MAXIMUS THE MONK TO THEOPEMPTUS THE SCHOLASTIC AConcerning the one who had asked about the judge of iniquity; and concerning the word, "If anyone shall strike you on the right cheek"; and concerning the word, "Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father."
To those for whom the Word is that which is worshipped, to them also is life the manifestor of the Word, which is that which is fulfilled; so that, having taken the seal of true knowledge from the execution of the act, they might learn from those things which they have suffered, as is fitting, how much greater to become is than to know; and more so, that [this continues] ever and always, until their unhesitating assimilation to the Cause is brought to completion, circumscribing movement with rest and investigation with the immutability of the will; to whom also, as a reward for such a life and deiform moral conduct, the divinization that follows grace is given back. At these things, you yourself very wisely directing your life, O God-preserved master, hasten to seek that which is proposed to all by reason of goodness, and which escapes all by reason of its infinity; the one, in order that it may draw [the soul] to itself, pricking the desire with the impossibility of its beauty; the other, in order that it may temper, with the awe of the infinite and divine excellence, the arrogance—that father of insolence and offspring of distraction—of those who do not foresee the flaming sword placed and turning with the Cherubim, which turns to no others but those who turn to virtue without fear; hence, by the magnitude of the progress toward the good, it extends the moderate man, by which you have also caused the advance to grow with safety. B You have deigned to recognize me, who was unknown and humble, through that which provided a manner of behavior to those who were in that state; I mean, by the letter. The word is the connector of those absent, and the manifestor of those unseen; it transmits and joins the [one] not yet known to sense as much in understanding as it is itself impressed and thickened and embodied through this [the letter]; by which you have even led my nothingness into a desire for your own [person] more than you have stirred your own vision immaterially; having shown that he possesses an equality with respect to the word in both of these, or rather, [that you possess] the superiorities of the word beyond others for your sake; by which things [you are] adorned through life. C And you have deigned—... D
A in some way to urge my dim-sightedness toward contemplation, and that of sacred words, the transition to which is greater than human, [for one] who has not yet completely transcended the nature and generation of unstable and divisible things; and much less for me, who am willingly wallowing in the refuse of these and, like a worm, am rolling and delighting in the decay of impure passions. Nevertheless, for the sake of obedience, and in honor of your love, I shall speak beyond my worth of those things concerning which you have commanded me; [I shall speak] conjecturally, however, and not as if I myself were issuing a formal judgment.
I believe that the judge of iniquity in the Gospel, in the figurative manner of speaking and by way of parable, signifies and is called our own mind, which from the beginning, through transgression, made an B unjust judgment; for it did not accept the commandment of the Creator, but chose the counsel of the corrupter; from which it preferred being earthly—to being, and to becoming divine—by a great deal. And I understand its city to be the senses, or the visible world, in which, resting with demented counsel out of lust, it has changed its habitation and fixed dwelling; fearing neither God, nor indeed revering the same whom [He] became man for our sake; the former, out of dementia and pride; the latter, however, out of contempt; of which—the [dementia] that is, and pride—it does not foresee the magnitude of the judgments; while this one (that is, contempt) [does not foresee] how far the kindness, waiting for a change, holds back and does not avert the severity and punishment; into which it has rashly and impudently inserted itself, having misused the honor given by the Author for the fulfillment of duties—contrary to all right and beyond the scope of duty—in the appearance of free will, having judged that which is apparent to the eye of the mind and truly is [good] to be more desirable C than that which is held by the mind to be the [true] good, a thing which is not permitted.
I understand the widow who is importuning to be the rational soul, since she is destitute of the word that naturally sows good things, for the production of holy and divine fruits. She is held only by this total and full love and disposition toward Him; yet she does not wait for [Him] because of the tasting, and her self-willed inclination toward things here below.
I accept her adversary—that is, of the soul—to be the earthly movement and the sense and the worldly wisdom of the wretched flesh, through which the impure demons strive to pollute the beauty of the divine image in us and its dignity, and to darken its brightness, D whenever, through lust, they fall upon us and cruelly inject into us the shames and passions of dishonor; on account of which also death was condemned upon nature, not having willed from the beginning to enjoy the life that truly is.
I consider the blows to be the lashings of conscience with a certain silent, admonishing cry; which, proceeding from the soul and growing ever-increasingly within it, the austerity of the mind is accustomed by degrees to be softened in some way, and against things good, because of the longer-lasting habit, unyielding, not...
being able to endure the torment that lies hidden within and lashes and persists, A so long, that is, as the affections and lusts, which ruin the soul, are not destroyed by self-control and the voluntarily assumed mortification of the bodily members. And from there, he may proceed to the kinship of the Word himself through piety and more perfect diligence regarding those things which are better; to which, as they are naturally performed, the Lord our God Jesus Christ, who is above essence and nature, compared his own proper and paternal works. "And shall God," he says, "not do justice for you?"—by me, forsooth, who became incarnate, and who perform the destruction of the destroyer of nature.
Thus, then, I have briefly gone through these matters, B as far as the measure of my mind has sufficed, even though others have understood this passage differently, and some have interpreted part of it regarding Christ, and part of it, conversely, regarding Antichrist. But I am fearful and deterred from either understanding or saying both: the former, because it rejects all comparison; for the vengeance is not less in the Son and greater in the Father, or through another, and of a completely different sort from that of the Son. But in what way, when it is the same, does he say, *And shall God not do justice for you*, as if by way of comparison? For it has no place, nor will it be shown to be completely different, and endowed with a nature unable to perform the same; and therefore, it is not placed in the same order, but only C as if representing an eminent image, and representing that which excels. The latter, however, must in no way be admitted, nor does the matter allow it, that the author and inventor and teacher of malice be thought to perform good: *For an evil tree*, he says, *cannot bring forth good fruit*; but vengeance is a good thing, and a just function, to relieve and ward off the annoyance of one who approaches. Or perhaps, that we should assert (which is blasphemy) that the Father is like the Antichrist, through the Son, and that he is the only-begotten, and equal in nature and goodness, the author of all virtue and life. For it is not naturally comparable that good and honest things should be marked by the type of those things which are evil; just as neither light through darkness, nor life through death, nor what is through that which is not at all. And I do not say these things to reject their teaching—for I hold and cling to life more than to the teaching of those who say these things—but I am guarding my own mediocrity out of extreme fear. D However, to regulate the reading of *hypopiazein* is not befitting for me, on account of my ignorance in these things, or for those who are learned and have chosen to set their mind on education; for they say that it ought to be regulated with a circumflex accent rather than an acute, because they say that none of the words have a circumflex, unless it came to be from a contracted barytone, as in *noō*, and *poiō*, and *chrysō*, and all such things, preserving the accent on the same syllable even with a preposition. They say that no word is circumflexed, except what is created by contraction from a barytone; with a preposition they preserve the accent on the same.
639 By the right cheek, I mean the right action, and whatever brings success, and, in short, the entire life given to us by God, supported by the observance of the commandments, [struck by the evil one...]
who uses the opinion [of good and honest work ] to strike [the soul]; and hence the wound of pride arising through vainglory [inflates ] against those who possess no virtue, or perhaps an inferior one; [it raises them up ] as if with inflammation. To counter this evil, it is worth our while to turn to another remedy: namely, the life that previously defiled us through the error of this world, so that we may be struck by the constant memory of it, and so be humbled and modest as sinners, rather than puffed up as saints – and collapse through pride, lacking the holy foundation of humility. Let us also honor [those things that are grasped by contemplation]; or rather, even before these, for the sake of holy preparation and prior purification, let us perform these things bodily, for the sake of the Lord who commanded them. From this, He bestows upon those who succeed the habit of gentleness B and the refutation of the unbelief of the one striking; for by the ready and prompt constancy of the one receiving the blow, the eagerness of the one striking is blunted, who perhaps respects, if nothing else, the excess of the submission; and he does not resist at all, being one who has the power to do this, but acts out of the command.
"Touch me not," spoken to Mary Magdalene
The saying, *Touch me not*, was spoken by the Lord to Mary Magdalene, when she supposed him to be the gardener; this mystery signifies and indicates that every rational soul, not yet having transcended the composite tabernacle and therefore supposing the Word, the Creator, to be among those things which come into being and perish C (which differ in no way from garden herbs—for in both is the same flow and reflux, and the definition and period of time) on account of his progression and condescension towards these things and unto these, is not worthy to touch him in spirit, and that while she seeks him among those things which fall under sight, and recognizes the flesh that came to be for our sake, but does not duly recognize him also as God born of God the Father. For this is what the saying, *I have not yet ascended to my Father*, suggests, as a likely thought: that the soul D so disposed has not been elevated either by supreme theology or by faith, by which the nature of visible things is circumscribed, but still is in need, as if under a pedagogue leading it to a more perfect comprehension of him (namely, the habit of the revelation of divine things), of ascending as if to Galilee through contemplation; and with the words pre-typed and set forth by him, to comprehend the whole as far as is lawful, and to become such as he was, who became what we are, as much as this was shown to have come to be, apart from sin alone; just as we too, with him, apart from nature alone, when we might attain the gift; which [soul], now awaiting it through the grace of hope, and adorning it worthily with the proper works of the commandments, may enjoy as much as you have believed, and delight, as much as you have labored; or rather, even more and countless times, inasmuch as the Giver of this gift surpasses both the mode of nature and the movement of the senses, and the comprehension of every age in His superessential excellence.