Слово 80. Об изъяснении видов добродетели и о том, какова сила и какое различие каждого из них

Corporal virtue in silence cleanses the body of the material in it; and the virtue of the mind humbles the soul and cleanses it from coarse destructive thoughts, so that it is not passionately occupied with them, but rather remains in its contemplation. This contemplation brings her closer to nakedness of the mind 625, which is called immaterial contemplation. And this is a spiritual virtue, for it lifts the thought from the earthly, brings it closer to the first contemplation of the Spirit, and concentrates the thought in God and in the contemplation of the unspeakable glory (and this is the excitement of ideas about the majesty of the nature of God), and separates the thought from this world and from the sensation of it. In this way we are confirmed in this hope prepared for us and we make sure of its fulfillment 626 - and this is the “controversy” 627 about which the apostle spoke (Gal. 5:8), i.e., confirmation by which the mind is mentally brought into joy - about the hope promised to us. Listen to what this means and how this or that happens (from what has been said). Bodily living according to God refers to bodily deeds that are performed to cleanse the flesh through virtuous activity through obvious deeds by which a person is cleansed from carnal impurity. Mental living is a matter of the heart, consisting of constant thinking about judgment - that is, about the truth of God and God's sentences - also in unceasing prayer of the heart and in thinking about the Providence and care of God, private and general, about this world and in protecting oneself from secret passions, so that any of them does not intrude into the hidden and spiritual realm. All this is a matter of the heart; This is what is called intelligent living. In this matter of life, called spiritual activity, the heart becomes refined, weaned off communication with unnatural, destructive life, and then sometimes begins to be aroused to reflect on the vision of sensory things created for the needs and restoration of the body, and understands how their service gives strength to the four elements in the body. Spiritual living is activity without the participation of the senses. It is described by the fathers. As soon as the minds of the saints accept it, material (hypostatic) contemplation and the fatness 628 of the body are taken away from the environment, and contemplation becomes spiritual 629 . The creation of the first nature is called material contemplation, 630, and from this material contemplation man is conveniently raised to the knowledge of solitary life, which, according to a clear interpretation, is wonder at God. This is that high state of enjoying future blessings, which is given in the freedom of immortal life, in life after the resurrection, because human nature there will never cease to be amazed at God, having no thought at all about creatures; for if there were something like God, then the mind could be moved towards it: sometimes to God, sometimes to creation. And since all the beauty of creation in the future renewal is lower than the beauty of God, how can the mind by its contemplation depart from the beauty of God? So what? Will the need to die, or the burden of the flesh, or the memory of relatives, or natural need, or disasters, or obstacles, or unknown soaring, or the imperfection of nature, or being surrounded by the elements, or meeting one with another, or despondency, or tedious bodily labor, sadden him? Not at all. But although all this happens in the world, yet at the time when the veil of passions is removed from the eyes of the mind and he sees the future glory, the thought immediately rises in delight. And if in this life for such matters 631 God had not set a limit on how long exactly to delay in them, and if this had been allowed to a person, then throughout his entire life he would not be able to escape from there, from the contemplation of this, and even more so (he would not be able to) where everything counted above 632 does not exist. For this virtue has no limits, and we will actually and materially 633 enter into the royal courts, if we are worthy of it for our life. Therefore, how can the mind move away and move away from this wondrous and Divine contemplation and descend onto something else? Woe to us that we do not know our souls, and what kind of life we ​​are called to, and this life of weakness, this state of the living, these sorrows of the world, and the world itself, its vices and its repose, are considered something significant. But, Christ, the One Almighty! “Blessed... is he who will intercede with you; set ascension in your heart” (Ps. 83:6). You, Lord, turn our faces away from this world to lust after You, until we see what the world is and stop believing the shadow as reality. Having created again, renew, O Lord, in our minds the zeal before death, so that at the hour of our exodus we may know what our entry and exit into this world was, until we complete the work to which, by Thy will, we were originally called in this life, and so that after this we may have hope in a thought filled with hope - to receive, according to the promise of the Scriptures, the great blessings that Thy love has prepared in the second restoration, memory which are preserved by faith in the sacraments. 3The ancient Slavic translation, which does not agree with the Greek text, is retained here. In the Syriac text: “When the minds of the saints reach the contemplation of their nature, the plumpness of the body disappears, and therefore the contemplation becomes spiritual.” The soul without a body has its own substance; the same is true for a body without a soul. But one without the other does not constitute a person, but only the combination of both of them forms one substance of a person. Therefore, the connection of the soul with the body is called substantial (material). Under the “material contemplation” of St. the father means the contemplation of the soul located in the body. Therefore, they add that if this material contemplation and the whiteness of the body (i.e., the substance of the body) are eliminated, then contemplation becomes spiritual: for, when the soul is removed from the body, material contemplation ceases (i.e., contemplation in the body), and spiritual contemplation begins (i.e., contemplation of the soul naked from the body). This happens after death, as St. states below. father, saying: “This is a high state, which is given in the freedom of immortal life.” – By the words “creature of the first nature,” we probably mean the very creation of human nature, which was first not in the order of creation, but in the dignity and mercy of God: namely, during the creation itself, the soul, having united with the body materially, began to think and contemplate. (From a note to the Greek text by Nikephoros Theotokis.) Above the listed obstacles. You might be interested in: