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Thus therefore it shall be, beloved children, my sons, my cherished ones, who hear my words, everyone who has sinned before the Lord God Almighty and receives in his heart a sense of the fear of judgment and of turning away from him. For the fear of the Lord and the sense of His just retribution so melts the flesh and crushes the bones, (310) as a stone suspended by a machine presses and vehemently squeezes the bunches of grapes trodden in the winepress. For men first tread the grapes, and later they press them under the stone and render them without any moisture, but the man who has entered into the fear of God, the very fear of God makes him become a thing to be trodden upon by all other men. And when it has completely ground down and crushed the proud and vainglorious mind of his flesh, then holy humility, the intelligible stone, most light and good, falling from above, having squeezed out all the moisture of carnal pleasures and passions, does not render the pressed soul useless, but having drenched it with rivers of tears, it makes it gush forth living water and heals the wounds from sins and washes away their pus and sores and shows that whole man to be brighter than snow.

Blessed, therefore, is that man who hears these words and receives them with faith and does them, because having found great goods, which are beyond mind and speech and thought, he will bless my wretched hand that wrote these things, and will glorify the merciful and most-merciful Lord, who through a defiled tongue and an unclean and defiled mouth has committed these things to writing as an example of conversion and repentance and as an unerring and most true way for those who desire with their whole soul to be saved and are about to inherit the kingdom, which is in God himself and our Savior, to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Discourse 24. (311)

Concerning spiritual knowledge. And that the hidden treasure of the Spirit in the letter of the divine Scripture is not manifest to all, not even to those who wish it, but only to those who have acquired the one who opens the mind to understand the Scriptures.

Brothers and fathers, spiritual knowledge is like a house built in the midst of worldly and Hellenic knowledge, in which, like a strong and secured chest, the knowledge of the divinely inspired Scriptures and the ineffable wealth treasured up in it is laid away, which those entering the house would never be able to perceive, unless the chest were opened for them. But it is not possible for this ever to be opened by human wisdom, for which reason the wealth of the Spirit laid up within it remains unknown to all men in the world. And just as even if a man takes up the whole chest on his own shoulders and carries it about, he is ignorant of the treasure laid up in it, so even if a man reads and memorizes all the Scriptures (312) and carries them about like a single psalm, he is ignorant of the gift of the Holy Spirit hidden in them. For neither through the chest are the things in the chest made manifest, nor through Scripture are the things in Scripture made manifest. And how, listen.

You see a small chest, securely closed on all sides and, as much as from its weight and its outward elegance, you suppose or perhaps even, hearing from some, you believe it to have a treasure within, which you take up and go on your way with haste; what

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Οὕτως οὖν ἔσται, τέκνα ἠγαπημένα, υἱοί μου, περιποίητοί μου, οἱ ἀκούοντές μου τούς λόγους, πᾶς ὁ ἔναντι Κυρίου Θεοῦ Παντοκράτορος ἁμαρτήσας καί φόβου κρίσεως καί ἀποστροφῆς αὐτοῦ αἴσθησιν ἐν καρδίᾳ λαμβάνων. Φόβος γάρ Κυρίου καί αἴσθησις ἀνταποδόσεως αὐτοῦ δικαίας οὕτω σάρκα ἐκτήκει καί ὀστᾶ συντρίβει, (310) ὡς ἀπῃωρημένος λίθος ὑπό μηχανῆς τούς ἐν τῇ ληνῷ πατουμένους βότρυας ἐκθλίβει καί σφοδρῶς ἐκπιέζει. Τάς μέν γάρ σταφυλάς πρῶτον πατοῦντες οἱ ἄνθρωποι, ὕστερον αὐτάς πιέζουσιν ὑπό τοῦ λίθου καί πάσης ὑγρότητος αὐτάς χωρίς ἀποφαίνουσι, τόν δέ εἰσελθόντα ἄνθρωπον εἰς τόν φόβον τοῦ Θεοῦ αὐτός ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ φόβος ποιεῖ αὐτόν γενέσθαι πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ἄλλοις εἰς καταπάτημα. Καί ὅτε καταλεάνῃ καί συντρίψει τελείως τό ὑπερήφανον καί κενόδοξον τῆς σαρκός αὐτοῦ φρόνημα, τότε ἡ ἁγία ταπείνωσις, ὁ νοητός λίθος ὁ ἐλαφρότατος καί χρηστός, ἐπιπεσών ἄνωθεν, πᾶσαν ὑγρότητα τῶν σαρκικῶν ἡδονῶν καί παθῶν ἐκπιέσασα, οὐκ ἄχρηστον τήν ἐκπιεσθεῖσαν ψυχήν ἀποδείκνυσιν, ἀλλά δάκρυα ποταμηδόν αὐτήν καταντλήσασα τό ζῶν ὕδωρ ἐκβλύζειν ποιεῖ καί τά ἐκ τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων τραύματα ἰᾶται καί τόν ἰχῶρα καί τά ἕλκη αὐτῶν ἀποπλύνει καί χιόνος λαμπρότερον ὅλον ἐκεῖνον ἀποδεικνύει τόν ἄνθρωπον.

Μακάριος οὖν ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖνος, ὁ τούς λόγους τούτους ἀκούων καί δεχόμενος αὐτούς μετά πίστεως καί ποιῶν αὐτούς, ὅτι μεγάλα εὑρηκώς ἀγαθά, τά ὑπέρ νοῦν καί λόγον καί διάνοιαν ὄντα, μακαρίσει τήν ἀθλίαν μου χεῖρα, τήν ταῦτα γράψασαν, καί δοξάσει τόν ἐλεήμονα καί πολυέλεον Κύριον, τόν διά ῥυπαρᾶς γλώσσης καί ἀκαθάρτου καί ῥυπαροῦ στόματος ταῦτα γραφῇ παραδόντα εἰς ἐπιστροφῆς καί μετανοίας ὑπόδειγμα καί εἰς ὁδόν ἀπλανῆ καί ἀληθεστάτην τῶν ἐξ ὅλης ψυχῆς θελόντων σωθῆναι καί μελλόντων κληρονομεῖν βασιλείαν, τήν ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ Θεῷ καί Σωτῆρι ἡμῶν, ᾧ ἡ δόξα εἰς τούς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν.

Λόγος Κ∆΄. (311)

Περί γνώσεως πνευματικῆς. Καί ὅτι ὁ ἐγκεκρυμμένος τοῦ Πνεύματος θησαυρός ἐν τῷ γράμματι τῆς θείας Γραφῆς οὐ πᾶσιν εὔδηλός ἐστι καί

τοῖς βουλομένοις, ἀλλά μόνοις τοῖς τόν διανοίγοντα τόν νοῦν κτησαμένοις εἰς τό συνιέναι τάς Γραφάς.

Ἀδελφοί καί πατέρες, ἔοικεν ἡ πνευματική γνῶσις οἰκίᾳ τινί μέσον τῆς κοσμικῆς

καί ἑλληνικῆς γνώσεως κατεσκευασμένῃ ἐν ᾗ ὥσπερ κιβώτιον στερρόν καί κατησφαλισμένον ἡ γνῶσις τῶν θεοπνεύστων Γραφῶν καί ὁ ἐν αὐτῇ ἄφραστος πλοῦτος ἀποτεθησαυρισμένος ἀπόκειται, ὅν οὐκ ἄν ποτε οἱ ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ εἰσερχομένοι κατιδεῖν δυνηθῶσιν, εἰ μή τό κιβώτιον αὐτοῖς πάντως διανοιχθῇ. Οὐκ ἔστι δέ ὑπό ἀνθρωπίνης σοφίας ἀνοιχθῆναι τοῦτό ποτε, διό καί μένει ἄγνωστος πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις τοῖς ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ὁ ἐναποκείμενος ἐν αὐτῷ πλοῦτος τοῦ Πνεύματος. Καί καθάπερ κἄν αὐτό τό κιβώτιον ὅλον ἐπί τῶν ἑαυτοῦ ὤμων ἀναλαβών ἐπιφέρηται ἄνθρωπος, τόν ἐναποκείμενον ἐν αὐτῷ ἀγνοεῖ θησαυρόν, οὕτω κἄν πάσας ἀναγνῷ καί ἐκστηθίσηται ὁ ἄνθρωπος τάς Γραφάς (312) καί ὡς ἕνα ψαλμόν περιφέρῃ αὐτάς, τήν ἐγκεκρυμμένην ἐν αὐταῖς τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος δωρεάν ἀγνοεῖ. Οὔτε γάρ διά τοῦ κιβωτίου τά ἐν τῷ κιβωτίῳ, οὔτε διά τῆς Γραφῆς τά ἐν τῇ Γραφῇ δῆλα καθίστανται. Καί πῶς, ἄκουσον.

Βλέπεις κιβώτιον μικρόν, κεκλεισμένον πάντοθεν ἀσφαλῶς καί, ὅσον ἀπό τοῦ βάρους καί τῆς ἔξωθεν εὐπρεπείας αὐτοῦ, ὑπολαμβάνεις ἤ καί ἴσως παρά τινων ἀκούων πιστεύεις ἔνδοθεν ἔχειν αὐτό θησαυρόν, ὅ καί ἄρας μετά σπουδῆς πορεύῃ· τί