245

And I, for my part, was hesitant at the beginning, declining the subject of the discourse (for the truth will be told); not because I did not wish, beloved, to give you in every way according to my ability what is pleasing; but because I have not partaken of the grace that leads the worthy to this; nor, indeed, do I have experience of the power and practice of speaking, having been brought up in plainness, and being utterly uninitiated in the technicalities of words, which have their grace only in their utterance; in which the many especially delight, confining their pleasure to their hearing, even if often they should have nothing of value in depth; and, to speak more properly and more truly, fearing lest I should insult by the meanness of our discourse that blessed man's sublime speech and thought concerning divine things. Nevertheless, having later yielded to the force of love, which is stronger than all things, I willingly accepted the command; choosing rather to be laughed at for my audacity and lack of education by the fault-finders, on account of my obedience, than to be thought unwilling to be eager with you in every good thing through my postponement; casting my care of how to speak upon God, the only wonder-worker, who both teaches man knowledge, and makes clear the tongue of those who speak with difficulty, and devises a way for the helpless; and who raises the poor from the earth, and lifts up the needy from the dunghill; I mean from the carnal mind and from the foul-smelling mire of the passions; the poor in spirit or the one who is poor in wickedness, and is in want of the state according to it; or, on the contrary, also the one who is still held by the law of the flesh and the passions, and for this reason is poor and in want of the grace that comes from virtue and knowledge.

But since for the all-holy and truly God-revealing Dionysius the Areopagite, in his treatise on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, the symbols concerning the sacred (661)) rite of the holy assembly have been contemplated in a manner worthy of his own magnanimity; it must be known that the present discourse does not go through the same things, nor does it proceed by the same means as that one. For it is rash and audacious and close to madness for one who is not able to comprehend or understand him to attempt to undertake his work; and to bring forth as one's own the mysteries divinely revealed to him alone through the Spirit; but rather, whatever things were philanthropically left by him, by the will of God, for others to grasp, for the exposition and exercise of their own disposition concerning divine things according to their longing; and through which the all-radiant ray of the rites being performed, being understood in a manner commensurate to them, becomes known, and holds fast to itself those seized by desire, so that those after him might not be completely idle all the day of the time of this present life, not having the word that hires them for that divine vineyard-tending, the word that, for the spiritual work of the spiritual vineyard, gives back the spiritual denarius of the divine and most royal image, which was stolen at the beginning by the evil one through deceit in the transgression of the commandment.

I do not profess to speak in order of all the things mystically contemplated by the blessed elder; nor the very things being said, as they were understood and spoken by him. For that man, being a philosopher and a teacher of all learning, having set himself free from the bonds of matter and the phantasies related to it through an abundance of virtue and a more prolonged and more scientific application and love of labor concerning divine things, rightly had his mind illumined by the divine rays, and for this reason was able to see immediately the things not seen by the many, and his word was a most accurate interpreter of the things he understood; and, like a mirror unimpeded by any stain of the passions, was able to purely bear and speak things that could not even be understood by others; as

245

Κἀγώ μέν ὤκνουν παρά τήν ἀρχήν, τοῦ λόγου (εἰρήσεται γάρ τἀληθές) τήν ὑπόθεσιν παραιτούμενος· οὐ τῷ μή θέλειν ὑμῖν, ἠγαπημένοι, παντί τρόπῳ διδόναι κατά δύναμιν τό καταθύμιον· ἀλλά τό μήτε τῆς ἐναγούσης πρός τοῦτο τούς ἀξίους μετειληφέναι χάριτος· μήτε μήν πεῖραν ἔχειν τῆς πρός τό λέγειν δυνάμεώς τε καί τριβῆς, ἰδιωτείᾳ συντεθραμμένος, καί λόγων τεχνικῶν παντελῶς ἀμύητος ὑπάρχων, τῶν ἐν μόνῃ τῇ προφορᾷ τήν χάριν ἐχόντων· οἷς οἱ πολλοί μάλιστα χαίρουσι, τῇ ἀκοῇ τήν ἡδονήν περιγράφοντες, κἄν εἰ μηδέν τῶν τιμίων διά βάθους πολλάκις ἔχοιεν· καί τό, κυρώτερον εἰπεῖν καί ἀληθέστερον, δεδοικέναι μή καθυβρίσειν τῇ εὐτελείᾳ τοῦ ἡμετέρου λόγου τήν ἐκείνου τοῦ μακαρίου ἀνδρός περί τῶν θείων ὑψηγορίαν τε καί νόησιν· ὅμως δι᾿ οὖν ὕστερον τῇ βίᾳ τῆς ἀγάπης εἴξας, τῆς πάντων ἰσχυροτέρας, ἐδεξάμην ἑκών τό ἐπίταγμα· γελᾶσθαι μᾶλλον ἐπ᾿ αὐθαδείᾳ τε καί ἀπαιδευσίᾳ, δι᾿ εὐπείθειαν παρά τῶν μεμψιμοίρων ἑλόμενος, ἤ ὑμῖν διά τῆς ἀναβολῆς ἐν παντί καλῷ μή συμπροθυμεῖσθαι βούλεσθαι νομισθῆναι· τήν περί τοῦ πῶς εἰπεῖν μέριμναν τῷ Θεῷ ἐπιῤῥίψας, τῷ μόνῳ θαυματουργῷ· καί διδάσκοντι μέν ἄνθρωπον γνῶσιν, τρανοῦντι δέ γλῶσσαν μογιλάλων καί τοῖς ἀπόροις πόρον ἐπινοοῦντι· καί ἐγείροντι μέν ἀπό γῆς πτωχόν, ἀπό δέ κοπρίας ἀνυψοῦντι πένητα· τοῦ σαρκικοῦ λέγω φρονήματος, καί τῆς δυσώδους τῶν παθῶν ἰλύος· τόν φτωχόν τῷ πνεύματι ἤ τόν κακίας πτωχεύοντα, καί τῆς κατ' αὐτήν πενόμενον ἕξεως· ἤ τοὐναντίον, καί τόν ἔτι τῷ νόμῳ τῆς σαρκός καί τοῖς πάθεσιν ἐνεχόμενον, καί διά τοῦτο τῆς κατ' ἀρετήν καί γνῶσιν πτωχεύοντα καί πενόμενον χάριτος.

Ἀλλ᾿ ἐπειδή τῷ παναγίῳ καί ὄντως θεοφάντορι ∆ιονυσίῳ τῷ Ἀρεοπαγίτῃ ἐν τῇ περί τῆς ἐκκλησιαστικῆς Ἱεραρχίας πραγματείᾳ, καί τά κατά τήν ἱεράν (661)) τῆς ἁγίας συνάξεως τελετήν ἀξίως τῆς αὐτοῦ μεγαλονοίας τεθεώρηται σύμβολα· ἰστέον, ὡς οὐ τά αὐτά νῦν ὁ λόγος διεξέρχεται, οὔτε διά τῶν αὐτῶν ἐκείνῳ προέρχεται. Τολμηρόν γάρ καί αὔθαδες καί ἀπονοίας ἐγγύς, ἐγχειρεῖν τοῖς ἐκείνου πειρᾶσθαι, τόν μήτε χωρεῖν αὐτόν ἤ νοεῖν δυνάμενον· καί ὡς ἴδια προκομίζειν, τά ἐνθέως ἐκείνῳ μόνῳ διά τοῦ Πνεύματος φανερωθέντα μυστήρια· ἀλλ᾿ ὅσα καί ἄλλοις ὡς ληπτά παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ φιλανθρώπως βουλήσει Θεοῦ παρελείφθη πρός ἔκθεσιν καί γυμνασίαν τῆς αὐτῶν ἐκείνων περί τά θεῖα κατά τήν ἔφεσιν ἕξεως· καί δι᾿ ὧν συμμέτρως αὐτοῖς ἡ παμφαής τῶν τελουμένων ἀκτίς κατανοουμένη καθίσταται γνώριμος, καί πρός ἑαυτήν κατέχει τῷ πόθῳ περιληφθέντας, ἵνα μή παντελῶς οἱ μετ᾿ αὐτόν ὦσιν ἀργοί, τήν πᾶσαν τοῦ χρόνου τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς ἡμέραν, οὐκ ἔχοντες τόν πρός τήν θείαν ἐκείνην ἀμπελουργίαν μισθούμενον λόγον, τόν ὑπέρ τῆς πνευματικῆς ἐργασίας τοῦ πνευματικοῦ ἀμπελῶνος, τό συλωθέν κατ᾿ ἀρχάς ὑπό τοῦ πονηροῦ δι᾿ ἀπάτης κατά τήν τῆς ἐντολῆς παράβασιν, πνευματικόν τῆς θείας καί βασιλικωτάτης εἰκόνος δηνάριον ἀποδιδόντα.

Οὐ πάντα δέ τά τῷ μακαρίῳ γέροντι μυστικῶς θεωρηθέντα λέγειν καθεξῆς ἐπαγγέλλομαι· οὐδ᾿ αὐτά τά λεγόμενα, ὡς ἐνοήθη τε παρ᾿ ἐκείνου καί ἐλέγθη. Ἐκεῖνος γάρ, πρός τό φιλόσοφος εἶναι, καί πάσης παιδείας διδάσκαλος, δι᾿ ἀρετῆς περιουσίαν καί τῆς περί τά θεῖα χρονιωτέρας τε καί ἐπιστημονικωτέρας τριβῆς καί φιλοπονίας, τῶν τῆς ὕλης δεσμῶν καί τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτήν φαντασιῶν ἐλεύθερον ἑαυτόν καταστήσας, τόν τε νοῦν εἰκότως εἶχε ταῖς θείας αὐγαῖς περιλαμπόμενον, καί διά τοῦτο δυνάμενον εὐθέως ὁρᾷν τά τοῖς πολλοῖς μή ὁρώμενα, καί τόν λόγον ἑρμηνευτήν ἀκριβέστατον τῶν νοηθέντων· καί ἐσόπτρου δίκην ὑπ᾿ οὐδεμιᾶς κηλίδος παθῶν ἐμποδιζόμενον, ἀκραιφνῶς τά ἄλλοις μήτε νοηθῆναι δυνάμενα, καί φέρειν καί λέγειν ἰσχύοντα· ὡς