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Wisdom Quote
It is upon us who continue in this quiet and peaceful course of life that the truth will shine, illuminating the eyes of our soul with its own rays. This truth, which was then manifested by the ineffable and mysterious illumination which came to Moses, is God.
*St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 332-395)
Today's Scripture
1 One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. 3 “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.”
4 When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
“Here I am!” Moses replied.
5 “Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. 6 I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
*Exodus 6.1-6, NLT
Comments
St. Gregory of Nyssa, referring to Moses before the burning bush, says the light of divinity informs us that we must stand in the rays of the true light. Continuing, he writes:
Sandaled feet cannot ascend that height where the light of truth is seen, but the dead and earthly covering of skins, which was placed around our nature at the beginning when we were found naked [in the Garden of Eden] because of disobedience to the divine will, must be removed from the feet of the soul [St. Gregory taught layers of animalic nature, not merely the body, must be removed in our spiritual growth, bit by bit; cf. St. Paul's teaching of "flesh," or sarx]. When we do this, the [contemplative] knowledge of the truth will result and manifest itself. The full [mystical] knowledge of being comes about by purifying our opinion concerning nonbeing.
God, then, is That alone, I AM, Who subsists in Itself. All creatures live by participating in this One Life. We each are contingent parts of a noncontingent Whole. We are for God is, but God is, and God's existing is one with God as Existence, where our existing is for God is Existence.
St. Gregory, like other church fathers, was contemplative, or mystical. He teaches progressive purification of all that is not of God, introducing us into the Mystery of Deity. This purification, enacted by the light, means removing of all addition to our original, untainted nature and demands spiritual practice (acesis) in inner quiet and inward solitude: "So, whoever applies himself in quietness to higher philosophical matters over a long period of time will barely apprehend what true Being is, that is, what possesses existence in its own nature, and what nonbeing is, that is, what is existence only in appearance, with no self-subsisting nature."
Therefore, St. Gregory relates this to the Gospel and us each: "In the same way that Moses on that occasion attained to this knowledge, so now does everyone who, like him, divests himself of earthly covering and looks to the light shining from the bramble bush, that is, to the Radiance which shines upon us through this thorny flesh and which is (as the Gospel says) the true light and the truth itself [see St. John 1.9, 14.6]."
For St. Gregory the key to freedom from tyranny of the "flesh" and irradiation by the true light is apatheia.
I will turn to the eminent monastic theologian Evagrius (346-399) to elucidate this concept apatheia. The following speaks of apatheia, and derives from the Byzantine Catholic Community from Scranton, and the writing "Two Church Fathers on Prayer."
Asceticism then, for Evagrius, was always oriented toward the goal of attaining purity of heart. He used the term 'apatheia' which he describes as "a habitual state of imperturbable calm." (Chapters on Prayer, 52, p. 63) For Evagrius, 'apatheia' was a state of the soul where the passions no longer exert any influence on the mind. 'Apatheia' would allow one to pray without distraction, culminating in the state of pure prayer. "The proof of 'apatheia' is had when the spirit begins to see its own light." (Praktikos, 64, p. 33)
Evagrius stressed the importance of developing virtues as an essential part of a life of prayer. In the longest chapter in the Praktikos, 89, he lists the virtues and their role in the health of the soul. He firmly believed in a careful examination of one's life. The monk should work hardest on acquiring the virtues most lacking in the soul. He must practice and work for the things that we can take with us, like the virtues, rather than the things of this world which passes away. He stressed the practice of acquiring the opposite virtue to combat the most troublesome passionate thoughts. He recommended acquiring virtues to help purify the mind and heart, to bring the monk closer to God. "The soul that is purified by the plenitude of virtues renders the spirit unshakable in its balance and makes it capable of possessing the state for which it longs." (Chapters on Prayer, 2, p. 56) This state, of course, is the state of pure prayer.
Thus, all of his teachings on the ascetic life, ascetic practice, control of passions, development of virtues are made with the goal of attaining purity of heart. Thus Evagrius defines the ascetic life as "the spiritual method for cleansing the affective part of the soul." (Praktikos, 78, p. 36)
Once a monk has attained to 'apatheia', a state of deep calm where passions are in check, only then can he speak of perfect charity. Evagrius saw a close connection between 'apatheia' and 'agape'. Thus Evagrius chooses a specifically Christian and biblical context, 'apatheia', as the keystone of his whole structure of ascetic practices.
"The fear of God strengthens faith, my son, and continence in turn strengthens this fear. Patience and hope make this latter virtue solid beyond all shaking and they also give birth to 'apatheia'. Now this 'apatheia' has a child called 'agape' who keeps the door to deep knowledge of the created universe. Finally, to this knowledge succeed theology and the supreme beatitude." (Evagrius, Letter to Anatolius)
So, the monastic life for Evagrius is not only the struggle to rid the self of all evil and ignorance, but also the monk is to establish in the soul virtue and knowledge, through prayer and contemplation. "In your prayer seek only after justice and the kingdom of God, this is to say, after virtue and true spiritual knowledge. Then all else will be given to you besides." (Chapters on Prayer, 38, p. 61)
And Pseudo-Macarius [early, but date uncertain], in "The Great Letter of Pseudo-Macarius," addresses apapheia in regard to the "passions," giving it a contemplative-christological reading. These emotions are the "passions" that captivate the heart-mind and separate it from union with the Divine: "For the Savior inhabits the worthy ones by the grace of sanctification and their state of apatheia, so that, as the Lord is passionless, so also those who have received from him he would free from passions so as to be no longer agitated and tossed about on all sides by every wind."
So, as is true in St. Gregory, Evagrius, and Pseudo-Macarius, prayer is not simply relating to or with God, as in, petition, supplication, thanksgiving, meditation ..., or listening to God ; prayer is having to contend with and work for purification of our heart-mind. This, then, allows the light within us, the Christ, by means of the Holy Spirit, to purify our heart-mind little by little, with intent and consent to surrender to the light until we clearly see God, or Being, as God in Godself, apart from the distorting influences of our own seeing. And this includes even the "sacred" distortions due to religious conditioning.
Then, we shall see God, Jesus says: "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (St. Matthew 5.8, AV). This seeing is contemplative, or mystical, knowing, free of the distortions of even common affections. The greatest obstacle to the seeing is not distortions that are clearly, in our estimation, wrong or evil, or irreligious; such greater challenges are those aspects of seeing that limit Being by imposing on Being that not inherent to Being, or Being as Being: religious and theological claims that are, by nature, less than God Godself. And this same applies to those who speak highly of spirituality apart from religion, as though spirituality is itself certainly free from distortions, when such spirituality creates its own favorite array of distortions.
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Do you see yourself growing in purity of heart-mind? Explain.
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*Sources. St. Gregory of Nyssa: Gregory of Nyssa: the Life of Moses. The Classics of Western Spirituality. Evagrius: http://www.byzantines.net/scranton/stmary.htm . Pseudo-Macarius: Pseudo-Macarius. The Classics of Western Spirituality.
For Brian's on-line audio sermons, go to www.wherethelightshines.org and select Pastor's Corner; on the following page is his weekly sermons given at Christ United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL.
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