and look to the same goal of desire, and with no defect of vice prevailing, God becomes all in all, as many as coalesce through unity among themselves in the fellowship of the good. And this in Christ Jesus our Lord: to whom be glory and dominion, now and always, and in the infinite ages. Amen.
OF SAINT GREGORY OF NYSSA ON THE LORD’S PRAYER
ON THE LORD'S PRAYER
(Translated by Laurentius Sifanus)ORATIO I
B The divine Word imparts to us the doctrine of prayer, through which He sets forth to His worthy disciples, who earnestly seek in their zeal the knowledge of prayer, how it is fitting to win the divine ear through the words of prayer. But I, taking some small boldness, shall add to what is written; for it is not how one ought to pray that this present assembly needs to be taught, but that one must by all means pray—a thing which perhaps has not yet reached the ears of the many. For in life, this sacred and divine work, prayer, is neglected and omitted by most. Therefore, concerning this, that one must by all means apply oneself to prayer, as the Apostle says, it seems to me not alien, first, to testify and teach by discourse, as much as possible, as to why we must pray; and then, to apply our efforts to the divine voice, which instructs us in the manner of how it is proper to offer petition to the Lord. For I see that in this present life, everyone is zealous for everything else, as one person turns their mind to one pursuit, another to another; but the good of prayer is not held by men in any zeal. The merchant rises at dawn for his business, struggling to exhibit his wares to the buyers before the others who exercise the same trade, so that he may anticipate the need of one who desires to buy, and, having forestalled the others, may sell his own. Similarly, the buyer also, while he takes care lest he be forestalled by another and seek in vain that which he needs, runs not to the house of prayer, but to the place of sale—namely, the market of salable goods. And since all are possessed by an equal desire for gain, and are vying to get ahead of their neighbor, the time for prayer is stolen away through the pursuits of other things and transferred to commerce. Thus the craftsman; thus the
A litigant; thus he who is chosen to judge. Each one, leaning entirely with his effort toward the things at hand, has forgotten the work of prayer, judging the time taken up with God as a loss relative to the business before him. For he who pursues his craft thinks that divine assistance for the work at hand is an idle and useless matter; therefore, abandoning prayer, he places his hopes in his hands, unmindful of Him who gave him the hands.
Likewise, he who applies care to perfecting his oratory does not consider Him who gave him the power of speech, but, as if he had brought himself into this nature, he is intent upon his own studies and those of his disciples, thinking that nothing good will come to him from the activity of God Himself; he esteems his own study more highly than prayer. In the same way, he drives away the soul’s occupation with higher and heavenly things, and does so for the rest of his pursuits as well, by his care for bodily and earthly concerns.
For this reason, sin abounds throughout life, always increasing with new additions, and is entangled in all human pursuits, because forgetfulness of God holds dominion over all, and the good of prayer is not combined by men with the things they are busy about; with trade, greed enters in. And greed is idolatry. B Thus, the farmer does not measure his farming by necessary needs, but, always extending his effort toward more, he gives sin a wide entrance into his trade, expanding himself by taking what belongs to others. Hence arise the incorrigible contentions, as they rise up against one another over the boundaries of the land, both being gripped by the same disease of greed. From this come the fits of anger, the impulses toward evil, and the attempts they make against one another, so often resulting in blood and murder.
Likewise, the efforts in the courts of law serve the manifold sins, finding ten thousand defenses for injustice. The judge either willfully declines the scales of justice for the sake of gain, or he is led astray against his will by the cleverness of those who confuse the truth, and he ratifies injustice. And what need is there for one to recount in detail the things through which sin is manifoldly and in many ways commingled with human life? The cause of this is nothing other than that people do not bring along the help of God in the concerns they are busily pursuing.
If prayer precedes effort, sin will find no entrance into the soul. C For once the memory of God is established in the heart, the designs of the adversary remain ineffectual, as justice everywhere interposes itself in matters of dispute. Prayer also restrains the farmer from sin, multiplying the fruits in a small patch of land, so that he may no longer enter into sin alongside the desire for more. D
A Thus for the wayfarer, thus for one setting out on a military expedition or a marriage, thus for anyone at all who has an impulse toward some aim, if each thing were done with prayer, the soul would be turned away from sin by the prosperous outcome of the task, with no adversary dragging the soul toward passion. But if one, having departed from God, is wholly given over to his task, it is of necessity that he who is outside of God should remain entirely in the possession of the opposite. He is separated from God who does not join himself to God through prayer. Therefore, we must first learn this through the word: that it is necessary to pray always and not to lose heart. For from praying arises being with God. And he who is with God has been separated from the adversary. Prayer is the guard of temperance, the tutor of anger, the calming of pride, the purgation of the memory of injuries, the destruction of envy, the removal of injustice, the correction of impiety. Prayer is strength for bodies, abundance for the home, good governance for the city, power for the kingdom, a trophy in war, the security of peace, the reconciliation of those at odds, the endurance of those united. B Prayer is the seal of virginity, the fidelity of marriage, a shield for travelers, the guardian of those who sleep, the confidence of the wakeful, the fertility of farmers, the salvation of those who sail. Prayer is an advocate for those on trial, the relief of the bound, the rest of the weary, the consolation of those who sorrow, the delight of those who rejoice, the comfort of those who mourn, the crown of those entering into marriage, the festival of birthdays, the funeral shroud of the dying. Prayer is conversation and discourse with God, the contemplation of things unseen, the certain faith in what is desired; it is a condition of equal honor with the angels, the progress and growth of good things, the subversion of evil, the correction of faults, the enjoyment of the present, the substance of what is to come. Prayer made the C whale a home for Jonah; it brought back Hezekiah from the very gates of death to life; to the three young men it turned the flame into a dewy spirit; and for the Israelites it raised up a trophy against the Amalekites; and with an invisible sword in one night, it laid low the one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians. And besides these, it is possible to find ten thousand examples among things that have already occurred, by which it becomes manifest that nothing of those things which are cultivated and held in esteem throughout this life is superior to prayer. But it would be the time now to occupy ourselves with prayer itself; or rather, let us add a little more to the discourse, noting that while many and varied good things flow to us from divine grace, we have this one thing for a repayment of what we have received: to requite the Benefactor through prayer and thanksgiving. I consider, therefore, that even if we were to extend throughout our whole life this discourse with God, praying and giving thanks, we should remain as far removed D from the requital that is due, as if we had not even attempted from the beginning to make any return to the Benefactor.
A The span of time is divided into three: the past, the present, and the future. In these three, the benefit of the Lord is apprehended. If you consider the present, you live by it; if the future, He is to you the hope of things expected; if the past, you would not be at all had you not been created by Him. You received a benefit, the very fact of your being, from Him; and having been created, you were benefited, living and moving in Him, as the Apostle says; and the hopes of future things depend upon the same efficacy. But you are master only of the present. So that even if you were to never cease from thanking God throughout all time, you would scarcely fulfill the grace of the present, nor could you find any device for the repayment of what is owed for the future or the past. B Yet we, who are so far removed from the power of rendering the thanks that are due, do not even show the gratitude of soul that is within our capacity—I do not say for the whole day, but we do not dedicate even a tiny part of the day to the divine vocation. Who spread the earth beneath me? Who made the fluid nature of water passable through ingenuity and industry? Who fixed the heaven for me like a roof? Who carries the torch of the sun for me? Who sends forth springs in the valleys? Who prepared the channels for the rivers to run through? Who has subjected to me the service of the brute animals? Who made me, who was soulless dust, a partaker of life and reason? C Who fashioned this clay into the image of the divine character? Who brought back the divine image in me, which was confused by sin, to its ancient grace? Who brings me back to the first blessedness, after I had been cast out of paradise, deprived of the tree of life, and covered over in the abyss of material life? "There is none that understandeth," says Scripture. For if we beheld these things, we would render thanks without ceasing and unremittingly throughout the entire span of our life. But as it is, all of human nature is awake almost only to the material. To this is the zeal directed; in this is the eagerness; around these things both memory and hope are occupied. D Human nature is sleepless and awake to the desire for more in every matter in which it is possible to find something extra, whether it be in honor and glory, or in the abundance of wealth, or in the sickness of anger; everywhere nature looks to the surplus in these things. But of the true goods of God, there is no account, neither of those that are apparent, nor of those that are promised. But it is time to also consider the meaning of the words of the prayer, as far as it is possible.
For it is clear that obtaining what we wish comes about through learning how it is fitting to make the petition. What, then, is the teaching? "When you pray," He says, "do not babble, as the Gentiles do. For they think that they will be heard for their much speaking." Perhaps the meaning of the teaching, stripped of its veiling, has its content from here.
A It seems to me, however, that He intends to sober the flaccidity of the mind, and to restrain those who are deeply immersed in vain desires; and for this reason He devised this strange and new terminology, to serve as a rebuke to the foolishness of those who are dissipated in their desires for things that are useless and vain. For a discourse that is sound and sensible, and looks toward what is beneficial, is properly called a "discourse" (logos); but that which is poured forth through vain pleasure into empty desires is not a discourse, but *battologia*—or as one might explain the mind more clearly in Greek, *phlyaria* (babbling), *lēros* (drivel), and *phlēnaphos* (nonsense), or any other term of that nature. What, then, does the Word advise us? That we should not suffer the same thing during the time of prayer that is produced in the minds of the deranged, as a passion in the mind of a child. B For just as the immature, not considering how anything might be achieved in accordance with their purpose, concoct for themselves—by the sheer power of their fancy—unreal things, imagining themselves to be possessors of treasures, kingdoms, and great cities named after themselves, and fancying in their minds that they exist in that state which the vanity of their thoughts depicts for them; some indeed, seized more impetuously by this vanity, even transgress the measures of nature and become winged creatures, or shine like the stars, or carry mountains by hand, or make the heavens passable for themselves, or live for ten thousand years, becoming young again from being old, and whatever other such bubble-like and hollow figments the heart produces in the less mature—so, then, in the conduct of life, he who does not reason about those things through which some good might come of his deliberations, but idly dwells on vain desires, is truly a fool and a wretch, consuming the time for deliberating on useful actions on these daydreams. C In the same way, one who, at the time of prayer, is not intent on what is beneficial to the soul, but asks God to conform to the disordered and passion-filled movements of his own mind, is truly a trifler and a babbler, in that he prays for God to become the helper and minister of his own absurdities and vanities. I offer a case in point: someone approaches God in prayer, and because he has not pondered in his mind the height of the Power to which he is drawing near, he foolishly brings dishonor upon the Divine Majesty with his shameful and debased requests. Just as if someone, because of extreme poverty or rustic ignorance, were to think that vessels made of clay were precious; and then, D approaching a king who intends to distribute wealth and high honors, were to abandon the royal petitions and ask instead that one of such high dignity should mold clay to make something for his own gratification—so does the person who uses prayer ignorantly; he does not lift himself up to the height of the Giver, but desires the Divine Power to descend to the base and earthly level of his own desires. For this reason, he puts forward his passion-filled impulses to Him who sees the heart, not in order that He might heal his aberrations
A but rather so that they might become worse, through the cooperation of God, once the initiative of wicked impulse has been introduced. For because a certain person causes me grief and my heart is disposed toward him with malice, I say to God, "Strike him," crying out in effect nothing other than this: "Let my passion come to be in You; let my wickedness pass over to You." For just as in human battles it is impossible for someone to assist one side without being stirred to anger along with the one enraged against his opponent, so it is evident that anyone who moves God against an enemy is asking Him to become an accomplice in wrath and to share in his fury. B But this is nothing else than to let the divine fall into passion, to be disposed according to the heart of man, and to be transformed from the good nature into beast-like cruelty. In such a way is he who craves glory; in such a way is he who desires to have the upper hand in pride; he who is eager for victory in a judicial proceeding; he who rushes toward the crown in gymnastic contests; he who seeks out the applause of the theaters; and often, too, he who is wasted away by the frenzied passion of youth. All these offer prayers to God, not that they might be freed from the malady that holds them, but that their disease might reach its goal and be fulfilled. And as each one judges the failure of these things to be a calamity for himself, they truly babble pointlessly, supplicating God to become a helper in their mental illness. And what is most serious of all is that they desire the divine to be moved toward contrary impulses, dividing the C operation of God into cruelty and philanthropy. For the One whom they seek to be merciful and gentle toward themselves, they beseech to show Himself bitter and harsh toward their enemies. Oh, the folly of those who babble! For if God is harsh to them, He will certainly not be mild toward you. But if He inclines toward mercy on your behalf, according at least to your hope, how would He turn toward the opposite, adapting His mercy into bitterness? But the rejoinder of the argumentative is ready at hand. For immediately, to defend their own bitterness, they set forth voices taken from the prophecy: David desiring that sinners cease to be, and cursing his enemies with shame and confusion; Jeremiah desiring to see vengeance taken by God from his adversaries; Hosea praying that a womb without children and dry breasts be given to his enemies. And they gather many such things lying scattered in the holy Scriptures, concluding that one ought to curse one's adversaries and enlist the goodness of God as a helper in one's own bitterness. But we, so that we may put an end to the inept and vain discourse of those who are led toward the contrary by such an occasion, will set forth concerning each of the things mentioned in the following way.
A No one who is truly holy, and inspired by the Holy Spirit—whose sayings were written down by divine providence for the instruction of those who followed—will be shown to have had the desire for any evil in his mind. But the aim and intention of all their words looks toward the correction and amendment of the vice and malice that were then flourishing in human nature. Therefore, just as he who prays that there may be no sick and no needy people desires, not the destruction of human beings, but the abolition of disease and poverty: so also each of the saints, having as the objective of his prayer that what is contrary and hostile to nature should come to an end, provides suspicion to the less instructed, as if they were raging and embittered against men. For the Psalmist too, when he said, "Let sinners and the iniquitous perish from the earth, so that they may be no more," B is praying for sin and iniquity to cease. For a human being is not an enemy to humans, but the movement of the free will toward wickedness and malice has established what is joined to nature in the rank of an enemy. Therefore, he prays for evil to cease, but a human being is not an evil; for how could that which is an image and imitation of the Good be an evil? Thus, even if he prays for shame and confusion upon his enemies, he shows you the host of adversaries, who, standing alongside the invisible enemy, fight against human life. Concerning whom Paul also speaks more plainly, saying that our struggle is against the principalities, against the powers and the rulers of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. C For these demonic snares, through which malicious stumbling blocks are provided to men toward sin—angry encounters, opportunities for desires, the materials of envy and hatred and pride, and such evils—these the great Prophet sees prowling around the soul of each person with treachery, and he prays that those who are attacking these enemies be brought to shame. But this is the same thing as for himself to be saved. For it naturally happens to the one who is defeated in wrestling that he is brought to shame by his fall, just as the victor, on the contrary, rejoices in his victory. And that these things are so, the form of the prayer declares: "Let them be ashamed," he says, "and brought to confusion, who seek after my soul." D For he does not pray against those who through treachery attempt to cause financial loss, or who stir up controversy concerning the boundaries of fields, or who show some malice against his physical life; but against those who lay snares for the soul. And what is the other snare of the soul, if not alienation from God? But the human soul is alienated from God in no other way than through a passionate disposition. Since, therefore, the Divine is always free from passion, he who is constantly in a state of passion is severed from union with the Divine. In order, therefore, that this might not happen to him, he prays for the shame of those who are wrestling against him. But this is nothing other than to pray for a victory for himself over his enemies; and these enemies are the passions. Thus Jeremiah, having a zeal for piety while the king was then mad for idols, and those who were raised up under him, does not treat some private passion, but instead attends to the common [good] of mankind.
A Likewise, the prophet, too, who seeing the wickedness that was then procreating among the Israelites, justly condemns them to childlessness, and wishes the bitter breasts of sin to be dried up, so that evil might neither be born to men nor nourished. For this reason the prophet says: Give them, O Lord, a barren womb and dry breasts. And if any other such speech be found among the saints, bearing an accusation and signification of wrath, it looks entirely to such a conception, which expels vice but does not destroy the human being. God made not death. Do you hear the verdict? How then would He be expected to beseech God for the death of His own enemies, He who is alien to the efficacy of death? He does not delight in the destruction of the living. But he who babbles, and attempts to goad the philanthropy of God against his own enemies, urges Him to delight in the calamities of men. B C But already some, he says, have been deemed worthy of principalities, and honors, and wealth, having used prayer for this purpose, and have been thought to be dear to God by reason of such good fortune. How then, one might say, do you forbid us to offer requests to God concerning such things? But that all things depend on the divine counsel, and that this life here is governed from above, is evident to everyone, nor would anyone gainsay that. But we have learned other causes for such accomplishments of prayer, not as if God bestows these things as altogether good to those who ask; but so that through them, faith towards God might be established and confirmed in those who are more superficial, and gradually, in the lesser requests, learning by experience that God hears supplications, we might finally ascend to the desire and longing for those gifts which are sublime and worthy of God. Just as we see in our own children: for a while they cling to the maternal breast, D seeking as much as nature allows from their mother. But if the infant grows, and attains some faculty of speech, he scorns the breast, but seeks something of that sort, either an ornament, or a garment, or some such things by which the eyes of infants are delighted; but when he arrives at a more mature age, and his intellect has grown along with his body, then, having left behind all childish desires, he will seek from his parents things that pertain to a perfect life: so also God, accustoming man through all things to look unto Him, for this reason often does not turn a deaf ear even to the lesser requests, so that by the largesse of small things He might invite the one who has received this benefit to the desire of more sublime things. And you, therefore, if such and such a person has become known and conspicuous by divine providence from more obscure origins, or has acquired anything else that is sought after in this life, the beginning
B or wealth, or distinction, consider the purpose: that the kindness shown in these matters is a demonstration of the great power of God toward you, so that by obtaining these childish toys, you may bring before the Father your requests for greater and more perfect things. These are the things that bring profit to the soul.
For it would indeed be among the most irrational things for someone approaching God to ask for temporal things from the Eternal, earthly things from the Heavenly, low and abject things from the Most High, and from Him who grants the kingdom of heaven, this earthly and humble prosperity; or from Him who grants things that cannot be taken away, the use of alien things C for a short time, for which the removal is necessary, the enjoyment is temporary, and the stewardship dangerous. But He beautifully shows the absurdity by the addition when He says, "As the Gentiles do." For to bestow effort on the things that appear is characteristic of those who propose no hope of the future age for themselves, who have no fear of judgment, no threat of hell, no expectation of good things, and nothing else of the things hoped for at the resurrection; who, like cattle, are intent upon the present life, and count as a share of good things whatever they can indulge their throat, belly, and the other pleasures of the body with, or to hold D a position of leadership among some, and to seem superior to the rest, or to brood over many talents, or anything else that belongs to the deceptions of this life; to whom, if anyone speaks of the hope of the future, he seems to be a mere trifler, as he discourses on paradise, the kingdom, the heavenly life, and such things. Since, therefore, it is characteristic of those who have no hope to be attached and addicted to the present life, the Scripture rightly says that the superfluous and vain desires—which those who are addicted to pleasure think they will accomplish for themselves through prayer—are those of the Gentiles, who think that by asking earnestly and assiduously for absurd things, they will obtain help from the divine power for things that are neither right nor necessary. For they think, He says, that they will be heard because of their much speaking. But we have been taught those things which we ought to know through the matters we have examined and set forth. But as for what sort of prayer it is fitting to offer to God, let us hear in what follows, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
ORATION II
Our Father, who art in heaven.
When that great Moses was leading the Israelite people to that discipline of sacred mysteries which was being established on the mountain, he did not judge them worthy of the manifestation of God until he had legislated for the people a purification through the enjoined observance of chastity and the sprinkling of water. And not even so did they endure the manifestation of the divine power, but they were struck with amazement at every face and aspect of the things that appeared—at the fire, the gloom, the smoke, and the trumpets—and having turned back again to these, they asked the lawgiver to become a mediator to them for the divine will.
as if their own powers were not sufficiently capable of approaching God and receiving the divine manifestation. A But our own lawgiver, and our Lord Jesus Christ, intending to lead us to divine grace, does not set before us as a lesson a Mount Sinai covered with gloom and smoking with fire, nor the sounds of trumpets echoing something obscure and terrifying, nor does He purge the soul with a three-day purity and water that washes away filth, nor, having left the whole assembly at the foot of the mountain, does He grant the ascent to the summit of the mountain to one alone, where the gloom hides the glory of God. Instead, first of all, in place of the mountain, He leads us to heaven itself, having made it accessible to B mankind through virtue. Then, He makes us not merely spectators of the divine power, but also partners and participants, and leads those approaching Him into a kind of kinship with the transcendent nature. Nor does He hide the surpassing glory in a gloom, making it hard for those who seek to see, but having illuminated the gloom with the far-shining light of doctrine, He has made the ineffable glory visible in a bright clarity to those who are pure in heart. And as for the water for sprinkling, He grants it not from foreign streams, but welling up within us ourselves—whether one calls the fountains of the eyes, or the pure conscience of the heart, which introduces no mud from lawfulness or malice—having C thus ordered this purity not only from the lawful intercourse of husband and wife, but from every material and pathetic disposition, He thus leads us to God through prayer. For this is the power of the words, through which we learn by discourse not just certain voices pronounced in syllables, but the concept of the ascent to God, accomplished through a lofty manner of life.
It is possible through the very words of the prayer to understand the divine initiation. When you pray, He says—He did not say, "When you make a vow," but, "When you pray"—as if it were fitting for that which pertains to the vow to have already been performed before approaching God through prayer. D What is the difference between these names in regard to their meaning? It is that _euche_ (a vow) is a promise of something dedicated according to piety, while _proseuche_ (prayer) is a petition for good things, offered to God with supplication. Since, therefore, we have need of boldness when we approach God, performing supplications for what is advantageous, necessarily that which pertains to the vow must come first, so that having performed what is required of us, we may thus be confident and deem ourselves worthy to receive from God. For this reason, the Prophet says, "I will pay my vows to You, which my lips have uttered," and, "Make vows, and pay them to the Lord our God." And in many parts of Scripture it is possible to see such a meaning of prayer, so that we may know that _euche_ is, as has been said, a thanksgiving promise of an offering, whereas _proseuche_ is...
_—that is, prayer—signifies the approach to God that follows the fulfillment of the promise. A Our discourse therefore teaches us not to ask anything of God before we have offered to Him some gift that is acceptable and pleasing. For one must first make a vow, and then pray; just as if someone were to say that sowing must occur before the fruits can be reaped. It is necessary, therefore, to cast the seeds of the vow first, and thus, through prayer, to receive the favor—as one would reap the harvest—from the seeds that have been cast. Since, then, there would be no boldness in the petition if the approach were not made by way of a vow and an offering previously made, it is necessary that the vow should precede B the prayer.
As if this were already accomplished, the Lord says to the disciples: "When you pray, say: Our Father, who art in heaven." "Who will give me wings like a dove?" the great David says somewhere in the Psalms. I, too, having dared to utter the same voice, would say: Who will give me those wings, so that I might be able, together with the height of the excellence and majesty of the words, C to fly upward in my mind; that I might leave behind all the earth, and cross all the air that is poured out in the middle; that I might reach the ethereal beauty, and escape to the stars, and gaze upon all the order arranged within them by reason, and not even stop at these, but run through them as well, and escape beyond everything that is moved and changed, and attain the stable nature and immovable power, and that which is established, fixed, founded, and made firm in itself, leading and bearing all things equally, whatever things exist—all things, I say, which hang upon the ineffable will of divine wisdom; so that, being far removed in my mind from all things that alternate and change, I may first reconcile and render familiar to me, through my soul's disposition and judgment, Him who is immutable and immovable—who can neither be changed nor perverted into another state—in a state of soul that is itself D likewise immutable and immovable: and only then call upon Him and say, "Father," by that most familiar and affectionate term. For what kind of soul is required for one who speaks thus! What confidence! What a conscience! That when one has understood God, so far as it is possible, through those appellations which are perceived in Him, and, as if guided by the hand to an understanding of His ineffable glory, has conceived in his mind and learned that the divine nature—whatever that may be in itself—is goodness, sanctity, exultation, power, glory, purity, eternity, and that it always remains the same and in the same manner, and whatever else is understood concerning the divine nature, after having perceived this both through divine Scripture and through his own reflections; then, and only then, would he dare to utter such a voice, and name as his father Him who is such as this? For it is clear that if he possesses any intelligence, he would not dare, while not perceiving the same things in himself, to utter that voice to God and say, "Father." For the Good One, in His essence, has no nature to become a father to evil conduct; nor can the Holy One be a father to one who has been defiled in his life.
nor is the One who is immovable [a father] to one who is turned about; nor is the Father of Life [a father] to one who has been deadened by sin; nor is the Pure and Undefiled One [a father] to those who behave shamefully in the passions of dishonor; nor is the Benefactor [a father] to the greedy; nor generally is the One who is contemplated in every good [a father] to those found in any evil. For if one who looks at himself A while still in need of cleansing, and who recognizes his own wicked conscience to be full of stains and evil scorchings, were to claim for himself, before being cleansed of such and so many evils, a kinship with God, and were to say, "Father"—[calling him] Farmer to the unjust, or Pure to the impure—the words would be an outright insolence and abuse, if he were to name God the father of his own wickedness. For the word "Father" signifies the cause of the one who has come into being from him. Therefore, if one who is wicked in conscience calls God his father, he will be accusing Him of being nothing other than the head and cause of his own evils.
But "what communion has light with darkness?" says the Apostle; B rather, light is joined to light, justice to the just, the good to the good, and the incorruptible to the incorruptible. And contraries naturally have kinship with their own kind. For "a good tree cannot produce evil fruit." If, therefore, anyone who is "heavy-hearted," as the Scripture says, and who seeks out a lie, dares to take upon himself the words of the prayer, let him know that such a one does not call upon the heavenly Father, but him who is underworld, who is himself a liar, and who becomes the father of the lie that is formed in each of us; that one is sin and the father of sin. For this reason those whose souls are subject to passion are called "children of wrath" by the Apostle; and he who has departed from life is named a "son of perdition"; and someone who is sluggish and effeminate was called a "son of deserter maidens." Likewise, from the opposite, those who are bright in conscience are called "children of light and of day"; and others are "sons of power," those who have invigorated themselves toward the divine strength. C When, therefore, the Lord teaches us to call God "Father" in prayer, he seems to me to do nothing other than to legislate a sublime and elevated life; for the Truth surely does not teach us to lie, so that we might say we are what we are not, and name ourselves by a title that is not attributed to us by nature, but rather that, by calling our Father incorrupt, just, and good, we might manifest this kinship through the integrity of our life, and show it to be true. Do you see how much preparation we need? What kind of life? How much and what sort of zeal, so that when our conscience has finally been raised to this measure of boldness, we might dare to say to God, "Father"? For if you look at money, D or if you were occupied with worldly deception, or were searching for glory from men, or if you were enslaved to the most passionate desires; then you took such a prayer upon your lips: what do you think the One who looks upon the life and who understands the prayer would say? I seem to hear such words, as if God were saying to such a person
A: "Do you, corrupted in your life, call the Father of incorruptibility 'Father'? Why do you defile the unsullied Name with your filthy voice? Why do you deal falsely with the Word? Why do you insult the unpolluted nature? If you were my child, your life ought by all means to be characterized by my goods; I do not recognize the image of my nature in you; these marks belong to adversaries. What fellowship has light with darkness? What kinship is there between life and death? What association has that which is pure in nature with that which is impure? There is a great distance between the benefactor and the plunderer. There is an unsociable opposition between the merciful and the ruthless. Another is the father of the vices which are in you; for my offspring is adorned with paternal goods: the child of the merciful is merciful, and the child of the pure is pure, while corruption is alien to the incorruptible. In sum, from the good comes the good, and from the just comes the just; but as for you, I do not know where you are from." Therefore, it is dangerous for anyone, before they have been cleansed in their life, to be so bold in this prayer as to name God as their own Father.
But let us listen again to the words of the prayer, to see if by a more frequent repetition we might perhaps attain B some understanding of the hidden things of the mind. *Our Father, who art in the heavens.* That God must be reconciled through a life lived in virtue has been moderately shown by us through what has been said above. But it seems to me that the discourse also signifies a certain deeper meaning; for these words produce in us a remembrance of the homeland from which we have fallen C and of the nobility of which we have been deprived. For in the narrative according to the young man who had left behind his ancestral home and had defected to a swinish life, the Word, by recounting his departure and his profligacy after the manner of historians, reveals the human misery; yet He does not bring him back to his original happiness before he has received a sense of his present calamity, come to himself, and begun to meditate upon the words of repentance. These things were in a certain way in harmony with the words of the prayer; for he said there: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you" D: he would not have added to his confession the sin against heaven, had he not been convinced that heaven was the homeland which he had left behind when he sinned. For this reason, the meditation on such a confession makes the father easily approachable to him, so that he even ran to him and greeted his neck with a kiss (which signifies the rational yoke, placed upon man by the mouth through the evangelical tradition, for one who had first cast off the yoke of the commandment and had repudiated the Law, his guardian, by casting it aside), and he also clothed him with the robe—not another, but the first one, of which he had been stripped through his disobedience, as soon as he had tasted the forbidden things and seen himself naked. Likewise, the ring on his finger signifies, by means of the engraving upon the signet, the recovery of the image. Moreover, he also protects his feet with sandals, lest by a bare heel he should approach the head of the serpent
and fall victim to its bite. Just as, then, in that instance, the return to the paternal hearth—and this is heaven, into which he says he has sinned against the Father—became for the young man the cause of the Father’s philanthropy, so too here it seems to me that the Lord, in teaching us to call upon the Father who is in heaven, is reminding you of that good fatherland, so that by implanting in you a more vehement desire for good things, He may set you upon the path that leads back to the fatherland. The path bringing human nature up to heaven is none other than flight and avoidance of earthly evils. And to my mind, there seems to be no other way to conceive of the flight from evils than assimilation to God. To be made like unto God is to become just, holy, good, and endowed with such virtues; and if any man, insofar as it is possible, clearly impresses these marks upon himself, he will B be translated effortlessly and automatically from the earthly life to the heavenly sphere. For the distance of the Divine from the human race is not one of locality, so that we would have need of some device or contrivance to transport this heavy, burdensome, and earthy flesh to the incorporeal and intellectual dwelling-place; rather, because virtue, insofar as the intellect can perceive, is separated from vice, it lies solely in the human will—that whatever one inclines toward by desire, in that place he resides. Since, therefore, there is no labor involved in choosing and desiring the good (for attainment and success follow the choosing of what one has set his heart upon), it is permitted to you to be immediately in heaven, once you have taken God into your mind. For if, as Ecclesiastes says, God is in heaven, and you, according to the Prophet, have been glued to and adhere C to God, it is absolutely necessary that he who is joined to God be where God is. Since, therefore, He has commanded that in prayer you call God your Father, He is bidding you to be nothing else than to become, through a divine manner of life, like the heavenly Father, just as He more clearly enjoins this elsewhere, saying: "Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."
If, then, we have understood the meaning of such a prayer, it would be high time to prepare our souls so that we might one day dare to take these words upon our lips and say with confidence: "Our Father, who art in heaven." For just as there are manifest signs of that likeness to God, D through which it is possible for someone to become a child of God (for as many as received Him, He says, He gave the power to become children of God; and one receives God into himself who has taken on the perfection that consists in goodness), so too there are certain signs peculiar to the character of the evil one, in which he who dwells—bearing the image of the contrary nature—cannot be a child of God. Do you wish to know the characteristics of the evil character? Envy, hatred, slander, pride, greed, the unruly
desire and the disease of vainglory; these are the things by which the form of the adversary is characterized and marked. A Whoever, therefore, has his soul scorched with such stains, if he calls upon the Father, which father will answer him? Clearly, he who has a kinship with the one who calls; but this is not the heavenly Father, but the subterranean one. For he will surely recognize his own kinship in the one who bears the signs of close relationship to him. Therefore, the prayer of a wicked and depraved man, as long as he remains in wickedness, is an invocation of the devil; but the voice of one who has departed from wickedness and lives in goodness will call upon the good Father. When, therefore, we approach God, let us first examine our life, to see if we bear within ourselves anything worthy of the divine kinship; and only then let us dare to utter such a word. For He who commanded us to say "Father" did not permit us to speak a lie. Therefore, he who has lived in a manner B worthy of divine nobility rightly looks toward the heavenly city, calling the King of the heavens his Father and the heavenly blessedness his homeland. To what end does the purpose and intention of that counsel lead? To think on the things that are above, where God is; there to lay the foundations of one's own dwelling; there to store up treasures; thither to turn one's own heart. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." To look always toward the paternal beauty, and in accordance with it, to adorn one's own soul. "There is no respect of persons with God," says the Scripture. Let such filth also be far from your form. The divine nature is pure and whole, free from envy and every passionate stain. Let no such vices mark you—not envy, not pride, nor anything else that pollutes and defiles the godlike beauty. If you are such, take heart to call upon God with your own voice and to name the Lord of all as your Father. C He will look upon you with paternal eyes, He will clothe you with the divine robe, He will adorn you with the ring, He will prepare and equip your feet for the upward journey with the Gospel shoes, He will restore you to the heavenly homeland, through Christ Jesus our Lord: to whom is due glory and dominion, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ORATION III
"Hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come."
The law, which contains the shadow of the good things to come and signifies the truth in certain typical enigmas and coverings, D when it brings the priest into the hidden and remote place of the temple, which is called the Holy of Holies (because it was not lawful for any but the priests to enter there), intending to offer prayers to God, first purifies and cleanses the one about to enter by certain piacular sacrifices and sprinklings. Then, when it has adorned him with the priestly robe, elegantly and skillfully fashioned with gold and purple and the other vibrant colors of the dye, and has placed the pectoral upon him, and has attached the bells at the hems along with the pomegranates, and has fastened the ephod from above with the shoulder-straps, and has adorned his head with the
A diadem, and has poured the ointment lavishly over his hair; thus at last He leads him into the inner sanctuary to perform the ineffable sacred rites.
But the spiritual lawgiver, our Lord Jesus Christ, stripping the law of its bodily veils and bringing the enigmas of the types into the open, first of all does not take one man from the whole body and lead him alone to converse with God, but proposes the benefit of the priesthood to all who desire it, granting this dignity equally to everyone. Furthermore, he does not deck the priest’s beauty with foreign finery, created by some process of dyeing or intricate weaving, but clothes him in an adornment that is his own and natural to him, decking him out with the graces of the virtues instead of the variegated purple robe. He also adorns his breast, not with earthly gold, but by beautifying the heart’s splendor with an undefiled and pure conscience.
He also fits to the mitre the brilliance of precious stones; these, it seems to the Apostle, are the flashes of light of the holy commandments. And with the breeches B he also secures that part for which such a garment is an ornament. You are surely not unaware that the covering of modesty is the ornament of that part. Having hung from the hems of his life spiritual pomegranates and bells—by which one would correctly understand the excellent works of a life lived in virtue, so that one’s journey through this life may be conspicuous—and having hung from these hems, in place of the bell, the resonant word of faith, and in place of the pomegranate, the hidden preparedness for the future hope, which is covered by a more rigorous life, He thus leads him to the inner and deepest part of the sanctuary.
This inner sanctuary is not inanimate, nor is it made by hands, but it is the secret treasury of our heart, if indeed it is truly a sanctuary, inaccessible C to wickedness and evil thoughts. He adorns the head with the heavenly mindset, not by stamping the shape of letters onto a gold plate, but by imprinting God Himself upon the ruling faculty of the mind. He sprinkles ointment upon his hair, which is prepared inwardly within the soul itself through the virtues. He also prepares him to offer a sacrifice and victim to God through the mystical sacred rite, which is nothing other than himself.
For he who is thus led by the Lord to this priesthood, having mortified the mindset of the flesh by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, thus appeases God by entering into the inner sanctuaries, having offered himself as a sacrifice through such an immolation, and having presented his own body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.
But someone will perhaps say that these things do not, at first glance, contain the meaning of the prayer that we have set out to explain, and that we are interpreting such words in a way that is not appropriate to the subject matter. Let us, therefore, be reminded again of the first teachings of the prayer. For he who has so prepared himself as to dare in boldness to call God his own Father D
A is truly clothed in that robe which the discourse has described, ringing with bells and adorned with pomegranates. It shines about his breast with the brilliance of the commandments, and he bears upon his shoulders the patriarchs and prophets—having transferred their virtues, in place of their names, into his own adornment. He adorns his head with the crown of righteousness, his hair is anointed with the heavenly ointment, and he moves within the super-celestial sanctuaries, which are in truth sanctuaries truly impenetrable and inaccessible to every profane thought. The discourse has sufficiently demonstrated, through the things already treated and explained, how it is fitting for one about to discharge the office of a priest to be both adorned and prepared. It remains, then, to examine the petition itself, which it ordered him who has entered within the sanctuary to offer to God; for to me, the words of the prayer, when laid out bare and perceived at first glance, do not seem to yield an easy meaning.
B Hallowed be thy name, it says; thy kingdom come. What have these to do with my need? some man might say—whether he be one who chastises himself through repentance for his sins, or one who, seeking to escape the sin that is gaining strength, calls upon God for assistance, ever keeping in his eyes Him who attacks through temptations. Hence, anger draws the reason away from constancy, temperance, and duty; from there, the desires for absurd things enervate the vigor of the soul; on another side, avarice and the zeal for increasing one’s possessions in every way bring dullness and blindness to the perspicacious part of the heart; arrogance, pride, hatred, and the rest of the list and number of our adversaries, like a band of enemies surrounding us on every side, bring the soul into danger of the ultimate evils. And he who seeks to escape and avoid these with a firmer help, what words would he use more properly? Would it not be those which great David used, saying, *Deliver me from those who persecute me in hatred*? and, *Let my enemies be turned backward*; and, *Give us help from affliction*—and whatever such things there are through which one may stir up the help of God against the adversaries? But now, what does this mode of prayer contain? *Hallowed be thy name*. For if this be not said by me, is it possible for the name of God not to be holy? *Thy kingdom come*. For what is alienated from the power of God, who, as Isaiah says, C comprehends the whole heaven with a span, who embraces the earth, who holds and comprehends the moist nature in his hand, who carries in his arms, as it were, every creature, both worldly and super-worldly? If, then, the power of God is always holy, and nothing escapes the power of God’s dominion, but He rules over all things, and, as regards sanctification, He admits no addition—being complete and perfect in all things—what does this desire signify: *Hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come*? Is it perhaps that the Word signifies some such thing in the form of this prayer: that human nature is weak toward the acquisition of any good, and for this reason, D it would not be—
A should he not also consider whether he truly possesses the good that he is seeking from the divine assistance? For the head and summit of all good things is that the name of God should be glorified in my life. A clearer understanding may be gained by examining the contrary case.
I have heard the holy Scripture somewhere condemning those who are the cause of blasphemy against God. "Woe," it says, "because of whom my name is blasphemed among the nations." B This means the following: those who have not yet believed the word of truth look at the lives of those who have accepted the faith of the mystery and observe them. When, therefore, the name of the faith is on some people, but their life contradicts that name—being given over to idolatry through covetousness, or behaving shamefully in drunkenness and revelry, and wallowing like a swine in the mire of debauchery—the word of the unbelievers is ready at hand. They do not direct their accusation toward the choice of those who use their lives poorly, but they turn their reproach against the mystery itself, as if it were the mystery that taught them to act in such a way. They argue that such a person who has been initiated into the divine mysteries would never have become a slanderer, covetous person, an extortioner, or prone to any other such evil, unless it were lawful for them to sin. Because of this, the Word brandishes a harsh threat against such people, saying that to them belongs the woe: "Woe because of whom my name is blasphemed among the nations."
If this is understood, it is time to consider what is said from the contrary perspective. For I believe that we ought to pray before all else, and that this should be made the head and summit of our prayer: that the name of God might not be blasphemed because of my life, but rather glorified and sanctified. C And so, he says, "Let the name of your lordship invoked by me be sanctified in me, so that men may see the good works and give glory to the Father who is in heaven."
Who is so brutish and irrational that, when he sees among those who have believed in God a life pure and perfected through virtue, cleansed of all the stains of sin, alienated from every suspicion of evil, bright in temperance, grave in prudence, having strength against the incursions of the passions, in no way softened by bodily pleasures, as far as possible separated from luxury, sloth, and the vacuity of pride, using their life only as much as is necessary—touching the earth only with the tip of their toes, not being buried in this earthly life by the enjoyment of its pleasures, but rising above all deception brought about by the senses, D striving through the flesh toward the incorporeal life, counting as their only wealth the acquisition of virtue, as their only nobility their intimacy with God, as their only honor and power the ability to master oneself and to be unenslaved by human passions, distressed at the prolongation of this material life, and hastening, like those suffering on a sea voyage, toward the harbor—
A ad requiem. Who, therefore, seeing such a one, would not glorify the name that is invoked by such a life? Therefore, he who says in prayer, "Hallowed be thy name," by the force of the words prays these things: "By the protection and help of your aid, may I become irreprehensible, blameless, just, pious; may I abstain from every evil deed; speaking what is true, doing what is just; walking in uprightness, illustrious in temperance, adorned with integrity, ornamented with wisdom and prudence, aspiring to the things above, despising earthly things, shining with the institutions of the angelic life." This short request, which says to God through prayer, "Hallowed be thy name," contains these and suchlike things. For God cannot be glorified through man in any other way than if his virtue bears witness that the divine power and virtue is the cause of all good things.
B The petition which follows next prays for the kingdom of God to come. Does it wish him to become king now, who is the King of the universe, who always is what he is? Who is firm and immovable towards every change? Who cannot find anything better into which he might pass? What, then, does the desire that invokes the kingdom of God mean? But as for the true reasoning regarding this matter, those would know to whom the Spirit of truth reveals hidden mysteries; we, however, entertain this opinion and judgment regarding the word: One true authority and power is set over all things, which has received the empire of the universe, and it reigns, not with any violent and tyrannical power, C subjecting the subject to its own command through fears and necessities. For it is fitting that virtue should be free and exempt from all fear and subject to no master, choosing and accepting the good by a voluntary will; and the head of every good thing is to be subject to the life-giving authority. Since, therefore, human nature was led astray from the judgment of the good by deceit, and our inclination turned toward the contrary, and every evil invaded human life and reduced it to its power: in countless ways death was mingled with our nature (for every form of malice and vice exists as a certain path and approach for death against us). Since, therefore, we were circumvented and exposed to such a tyranny, D reduced to slavery by death through the incursions of passions and perturbations, as if by certain executioners or enemies: we rightly pray for the kingdom of God to come upon us. For there is no other way to put off and escape the wicked power of corruption, unless the life-giving power in turn assumes the empire within us. If, therefore, we ask for the kingdom of God to come upon us, by the force of the words we beseech God for these things: "May I be exempt from corruption, may I be freed from death, may I be loosed from the bonds of sin; let death no longer reign over me; let the tyranny of malice no longer be active against me, and let not the war prevail over me, nor let it lead me captive through sin; but let your kingdom come upon me, so that those passions which now prevail and reign may depart from me, or rather, pass into non-existence. For as smoke vanishes, so shall they vanish; and as wax melts
A before the fire, so shall they perish. For smoke, when scattered into the air, leaves no sign of its own nature, nor is wax, once it has been in the fire, found anymore; but even this, after it has fed the flame with its own substance, is transformed into vapor and air, and the smoke passes into complete annihilation: thus, if the kingdom of God comes upon us, all things that now dominate and hold sway will pass into annihilation. For darkness does not withstand the presence of light; sickness does not persist when health arrives; the passions do not work when impassibility is present; death is rendered vain, and corruption vanishes, when life reigns in us and incorruptibility holds the power.
"Thy kingdom come." A sweet voice, through which we bring this very prayer directly to God: Let the opposing battle line be broken; let the phalanx of the aliens be destroyed; let the war of the flesh against the spirit be ended; let not the body be the stronghold and receptacle of the enemy of the soul; let the royal power, the angelic hand, the thousands of those who guide, and the myriads of those who stand at the right hand appear to me, so that the thousands of those who war from the opposing side may fall. The adversary is great, but to those deserted by Thy aid he is terrible and invincible; yet this is only so long as the one being warred against is alone. But when Thy kingdom appears, sorrow and groaning flee, and life, peace, and exultation enter in their place. C
Or perhaps, as the same meaning is explained to us more clearly by Luke, does he who prays for the kingdom to come invoke the aid of the Holy Spirit? For in that Gospel he says, instead of "Thy kingdom come," "May Thy Holy Spirit come upon us, and purify us." What will those of rash tongue say to this against the Holy Spirit? With what mind, what opinion, or what understanding do they drag royal dignity down to servile humility? For how do the enemies of God pull down that which Luke calls the Holy Spirit, but Matthew named as kingdom, to a subject nature, ranking the ruling nature with that which is subject to the kingdom? Creation serves, but service is not kingship. But the Holy Spirit is kingship. Therefore, He is separated from communion with creation. For that which reigns is not subject to the kingdom; but that which is not subject to the kingdom is not even a creature. For to serve is the property of creation. If, therefore, the Holy Spirit is kingdom, how is it that they do not confess His dominion, who have not even learned how to pray? D Who do not even know who it is that purifies that which is defiled? Or who is He upon whom the power of the kingdom depends? "May Thy Holy Spirit come," he says, "and purify us." Therefore, to cleanse and to forgive sins is the proper, excellent, and peculiar power and energy of the Holy Spirit, as the evangelical narrative testifies. Consequently, he who bears witness that He has the power of the forgiveness of sins bears witness, in every respect, to His divinity. And this same thing also concerning
A the Only-Begotten the Apostle says, that "when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." B The work, therefore, of both is one—the work of the Spirit who purifies sin, and of Christ who has accomplished the purification of sins. (a) Quorum autem una efficientia est, eorum etiam natura prorsus eadem est. Omnis enim actio facultatis effectus est. Quamobrem si actio et facultas est una, quomodo naturæ diversitas intelligi potest in illis, in quibus nullum facultatis actionisque discrimen deprehendimus? Ut enim ex ignis proprietatibus, cum duæ sint, quod illuminet, et quod incendat, non licet subjecti diversitatem inferre: ita nec ullus, qui prudens sit, cum ex Scriptura didicerit unam esse Filii et Spiritus efficientiam, naturæ discrimen aliquod suspicabitur.
But now it has been demonstrated by the opinions of the pious that the nature in the Father and the Son is the same, and that it is not possible for things that are of a different genus to be called by the name of God; just as a carpenter's son is not called a bench, nor would any prudent person say that a builder had constructed a son, but rather by the very designation of son and father, that which is joined according to nature is signified. There is an absolute necessity, when two things have a natural relation to one, and do not differ among themselves, that if the Son is united to the Father according to nature, the Holy Spirit is proved to be not alien to the nature of the Son through the identity of operations. C Conclusively, it is demonstrated that the nature of the Holy Trinity is one, without confusion of the properties which are especially observed in the individual persons, nor with the marks by which they are distinguished from one another being changed. What, then, is the madness of those who fight against the Spirit, and who dogmatize that the Lord is a servant? To them, not even Paul is a credible witness when he solemnly affirms, saying: "Now the Lord is that Spirit." Or perhaps they consider the word "Come" to have the power of stripping away dignity? And do they not hear the great David drawing even the Father to himself, and crying out, "Come to save us"? If, therefore, coming is a saving act in the case of the Father, how is coming in the case of the Spirit a shameful and reproachful thing? Or do they consider purification from sins to be a sign of diminished dignity? And yet, hear the unbelieving Jews crying out that the forgiveness of sins belongs D to God alone, when they said this word concerning the Father: "Why does this man speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God only?" If, therefore, the Father forgives sins, and the Son takes away the sin of the world, and the Holy Spirit purifies from the stains of sin those in whom He resides, what will they say, who fight against their own life? But may the Holy Spirit come upon us, and purify us, and make us capable of those lofty and divine-worthy thoughts
A which are shown to us through the voice of the Savior in prayer, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
ORATIO IV
*Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie.*I once heard a certain physician, skilled in the natural sciences, discoursing on how physical health is maintained or lost; and perhaps what was said might not be irrelevant for us to consider for the preservation of the health of the soul. For he maintained that the cause and origin of sickness is the deviation of any one of the elements within us from its proper balance; and conversely, that the restoration of those elements which have been disturbed and altered in a disorderly way to their proper and natural state is the cure for the cause of the disease. And for this reason, he thought it necessary to observe which of the elements B moving within us in disorder—by its own predominance—weakens and hinders the contribution of its opposing element toward health. Thus, if heat should be prevalent, he would suggest providing assistance to that which is being oppressed and watering that which is drying up and perishing, lest, through the exhaustion of the material, the heat itself, being consumed within itself, should completely fade and be extinguished. Similarly, if any other of the elements we observe within ourselves should depart from its proper measure and go to excess, he would apply the assistance of the art by counterbalancing the part that is yielding, so that it might be curbed and restrained. If this is done, and nothing interferes with the equal distribution and balance of the elements, health is restored to the body, since nature—as far as its constitution is concerned—is no longer unbalanced.
To what purpose, then, is this long preamble to my discourse? Perhaps the deliberation is not C foreign or far removed from the subject at hand; for our purpose is to consider what is meant by the phrase, "Thy will be done." We shall subsequently declare and explain for what reason we mentioned this medical theory.
There was a time when the intelligible human nature was in health, as if its elements—I mean the movements of the soul—were tempered within us in accordance with the principle of virtue. But after the desire-based faculty became dominant—that disposition which is understood as the opposite, namely temperance, having been overcome by the excessive—there was nothing to restrain and inhibit the immoderate movement of desire rushing toward improper and unbecoming things; and from this, the lethal D disease of sin was compounded in human nature. Therefore, the true physician of the soul's passions, who for the sake of those suffering in this life has concerned Himself with the lives of men, through the thoughts found in this prayer, removes the disease-producing cause and restores us to that health which is perceived by the mind. For the health of the soul is the successful accomplishment of the divine will, just as, conversely, to have fallen away from that good will is a disease of the soul which ends in death. Since, therefore, we became ill, having abandoned the good life in paradise, when we had utterly [drunk] the poison of disobedience...
and for that reason nature succumbed to this grave and lethal disease and was defeated, the true physician came, according to the rule of the medical art healing the evil by opposites; and those who had fallen into the disease because they had departed from the divine will, he frees again from the disease by union with the divine will. For the words of the prayer are a cure for the disease inherent in the soul. For he who says, "Thy will be done," prays as if pressed by certain pains of the soul. But the will of God is the salvation of men. Since, therefore, we have reached the point of saying to God, "Thy will be done in me as well," it is absolutely necessary first to reproach that life which had transgressed the divine will, and to recount these things through confession: "Since because of my previous life the will contrary B to and opposed to God worked badly in me, and I became a minister of the wicked tyrant, like a certain executioner carrying out the enemy's sentence against myself, for this reason, having pity on my destruction, grant that at last Thy will may also be done in me." For even as in dark caves, when light is brought in, the darkness vanishes and the gloom recedes, so if Thy will is in me, every wicked and troublesome motion of the mind's intent will be reduced to nothing. For sobriety and modesty will extinguish the wanton and vicious appetite of the mind; humility will consume pride; moderation will heal the disease of arrogance; and the good of love will drive from the soul a great host of opposing evils. To this, indeed, yields hatred, envy, discord, motions of anger, the spirit of resentment, treachery, simulation, the memory of troubles and injuries, the desire for vengeance, the boiling of the blood C around the heart, the bitter eye. This herd of such evils vanishes through the affectionate disposition. Thus the working of the divine will casts out idolatry; I say the double one, both that which concerns idols, and the madness and fury concerning silver and gold, which the prophetic word has named the idols of the nations. Thy will be done, therefore, so that the will of the devil may be extinguished. But why do we pray that a good intention may befall us from God? Because human nature is weak toward the good, once it has been enervated by vice. For man does not return from evil to good with the same ease with which he descends from good to evil; just as in the case of bodies also one can observe a similar principle, that it does not happen in a similar or D equally convenient and easy way that a healthy body becomes subject to disease, and that one which has labored under disease is healed. For he who was living in health a little before comes into danger of death even through one wound; and one round or access of fever dissolves all the tone and vigor of the body, and a slight taste of poison either utterly destroys or nearly does so; and by the bite of a serpent, or by some sting of venomous things, or [some...]
by a fall, or a ruin, or food taken more copiously than A the strength can bear, or by anything else of that sort, immediately there follows either sickness or death. But the driving away of sickness is achieved through many inventions, and difficulties, and medical arts, if indeed it can be achieved at all. For this reason, when the impulse goes towards evil for us, there is no need of a helper, since in our will the evil completes itself spontaneously; but if the movement should be toward the better, there is need of God, who leads the desire to the deed. For this reason we say: Since Thy will is temperance, while I am carnal, sold under sin, may this good will be brought to pass for me by Thy power; thus justice, piety, and the alienation from vices are accomplished. For the term "will" generally includes all virtues in itself, and those things which are understood individually in the good are all discerned in the will of God.
But what is the meaning of the addition of the word, *as in heaven and on earth*? Perhaps it seems to me that the discourse indicates some deeper doctrine, and offers a certain teaching of divine intellect through the contemplation of the creation. Now what I say is this: Every rational creation is divided into an incorporeal and a corporeal nature. The angelic nature is incorporeal; the other kind is we human beings. And that which is incorporeal, since it is B perceived by the mind alone, as that which is removed and separated from the burdensome body (I speak of this hard, resisting body, which by its weight inclines toward the earth), moves about in the upper part, dwelling in light and ethereal places, in an agile and expeditious nature; the other, because of the kinship of our body with the earthly nature, like some sediment of mud and dregs, has by necessity been allotted this earthly life. I do not indeed know what the divine will has arranged and destined through these things, whether it has aimed to associate and reconcile every creature to itself, so that neither the lower nature might be devoid of celestial heights, nor heaven might be wholly devoid of things upon C the earth, so that through the formation and condition of man there might be some participation for each element of those things which are understood in the other; since both the soul, which consists of mind—which mind seems to be akin and related to the celestial powers—inhabits earthly bodies, and this earthy flesh, in the restoration of all things, is to migrate into the heavenly place together with the soul. (For we shall be caught up, as the Apostle says, in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.) Whether, therefore, this, or something else beyond this, is being arranged by the wisdom of God, the whole rational nature has been divided and split into this twofold life; one part is incorporeal, which has been allotted celestial blessedness, while the other—which because of its affinity D
A with the earth is occupied by the flesh—possesses an impulse and a capacity for the good, equally implanted and bestowed upon the essence of both natures. The Governor of all things has made the will in both of them free and exempt from all necessity, so that whatever is honored with reason and understanding might be governed by a certain free choice and purpose of the soul. But the life above is entirely pure from wickedness and vice, and nothing of what is understood to be contrary to it associates or has communion with that life; rather, every vicious and turbulent motion and affection, to which the human race is subject, wanders and strays through this nether life. Wherefore the divinely inspired Scripture recognizes that the life of holy virtues which is in the heavens is empty of wickedness and vice, and is integral and pure from every stain of sins. Whatever evil, however, has been undergone and received outside of the good through the separation from Him, has flowed down around this concave and depressed life like a certain dregs and mud, by which means the human race is defiled, being hindered by such darkness from gazing upon the divine light of truth. If, therefore, the life that is above is passionless and undefiled, while the misery of this life here below is submerged B in various affections and hardships, it is manifest that the life above, being pure from every evil, is successfully conducted and governed by the good will of God. For where evil is not, it is absolutely necessary that there be good; but our life, having slipped away from the communion and enjoyment of good things, has at the same time slipped away from the divine will. Therefore, we are taught by the prayer so to purge our life from evil, that according to the likeness of the celestial conduct, the will of God may be exercised in us also without any hindrance, as if one were to say: "Just as in thrones, and principalities, and powers, and dominions, and in every supramundane host, Thy will is done, with no malice anywhere impeding the action of the good; so too may the good be perfected and fulfilled in us, that with all malice and wickedness removed from the midst, Thy will may proceed prosperously in our souls in all things." But as if some one of those who raise objections and oppose had said: "And how is it possible for those who have been allotted the lot of living their life through the flesh to attain that purity which is in the incorporeal powers, when the soul is submerged in countless cares because of the necessary uses of the body?" For this reason it seems to me that He, as if resolving such a perplexity, has in the following petition dissolved what appeared difficult to the task proposed. For I believe that a certain stable dogma is being handed down to us by these words, in which He commands us to ask for daily bread: namely, that frugality and moderation, as far as concerns the reason of the vacancy of affections and vices, D follow in accordance with that capacity to which nature lacks nothing. For the angel does not ask of God in his prayers that bread be supplied to him, since he possesses a nature that has no need of such things; but man is commanded to ask, because that which is emptied has absolute need of that which fills it; for the constitution of human life is flowing and transient, seeking that which is renewing in place of that which has been spent. He, therefore, who towards the hypostasis of nature
A looks, and is not drawn aside into unnecessary things by empty anxieties, will not fall far short of the angelic life, imitating by his own frugality the self-sufficiency of those who are in need of nothing else. For this reason we are commanded to seek what is sufficient for the preservation of our bodily substance. By saying to God, "Give us bread," we are not asking for luxury, nor wealth, nor flowery purple garments, nor ornaments of gold, nor the radiance of precious stones, nor vessels of silver, nor an abundance of land, nor the command of armies, nor rule over wars and nations, nor herds of horses and oxen, and great multitudes of other livestock, nor a wealth of slaves, nor prominence in the market-place, nor columns, nor statues, nor fabrics of silk, nor musical performances, nor anything of such a kind through which the soul is drawn away from divine and more precious concerns—but [only] bread. Do you see the breadth of this philosophy? How many doctrines are contained in this brief utterance? It cries out to those who have understanding, almost openly through this prayer: "Cease, O men, from being scattered and distracted by desires for empty things; cease from multiplying against yourselves the causes and materials of labor. That which you owe to nature is small: you owe food to your flesh, an object moderate and easy to obtain B if you look to need. Why do you multiply taxes against yourself? For the sake of what are you bringing yourself under the yoke, being bound by such great debts—mining silver, digging for gold, and searching for the shimmering material? As if for this reason your belly, this perpetual tax-gatherer, might revel in luxury; whose due is bread, which replenishes what is lacking in the body." And yet you trade with the Indians, you risk your life in the barbarian sea, and you give yourself over to annual voyages, that you might sweeten your food with goods imported from there, not considering that the sensation of seasonings reaches no further than the palate. Likewise, what is pleasant to the sight and appearance, what pleases by its scent, or by the mouth and face, provides to the sense a grace and pleasure that is momentary and soon to perish; but from the palate on, there is an indiscriminate and blurred difference of the things that are ingested, as nature transforms all things equally into stench and foulness. Do you see the end of culinary preparation? Do you see the result C of the sorcery of cooking? Seek bread for the necessity of life; nature has made you a debtor of this to your body. Whatever has been added to these things by the contrivances of those who love luxury, these are the sowing of tares. The seed of the master of the house is wheat, and from wheat bread is made; but luxury is the tare sown alongside the wheat by the enemy. But men, having abandoned the service necessary to nature, are truly choked, as the Word says somewhere, by their zeal for empty things, and remain fruitless, while the soul keeps itself perpetually occupied and busy with these things. D
A Perhaps Moses also seems to me to philosophize about such things through enigmas and veils of words, having presented to Eve the serpent as an advisor of pleasure perceived through the sense of taste. For they say that this beast, the serpent, if it has drawn its head through a joint or commissure, through which it attempts to creep, cannot easily be pulled back from the rear by those pulling against it, because the scale, by its nature, resists against the force of those pulling; and where passage from the front is unobstructed, as it slips through by the smoothness of the scale, B any release from the rear is impossible, as it is held back by the projection of the scales. This shows, I think, that the Word suggests we must guard against pleasure as it enters and creeps upon the back of the soul, and must block up, as much as possible, the joints of life. For in this way, human life might be maintained pure from the communion of beasts. But if it has found any access against us, our well-ordered life being dissolved within us, for the serpent of pleasure will lurk through these dissolved joints, and because of its scales it will not be easily driven out from the recesses and hiding places of the mind. Furthermore, when you hear "scales," understand by the enigma and veil of the word the manifold and various materials and occasions of pleasures. C For the beast is a single thing in the general word—the passion concerning pleasure—but the varied and manifold forms of pleasures, mixed and adhering to human life through the senses, these are the scales of the serpent, marked out by the variety of the passions like spots. If, therefore, you flee the companionship and cohabitation of the beast, guard the head, that is, the first impulse and onset of evil; for to this the enigma of the Lord's commandment points: *He shall watch thy heel, and thou shalt watch his head.* Do not give access to the creeping thing as it sneaks into the inner parts, bringing its whole volume in with it from the very beginning. Remain at the point of necessity; let the limit of your concern for life be the satisfaction of necessity through things that are ready at hand and available. But if the counsellor of Eve also speaks to you of what is beautiful to the sight and sweet to the taste, and you seek to add such a side-dish to your bread, prepared with such condiments, D and then through these lead your desire beyond the bounds of necessary use, then you will see the creeping thing stealthily crawling onward toward greed. For when it has crept from necessary food to gluttony, it will pass to that which is pleasant to behold, seeking splendid and elegant vessels, as well as comely and delicate servants, silver couches, soft cushions, translucent and gold-embroidered covers, chairs, tripods, wash-basins, mixing-bowls, plants, cooling-vessels, wine-pourers, ewers, lamps, censers, and such like things. For it is on account of this that the desire for greed enters. For that there may be no lack of equipment for such things, there is a need for income, through which the desired things may be acquired. Therefore, one must weep for this person, and lament for his housemate, and see many wretched people falling from their own possessions, so that by those tears the tragedy of his table may be made brilliant. Now when the serpent has slipped itself into these things and filled its belly to its heart's content, consequently after
this gluttonous gorge it descends into unrestrained frenzy; this is the ultimate of human evils. A That none of these things may happen, let one limit life by the provision of bread, seeking as a seasoning for it that which is prepared for you by nature itself. This is, most of all, a good conscience, seasoning the bread with right participation. But if you wish to gratify the sensation of the throat as well, let need be your seasoning, and that you may not heap satiety upon satiety, nor blunt the appetite with drunkenness; but let the sweat of the commandments go before you in your food. *In sweat and labor you shall eat your bread.* You see the first seasoning of the Word.
It is enough for you to occupy your mind only up to this point of need; nay, rather, do not bind your soul to worries about bread even up to this point: but say to Him who brings forth bread from the earth; say to Him who feeds the ravens, who gives food to all flesh, who opens His hand and fills every living thing with good pleasure: "From You is my life; from You let also the means for life come to be: You give the bread," that is, let me obtain food from just labors. For if God is justice, he who has food from greed does not have bread from God. You are master of the prayer if your provision is not from others, if your income is not from tears, if no one has hungered for your satiety, if no one has groaned for your fullness. Such bread is most truly God's, the fruit of justice, the spike of peace, unmixed and undefiled by the seeds of tares. B But if, tilling and cultivating the property of others, and having injustice in your eyes, you confirm and ratify unjust acquisition by legal documents, and then say to God, *Give us our bread*, there is another who hears this voice of yours, not God. For the contrary nature produces the fruit gathered from injustice; he who zealously pursues justice receives bread from God, but he who cultivates injustice is fed and nourished by the inventor of injustice. Looking therefore at your own conscience, thus offer the petition for bread to God, knowing that there is no fellowship C of Christ with Belial. And if you offer gifts from injustice, the gift is the exchange of a dog and the hire of a harlot; and even if you make your donations splendid because of ambition, you shall hear the Prophet loathing the contribution from such things. *To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me?* says the Lord: *I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of lambs, and the blood of bulls and goats I do not desire; incense, he says, is an abomination to me.* Elsewhere, he reckons the one sacrificing a calf as one who slaughters a dog. If, therefore, you have bread from the Lord, that is, from just labors, it is permitted to you D also to offer to Him from the fruits of justice.
A Beautiful, too, is the addition of the word "today." For, "Give us," He says, "our daily bread today." This statement contains another philosophy, so that you may learn, through the very things you say, that human life is ephemeral. That which is present belongs to each one alone, while the hope of the future remains in uncertainty; for we do not know what the coming day will bring forth. Why are we miserably anxious about uncertain things? Why are we afflicted and vexed by cares for future things? "Sufficient," He says, "for the day is its own evil [kakia]," calling the painful toil "evil." Why are we anxious about tomorrow? For this reason, by that which He commands for "today," He forbids you the care of tomorrow, saying to you, as it were, through this word: does the One who gives you the day not also give the things that pertain to the day? Who causes the sun to rise? Who causes the blackness of the night to vanish and flee? Who shows you the ray of light? B Who turns the heavens, so that the luminary might be above the earth? Does the One who gives you these things, and such great things, then need your help to provide for your flesh what necessity requires? What zeal does the nature of animals lacking reason bring to its own life? What are the fields of the ravens? What are the storehouses of the eagles? Does not the divine will, which contains and encompasses all things, provide sustenance for all? And the ox, indeed, or the ass, or some other irrational animal, by its own nature has a philosophy that is known and taught; and it is content with what is present, but has no care at all for what comes next. Yet we are in need of counselors to understand how frail and fleeting this life, which is passed through the flesh, is? Are we not taught by the misfortunes of others? Are we not improved for our own life? What did that rich man profit from his great provisions and equipment? He who was clinging in vain to empty hopes, and was gasping, pulling down, building up, gathering, indulging his appetites, locking away long cycles of years in barns by the vanity of hope. Did not one night refute all that dreamed-of hope, as if it were some idle dream constructed upon nothing? The life according to the body is of the present time only; but that which is stored up through hope is proper to the soul. C But the foolishness of men is mistaken regarding the use of each: extending the bodily life with hopes, and pulling the life of the soul down to the enjoyment of present things. For this reason, of necessity, the soul is alienated from that hope which is and exists, being occupied with that which appears; but relying upon unstable things through hopes, it neither becomes master of this present state, nor possesses that future one. Let us be taught, therefore, by the present counsel, what one ought to ask for today, and what for the future. Bread belongs to the necessity of the present; the Kingdom, to the blessedness that is hoped for. But by saying "bread," He includes every necessity for the body. If we ask for these things, it will be clear to the mind of the one praying that his concern is with the ephemeral; but if [we ask] for any of the goods of the soul, [it will be clear] that the petition looks to that which is perpetual and unending, to which He especially commands those who pray to look; D as if, with the greater, the first necessity is also accomplished. Ask,
He says, for the kingdom and the righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power, for ever and ever. Amen.
ORATIO V
Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil.
The discourse, advancing, reaches the very extreme point of virtue; for it prescribes through the words of the prayer what kind of person he wishes him to be who is about to approach God—one who is almost no longer seen within the bounds of human nature, but is assimilated to God Himself through virtue, so that he appears to be another god while performing those things which are the work of God alone. For the remission of debts is a property A and an exclusive privilege of God; for it has been said that no one can forgive sins, but God alone. If, therefore, anyone in his own life should imitate the marks of the divine nature, he becomes, in a way, that whose likeness he has clearly displayed. What then does our discourse teach? First, that we should obtain boldness through our deeds, and thus ask for the remission of the sins we have committed in the past. For these things speak to us directly in the present text, that he who approaches the benefactor must himself be a benefactor; he who approaches the good, must be good; he who approaches the just, must be just; he who approaches the patient, must be patient; he who approaches the loving, must be loving; and likewise for all other things—to the kind, to the gentle, to the one who shares his goods, and to the one who bestows mercy upon everyone; and if any other quality is observed in the divine, by conforming himself to each through his own moral purpose, let him thus procure for himself boldness in prayer.
As, therefore, it is impossible for the wicked to be associated with the good, or for one rolling about in unclean thoughts to have communion with the pure and undefiled, so does harshness separate unto itself one who approaches the loving-kindness of God. He, therefore, who holds in bitterness his debtor because of his debts, has, by his own mode of life, cut himself off from the divine loving-kindness. For what communion is there between loving-kindness and cruelty, and between a disposition of love and savagery? And all the other things which are understood by the opposition to evil, whose contrariety is unmixable—so that he who is caught by one is entirely separated from its opposite. For just as he who has died is not in life, and he who is a partaker of life is removed and alien to death, so it is absolutely necessary that he who approaches the loving-kindness of God become devoid of all cruelty. B He who has become outside of all things conceived in evil, becomes in a way God through such a disposition, having accomplished in himself that which the discourse perceives in the divine nature. Do you see to what greatness the Lord elevates those who hear, through the words of the prayer, changing in a way the human
nature through a divine condition, and ordaining that those who are to approach God should become gods? Why, he says, do you approach God trembling in a servile manner, struck and scourged by your own conscience? Why do you exclude from yourself the confidence that consists in the freedom of the soul, which was from the beginning produced into being along with nature? Why do you flatter with words the One who cannot be deceived by sycophancy and does not wish to be deluded? Why do you offer officious and A flattering words to the One who looks upon deeds? You are permitted to have whatever benefit comes from God with a noble and free spirit at your own discretion; be yourself your own judge; grant yourself the saving vote. Do you seek for your debts to be remitted to you by God? You remit them, and God has decreed it. For the judgment concerning your neighbor, which is in your power, will result in an equal vote, and whatever it may be, B for whatever you determine concerning yourself, these things will be ratified for you through the divine judgment.
But how could anyone explain the magnitude of the divine voice according to its dignity? The name surpasses the explanation that can be rendered in words: "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." For what comes into my mind to think concerning this is bold to conceive even in the mind; it is also bold to reveal and open up such a thought and conception of the mind in speech. C For what is it that is being said? Just as God is set forth for those who perform the good to imitate—as the Apostle said, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ"—so in turn he desires your disposition to be a model for God toward the good. The order is in a way reversed, so that we may dare to hope that, just as the good is perfected in us by the imitation of the divine nature, so God will imitate our deeds when we have achieved something good, so that you too may say to God: "That which I have done, do; imitate your servant, D O Lord, the poor and needy, You who possess the kingdom of all things. I have forgiven debts; do not You also cast off the one who entreats You. I have sent away my debtor joyful and eager; may Yours likewise become such, lest You make Your debtor sadder than mine. May both give thanks for being treated equally; may an equal remission be decreed for both, for Your debtor and mine. He is my debtor, and I am Yours. With whatever spirit I was toward him, and whatever judgment I followed concerning him, may this same prevail before You. I have released; release. I have forgiven; forgive. I have shown great mercy to my neighbor; imitate, O Lord, the humanity of Your servant. But my sins against You are more grievous than those which this man has committed against me." I acknowledge this, too, and consider how much You excel in all goodness; for it is just that the mercy granted to us who have sinned should be in proportion to the excellence of Your powers; I have shown but little philanthropy; for nature could not contain anything more.
Yet let us examine the proposed phrase of the prayer more carefully, to see if, through a consideration of the meaning, some assistance might accrue to us, as if guided toward a sublime life. Let us therefore investigate what those things are to which human nature is indebted, and, on the other hand, which are those for which we have the authority to grant release. For from the knowledge of these things, a moderate understanding of the excellence of divine goods might come to us. Therefore, let us begin from this point to enumerate the transgressions of men against God. B First, man owed a penalty to God because he withdrew from Him by whom he was created and deserted to the adversary, becoming a fugitive and apostate from his natural Master. Second, because he exchanged his free-willed liberty for the evil slavery of sin, and preferred to be tyrannized by the corrupting power rather than to be with God. Further, who would judge what the next evil is, that he did not look toward the beauty of his Creator but turned his face toward the filth of sin? Into what category of punishment should the disdain for divine goods and the preference for the bait of the wicked be placed? And the destruction of the image, the corruption of the divine seal which was impressed upon us at the first creation, the loss of the drachma, the withdrawing from the Father's table, the habituation to the foul life of swine, the waste of precious wealth, and all such transgressions as can be seen through both Scripture and reason—what discourse could enumerate them? C Since, therefore, the human race is liable to God for the payment of penalties for so many and such transgressions, it seems to me that the discourse intends to instruct and school us through the doctrine of this prayer, that we should not, while conversing with God, speak confidently and arrogantly as if endowed with a pure conscience, even if one is, as much as possible, remote from human transgressions. For perhaps if a person, like that wealthy youth, has moderated his life according to the commandments and has something he can boast of in his own life, and can say to God, "All these things have I kept from my youth," D and is convinced that he has in no way transgressed against the commandments, he might think that the petition for debts does not greatly suit him, as it seems fitting only for those who have sinned. He might say that such a voice is appropriate for someone who has been defiled by fornication, or for someone who has practiced idolatry through greed, that for such as these the request for forgiveness is necessary, and that in short, for anyone at all who has stained the conscience of his soul through some transgression, it is good and suitable to flee to mercy. But if that great Elias should be the one, or the one in the spirit and power of Elias, he who is among those born of women, or Peter, or Paul, or John, or someone else among those who regarding that which is better
A have been testified by divine Scripture, why should he use such a voice, one that removes him from debts? To whom there is no debt at all from sin? Let no one, looking at these things, speak contumaciously and arrogantly, like that Pharisee 75 who did not even recognize what his own nature was. For if he had noticed that he was a man, he would have been taught by holy Scripture, which says that it is impossible to find among men one who lives a single day without a stain, that his nature is not altogether entire and pure from filth 16.
Lest, therefore, such an affection be generated in the soul of him who is about to approach God through prayer, the discourse urges him not to look at [his own] good deeds and things well done, but to remember the common debts of human nature, of which everyone is indeed a partaker B, as one who is a partaker of the common nature; and to ask the Judge to grant the abolition and impunity of transgressions. For as though Adam were living in us, all men one by one, as long as we see these leathern tunics around our nature, and the temporary leaves of this material life—which, having been stripped of our own brilliant garments, we have poorly stitched together for ourselves, exchanging divine coverings for delights, glories, daily honors, and the short-lived satisfactions of the flesh—and until we keep our eyes upon the place of affliction to which we have been condemned to dwell: when we turn ourselves toward the east C (not that God is seen only there, for He who is everywhere is not comprehended in any one place peculiarly or separately, as He equally contains all things; but because in the eastern parts was our first fatherland—I mean the dwelling which we had in Paradise, from which we were cast out: *For God planted Paradise in Eden in the eastern parts* 77), when therefore we look toward the east and recall in our reason the displacement from the bright and eastern places of blessedness, we naturally utter such a voice, we who are overshadowed by the evil fig tree of life, who are cast out from the eyes of God, who have deserted to the serpent who feeds on earth 78 and rolls himself in the earth and walks upon his breast and belly, and counsels us to do the same, namely, that we be occupied with the fruit and pleasure of earthly things, and entangle our heart in humble and abject thoughts, and walk upon our belly—that is, D that we study and apply ourselves to a life of pleasure: in these things, therefore, as we reside, like that prodigal son after the long misery in which he struggled while feeding swine, when we, like him, return to ourselves and begin to think of the heavenly Father, we rightly use such words, saying, *Forgive us our debts*. So that even if one be Moses, or Samuel, or some other excelling in virtue, he nevertheless, in so far as he is a man, considers this voice as fitting for himself, as one who has a common nature with Adam and is likewise a partaker of the ejection.
A For since, as the Apostle says, "in Adam we all die," it is fitting that the voice which befits Adam in his repentance should be common to all those who have died with him, so that, as the Apostle says, by the abolition and forgiveness of sins granted to us, we might be saved again by the grace of the Lord. But these things have been said as if one were looking at the matter in a more general sense, and were considering the subject proposed. If, however, anyone seeks the true meaning of the word, I do not think there is any need for us to refer our thought to our common nature; for the conscience of each person’s own life is sufficient to necessitate the petition for mercy. For since life is lived by us in this age in a manifold and varied way—partly according to the soul and mind, and partly according to the senses of the body—I hold it difficult, or even entirely impossible, not to fall into sin through some passion. What I mean is like this: Since this life which we enjoy through the body is divided among our senses, while that which is lived according to the soul is contemplated in the impulse of the mind and the movement of the will, who is of such a great and exalted spirit, who is endowed with such prudence, who is of such high character as to escape the contagion and defilement of vice and malice in both modes of life? B Who is sinless as regards the eye? Who is blameless as regards the ear? Who is free from this beastly pleasure of the throat? Who is pure to the touch and empty of the occasion of sin? Who is ignorant of the wrapping and riddle of Scripture, which says that "death has entered through the windows"? For Scripture has called those senses through which the soul, falling outward, lays hold of external things according to its own volition, "windows," which the Word says provide an entrance for death. For in truth the eye often becomes an entrance for many deaths, while it sees someone getting angry and is itself stirred up to the same passion, or sees someone prospering beyond his merit and burns with envy, or sees someone behaving proudly and falls into hatred, or sees some matter of good coloring or a more well-formed shape, and slips entirely into the desire for that which pleased it. Thus the ear opens the windows to death, through which, as it hears, it admits many passions into the soul—fear, sorrow, anger, pleasure, desire, unrestrained laughter, and the like. C But the pleasure of taste is the mother, as one might say, of individual evils; for who does not know that the obsession with the throat is practically the root of the sins committed in life? For from this depend luxury, drunkenness, gluttony, profligacy in diet, surfeiting, satedness, carousing, and the beastly and irrational tendency toward shameful passions. Similarly, the sense of touch is the ultimate of all sinful acts; for all things which are practiced by those who follow pleasure through the body are maladies of the tactile perception, the details of which it would be long to relate; nor is it proper at the same time to mix in with more solemn discourse those things which are the accusations of touch. D
A
Furthermore, what discourse could enumerate the multitude of sins that are committed by the mind equally and with deliberate will? "From within," it says, "proceed evil thoughts," and it added the list of those perceptions by which we are defiled. If, therefore, the nets of sins are thus cast around us from every side, through every one of the senses, through the movements deep within the heart of the soul, who will boast, as Wisdom says, that he has a pure heart? Who has been purged from filth? As Job testifies to such a thing. Pleasure is the very filth of the purity of the soul, which is mingled with human life in many ways and by many means, through soul and body alike, through thoughts, through senses, through movements proceeding from intention, through the operations and effects of the body. Who, then, has a soul pure from this stain? How could one exist who has not been struck by pride? How could one exist who has not been trodden by the foot of arrogance, if the sinful hand has not shaken him? Whose foot has not run to wickedness? Whose eye has not been defiled by immodest sights, and an undisciplined ear not polluted, and the sense of taste not turned to itself, and the heart not remained unexercised against vain movements? Since, therefore, these things concerning us are worse and more grievous for those who degenerate more into a bestial nature—though they are more moderate and tolerable for those who are more attentive—and yet, for those who share in the nature, the failings are common to the nature in all and entirely; for this reason, B falling down in prayer to God, we beseech that our debts be forgiven us. But such a voice is vain and ineffectual, and does not reach or penetrate to the divine ears, unless the conscience cries out together with us that the distribution of mercy is right, and good, and becoming. For he who judges that humanity is becoming to God—for he would not pray that He undertake and accept an unbecoming and unsuitable act unless he thought it becoming—would be just to establish and confirm the judgment concerning the good by his own deeds, so that he may not hear from the Judge such a thing as, "Physician, heal thyself; you exhort me to humanity, which you yourself do not bestow upon your neighbors? You seek the remission of debts, C and yet you choke your own debtor? You pray that the hand-writing against you be blotted out, yet you diligently keep the contracts and agreements of those who are under obligation to you? You ask for a cancellation of debts, yet you nurture and increase the debt through interest? Your debtor is in prison, and you are in the house of prayer; he is tormented for his debts, and you desire that your debt be remitted to you. Your prayer cannot be heard, for the sound and clamor of the voice of him who is tormented outweighs it. If you remit the bodily debt, the bonds of your soul shall be loosed; if you forgive, it will be forgiven to you. You will be your own judge, you will be your own lawgiver, by the disposition with which you have pursued the one held by you, bringing upon yourself the verdict from above." Something of this sort, it seems to me, the Lord also teaches in the other D
by narrating this doctrine, where a certain king is introduced in the story, A sitting dreadfully before the tribunal, and bringing his servants to judgment, and seeking an account of what had been administered by each. Now when one of the debtors was brought forward, and had obtained kindness, since upon falling down he had offered a petition instead of the payment of money; then, having been bitterly and inhospitably disposed toward a fellow servant for a moderate debt, he caused the king to be angered by his inhumanity toward his fellow servant; and he commanded the torturers to alienate him completely from the king's house, and to prolong the punishment to such a degree, until he should render the debt in full. B Truly, indeed, certain obols are petty and easily counted when compared to thousands of talents, if the debts of our brothers toward us are compared to the sins of us toward God. By all means, it is a loss if an occasion for insult has been provided by someone, or the wickedness of a servant, or even a plot against bodily life; yet you are provoked to the vindication of these things in the inflammation of your heart, and you search out every device for the punishment of those who have injured you, without considering—if your anger flames against a servant—that it is not nature, but power that has split and divided the human race into servitude and lordship. For the Governor of all C ordained and sanctioned that only a nature lacking reason should serve man, as the Prophet says, that *Thou hast put all things under His feet, sheep and all oxen, and the birds, and the beasts, and the fish* (Ps. VIII, 8). These He even calls slaves, as the prophecy says elsewhere (Ps. CXLVIII, 8), *giving to the beasts their food, and herb for the service of men*. But man He has adorned by the grace of free will. So that he who is subjected to you by custom and law has equality with you in the dignity of nature; he was not created by you, nor does he live by you, nor does he possess the bodily and psychic activities of the soul received from you. Why then do you boil with such anger against him, if someone has been negligent, or has defected, or perhaps has shown you contempt to your face? You ought to look at yourself, D what sort of person you have become toward the Master who fashioned you and brought you forth through birth, and made you a partaker in the wonders of the world? Who set the sun for your enjoyment, and granted all the means of living from the elements, from earth and fire, and air and water? Who granted the intellectual grace, the perceptive sense, the knowledge of distinguishing between the good and the worse? How will you be obedient and blameless toward such a Master? Did you not depart from His lordship? Did you not run away toward sin? Did you not exchange the [good] lordship for a wicked one? Did you not leave the house of the Master desolate, so far as it depended on you, in which you were set to work and to guard, but instead departed from it? And these transgressions that have been listed, do you not commit them before a witness, even God, who is everywhere and sees all things?
And being such a person, and liable to so many charges, do you think you are bestowing some great gift upon your fellow servant if, out of leniency of spirit, you overlook some sin committed against you? If, therefore, we are to offer up to God a petition for mercy and forgiveness, let us prepare [an attitude of] confidence in our conscience, so as to set our life up as an advocate and patron of this plea, and truly say: "And we have forgiven those who are indebted to us."
B What is the purpose of that which immediately follows what has been said? I deem it necessary not to pass over this either without examination or explanation, so that, knowing what we are praying for, we may offer our supplication with our mind and not [merely] with our body: "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." What, brothers, is the power of these words? It seems to me that the Lord names that evil one in many and various ways; while, according to the difference of [his] wicked operations and evil practices, he calls him by many names: Devil, Beelzebub, Mammon, prince of the world, murderer, wicked one, father of lies, and other such things. Perhaps, then, "temptation" is one of the names conceived about him, and the structure of what has been said confirms this suspicion for us. For after having said, "Lead us not into temptation," he added, "Deliver us from the evil one," as if the same thing were signified by both names. For if he who has not entered into temptation is altogether outside of the evil one, and he who has fallen into temptation is necessarily involved in the evil one, then temptation and the evil one are one and the same in meaning.
What, then, does this teaching of the prayer command us? To be outside of those things which are observed in this world, just as He says elsewhere to the disciples: "The whole world lies in the evil one." Therefore, he who wishes to be outside the evil one must necessarily separate himself from the world. For temptation has no place to touch the soul, unless it holds out this worldly preoccupation to those who are greedier, as a kind of bait on the wicked hook of the evil one.
D Nay, the meaning might become clearer to us through other examples. Often the sea is cruel and deadly from tempests and storms, but not to those who are settled far away from it. Fire has a destructive power, but only toward the material placed underneath it. War is dire and atrocious, but only for those who are participants in the battle. Just as, therefore, he who flees the calamities of the evils of war prays not to fall into war; and he who fears fire, not to be in it; and he who shudders at the sea, not to come into the necessity of sailing: so too, he who fears the assault and incursion of the evil one should pray not to fall into it. Since, however, as we said before, the Word says that the world is situated in the evil one, and in worldly affairs are the occasions of temptations, rightly and gently is the [petition] to be delivered from the evil ...
for he who is praying, asks to be outside of temptations. For no one would swallow the fishhook, unless he had drawn down the bait through gluttony. But let us also, having risen, say to God: A *And lead us not into temptation* (that is, into the evils of life), *but deliver us from the evil one*, who possesses strength in this world, from whom may we be delivered by the grace of Christ, for to Him is the power and the glory, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
OF ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA: ON THE BEATITUDES, ORATION I
ORATION I
B *Seeing the crowds, he went up onto the mountain; and when he had sat down, his disciples came to him; and opening his mouth he taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.*
Who, then, among those assembled is such a one that he is both a disciple of the Word and ascends with Him from below, from hollow and lowly thoughts, to the spiritual mountain of high contemplation? This mountain escapes all shadow cast by the mounds of wickedness and vice towering above, and being illuminated from every side by the ray of the true light, in the pure serenity of truth it presents for viewing from its vantage point everything that is invisible to those confined in the hollow. And what these things are that are surveyed from this altitude, and how great they are, God the Word Himself C explains, as He sets forth the beatitude of those who have ascended with Him, pointing them out as if with a finger: from one side the kingdom of heaven, and from the other, the inheritance of the land above; then mercy, and justice, and consolation, and the kinship that comes to be with the God of all; and the fruit from persecutions, which is to become a companion of God; and whatever else there is to see, with the Word pointing them out from above on the mountain, from the