελφῶν μου, τῶν συγγενῶν μου κατά σάρκα». Ὁρᾷς τό παθητικόν ζῶν καί ἐνεργόν τῆς ἀπαθοῦς καί θεοειδοῦς ἐκείνης ψυχῆς; Εἰ δέ ἀδιαλείπτως ἐκείνῃ προσηύχετο (σελ. 394) καί ἀδιαλείπτως ὠδυνᾶτο, συνυπάρχουσαν ἄρ᾿ εἶχεν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τῇ προσευχῇ τήν ὀδύνην τῆς ψυχῆς˙ ὅτι δέ οὐ