86

Gregory, although you watched over us in this, you should not have proceeded against us for this reason; for how many do you suppose say that the heaven is a sphere and that the poles are equal in number to the wandering stars, though the great Basil does not say this, and how many that it is ever-moving, though some say it stands still, and to how many does the sun seem to travel in a circle, though the holy Isaac does not think so? You would therefore, it seems, declare all these to be contradicting the fathers, just like us, but you yourself will be refuted for not knowing the truth, according to which it is necessary for all of us to follow them, and you seem to me never to have considered this or to have distinguished it from what is not necessary; therefore, while you oppose them in matters that lead to the blessed life, you demand from others an exact confession on matters that do not lead to that blessedness.

Therefore, let us too, disregarding his subsequent slanders against us following what has been said, turn our discourse to more necessary matters.

A DISCOURSE

IN DEFENSE OF THOSE WHO PRACTICE SACRED HESYCHASM

THE THIRD OF THE LATER DISCOURSES. p. (410)

CONCERNING THE SACRED LIGHT. Such, then, is this teacher of noetic prayer against those who through their life are devoted to it,

an instructor, and he presumes to teach about the sacred light those who see, and this, while he himself is blind, as he himself cannot deny, alleging that they err because what he, being blind, does not see, they call light; and he declares that not this or that person of our own times or of those a little before us, renowned for purity of life and the height of the divine vision, errs concerning this light, but the very saints from of old who are venerated by us, as the discourse will show as it proceeds. But when he heard from those who had heard him recounting such things (who were astounded, it seems, at the excess of his novel terminology and could not bear to pass over in silence so clear a blasphemy against the holy fathers, and at the same time feared for themselves lest by passing it over in silence they might become sharers in such an abomination, which is what recently stirred us, more than anything else, to write), when, therefore, he heard from such persons saying to him, “Being uninitiated and utterly blind to such things, what has possessed you to attempt to speak about mystical sacred visions, which you could not even easily understand upon hearing of them from those who have experienced them?”, being unable to deny his ignorance and inexperience in these matters, which was manifest to all, “It is not surprising,” he says, “if a blind man himself should take hold of someone who can see and thus become an unerring guide for the other blind men who take hold of him,” thinking he had found, by the (p. 412) abundance of his power of speaking and the specious reasoning of his dialectical sophistries, a way by which he might overcome even the voice of the Gospel, which clearly says the opposite to this: “For if a blind man leads a blind man,” it says, “both will fall into a pit.” But I, says this blind man and guide of the blind, am able to follow by holding on to those who see. And which of the blind cannot do this? For one who is maimed in both his feet and his hands and completely paralyzed could not take hold of you, nor could he follow, nor would he need a guide at all, being bedridden; but one who has healthy hands and feet, why, O best of blind men, would he follow by holding on to you rather than to the one who sees?

86

Γρηγορίῳ κατά τοῦτ᾿ ἐφώρασας ἡμᾶς, οὐκ ἔδει σε καθ᾿ ἡμῶν χωρῆσαι διά τοῦτο˙ πόσους γάρ οἴει τούς σφαῖραν λέγοντας τόν οὐρανόν καί πόλους τοῖς πλανωμένοις ἰσαρίθμους ἀστράσι, μή τοῦτο λέγοντος τοῦ μεγάλου Βασιλείου, πόσους δ᾿ ἀεικίνητον, ἔστιν ὧν ἱστάντων, πόσοις δ᾿ ὁ ἥλιος κύκλῳ περιέρχεσθαι δοκεῖ, μή τοῦτο τοῦ ἁγίου Ἰσαάκ νομίζοντος; Πάντας οὖν τούτου σύ γ᾿ ἄν, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἀποφήναιο τοῖς πατράσιν ἀντιλέγειν, ὥσπερ καί ἡμᾶς, ἀλλ᾿ αὐτός ἐξελεγχθήσῃ μή εἰδώς τήν ἀλήθειαν, καθ᾿ ἥν ἕπεσθαι πάντας ἡμᾶς ἐκείνοις ἀναγκαῖον, καί ἔοικάς μοι μηδ᾿ ἐνθυμηθῆναί ποτε ταύτην ἤ διακρῖναι τῆς μή ἀναγκαίας˙ διό ἐν τοῖς πρός τόν μακάριον βίον φέρουσιν ἀντικείμενος αὐτοῖς, τούς ἄλλους ἀκριβῆ τήν ὁμολογίαν ἀπαιτεῖς ἐπί τῶν μή φερόντων εἰς ἐκείνην τήν μακαριότητα.

Ταῦτ᾿ ἄρα καί ἡμεῖς ὑπεριδόντες τῶν ἐφεξῆς τοῖς εἰρημένοις καθ᾿ ἡμῶν αὐτοῦ διαβολῶν, ἐπί τἀναγκαιότερα τρέψωμεν τόν λόγον.

ΛΟΓΟΣ

ΥΠΕΡ ΤΩΝ ΙΕΡΩΣ ΗΣΥΧΑΖΟΝΤΩΝ

ΤΩΝ ΥΣΤΕΡΩΝ Ο ΤΡΙΤΟΣ. Σελ. (410)

ΠΕΡΙ ΦΩΤΟΣ ΙΕΡΟΥ Ὁ δή τῆς νοερᾶς προσευχῆς κατά τῶν διά βίου ταύτῃ προσανεχόντων τοιοῦτος

ὑφηγητής καί περί φωτός ἱεροῦ διδάσκειν ἀξιοῖ τούς ὁρῶντας, καί ταῦτα τυφλός ὤν αὐτός, ὡς καί αὐτός ἀρνεῖσθαι οὐκ ἔχει, ἁμαρτάνειν αὐτούς ἰσχυριζόμενος ὅτι τοῦθ᾿ ὅ μή βλέπει, τυφλός ὤν οὗτος, φῶς αὐτοί λέγουσι, καί ταῦθ᾿ οὐ τόν δεῖνα ἤ τόν δεῖνα τῶν ἐφ᾿ ἡμῶν ὄντων ἤ τῶν μικρῷ πρό ἡμῶν ἐπί καθαρότητι βίου καί θεοπτίας ὕψει βεβοημένων ἁμαρτάνειν περί τό φῶς ἀποφαινόμενος τοῦτο, ἀλλ᾿ αὐτούς τούς ἐκ παλαιοῦ προσκυνητούς ἡμῖν ἁγίους, ὡς ὁ λόγος δείξει προϊών. Ἐπεί δ᾿ ἤκουσε παρά τῶν τοιαῦτα διεξιόντος ἀκουσάντων αὐτοῦ (κατεπληγμένων, ὡς ἔοικε, τῆς καινοφωνίας τήν ὑπερβολήν καί σιωπῇ τήν οὕτω σαφῆ κατά τῶν ἁγίων πατέρων παρελθεῖν βλασφημίαν οὐκ ἐνεγκόντων, ἅμα δέ καί δεδοικότων περί σφίσιν αὐτοῖς μή τοῦ τοιούτου μύσους κοινωνοί γένωνται σιωπῇ παρελθόντες, ὅ καί ἡμᾶς ἀρτίως πρός τό γράφειν μάλιστα τῶν ἄλλων ἐπῆρεν), ἐπεί τοίνυν ἐκεῖνος τῶν τοιούτων ἀκήκοε λεγόντων πρός αὐτόν ὡς, «ἀμύητος ὤν καί τυφλός ἄντικρυς πρός τά τοιαῦτα τί ποτε παθών περί μυστικῶν ἱερῶν θεαμάτων ἐγχειρεῖς λέγειν, ὧν οὐδ᾿ ἄν εὐχερῶς ἐπαΐοις τῶν πεπειραμένων ἀκούων;», ἀρνεῖσθαι τήν ἐπί τοῦτοις ἀμαθίαν καί ἀπειρίαν οὐκ ἔχων, πᾶσι φανεράν προκειμένην, «οὐ θαυμαστόν», φησίν, «εἰ τυφλός ὤν αὐτός βλέποντός τινος ἔχοιτο καί οὕτω τῶν ἄλλων τυφλῶν ἐχομένων αὐτοῦ ἡγεμών ἀπλανής κατασταίη», τῇ (σελ. 412) περιουσίᾳ τῆς περί τό λέγειν δυνάμεως καί τῇ πιθανολογίᾳ τῶν διαλεκτικῶν σοφισμάτων εὑρηκέναι οἰόμενος, ὅθεν καί τῆς εὐαγγελικῆς φωνῆς περιγένοιτο, τἀναντία τούτῳ σαφῶς λεγούσης˙ «τυφλός γάρ τυφλόν ἐάν ὁδηγῇ, φησίν, «ἀμφότεροι εἰς βόθυνον ἐμπεσοῦνται». Ἀλλ᾿ ἐγώ, φησίν ὁ τυφλός οὗτος καί τῶν τυφλῶν ὁδηγός, ἐχόμενος ἕπεσθαι τοῖς ὁρῶσι δύναμαι. Καί τίς τῶν τυφλῶν, ὅς οὐ τοῦτο δύναται; Κυλλός μέν γάρ ὤν ἀμφοτέρω τώ πόδε καί τώ χεῖρε καί παρειμένος παντάπασιν, οὐδ᾿ ἄν σοῦ γε ἔχοιτο, οὐδ᾿ ἄν ἕποιτο, οὐδ᾿ ἄν ὁδηγοῦ τό παράπαν δέοιτο, κλινοπετής ὤν˙ χεῖρας δ᾿ ὑγιαίνων καί πόδας, τοῦ χάριν, τυφλῶν κράτιστε, μή τοῦ ὁρῶντος μᾶλλον ἤ σοῦ ἐχόμενος ἕποιτο;