21
He who loves
God both believes genuinely and accomplishes the works of faith in a holy way,
but he who only believes and does not abide in love does not even have the
faith that he thinks he has. For with a
certain lightness of mind he believes without being set into activity by the
weight of the glory of love. Therefore
faith set into activity by love is the greatest of the virtues.
22
Investigated,
the depth of the sea of faith is agitated; viewed with a simple disposition it
becomes serene. Being the water of Lethe
(forgetfulness) of evils, the depth of faith does not bear to be seen by
curious thoughts. Therefore let us sail
on its waters in simplicity of intellect so that we thus arrive at the harbour
of the will of God.
23
No one is
able either to love or to believe genuinely except if he does not have himself
as an accuser of himself. For when our
conscience agitates itself in reproaches, the mind is not yet permitted to
perceive [spiritually] the odour of the goods above this world, but it is
immediately divided in doubt, on the one hand reaching out to faith with a warm
movement on account of the experience it has already received, on the other
hand not yet being able to attain it in [spiritual] perception of heart by
means of love on account of, as I said, the constant[1]
prickings of the reproaching conscience.
Still, purifying ourselves with a warmer attention, with greater
experience in God we will attain what is desired.
24
Just as the
senses of the body somewhat violently urge us towards things which are good in
appearance, thus once it tastes the divine goodness the sense of the mind is
accustomed to guide us towards the invisible goods. For at all costs each has an appetite for its
familiar relatives: the soul, as bodiless, for the heavenly goods; but the
body, as dust, for earthly food.
Therefore we will without deception come into experience of the
immaterial sense if with ascetical efforts we refine the material[2].
25
The very
activity of holy gnosis teaches us that the natural sense of the soul is one
but that on account of the disobedience of Adam it thenceforth is divided in
two activities: one activity being simple, that coming to occur in the soul
from the Holy Spirit, which activity no one is able to know except those who
for the sake of the future goods have gladly freed themselves from the good
things of this life and who through temperance have dried up all the appetite
of the bodily senses. Only among these
persons can the mind, robustly set into motion on account of the freedom from
care, sense unspeakably the divine goodness, whence these persons then transfer
their own joy to the body according to the measure of their personal progress,
exulting in the confession of love with a certain limitless word. For it says: ‘For my heart has hoped on him
and I was helped and my flesh has been made to flourish and I will willingly
confess to him.’ For the joy which then
really occurs to the soul and to the body is an undeceiving reminder of the
incorruptible life of the spirit.[3]
26
Those who
are engaged in ascetical struggles must keep the intellect unwashed by waves so
that discerning the thoughts which run to and fro the mind put those that are
good and sent from God into the treasury of the memory but cast somewhere
outside of the store-rooms of nature those that are ill-omened and
demonic. For, indeed, when it is serene
the sea is seen by those who catch fish up to the very movement of the deep, as
if almost nothing eluded them of the creatures passing along its paths; but
when the sea is agitated by winds, it conceals in the gloominess of the
agitation those very things that in the laughter of serenity it has the honour
to let be seen. Whence, we then see the
skill to be idle of those who contrive the cunning devices for fishing. And it also undoubtedly happens that the
contemplative mind suffers this very same thing—and certainly when the sea-deep
of the soul is agitated by an unjust anger.
27
It is of
the extremely few to know their own faults precisely, and certainly of those
whose mind is never snatched away from the memory of God. For just as when our bodily eyes are healthy
they are able to see everything up to the gnats and mosquitoes[4]
flying through the air but when they are covered with turbidity or certain
humours, then if there should be something great of the things which encounter
our eyes, our eyes see it only dimly and do not perceive small things with the
sense of sight—thus also with the soul if by attention it refines the blindness
which occurs to it from love of the world and if in great thanksgiving it
unceasingly brings tear upon tear, treating its most trivial faults as the most
serious. For it says: ‘The just will
confess in your name.’ If, however, the
soul persists in the disposition of the world, then if it should commit
something murderous or worthy of great punishment it senses this tranquilly; it
is not at all able to take note of the other faults but often considers them to
be achievements of a sort, wherefore the wretched soul is not ashamed as it
defends them warmly.
28
It is of
the Holy Spirit alone to purify the mind.
For if the strong man does not enter in and despoil the robber, by no
means will the booty be freed. Therefore
we must by all means give repose to the Holy Spirit, especially by the peace of
the soul, so that we always have the lamp of gnosis shining before us. For when the Holy Spirit unceasingly flashes
like lightning in the treasure-rooms of the soul, not only do all those bitter
and dark assaults of the demons become most obvious to the mind but rebuked by
that Holy and Glorious Light they are extremely weakened. For this reason the Apostle says: ‘Do not
extinguish the Spirit;’ in the sense of: ‘Do not sorrow the goodness of the
Holy Spirit by doing evil works or speaking evil, so that you not be deprived
of that defending lamp.’ For that which
is eternal and vivifying is not extinguished, but its sorrow, that is to say
its aversion, leaves the mind gloomy and without the light of gnosis.
29
The Spirit
of God, which is holy and loves Mankind, teaches us that there is one, as I
said, natural [spiritual] sense of the soul, since the five [bodily senses]
differ once and for all according to the needs of our body. However, on account of the Fall which occurred
from disobedience this natural [spiritual] sense of the soul is also divided in
the mind by the movements of the very soul.
Wherefore one aspect of it is carried off with the impassioned part of
the soul, whence we gladly sense the goods of this world, while the other
aspect often sympathizes with the rational and spiritual[5]
movement of the soul, whence when we are sober our mind reaches out to run
towards the heavenly beauties. If we
therefore come into the habit of despising the goods in the world we will be
able to join the earthly appetite of the soul to its rational disposition, the
communion of the Holy Spirit dispensing this to us. For if its Divinity should not actively
illuminate the treasure-rooms of our heart, we would not be able to taste the
Good in an undivided [spiritual] sense, that is to say, in a whole disposition.[6]
30
The
[spiritual] sense of the mind is the exact taste of the things discerned.[7] For in the way that in time of health,
discerning without deception the good things from the bad things with our
bodily sense of taste, we reach out to the good things—so in the same way, when
our mind should begin to move robustly and in great freedom from care[8]
it is able richly to perceive [spiritually] the divine consolation and never at
all to be carried away by the opposed [devilish consolation]. For just as the body has a faultless
experience of the sense [of taste] when tasting earthly sauces, thus also when
the mind boasts [of being] above the will of the flesh[9]
it is able without deception to taste the consolation of the Holy Spirit (for
it says: ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good;’) and through the activity of
love to have unforgettable the memory of that taste in faultlessly assaying
vital matters, according to the saint who says: ‘And I pray for this very thing,
that your love be more and more abundant in knowledge and all [spiritual] sense
so that you assay the vital matters.’[10]
[1] Accepting Rutherford’s reading of puknous.
[2] Greek: ulen. I.e. the material body.
[3] I.e. after death.
[4] (deleted).
[5] Greek: noeran. Literally, ‘mental, pertaining to the mind or
nous’.
[6] The author means that in the post-Fall condition of life, part of
the spiritual sense runs after the movements of the impassioned part of the
soul while the other part desires the heavenly goods. It is only through the illumination of the
innermost chambers of our heart by the divinity of the Holy Spirit that we can
return to the pre-Fall condition of tasting the Good with an undivided
spiritual sense, that is to say, in a condition of complete personal integration
where we no longer are divided between the movements of the impassioned part of
the soul and our desire for the heavenly goods.
Moreover, we then have the ability with this undivided spiritual sense
to discern the good from the bad.
[7] Cf. Evagrius KG II, 28: ‘The sensible eye, when it regards something visible, does
not see the whole of it; but the intelligible eye either has not seen, or, when
it sees, immediately surrounds from all sides that which it sees.’ Also KG II, 35: ‘The mind (nous) also
possesses five spiritual senses through which it apprehends its familiar
materials: sight presents to it bare the intelligible objects themselves; the
hearing receives the reasons (logoi) concerning those intelligible objects; the sense of
smell enjoys the aroma which is unmixed with any lie; and the mouth partakes of
the pleasure which is from them; by means of the sense of touch, then, the mind
(nous) is confirmed with the exact proof of the objects received.’
[8] The author means that the mind must have no occupation with worldly
affairs.
[9] Here and elsewhere the author uses ‘boasts of’ in the good sense of
‘attains to’.
[10] This is the author’s only reference to the role of the spiritual
sense in the so-called charisms of discernment, clairvoyance and even
prevoyance, which play such an important role in the Orthodox tradition of
spiritual direction.