until the gates, it presses upon it. For, as I believe, A tribulation is the dire power and dominion of death; but the help is the firm hope of resurrection through grace, looking to which, pious men endure the gloom of death, subjected to no sadness or pain.
Again, tribulation is the labor undertaken for the sake of virtue; but the help, which by God's grace accompanies it, is imperturbability, compared to which all human welfare is vanity and mere nothingness and cessation. For this you may rightly understand as vanity.
Vers. 14. *In God we shall perform power; and he shall bring to nothing those who afflict us.* Those perform power in God who do not attribute the exploits of virtues to themselves, nor ascribe to their own wisdom the comprehension of divine mysteries; B in which God himself, being most singular and wholly encompassing, works every virtue and grants knowledge, bringing to nothing and routing the most wicked demons who oppose both virtue and knowledge, and who, through vice and ignorance, attempt to afflict those who fear Him. For He exists as the Savior of all, inasmuch as He is also the Creator of all. To Him be glory unto the ages. Amen.
NOTICE
*On the exposition of the Lord’s Prayer.*
The labor of distinguished Fathers, both Greek and Latin, has long been spent on the elucidation of the Lord’s Prayer; to whom Maximus, with a happy effort, added almost the finishing touch after several centuries by this labor of his, in which he set forth the Dominical senses and mysteries—or, as he calls them, the sacraments—which are fuller and more universal than those of others, by which our salvation is prepared, being seven in number. The author of the *Catena* on Matthew VI, published by Corderius, derived most of these things of Maximus into his own channels.
OF SAINT MAXIMUS
THE MONK AND CONFESSOR
A BRIEF EXPOSITION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER
TO A CERTAIN CHRIST-DEVOTED MAN
I have received my lord, preserved by God, coming to me in his most auspicious letter;
A one who is always present, nor can ever be absent in spirit, yet, through the abundance of virtue, does not disdain, in a manner closely resembling God, to associate with His own servants, and does not reject the opportunity which God has granted to nature. Wherefore, having marveled at the magnitude of His condescension, I tempered the fear I have for Him with longing; and from both—that is, from fear and longing—I established a single love, consisting of reverence and benevolence, so that neither might fear become hatred, being stripped of longing, nor might longing become contempt, not having the sober fear B joined to it. Indeed, let love, being law, be shown to be an ingrained affection, making everything essentially akin its own: through benevolence, subduing hatred, and through reverence, casting contempt far away. Knowing this, I say—this fear, most of all—to be constitutive of divine love, the blessed David says: "The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring for ever and ever" (Ps. XVIII, 10). He knew, clearly, that this is a different fear from that which arises from the dread of punishment for transgressions; for that former fear is cast out, vanishing C completely at the presence of love, as the great evangelist John shows in his own words, saying: "Perfect love casts out fear" (1 John IV, 18). But this latter fear characterizes the law of true affection; it preserves, in reverence for the saints unto eternity, both toward God and toward one another, the rule and mode of love, completely incorrupt.
Wherefore, as I said, I too, having tempered fear with longing for my Master, have established this law of love to this very day: by reverence, I am restrained from writing, lest contempt might perhaps find a place; but by benevolence, I am impelled to write, lest the total refusal to write might be thought to be hatred. I write, however, as commanded to do so, not all things that I might think of; for "The thoughts of men are timid" (Wisdom IX, 14), according to Scripture, but whatever God wills, and by His grace provides for the birth of what is profitable. "For the counsel of the Lord," says David, "remains forever; the thoughts of his heart unto generation and generation" (Ps. XXXII, 11). By counsel, D he perhaps calls that of God the Father, the ineffable emptying of the Only-Begotten Son, which He undertook for the sake of deifying the human race, in which He holds the end of all ages circumscribed; and by the thoughts of His heart, he calls the reasons of providence and judgment, according to which He wisely directs both our present life and the future—as if they were certain diverse generations—wisely assigning to each, in a manner appropriate to it, the fitting mode of operation.
If, then, the deification of our nature is the work of the divine counsel, and the goal of the divine thoughts is the guiding of those things which are sought—
A to know and to do, and thus duly to write, the power of the Lord’s prayer; and since my Master, in writing to me, his servant, was moved by God to remember this prayer—which is also B necessary as a subject for the words I have to say—I beseech the Lord, the Teacher of this prayer, to open my mind to the understanding of the mysteries contained therein, and to grant me a measure of speech appropriate for the clarification of what is understood. For it holds, in a brief summary and teaching, the goal and end that is mystically hidden—or, to speak more accurately, for those whose minds are strong, clearly proclaimed—in all the things that have been said.
For the text of the prayer embraces a petition for all those things of which the Word of God, having emptied Himself C through the flesh, has become the author, teaching us to strive to obtain those goods of which God and Father alone is the true provider through the Son, who naturally mediates in the Holy Spirit. For, according to the divine Apostle, the Lord Jesus [*] is the mediator between God and men; [* 1 Tim. ii, 5.] who, indeed, through the intermediate flesh, makes the unknown Father known to men, and brings to the Father men who have been reconciled in Himself through the Spirit. For them, and for whose sake having become man without change, He exists as the author and architect and teacher of many new mysteries—so many that their number and magnitude can never be calculated. Out of these, D seven, being more universal than the rest, He has, in His exceeding liberality, clearly bestowed upon men; the power of which the goal of the prayer, as I said, mystically contains: namely, theology, adoption in grace, an equal share of honor with the angels, a participation in eternal life, the restoration of nature to itself so that it no longer inclines toward vice or passion, the destruction of the law of sin, and the abolition of the tyranny of the wicked one who had enslaved us by deception. Let us therefore seek the truth of what has been said.
For the Word of God, by becoming incarnate, teaches theology, showing in Himself the Father and the Holy Spirit. For the whole Father and the whole Holy Spirit were essentially and perfectly in the whole Son, even when He was incarnate, yet they were not themselves incarnate; but it was by the Father’s willing and being well-pleased, and the Holy Spirit’s co-operating, that the Son Himself wrought the incarnation. For the Word remained endowed with mind and life, being circumscribed entirely by no one else essentially, save only by the Father and the Spirit, yet through philanthropy He contracted a union with the flesh according to hypostasis.
A Adoption indeed He bestows, insofar as He grants that birth which is above nature from above through the Spirit in grace; the custody and preservation of which—God being the guide—is the free will of those who are thus born, honoring the grace granted with a sincere affection of soul, and following the commandments, sedulously adorning the beauty granted by grace; and advancing towards the communion of the Divinity through the emptying of the passions, to the same degree as the Word of God truly existed as man, emptying Himself from His own true and magnificent glory through the dispensation of His will.
B Furthermore, He has raised men to the same dignity as the angels, not only in the sense that, having made peace through the blood of His cross—both what is in heaven and what is on earth—and having abolished the intermediate spaces between heaven and earth by destroying the opposing powers, He showed one assembly and gathering of earthly and heavenly powers with regard to the distribution of divine gifts; while the human race, with one and the same will together with the higher powers, and as a companion host to them, resounds and sings the glory of God in exultation; but also because, once the business of our salvation in the flesh was fulfilled, having been taken up into heaven with the body He had assumed, He Himself joined heaven to earth, and joined things that are spiritual and understood by the mind with those that fall under the senses; and moreover, He exhibited the single created nature, through the extremities of its own parts, C bound and coherent to itself through the cultivation of virtue and the knowledge of its first author. I think He was showing, through those things which He was performing mystically, both the word and the reason that unite things which are separated, and the distinction of things that are united—so that we might learn to be transformed through action, that we may be united not only with the angels according to virtue, but also with God through the removal of those things which are separated, and through action grasp the reason: so that we may be united with all things not only with the angels through virtue, but also wisely with God through the removal of things.
He grants communication of the divine life, offering Himself as food and edible, as He knows how, both Himself and those who have received from Him such intellectual perception, so that by the taste of this food they might truly know and understand by perception that the Lord is good and sweet, who indeed mixes those who eat with divine quality so that they might be imbued with the divinity; D that He who is openly the bread of life and of strength might both exist and be called so.
He restores nature to Himself, not only insofar as, having become man, He kept the mind free from passions and sedition against nature—not even when against those who crucified Him was it moved in any way from its natural seat by anger; but rather preferring, for the sake of their salvation, death over life; by which He also manifests the voluntary nature of His passion,
A confirmed by the most humane affection of Him who suffers and dies; but also that He destroyed enmity, nailing to the cross the handwriting of sin, B by which nature had irreconcilable war against itself; and calling those who were afar off and those who were near, those under the law, that is, and those outside the law; and breaking down the middle wall of partition, having clearly interpreted the law of commandments in decrees; C He created the two into one new man, making peace and reconciling us through Himself to the Father, and to one another, no longer having a will resisting the reason of nature—but just as they are in nature, so also in will and disposition, they are immutable.
He renders nature pure from the law of sin, not having permitted pleasure to take the lead in that incarnation of His for our sake. For the conception was new and unusual, without seed, and the birth was incorrupt above nature; D for the God who was born, fastening the bonds of virginity for the mother, beyond the mode of nature, by His birth; and freeing all nature from the tyranny of the law that had prevailed, in those who are willing, by the mortification of the members which are upon the earth, in those who imitate His own voluntary death. For the mystery of salvation is of those who are willing, not of those to whom force is applied.
Finally, He effects the overthrow of the tyranny of the wicked one, who had gained control of us through deception, by wielding against him the flesh that had been defeated in Adam as a weapon, and conquering; [C(continued)] in order to show that it, which had previously been captured unto death, captures the one who had captured it, and by natural death destroys his life; which indeed for him constitutes poison, in order to vomit out all whom he had swallowed, having grown strong as one holding the power of death; but for the human race it yields life, leading the whole nature like a lump unto the resurrection of life: in whose grace, especially, the Word,
A seeing that it is a truly strange matter, and unheard of, willingly accepts the death of the flesh. In all these, as I said, the reason for the Lord’s Prayer will be found to have a petition.
For He speaks of the Father, and names the Father, and reveals the Son of this Father again in grace, as one who is praying. He bids them ask for life, unique in will, which is both in heaven and on earth. He commands them to ask for the daily bread. He legislates reconciliation for men, one to another, and by that means, that by forgiving and being forgiven, the nature might bind itself to itself, not being severed by difference of will. He teaches them to pray not to enter into temptation, as into the law of sin; and warns them to be delivered from the evil one. B For it was fitting that the Author and Giver of all good things should be their Teacher, as though unto disciples, who by the flesh imitate His discipline, offering the texts of the life-giving prayer, by which He revealed the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge to those who are in Him according to their kind, specifically driving away the lack of debt for those who ask.
For this reason, I think, the Word has called this the prayer, as holding the petition of those things that are given to men by God according to grace. For so our God-inspired Fathers have spoken C definitively concerning prayer, saying that prayer is a petition for those things which God is naturally disposed to bestow upon men; just as also a vow, which those who sincerely worship God offer to Him, the Scripture bears witness to, having presented it in its own language in many ways, as: "Vow, and pay unto the Lord our God;" and "Whatever I have vowed, I will pay to thee, my Saviour, O Lord." Regarding the prayer, it has been said: "And Anna prayed unto the Lord," saying, "Lord Adonai, God of Sabaoth, if hearing thou shalt hear thy handmaid, and shalt give me fruit of my womb." And, "Hezekiah, king of Judah, prayed, and Isaiah the son of Amoz D the prophet prayed to the Lord." And that which the Lord said to the disciples: "When you pray, say: Our Father who art in heaven." So that the vow may be considered the observance of the commandments, confirmed by the intention and will of the one who has vowed; but prayer, a petition, that he who has observed them may be led back into the good things which have been observed. Or rather, the vow indeed is the prize of virtue, which God most gladly accepts when offered, but prayer—
since it has been demonstrated that it is a petition for the goods of which the incarnate Word is the author—let us designate as our teacher of this prayer the Word himself, and let us approach it confidently, diligently training our understanding of each phrase, as far as contemplation allows, in the way that the Word himself is accustomed to supply appropriately, and granting us the power of the speaker’s intent to grasp it.
*Our Father, who art in heaven; hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come.*
B Appropriately, the Lord teaches those who pray to begin with theology, and in doing so, He brings to light the existence of the productive Cause of all things, He who is by essence the Cause of all beings. For the words of the prayer contain the declaration of the Father, of the name of the Father, and of the kingdom of the Father; so that from the very beginning, we may learn to worship, invoke, and venerate the Trinity, which is one in unity. For the name of God and Father, subsisting essentially, is the only-begotten Son; and the kingdom of God and Father, subsisting essentially, is the Holy Spirit. For what Matthew here calls "kingdom," another of the evangelists has called "Holy Spirit," saying: *"May thy Holy Spirit come and cleanse us."* For the Father does not have an acquired or artificial name, nor do we understand the kingdom as a dignity that came to Him. For He did not begin to be, so that He might then begin to be Father or King; but since He is always, He is also always Father and King, nor did He begin at all to be, or to be Father or King. But if, since He is always, He is also always Father and King, then it follows that the Son and the Holy Spirit have also co-existed essentially with the Father, being from Him and in Him by nature—beyond cause and reason—not created after Him because of some cause or impulse. For a relation has the power to point out those things of which it is the relation, not allowing them to be understood as posterior one to another.
C *Our Father.* Entering upon this prayer, therefore, we are instructed to venerate and pay honor to the consubstantial and superessential Trinity as the productive cause and author of our existence. D Moreover, we are taught to proclaim the grace of adoption granted to us, we who are accounted worthy to call Him Father by grace, who is the Maker by nature: so that, revering the appellation of Him who has begotten us by grace, we may strive to mark in our life the characters of our parent, hallowing His name in us.
A
Sanctified be Thy name. We hallow the name of the Father who is in heaven, by the free gift, while we mortify earthly desire and are cleansed from destructive affections and vices; for holiness consists in this, that the desire which is exercised by the senses should be inhibited and extinguished in every movement. And having attained this, we calm the indecorous barkings of anger, since we no longer have the desire itself which rouses it and persuades us to do battle for the sake of our own pleasures, for it has now been mortified by the holiness of reason. For anger, which by nature exists as the avenger of desire, is accustomed to cease from its frenzy as soon as it sees this latter dead. B
It is fitting, therefore, that with the rejection of anger and desire, the power of the kingdom of God and the Father should follow in prayer, coming to those who, after casting these aside, are deemed worthy to say: "Thy kingdom come"—that is, the Holy Spirit—those who have already been made into a temple for God through the Spirit by the word and manner of meekness. For, He says, "On whom shall I rest, save on the meek and humble and him who trembles at my words?" C From which it is evident that the kingdom of God and the Father belongs to the humble and the meek. For, He says, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." But God did not promise that this earth, which by nature occupies a position in the middle of this whole universe, should be the inheritance of those who love Him; if He speaks the truth when He says, "For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in the heavens." And, "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." And again in another place to another who had served with goodwill, "Enter into the joy of your Lord." And after Him, the divine Apostle: "For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive, who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we be always with the Lord." D
Since these things are promised in this way to those who love the Lord, who, having fixed his mind on a single saying of Scripture, would ever say that the heaven, and the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world, and the joy of the Lord mystically hidden and waiting, and the perpetual and altogether inseparable dwelling and tabernacling with the Lord of those who will be worthy, are the same as this earth, if he is guided by reason, and seeks to be a healer of the passions through the Word? But now I think it means by earth the firm and altogether immutable steadiness in that which is good.
A And the condition and power of the meek, as existing always with the Lord and possessing joy that does not fail, and having apprehended the kingdom prepared from of old, and having been counted worthy of the standing and order in heaven; as it were, a certain earth, taking the middle B position of the whole of the principle of virtue; according to which the meek man, being in the middle between good report and ill report, persists with a tranquil and imperturbed mind, neither being puffed up nor becoming arrogant when celebrated with praises, nor being saddened or grieved when defamed. For if the intellect is by nature free, having withdrawn desire, it does not perceive the annoyance of these provocations, having stilled itself from the storm concerning them, and having directed the whole power of the soul toward the divine and active-less freedom; which the Lord wished to impart to his own disciples, saying, "Take, my yoke upon you, and learn from me, that I am meek and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls." Calling rest the power of the divine kingdom, because it bestows on those who are worthy a lordship free from all slavery.
If to the humble and the meek the immutable power of the unalloyed kingdom is given, who is so unlovable and altogether listless toward divine goods, as not to be moved to the highest degree by the desire to attain humility and meekness (by which, indeed, the character and form of the divine kingdom, as far as it is granted to man, C is fashioned), bearing in himself by the gift of grace, without any variation, the form of Christ, the truly great King by nature, in the spirit? In which, says the divine Apostle, there is neither male nor female; that is to say, there is neither irascibility nor concupiscence—the former tyrannically carries the reason away and casts the intellect outside the limits of the law of nature; the latter, by making things secondary to the one and only desirable and impassible Cause and Nature, renders them more lovable, and because of this, puts the flesh before the spirit, and deems the delights of things subject to the eyes more pleasant than the clarity and splendor of spiritual things. By the enticement and bait of the pleasure of the senses, it drives the intellect away from the divine and kindred perception of intelligible things. But the singular reason, even if it is altogether pure from lust—though it is stripped of bodily love and affection of the soul through an abundance of virtue—plainly shows this: that the spirit exists as the perfect victor of nature, and indicates a truce from moral philosophy for a little while, D while it applies itself—through simple and undivided contemplation—to the mind, so that it may come together with the super-essential Reason and Word; even though that [philosophy] is useful by its own nature for the easy cutting and passing through of those things which flow temporally. Having passed through and overcome these, it is surely not fitting that one who has emerged free from sensible and earthly things should be burdened thereafter by moral exercise as if by a mantle.
And the great Elias clearly declares this, showing this mystery figuratively by his act; for he...
A gave the mantle—I mean the mortification of the flesh, in which the fixed magnificence of moral honesty is established—to Elisha at the moment of his translation, as an aid of the Spirit against every opposing power, and as that by which he might strike the unstable and flowing element, of which the Jordan was a figure; so that the turbulent and slippery affection of earthly things might not, by overwhelming the disciple, prevent his passage to the holy land. But he himself, free and released, departed to God, whom no thing subject to fleeting desire could hold back; simple in desire, not composite in the will of his mind, he journeyed toward Him who is simple by nature, through the general virtues joined to one another and wisely yoked together like fiery horses. For he knew that it was worthwhile for the disciple of Christ to depart from unequal B affections, the diversity of which shows them to be foreign; since it is so ordered that the affection of concupiscence indeed elicits a diffusion of blood about the heart, while the force of irascibility, when incited, elicits a boiling and heat of the blood; and he, having arrived as one who already lived and moved and had his being in Christ [Acts xvii, 28], cast away from himself the alien and discordant generation of inequalities; not bearing within himself, like male and female, the contrary—as I said—dispositions of these passions; so that the reason, to which by nature the ray of the divine image is mingled, might not be enslaved to them, becoming altered by their unstable mutations; for this [reason] is clearly the author, so that the soul by the purpose of its will might be transformed into the divine likeness, and might become the great kingdom of C the universe (namely, the most luminous dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit) which coexists essentially with God and the Father; receiving in its entirety, if it is permitted to say so, the power and faculty of knowledge of the divine nature, as far as is granted; by which it is brought to pass that the inferior things indeed perish and cease, but the origin of the better things consists, the soul preserving—not otherwise than God, according to the grace of calling—the substances of the granted goods inviolable within itself; by which Christ always willingly is born mystically, assuming flesh through those who are gifted with salvation; and making the soul that gives birth a virgin mother, in which—to state it briefly—no marks or signs consisting in accordance with affection and lust, like male and female, subject to the corruption and generation of nature, remain.
D Let no one be disturbed by hearing that corruption is placed before generation. For whoever has contemplated with a calm eye of the mind and right reason the nature of things that are born and perish, will clearly find that generation begins from corruption and ends in it; the signs of which—the affections or passions, as I said—Christ does not acknowledge (namely, Christ and the institution and reason of the Christian life), since he is truthful who says: "For in Christ Jesus there is no male and female" [Galat. iii, 28] (those, namely,
A whose nature denotes affections and passions, which is subject to the destruction of corruption and the rise of generation); but only the deiform reason, imbued with the quality of divine knowledge, and the agitation and motion of a singular soul-will, choosing the one unique virtue.
B Nor the Greek nor the Jew, by whom the different—or, to speak more truly, the contrary—reasoning concerning the knowledge of God is signified. For the Greek system, foolishly introducing a plurality of principles and dividing the one principle into contrary operations and powers, fabricates a polytheistic worship, both ridiculous by the multitude of those to whom it is applied, and by the diverse rite of adoration. But the Jewish system, while [teaching] one principle, yet [is] narrow and imperfect, and almost inconsistent, as if destitute of reason and life; and it slips into an evil equal to the former—the atheism that follows from contraries—by circumscribing the one principle into one person, and that one existing without Word and Spirit, or at least imbued with reason and spirit as if with a quality; not understanding who God would be, who exists devoid of these, or how God, who is not otherwise than created minds, participates in these as if they were accidents.
Of these, as I was saying, neither is at all in Christ, but only the true discourse of piety and the firm law of mystic theology, which eliminates the division of the deity of the former, and repudiates the contraction of the latter; so that it may not establish a name [of God] disagreeing with itself by a natural multitude (for this is the error of the Greeks), C or oneable by the singularity of one person (for that is of the Jewish superstition, as being devoid of Word and Spirit, or imbued with Word and Spirit as if by a quality). But not so does the mind and the Word and the Spirit revere the divine; and it teaches us, who by the call of grace have been adopted through faith into the acknowledgment of the truth, to know one nature and power of deity; that is to say, to contemplate God in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: as the only Source that exists essentially and truly, void of any cause or principle or author; and the Parent and Begetter of the one eternally, essentially, and truly existing Word, who is void of principle; and the Fountain of the one sempiternal Life that exists essentially and truly (namely, the Holy Spirit): the Trinity in the unity, and the unity in the Trinity: not one in another: for the Trinity is not so in the unity as if an accident in a substance, or conversely the unity in the Trinity; as it is devoid of all quality. Nor as one and another: for the unity does not differ from the Trinity by diversity of nature, being one and simple nature. Nor as one before another; for the Trinity is not separated from the unity as if of lesser power and more submissively graded, nor the unity from the Trinity. But neither as some common and universal [notion], which is understood by subtle thought alone to be distinct from the singulars subject to it, D is the unity distinct from the Trinity, which is truly a substance existing by itself, and a power truly self-sufficient. Nor as one through another—for the [divine] identity is not mediated by relation, being entirely without relation, as between cause and that which is caused. Nor as one from another—for the Trinity does not come into being by generation from the unity, being unbegotten and self-shining; but it is the same that is truly called and understood as both unity and Trinity; the former, in respect of its essence
the latter, in respect of its mode of existence: the whole same unity, which is not divided in persons; and the whole same Trinity, with nothing from her being confused, as she exists as unity; lest, of course, from division a crowd of gods be introduced, or from confusion the Godhead itself be lost to us: A which two absurdities the Christian doctrine clearly avoids. By "Christian," moreover (according to Christ, that is), I mean the new preaching of the truth; in which there is "neither male nor female": by these signs, of course, and the sufferings or affections to which nature, subject to corruption and generation, is liable; B "nor Greek and Jew": that is, the contrary opinions concerning the Godhead; "nor circumcision and uncircumcision": the observances, of course, appropriate to each sect; of which one, because of the symbols of the Law, insults the visible creation, and accuses its Maker as the author of evils; the other, however, because of passion and its greater propensity to vices, bestows godhead upon it, and commits an offense against the Creator regarding what was produced by Him; and into equal evil (the insult of God, at any rate) both equally lead. "Not barbarian and Scythian": that is, the discord of the mind and will within the one nature itself, contrary to its own self; by which the law of mutual slaughter, contrary to nature, took root among men. C "Nor slave and free": that is, the division of the same nature, brought about against the will; which dishonors and degrades him who is adorned with equal honor by nature, having as an accomplice the law which tyrannically oppresses the dignity of that image in which we were created, the mind and will of those who master us. "But all and in all is Christ," who, through those things which excel the reasons of nature and law, creates the form and image of the eternal kingdom in the spirit; the characters and distinguishing marks of which, as has been proved, are accustomed to be D humility of heart and gentleness: the concurrence of which shows the one who is being created according to Christ to be a perfect man. For whoever is humble in mind and modest in sense is also altogether gentle and meek; and conversely, whoever is gentle and meek is also altogether humble in mind and modest in sense. Humble in mind and modest in sense, because he acknowledges that he possesses by loan and favor that which he has come to be; but gentle and meek, as one who does not ignore the use of the powers granted to him by nature, and who indeed dedicates these to the producing of virtues by the obedience of reason, but draws back their operation entirely from sense. And hence it is that, while in mind he is incited by a constant motion toward God; in sense, not even if everything by which
A the body is wont to be afflicted should happen to coincide, is there anything stirred up within him, nor is the soul shaped by any vestige of sadness, so that the affection and disposition therein, which are full of joy, could be changed. For he does not judge pain, which tortures the senses, to be a deprivation of pleasure. He recognizes only one pleasure: an intimacy of the soul with reason, the deprivation of which is an immortal torment, naturally encompassing all ages within its compass. Therefore, having bid farewell to all things—both of the body and that which pertains to the body—he strives earnestly for the divine intimacy; reputing it to be the one true loss, if, even should he possess the domain of all earthly things, he be frustrated in the hope of the deification which is expected to be granted through grace.
Therefore, let us cleanse ourselves from all pollution of the flesh and spirit, B that by extinguishing the desire that lasciviously rages in the passions, we may sanctify the divine name, and that we may curb the wrath that unsuitably and wildly pants after pleasures; so that we may receive the kingdom of God and the Father, which comes through meekness. But let us now join the next text of the prayer to the preceding parts, saying:
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
[Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.]He who, by the power of reason alone, separated from desire and wrath, mystically offers worship to God, he on earth, in the same manner as the angelic orders in heaven, has fulfilled the divine will; being in all things a fellow-worshipper and messmate of the angels, just as the great Apostle says in a certain place: *Our conversation is in heaven*; C among whom there is no desire—which, by the force of pleasures, dissolves the vigor of the mind—nor raging wrath, which barks insolently at relatives and those whom the society of a single nature binds; but there is the most singular reason, which naturally leads those who use reason toward the Primal Reason, which alone God enjoys, and which he demands from us, his servants. And this he signifies when he speaks to great David: *For what is there for me in heaven, and what have I willed of thee upon earth?* But the holy angels offer nothing to God in the heavens except rational worship; and since he demands this very thing from us, he taught us in praying to say: *Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.*
Therefore, let our reason also be moved to seek God, and let the power of desire be carried toward him by longing; finally, let the faculty of wrath be stirred to the struggle by the ardor D of his preservation: or, to speak more truly and more properly, let the whole mind be directed toward God, which the irascible ways may strengthen as if by a certain tension, and which a greedy love may ignite with the highest force of desire. For thus, by imitating the angels in heaven, we shall be found worshippers of God in all things; provided that we exhibit the same way of life on earth as the angels, being so prepared that, exactly like them, we are not moved in our soul at all by any of those things which are secondary to God. For, in accordance with the rationale of the prayers, thus ordering our life, we shall receive, as it were, bread—even vital bread—for the nourishment of our souls, and as vital bene...
benefit, A seeing that the Word Himself said: "I am the bread which came down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world" (John vi, 33)—a Word who, in proportion to us who are nourished by virtue and wisdom, becomes all things, and is variously embodied, as He alone knows, through each of those who are being saved. Thus, while we yet exist in this present age, according to the power of the saying in the prayer which declares: B "Give us this day our daily bread." For by "this day," I think, is meant the present age; or, as one might, interpreting it more clearly, express the station of the prayer: "The bread, which Thou didst prepare from the beginning for the immortality of our nature, grant us this day, so long as we continue in this present life of mortality (n)—that the nourishment of the bread of life and of knowledge may conquer the death of sin; of which, had the first man been a partaker, the transgression of the divine commandment would not have been allowed. For if he had been satisfied with this divine food, he would never have fallen prey to the death of sin."
However, he who prays to receive this daily bread does not altogether receive the whole, just as the bread itself is; rather, he receives it according to the capacity of the one who accepts it. For the bread of life gives Himself to all who ask, as He is a lover of mankind; yet not in the same way to all, but to those who have performed great works, more bountifully; to those who are lesser in these, less abundantly; C to each, therefore, as his mental worth is capable of receiving.
The Savior Himself led me to this understanding of the present passage, commanding His disciples explicitly to take absolutely no thought for sensible food, saying: "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after; but seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. vi, 25, 26). How then does He teach us to pray for those things which He had previously commanded us not to seek? For it is evident that what He commanded us to ask through prayer, He had not forbidden us to seek by commandment. D For it is only through prayer that one may ask for that which we are commanded to seek. Thus, that which we are not permitted to seek by commandment, it is perhaps not lawful to ask for through prayer. But if the Savior commanded us to seek only the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then He has rightly led those who desire divine gifts to ask for this, too, through prayer.
by which He seals the grace of the things naturally sought, uniting the intention of those who ask with the will of Him who provides the grace, making them one through a relative union.
A But if we are ordered to ask even for the daily bread, by which our present life is nurtured and preserved, through prayer, we must not transgress the boundaries of prayer by greedily looking forward through many cycles of years, forgetting that we are mortals and possessing a life of this sort that passes away like a shadow; rather, let us ask in prayer for the bread that suffices for the day, without anxiety. Let us show ourselves, according to the norm of Christian philosophy, to be those who make life a meditation on death, anticipating nature by our intention, and—before death arrives—severing the soul from bodily cares, so that it might not be fastened to corruptible things, having exchanged the use of longing according to nature for the whole, and having learned the greediness that is depriving of the abundance of divine goods.
Let us flee, therefore, as much as we have the power, from the love of material things, and let us wipe away their attachment from the eyes of the soul like dust. Let us be satisfied with only those things that sustain the present life, and not those by which it is delighted unto luxury; let us beseech God for such things, as we have been taught, so that we may be able to keep the soul free and entirely its own master, not bound by any anxious care for the body to anything visible at all, and so that we might be proved to be eating for the sake of living, and not be reproached for living for the sake of eating. For the former is clearly proper to a rational nature, B while the latter is proper to an irrational one. And let us be precise guardians of prayer, proving by our very deeds that we hold fast to the one and only life that is lived in the Spirit, and that we make use of the present life only for the sake of such possession. For this reason, we cherish the use of this life only so far as not to refuse to sustain it with bread alone, and to preserve its natural health so far as it lies in us, in an incorrupt state—not in order that we may live, but in order that we may live for God; making the body a messenger of the soul, disciplined by the reasons of virtue, and making the soul a herald of God, established in the stability of the good. And let us conclude this bread within a single day, not daring, out of shame before Him who delivered the prayer, to extend our petition into a second day. For thus, by having disposed ourselves in accordance with the power of prayer, we would be able to proceed clearly also to the remaining clauses, saying: "And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors."
C According to the first meaning of the preceding clause D [it is understood that] the petition is for the bread by which mortal life is sustained corporally, but only in such a way that it is "daily"—that is, that its care for the long term does not drag us along, but that we are content with what is available each day, as we continually meditate upon death. For the negative [particle] added erroneously completely destroys the sense, as if Maximus were denying that even this bread should be asked for in prayer with such moderation and philosophy: which no sane person would say, let alone a theologian.
A And so, while dwelling in this present age—of which we have said that "today" is the symbol—he seeks through prayer the incorruptible bread of wisdom, from which the transgression of the first time excluded us; for he knows that the only pleasure consists in the attainment of divine things, the provider of which by nature is God, while the guardian of it according to choice is the purpose B of the recipient. He also knows that there is one sole pain, namely the failure to attain these things, the suggestion of which damage comes from the devil, while the author is anyone who, through sloth and weakness of mind, grows weary in pursuing divine things. C He keeps and zealously preserves that which he holds as most dear by the affection of his soul, his will being inclined toward none of the things that fall under visual perception, and being so disposed that he is not led away from the straight path by the troublesome things that affect the body. Such a man truly, with a tranquil soul and emotions in no way exasperated, forgives those who sin against him; since not even the good which he strives for—and which is believed to be in its nature inexhaustible—can ever be seized by anyone.
He makes himself, as it were, a model of virtue to God (if it is permitted to say this), urging Him who is beyond all imitation to come to his own imitation, saying: *Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors*; imploring that God be towards him such as he himself has been towards his neighbors. D For if, as he has forgiven the debts of those who have sinned against him, he desires also to have his own forgiven by God, it is evident that just as God, without passion, forgives those whom He forgives, just so does he himself, remaining impassible regarding the things that happen to him, forgive those who have transgressed, not allowing the mind to be fashioned by the memory of any past grievances, lest, by dividing nature by his own judgment, he be convicted of being estranged from any man, being human himself. For in this way, since the judgment is united to the principle of nature, the reconciliation of God to nature is brought about, because it is not possible for nature, while at odds with itself according to judgment, to receive the divine and ineffable condescension.
And perhaps this is why God desires us to make reconciliations with one another first, not so that He may learn from us how to be reconciled to sinners and to forgive the payment for many and terrible crimes, but so that He may cleanse us from passions and show the disposition of those who are forgiven to be in harmony with the relationship of grace. D For it is clearly evident that, once the judgment is united to the principle of nature, the purpose of those who have achieved this will be in concord with God; since nothing unreasonable can be seen in the principle of nature—which is also the natural and divine law—when it receives the movement of the judgment acting in accordance with itself. But if there is nothing unreasonable in the principle of nature, then reasonably, the judgment, moving according to the principle of nature, will have an operation in all things consistent with God; which is a disposition that is active, having been fashioned by the grace of the Good by nature for the generation of virtue.
A Thus, therefore, is the one who asks for the bread of knowledge disposed in prayer; and after him, he who seeks only the daily bread because of the force of nature will be disposed in the same way, by forgiving those who are in debt to him, as one knowing that by nature he exists as mortal. And for the rest, each day, because of the uncertainty of what is by nature expected, he forestalls nature by his own will, becoming a voluntary corpse to the world, according to the word that says: "For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we were accounted as sheep for the slaughter." [Psal. XLIII, 22; Rom. VIII, 36.] And for this reason he makes peace with all, so that he may not carry with him any mark of the malice of the present age, while he is crossing over to the ageless life; and that he may receive from the Judge and Savior of all the same recompense for what he has offered here. For the pure disposition toward those who have caused pain has been established as necessary for the benefit of both; for the sake of all things, but not least because of the B power of the remaining phrases, which have the following manner: "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."
For the word indicates in these that if anyone has not perfectly forgiven those from whom he has received some offense, and has not presented to God a heart pure from resentment, shining with the light of reconciliation with his neighbor, he will fall from the grace of those good things which he desires and pursues with his prayers; and by a just judgment he will be handed over to temptation and to the evil one, so that he may learn to be purged of transgressions, cast off and removing from himself that which he blames in others. Now by temptation he calls here the law of sin, from which the first man was free when he was brought C into being; and by "the evil one" he means the devil who infused this into the nature of men, and who persuaded man through deceit to transfer the desire of his soul from what was permitted to what was forbidden, and to turn to the transgression of the divine command—the work of which became the loss of the incorruptibility given by grace.
Or again, he calls "temptation" the soul's voluntary consent to the passions of the flesh; and "the evil one," the mode which completes the passionate disposition in action. From neither of these will the just judge release him who has not forgiven debtors their debts, even if he asks for this in prayer by the mere sound of the voice; nay, he allows such a one to be defiled by the law of sin, and leaves the one who is hard D of heart and too rigid in justice to be mastered by the evil one; for he has preferred the disgraces of the passions—of which the devil is the sower—over nature, of which God is the creator. And, moreover, he does not prevent him from voluntarily consenting to the passions of the flesh, nor does he redeem him from the mode which completes them by action
A For assuming that the nature is weaker than the nonexistent passions, by his zeal regarding these, he was ignorant of the principle of his own nature, according to which he ought to have been moved and to have known what is the law of nature, and what is the tyranny of the passions, which arises not naturally, but by choice in the capacity of the will. And he ought to have secured the one [law of nature], which is preserved by natural operations, and to have driven the other [the tyranny of the passions] far away, and by reason to have kept the nature, which is in itself clean and 364 blameless, without hatred and division; and again to have established the will as a fellow-worker with nature, bringing in absolutely nothing that the principle of nature does not afford; and for this reason, to have mediated all things, and to have caused all division of that which is akin according to nature to cease, so that, praying this prayer, he might be heard, and might receive from God a double grace instead of a single one: both the forgiveness of past transgressions, and protection and deliverance regarding those to come; being neither permitted to enter into temptation, nor abandoned to be enslaved to the evil one—by this one name and title, that he readily forgives the debts of his neighbors.
B Therefore, we also, that I may briefly recapitulate and touch upon the power of what has been said, if indeed we wish to be rescued from the evil one and not to enter into temptation, let us trust in God and let us forgive the debts to our debtors. For, he says, "If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you" (Matt. VI, 14); so that we might not only receive forgiveness of what we have transgressed, but that we might also conquer the law of sin, not being left to enter into its trial; and that we might trample upon its progenitor, the wicked serpent, from whom we pray to be rescued. With Christ, who has overcome the world, leading us as commander and arming us with the laws of the commandments as if with weapons, and with the lawful casting off of the passions, He binds the nature unto Himself by the bonds of love, and He entices our appetite with insatiable desire toward Himself, who is the bread of life, and wisdom and knowledge and righteousness. and, by the fulfillment of the Father’s will, He makes us fellow-worshippers with the angels; C by our conduct in life, we manifest in a way worthy of imitation the heavenly perfection, and from thence again He leads us up to the supreme ascent of the divine, toward the Father of lights, and makes us partakers of the divine nature by the participation by grace of the Spirit; by which we are called, and are in truth, children of God, bearing within us—in our entirety, without all circumscription and in an undefiled manner—the very Author of this gift, the Son of the Father by nature; from whom, and through whom, and in whom we have [our] being, and movement, and life, and we have and shall have all things.
D Looking to this mystery of deification, let the aim of our prayer be this, that we may know,
A Of these things, namely, what the self-emptying of the Only-Begotten through the flesh has wrought for us; and whence and whither He raised up, by the power of His philanthropic hand, those who had received the lowest position in the universe—into which the weight of sin had cast us down—that we might the more love Him who so wisely prepared this salvation for us; and by the actions which we perform, show the prayer to be fulfilled, and appear proclaiming God as truly Father by grace. But let us not, through the shameful passions, show ourselves to be clearly having as the father of our life the evil one, who ever attempts to rule tyrannically over nature, and let us not unawares exchange life for death. For each of these, God, clearly, and the devil, is accustomed to provide a distribution to those who approach: the one bestowing eternal life upon those who love Him, the other causing death to those who draw near, through the suggestion of voluntary temptations. B
For there is a twofold manner of temptations according to Scripture: the one is hedonic (of pleasure), the other is grievous (of pain); the one is voluntary, the other is involuntary. And the one is the generator of sin, into which we are commanded to pray not to enter, according to the teaching of the Lord, who says: "And lead us not into temptation" (Matt. vi, 13); and, "Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation" (Matt. xxvi, 41). The other, however, is the punisher of sin, chastising the sin-loving disposition through the involuntary incidence of sufferings. If anyone endures this, and especially is not fixed with the nails of wickedness, he will hear the great James clearly crying out: "Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience; and let patience have its perfect work" (James i, 2-4). C But the evil one wickedly pursues both kinds of temptations, both the voluntary and the involuntary, and strives eagerly: the first, by sowing and inciting the soul with bodily pleasures, contriving to turn the yearning of the soul away from divine love; the second, he sophistically demands, wishing to destroy nature through pain, so that he may force the soul, having been worn down by the labor of sufferings, to move its thoughts toward calumny against the Creator. D
But we, having recognized the designs of the evil one, let us pray against the voluntary temptation, so that we may not turn away the yearning of our soul from divine love; but the involuntary one that comes by the permission and nod of God, let us endure bravely and with a stout heart, that we may be shown to have preferred the Creator of nature to nature itself. May it be that all of us who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be delivered both from the pleasures of the present life, which are introduced by the suggestion of the evil one, and from the future pains, through the participation of this specific sort of the future
A of the hypostasis of goods, having shone upon us in Him, Christ our Lord, who alone with the Father and the Holy Spirit is glorified by all creation. Amen.
SCHOLIA. 1. In God, counsel and will are the same. 2. For the reason that is naturally existing, he says, is free from praise and blame, and it renders the one who chooses to live by reason alone free from passions; persuading him to separate the desire of the soul from those things which induce corruption and stain. When it is thus separated from earthly things, he who is mild by habit feels neither those who praise nor those who blame, as if affected by either. B 3. He speaks of unequal affections, those forming the soul toward themselves, that is, the movements of irrational anger and desire; from which the disciple of Christ must be free, so that he neither slips into pleasures through the dissipation of the blood around the heart, nor is driven mad into rages through the boiling of the blood around the heart. 4. Clearly of arguments, those of the Greek and the Jew; of which, in Christ, there is absolutely none. For the argument of Christ is equally pure from the polyarchy (rule of many) and from the monarchy (monarchy) that is bounded by a single person. 5. For it is not by generation, or procession, or manifestation. 6. How can one forgive debtors their debts? C 7. Divine justice applies itself worthily to our souls’ dispositions, becoming such to us as we have made ourselves to one another; and it establishes God toward us as we have previously disposed ourselves toward our fellow sufferers. 8. The reason of nature, he says, also becomes the law of nature, taking the mind into agreement for the operation of the natural faculties.