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Therefore I beseech you, brothers in Christ, let us not wish to learn inexpressible things by words alone, which is impossible both for those who teach about such things and equally for those who listen to them. For neither are those who teach about intelligible and divine matters able to give perfectly clear proofs from examples and to present in reality their very truth, nor are those who are taught able to learn from word alone the energy of what is said, but let us hasten to comprehend these things by practice and toil and labors and to come into the contemplation of these things, so that we might also be initiated from there into the words concerning such things and God might be glorified as having such things in us, and we, through the knowledge of such things, might glorify Him, and He might glorify us in Christ Himself our God, to whom is due all glory unto the ages. Amen.

Discourse 15. (224)

Concerning the impassioned and faithless and wicked disposition. And what is the union of God with the sons of light and in what way it comes about in them. And toward the end, a condemnation of those who unworthily dare to assume

the high priesthood. Brothers and fathers, darkness is always opposed to light, unbelief

to faith, ignorance to knowledge, and hatred to love. For when God said from the beginning, "Let there be light," and it came to be, the darkness immediately vanished; but with the withdrawal of the light, night came again. And Adam, being guarded by faith in God, existed in immortal glory and was in paradise, but being turned aside into unbelief by the enemy, he is condemned to death and is cast out of paradise, and instead of divine and spiritual knowledge, he received carnal knowledge. For having been blinded in the eyes of his soul and having fallen from imperishable life, he looked up with his bodily eyes; and casting the sight of his eyes with impassioned sense upon the things seen, he knew Eve his wife, and she, conceiving, bore Cain. (225) This knowledge, therefore, is truly ignorance of every good thing; for if he had not first fallen from the knowledge and contemplation of God, he would not have been led down to this knowledge. So also Cain his son, if he had not first been inflamed with hatred and envy against his brother Abel, would not have killed him.

Therefore, as many as are held by the darkness from birth and do not wish to gaze upon the intelligible light from which the forefather fell, these consider those who have come to be in that light and who speak of the things of the light as opposing enemies, being struck by their words. For just as a ray of the sun entering a dark house from somewhere, like a dart wounds and cuts through the darkness, so too the God-inspired word of a spiritual and holy man becomes like a two-edged sword in the heart of a carnal man, causing pain and arousing it to contradiction and hatred by its ignorance and unbelief.

But he who thinks he knows something, knowing nothing, even if he sees an angel descending from heaven to him, sends him away as a wicked demon; and if an apostle, or a prophet of God, he turns away from him too as another Simon Magus. And O, the utter insensibility, the blind man considers the one who sees to be blind, and he who is truly foolish considers his words to be foolishness. And just as at night when some say that the sun is not shining, a blind man, hearing, does not believe them, and in the middle of the day, when it is night, he again disbelieves, thinking he is being deceived by both, and even if (226) light

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∆ιό παρακαλῶ ὑμᾶς, ἐν Χριστῷ ἀδελφοί, μή λόγοις μόνοις τά ἀνέκφραστα μανθάνειν ἐθέλωμεν, ὅπερ ἀμήχανον καί τοῖς διδάσκουσι περί τοιούτων καί τοῖς ἀκροωμένοις αὐτοῖς ἐπίσης ἐστίν. Οὔτε γάρ οἱ διδάσκοντες περί νοητῶν καί θείων πραγμάτων δύνανται ἀκριβῶς ἐναργεῖς ἐκ παραδειγμάτων δοῦναι τάς ἀποδείξεις καί αὐτήν τήν τούτων πραγματικῶς παραστῆσαι ἀλήθειαν, οὔτε οἱ διδασκόμενοι ἐκ τοῦ λόγου μόνου μαθεῖν τήν τῶν λεγομένων ἐνέργειαν, ἀλλά πράξει καί κόπῳ καί πόνοις ταῦτα καταλαβεῖν καί ἐν τῇ τῶν τούτων θεωρίᾳ γενέσθαι σπεύσωμεν, ὡς ἄν καί τούς περί τῶν τοιούτων λόγους ἐκεῖθεν μυσταγωγηθῶμεν καί δοξασθῇ ὁ Θεός οὕτως ἔχουσιν ἐν ἡμῖν καί ἡμεῖς διά τῆς τῶν τοιούτων γνώσεως δοξάσωμεν αὐτόν καί αὐτός δοξάσῃ ἡμᾶς ἐν αὐτῷ Χριστῷ τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν, ᾧ πρέπει πᾶσα δόξα εἰς τούς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν.

Λόγος ΙΕ΄. (224)

Περί ἐμπαθοῦς καί ἀπίστου καί πονηρᾶς διαθέσεως. Καί τίς ἡ ἕνωσις τοῦ Θεοῦ πρός τούς υἱούς τοῦ φωτός καί τίνα τρόπον ἐν αὐτοῖς αὕτη γίνεται. Καί πρός τό τέλος, καταδρομή τῶν ἀναξίως κατατολμώντων

τῆς ἀρχιερωσύνης. Ἀδελφοί καί πατέρες, ἀεί μέν ἀλλήλοις ἀντίκεινται τῷ φωτί τό σκότος, τῇ πίστει

ἡ ἀπιστία, ἡ ἀγνωσία τῇ γνώσει καί τῇ ἀγάπῃ τό μῖσος. Εἰπόντος γάρ ἐξ ἀρχῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ· "Γενηθήτω φῶς" καί γεγονότος, εὐθύς τό σκότος ἠφάντωτο· τῇ δέ τοῦ φωτός ὑποστολῇ νύξ καί αὖθις ἐγένετο. Ὁ δέ Ἀδάμ τῇ πίστει τῇ εἰς Θεόν φρουρούμενος ἐν τῇ ἀθανάτῳ ὑπῆρχε δόξῃ καί ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ ἦν, ὑπό δέ τοῦ ἐχθροῦ εἰς ἀπιστίαν παρεκτραπείς θανάτῳ καταδικάζεται καί τοῦ παραδείσου ἐκβάλλεται καί ἀντί τῆς θείας καί πνευματικῆς γνώσεως τήν γνῶσιν τήν σαρκικήν ἐκομίσατο. Ἐκτυφλωθείς γάρ τούς τῆς ψυχῆς ὀφθαλμούς καί ἀνωλέθρου ζωῆς ἐκπεσών, τοῖς σωματικοῖς ἀνέβλεψεν ὀφθαλμοῖς· καί ἐμπαθεῖ αἰσθήσει τοῖς ὁρωμένοις τήν τῶν ὀμμάτων ἐπιβαλών ὅρασιν, ἔγνω Εὔαν τήν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ καί αὐτή συλλαβοῦσα ἔτεκε τόν Κάϊν. (225) Ἡ οὖν γνῶσις αὕτη ἀγνωσία ὄντως ἐστί παντός ἀγαθοῦ· εἰ μή γάρ πρῶτον τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ γνώσεως καί θεωρίας ἐξέπεσεν, οὐκ ἄν εἰς τήν γνῶσιν ταύτην κατήγετο. Οὕτω δέ καί ὁ Κάϊν ὁ υἱός αὐτοῦ, εἰ μή πρῶτον εἰς μῖσος καί φθόνον ἐξεκαύθη κατά τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἄβελ, οὐκ ἄν αὐτόν ἀπέκτεινεν.

Ὅσοι τοιγαροῦν τῷ ἐκ γεννητῆς σκότει κατέχονται καί πρός τό νοητόν φῶς, ὅθεν ὁ προπάτωρ ἐξέπεσεν, ἐνατενίσαι οὐ βούλονται, οὗτοι τούς ἐν αὐτῷ γενομένους τῷ φωτί καί τά τοῦ φωτός διαλεγομένους ὡς ἀντικειμένους ἐχθρούς λογίζονται, πληττόμενοι τοῖς λόγοις αὐτῶν. Καθάπερ γάρ ἡλίου ἀκτίς ἐν οἰκίᾳ σκοτεινῇ ποθεν εἰσελθοῦσα, οἵα δή βέλος τιτρώσκει καί διατέμνει τό σκότος, οὕτω καί λόγος θεόπνευστος ἀνδρός πνευματικοῦ καί ὁσίου, ὡς δίστομος μάχαιρα ἐν καρδίᾳ ἀνθρώπου σαρκικοῦ γίνεται, ἰδύνην ἐμποιοῦσα καί πρός ἀντιλογίαν καί μῖσος ὑπό τῆς ἀγνωσίας καί ἀπιστίας αὐτήν διεγείρουσα.

Ὁ δέ καί οἰόμενος εἰδέναι τι μηδέν εἰδώς, κἄν ἄγγελον ἴδῃ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ πρός αὐτόν κατελθόντα, ὡς δαίμονα πονηρόν ἀποπέμπεται αὐτόν, κἄν ἀπόστολον, κἄν προφήτην Θεοῦ, ὡς ἄλλον τινά Σίμωνα Μάγον καί αὐτόν ἀποστρέφεται. Καί ὤ τῆς ἐσχάτης ἀναισθησίας, ὁ τυφλός τυφλόν ἡγεῖται τόν βλέποντα καί ὁ τῷ ὄντι λῆρος λῆρον ἡγεῖται τούς λόγους αὐτοῦ. Καί καθάπερ ἐν νυκτί πολλάκις λεγόντων τινῶν μή λάμπειν τόν ἥλιον, ἀκούων ὁ τυφλός οὐ πιστεύει αὐτοῖς, καί ἐν ἡμέρᾳ μέσῃ ὤν νύκτα εἶναι πάλιν ἀπιστεῖ, πλανᾶσθαι οἰόμενος ὑπό ἀμφοτέρων, καί κἄν (226) φῶς