252

Woe is me! - for I groan bitterly at the error of men. How do we not believe in Christ, how do we not follow, how do we not long for life, how do we not desire his wealth which cannot be plundered, which is incorruptible, the ageless glory of the life with him? How, clinging to corruptible things, do we think to be saved, we who do not love Christ more than the things we see, nor hope to be with him after our fate? But they are more insensible than wood and stones. But, O my Christ, deliver me from their irrationality and teach me to love you, the life of all the faithful. For to you, with your Father and your divine Spirit, glory is fitting and praise, honor and worship, both now and forever, as king unto ages of ages, and maker of all things, God and Master, amen.

ΝΒ'.

On theology; and that it is not permitted for one who has not been changed by participation in the Holy Spirit and become by grace a god in knowledge to teach divine things to men. (376)

Who will console the pain of my heart? But in saying pain, I have revealed the longing for the Savior, and the longing is the energy of the Spirit, or rather it is essentially his presence, seen within me hypostatically as light; and the light is incomparable, it is wholly ineffable. Who will separate me from sensible things, from which I was once delivered and was hidden from them, having become outside the world? Who will give me the calm and quiet of all things, that I may be filled with the beauty and the vision of him, whose incomprehensibility inflames longing, but what is comprehensible, is hypostatic longing. For love is not a name, but a divine essence, able to be partaken of and unable to be grasped, but certainly divine; what is participated in is comprehensible, what is beyond this is not yet so. Therefore I told you that longing is comprehensible and hypostatic as something participated in and grasped;

252

Φεῦ μοι! - στενάζω γάρ πικρῶς τήν τῶν ἀνθρώπων πλάνην . Πῶς οὐ πιστεύομεν Χριστῷ, πῶς οὐκ ἀκολουθοῦμεν, πῶς οὐ ποθοῦμεν τήν ζωήν, πῶς τόν ἐκείνου πλοῦτον τόν ἄσυλον, τόν ἄφθαρτον, τήν δόξαν τήν ἀγήρω διαγωγῆς τῆς μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ, πῶς οὐκ ἐπιθυμοῦμεν; Πῶς τοῖς φθαρτοῖς προσκείμενοι νομίζομεν σωθῆναι, οἱ μή φιλοῦντες τόν Χριστόν πλεῖον τῶν ὁρωμένων μηδέ ἐλπίζοντες αὐτῷ συνεῖναι μετά πότμον; Ἀλλά ἀναισθητότεροί εἰσι ξύλων τε καί τῶν λίθων. Ἀλλ᾿, ὦ Χριστέ μου, ῥῦσαί με τῆς τούτων ἀλογίας καί σέ φιλεῖν ἐκδίδαξον, τήν ζωήν πιστῶν πάντων. Σοί γάρ σύν τῷ Πατρί καί Πνεύματί σου Θείῳ δόξα πρέπει καί αἴνεσις, τιμή προσκύνησίς τε νῦν καί ἀεί ὡς βασιλεῖ εἰς αἰῶνας αἰώνων, κα΄τῶν ἁπάντων ποιητῇ, Θεῷ τε καί ∆εσπότῃ, ἀμήν.

ΝΒ'.

Περί θεολογίας˙ καί ὅτι τῷ μή ἀλλοιωθέντι τῇ τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος μετουσίᾳ καί γεγονότι θέσει ἐν γνώσει Θεῷ διδάσκειν τά θεῖα τούς ἀνθρώπους οὐκ ἔξεστι. (376)

Τίς μου παραμυθήσεται τόν πόνον τῆς καρδίας; Πόνον δ᾿ εἰπών ἐδήλωσα τόν τοῦ Σωτῆρος πόθον, ὁ πόθος δέ τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐνέργεια τυγχάνει, μᾶλλον δ᾿ αὐτοῦ οὐσιωδῶς ἐστίν ἡ παρουσία, ἐνυποστάτως ἐν ἐμοί φῶς ἐντός ὁρωμένη˙ τό φῶς δ᾿ ἀσύγκριτόν ἐστιν, ὁλον ἄφθεγκτον πέλει. Τίς με χωρίσει αἰσθητῶν, ὧν ἀπηλλάγην ἅπαξ καί ἀπεκρύβην ἐξ αὐτῶν γεγονώς ἔξω κόσμου; Τίς μοι δώσει γαλήνην γε καί ἡσυχίαν πάντων, ἵνα τοῦ κάλλους κορεσθῶ καί τῆς ἐκείνου θέας, οὗ τό ἀκατανόητον ἀναφλέγει τόν πόθον, ὁπόσον δέ καταληπτόν, ἐνυπόστατος πόθος. Ἀγάπη γάρ οὐκ ὄνομα, ἀλλά οὐσία θεία, μεταληπτή καί ἄληπτος, θεϊκή δέ γε πάντως˙ τό μεθεκτόν καταληπτόν, τούτου τό πλεῖον οὔπω. ∆ιά τοῦτο οὖν εἶπόν σοι καταληπτόν τόν πόθον καί ἐνυπόστατον αὐτόν ὡς μεθεκτόν ληπτόν τε˙