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least harming, much more that luminous symbol, being one of them, will cause no harm.

That this light is also among the things essentially contemplated around God, we are taught from many other things indeed, but especially from those things annually chanted in the Church, of which one will suffice for a demonstration.

“the hidden lightning under the flesh of your essential, Christ, and divine beauty

you showed on the holy mountain, O benefactor, having shone forth to the disciples who were present.”

Moreover, Maximus, wise in divine things, having said there that He became a symbol of Himself through loving-kindness, showed this light to be a natural (p. 604) symbol. For in the case of the non-natural, one thing is a symbol of another, but not something of itself; but when the symbol happens to be naturally from that of which it is a symbol, we say that it becomes a symbol of itself. For the burning power of fire, putting forth the heat that is participable by sense as a symbol of itself, becomes of course a symbol of itself, having this always with itself, yet being one and undergoing no duplication whatsoever on account of it, but using it naturally as a symbol, whenever that which can receive it is present. Likewise also the light of the sun about to rise, putting forth the far-shining brightness of dawn as a symbol, becomes a symbol of itself. We also know the light of the sun; for that too is perceptible by sight, by which we are also naturally able to perceive the twilight; but the disk of the sun does not permit anyone to look at it at all, and its brilliance has become almost invisible. And touch, perceiving the heat of the fire, has no knowledge at all of the burning power, of which we said the heat is a symbol, except insofar as to know that it exists, but not what kind it is, nor how great it is; for it would be destroyed, becoming entirely fire and losing its being as touch, while trying to learn by itself what the burning thing is that projects the heat, wherefore also, having once dared to approach, it immediately retreats and flees headlong, quickly regretting its impulse to learn. The power of fire participable by touch, therefore, is the heat, but the burning is entirely unparticipable.

If, then, it is so in these cases, how could one say that the divinity established supereminently in secret places becomes knowable, when its natural symbol is known? For what if the symbol of daylight at dawn were inaccessible to the eyes no less than the sun, or rather even more than it, would it be possible (p. 606) for them to behold that day or at least to behold anything else during it? How then would they have been able to know what sort of light the sun of that day, which is fitting by analogy, is? So and much more are divine things known only by participations, but what they are in themselves according to their own foundation and principle no one knows, not even the highest minds among the supercelestial beings, certainly not to the extent that we can know.

Moreover, the disciples of the Lord did not simply see this symbol without first receiving eyes which they did not have before, so as to see, having been blind, according to the divine John of Damascus, and to see that uncreated light, so that even if it was perceptible by eyes, it was by eyes that had become beyond eyes and perceived the spiritual light by a spiritual power. Thus, according to sense and beyond sense was that ineffable light, the inaccessible, the immaterial, the uncreated, the deifying, the eternal, the splendor of the divine nature, the glory of the Godhead, the beauty of the heavenly kingdom. Does such a thing, then, seem to you alien to the Godhead, a sensible and created symbol, and visible through the air? But as indeed

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ἥκιστα λυμαινομένων, πολλῷ μᾶλλον τό φωτοειδές ἐκεῖνο σύμβολον, ἕν αὐτῶν ὑπάρχον, οὐδέν ἐποίσει βλάβος.

Ὅτι δέ τῶν περί Θεόν οὐσιωδῶς θεωρουμένων καί τοῦτό ἐστι τό φῶς, ἐκ πολλῶν μέν καί ἄλλων, μάλιστα δέ ἐκ τῶν ἐπ᾿ Ἐκκλησίας ἐπετείως ψαλλομένων διδασκόμεθα, ὧν ἕν εἰς παράστασιν ἀρκέσει.

«τήν κεκρυμμένην ἀστραπήν ὑπό τήν σάρκα τῆς οὐσιώδους σου, Χριστέ, καί θείας εὐπρεπείας

ἐν ἁγίῳ ὑπέδειξας ὄρει, εὐεργέτα, τοῖς συμπαροῦσιν ἐκλάμψας μαθηταῖς».

Οὐ μήν ἀλλά καί ὁ σοφός τά θεῖα Μάξιμος, αὐτόν ἑαυτόῦ σύμβολον γενέσθαι διά φιλανθρωπίαν εἰρηκώς ἐκεῖ, φυσικόν (σελ. 604) ἔδειξε σύμβολον τουτί τό φῶς. Ἐπί μέν γάρ τοῦ μή φυσικοῦ, ἄλλου ἄλλο σύμβολόν ἐστιν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ αὐτό τι ἑαυτοῦ˙ ὅτε δέ τό σύμβολον ἐξ ἐκείνου ὄν τυγχάνει φυσικῶς οὗ σύμβολόν ἐστιν, αὐτό ἑαυτοῦ σύμβολον γίνεσθαί φαμεν. Ἡ γάρ καυστική τοῦ πυρός δύναμις, τήν αἰσθήσει μεθεκτήν θέρμην σύμβολον ἑαυτῆς προβαλλομένη, γίνεται σύμβολον αὐτή δήπου ἑαυτῆς, ἔχουσα μέν ταύτην ἀεί μεθ᾿ ἑαυτῆς, μία δ᾿ ὅμως οὖσα καί διπλόην οὐδ᾿ ἡντιναοῦν ὑφισταμένη δι᾿ αὐτήν, χρωμένη δ᾿ ὡς συμβόλῳ ταύτῃ φυσικῶς, ἡνίκ᾿ ἄν παρῇ τό δεκτικόν. Ὡσαύτως καί τό τοῦ ἡλίου φῶς μέλλοντος ἀνίσχειν, σύμβολον προβαλλόμενον τό κατά τόν ὄρθρον τηλαυγές, αὐτό ἑαυτοῦ σύμβολόν ἐστι γινόμενον. Ἴσμεν δέ καί τό ἡλίου φῶς˙ κἀκεῖνο γάρ ληπτόν ἐστι τῇ ὄψει, δι᾿ ἧς καί τοῦ λυκαυγοῦς ἀντιλαμβάνεσθαι πεφύκαμεν˙ ὁ δέ τοῦ ἡλίου δίσκος οὐδέ προσιδεῖν ὅλως συγχωρεῖ τινα καί τό λαμπρόν αὐτῷ σχεδόν ἀθέατον καθέστηκε. Τῆς τε θέρμης τοῦ πυρός ἀντιλαμβανομένη ἡ ἁφή, τῆς καυστικῆς δυνάμεως, ἧς σύμβολον εἶναι τήν θέρμην ἔφημεν, ταύτης οὖν εἴδησιν οὐδ᾿ ἡντινοῦν ἔχει ἡ ἁφή, πλήν ὅσον εἰδέναι ταύτην οὖσαν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ οἷα, οὐδ᾿ ὅση τίς ἐστι˙ φθάσειε γάρ ἄν, πῦρ ὅλη γενομένη καί τό ἁφήν εἶναι ἀποβαλλομένη, πειρωμένη μαθεῖν δι᾿ἑαυτῆς τί τό καυστικόν ἐστιν ὅ προβάλλεται τήν θέρμην, διό καί προσβολεῖν ποτε τολμήσασα, πάραυτα παλινδρομεῖ καί προτροπάδην φεύγει, τῆς πρός τό μαθεῖν ὁρμῆς ὀξύ μετάμελον λαβοῦσα. Μεθεκτή μέν οὖν ἁφῇ πυρός δύναμις, ἡ θέρμη, πάντῃ δ᾿ ἀμέθεκτος ἡ καῦσις.

Εἰ γοῦν ἐπί τούτων οὕτω, πῶς ἄν τις φαίη γνωστήν γίνεσθαι τήν ἐν ἀποκρύφοις ὑπερανιδρυμένην θεότητα, γνωσθέντος τοῦ φυσικοῦ συμβόλου ταύτης; Τί γάρ; εἰ τό κατ᾿ ὄρθρον σύμβολον ἡμερινοῦ φωτός ἀπρόσιτον ὄψεσιν ὑπῆρχεν οὐ ἧττον ἤ ὁ ἥλιος, μᾶλλον δέ κἀκείνου μᾶλλον, ἦν ἄν (σελ. 606) αὐταῖς τήν ἡμέραν ἐκείνην θεάσασθαι ἤ θεᾶσθαι γοῦν ἄλλο τι κατ᾿ αὐτήν; Πῶς οὖν ἄν τόν ἀναλόγως κατάλληλον ἥλιον ἐκείνης τῆς ἡμέρας γνῶναι ἐδυνήθησαν οἷον φῶς ἐστιν; Οὕτω καί πολλῷ μᾶλλον τά θεῖα μόναις ταῖς μετοχαῖς ἐπιγινώσκεται, αὐτά δέ κατά τήν ἑαυτῶν ἵδρυσίν τε καί ἀρχήν οἷά ποτέ ἐστιν οὐδείς οἶδεν, οὐδέ τῶν ἐν τοῖς ὑπερκοσμίοις ἀνωτάτω νόων, οὔκουν ὅσα γε ἡμᾶς εἰδέναι.

Οὐ μήν οὐδέ τό σύμβολον τοῦθ᾿ ἁπλῶς ἑωράκασιν οἱ τοῦ Κυρίου μαθηταί, μή πρότερον ὀφθαλμούς λαβόντες, οὕς οὐ πρότερον εἶχον, ὡς ἐκ τυφλῶν γενέσθαι βλέποντες, κατά τόν ἐκ ∆αμασκοῦ θεῖον Ἰωάννην, καί ἰδεῖν τό ἄκτιστον ἐκεῖνο φῶς, ὥστε εἰ καί ὀφθαλμοῖς ἐγένετο ληπτόν, ἀλλ᾿ ὑπέρ ὀφθαλμούς γεγενημένοις καί πνευματικῇ δυνάμει τοῦ πνευματικοῦ φωτός ἀντιλαμβανομένοις. Οὕτω κατ᾿αἴσθησιν καί ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν τό φῶς ἐκεῖνο τό ἀπόρρητον, τό ἀπρόσιτον, τό ἄϋλον, τό ἄκτιστον, τό θεοποιόν, τό ἀΐδιον, ἡ λαμπρότης τῆς θείας φύσεως, ἡ δόξα τῆς θεότητος, ἡ τῆς οὐρανίου βασιλέιας εὐπρέπεια. Τό τοιοῦτο τοίνυν ἀλλότριόν σοι δοκεῖ θεότητος, αἰσθητόν τε καί κτιστόν σύμβολον καί δι᾿ ἀέρος ὁρατόν; Ἀλλ᾿ ὡς μέν