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to create a divine and blessed love, both uniting to God and making a god of the one who loves God.

33. When self-love, as I have said, the beginning and mother of evils, is plucked out, all things from it and after it are accustomed to be plucked out along with it, since when it is not present, not in any way at all can any form or trace of evil subsist.

34. It is necessary to support ourselves and one another to such a degree as Christ himself, taking the initiative, demonstrated by enduring suffering for our sake.

35. Because of love, all the saints resisted sin, taking no account of the present life; and they endured the manifold forms of death, so that they might be gathered from the world to themselves and to God, and unite in themselves the divisions of nature. For this is the true and blameless divine wisdom of the faithful; whose end is the good and the truth; if indeed the philanthropic is good, and the God-loving according to faith is true, which are the characteristics of love; as it unites human beings to God and to one another, and for this reason has the unfailing permanence of good things.

36. (1193) The activity and proof of perfect love for God is the genuine disposition toward one's neighbor through voluntary goodwill. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, says the divine John, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

37. The way of truth is love, which the Word of God called himself, and those who journey on it, he presents to God the Father, having become pure from all things.

38. This is the door, through which the one who enters comes into the Holy of holies, and becomes a worthy beholder of the unapproachable beauty of the holy and royal Trinity.

39. It is truly fearful and beyond all condemnation to voluntarily put to death the life given to us by God as a free gift of the Holy Spirit through love for perishable things; and they certainly know this fear, who have practiced preferring truth to self-love.

40. Let us use peace for what is needed, and having rejected the friendship with the world and the ruler of the world that has evilly come to exist in us, let us put an end, even if at some late time, to the war against God that is brought about through the passions; and having made unbreakable treaties of peace with him, in the abolition of the body of sin, let us cease from our enmity toward him.

41. It is impossible for us to be reconciled with God, being at variance with him through the passions, and enduring to pay tribute through wickedness to the wicked tyrant and murderer of souls, the devil, without first being entirely at war with the wicked one. For until then we have stood as enemies and adversaries of God, even if we fashion for ourselves the name of believers, as long as we wish to be slaves to passions of dishonor; and no benefit will henceforth come to us from peace according to the world, when the soul is badly disposed, and is at variance with its own creator, and does not endure to be under his kingdom; being sold, moreover, to countless cruel masters who urge it on to wickedness, and who deceitfully prepare it to choose the road leading to destruction rather than the one that saves.

42. For this God has made us, that we might become partakers of the divine nature, and sharers in his eternity, and appear like him through deification by grace, for which is all the constitution and endurance of beings, and the bringing forth and generation of non-beings.

399

θείαν καί μακαρίαν ἀγάπην δημιουργῆσαι, τῷ Θεῷ συνάπτουσάν τε καί θεόν ἀποφαίνουσαν τόν φιλόθεον.

λγ΄. Τῆς φιλαυτίας ὡς ἀρχῆς, καθώς εἶπον, καί μητρός τῶν κακῶν ἀποτιλείσης, πάντα τά ἐξ αὐτῆς τε καί μετ᾿ αὐτήν, συναποτίλλεσθαι εἴωθεν ἐπειδή ταύτης μή οὔσης, οὐδέ οὐδαμῶς τό παράπαν κακίας εἶδος ἤ ἴχνος ὑφίστασθαι δύναται.

λδ΄. ∆έον ἐστίν, ἑαυτῶν καί ἀλλήλων τοσοῦτον ἀντέχεσθαι, ὅσον αὐτός δι᾿ αὐτοῦ ὁ Χριστός προλαβών ἀπεδείξατο, ὑπέρ ἡμῶν παθεῖν ἀνασχόμενος.

λε΄. ∆ιά τήν ἀγάπην οἱ ἅγιοι πάντες πρός τήν ἁμαρτίαν ἀντικατέστησαν, τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς οὐδένα λόγον ποιησάμενοι· καί τούς πολυειδεῖς τοῦ θανάτου τρόπους ὑπέστησαν, ἵνα πρός ἑαυτούς ἀπό τοῦ κόσμου καί τόν Θεόν συναχθῶσι, καί τά τῆς φύσεως ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτῶν ἑνώσωσι ῥήγματα. Αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ἀληθής καί ἀμώμητος τῶν πιστῶν θεοσοφία· ἧς τέλος, τό ἀγαθόν ἐστι καί ἡ ἀλήθεια· εἴπερ ἀγαθόν τό φιλάνθρωπον, καί ἀληθές τό κατά πίστιν φιλόθεον, τά τῆς ἀγάπης γνωρίσματα· ὡς Θεῷ καί ἀλλήλοις τούς ἀνθρώπους συνάπτουσα, καί διά τοῦτο τῶν ἀγαθῶν τήν διαμονήν ἀδιάπτωτον ἔχουσα.

λστ΄. (1193) Ἐνέργεια καί ἀπόδειξις τῆς πρός Θεόν τελείας ἀγάπης ἐστίν, ἡ γνησία δι᾿ εὐνοίας ἑκουσίου πρός τόν πλησίον διάθεσις. Ὁ γάρ μή ἀγαπῶν τόν ἀδελφόν αὐτοῦ, ὅν ἐώρακε, φησίν ὁ θεῖος Ἰωάννης, τόν Θεόν ὅν οὐχ ἐώρακεν, οὐ δύναται ἀγαπᾷν.

λζ΄. Ἡ τῆς ἀληθείας ὁδός, ἡ ἀγάπη ἐστίν, ἥν ἑαυτόν ὀνομάσας ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, τούς ἐν αὐτῇ ὁδεύοντας, τῷ Θεῷ καί Πατρί καθαρούς παντοίων γενομένους παρίστησιν.

λη΄. Αὕτη ἐστίν ἡ θύρα, δι᾿ ἧς ὁ εἰσερχόμενος, εἰς τά Ἅγια γίνεται τῶν ἁγίων, καί τοῦ ἀπροσίτου κάλλους τῆς ἁγίας καί βασιλικῆς Τριάδος καθίσταται ἄξιος θεατής γενέσθαι.

λθ΄. Φοβερόν ὄντως καί πάσης κατακρίσεως ὑπερέκεινα, τό τήν δοθεῖσαν ἡμῖν παρά Θεοῦ κατά δωρεάν τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος ἑκουσίως νεκρῶσαι ζωήν, διά τῆς πρός τά φθειρόμενα ἀγάπης· καί ἴσασι πάντως τοῦτον τόν φόβον, οἱ τήν ἀλήθειαν τῆς φιλαυτίας προτιμᾷν μελετήσαντες.

μ΄. Χρησώμεθα εἰς δέον τῇ εἰρήνῃ, καί τήν πρός τόν κόσμον, καί τόν κοσμοκράτορα κακῶς ἡμῖν ἐνυπάρξασαν ἀθητήσαντες φιλίαν, τόν διά τῶν παθῶν πρός τόν Θεόν συνιστάμενον, κἄν ὀψέ ποτε καταλύσωμεν πόλεμον· καί σπονδάς ἀλύτους τῆς πρός αὐτόν εἰρήνης ποιήσαντες, ἐν τῇ καταργήσει τοῦ σώματος τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τῆς πρός αὐτόν ἔχθρας παυσώμεθα.

μα΄. Ἀδύνατόν ἐστιν ἡμᾶς φιλιωθῆναι Θεῷ, διά τῶν παθῶν πρός αὐτόν στασιάζοντας, καί τῷ πονηρῷ τυράννῳ καί φονευτῇ τῶν ψυχῶν διαβόλῳ διά κακίας δασμοφορεῖν ἀνεχομένους, μή πρότερον διόλου πολεμωθέντας τῷ πονηρῷ. Μέχρι γάρ τότε τοῦ Θεοῦ καθεστήκαμεν ἐχθροί καί πολέμιοι, κἄν πιστῶν προσηγορίαν ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς περιπλάττωμεν, μέχρις οὗ πάθεσιν ἀτιμίας δουλεύειν βουλόμεθα· καί οὐδέν ὄφελος ἡμῖν ἐκ τῆς κατά τόν κόσμον εἰρήνης λοιπόν περιγενήσεται, τῆς ψυχῆς κακῶς διακειμένης, καί πρός τόν ἴδιον ποιητήν στασιαζούσης, καί ὑπό τήν αὐτοῦ βασιλείαν γενέσθαι οὐκ ἀνεχομένης· ἔτι μυρίοις πεπεραμένης ὠμοῖς δεσπόταις εἰς κακίαν αὐτήν κατεπείγουσι, καί τήν εἰς ἀπώλειαν φέρουσαν ὁδόν, τῆς σωζούσης μᾶλλον ἀπατηλῶς αἱρεῖσθαι παρασκευάζουσιν.

μβ΄. Εἰς τοῦτο ἡμᾶς πεποίηκεν ὁ Θεός, ἵνα γενώμεθα θείας κοινωνοί φύσεως, καί τῆς αὐτοῦ ἀϊδιότητος μέτοχοι, καί φανῶμεν αὐτῷ ὅμοιοι κατά τήν ἐκ χάριτος θέωσιν, δι᾿ ἥν πᾶσάν τε τῶν ὄντων ἡ σύστασίς ἐστι καί διαμονή, καί ἡ τῶν μή ὄντων παραγωγή καί γένεσις.