Беседа 38. Того же блаженного мар Исаака. О таинственных предметах созерцания, которые однажды пришли ему 1238 о величии нового века и о божественного Естества, и о грядущем порядке; и, в сокращении, мысль, которая пришла ему относительно образа существования в новой жизни. (spuria [подложное слово]

1. Oh, what depth of wealth, plan and sublime wisdom of God! Oh, what compassionate mercy and rich goodness is the Creator! With what thought and with what love He created this world and brought it into existence! What a mystery the coming into existence of this creation looks at and what our common nature is called to! What love was the source of the creation of the world! For the same love that began the creation also prepared in advance the establishment of all subsequent ones, corresponding to His greatness, 1239 which resulted from the power of His love. 1240 2. Through love He brought the world into being; He guides him with love in this temporary mode of existence; by love He will lead it to that wonderful change, and by love the world will be swallowed up in this great mystery of Him who accomplished all this; in love lies the outcome of the entire history of the existence of a creature. And since in the new age the love of the Creator reigns over all rational nature, amazement at His mysteries, which will then be revealed, will captivate for Him the minds of rational beings, whom He created to enjoy in Him, whether evil or good. With this intention 1241 He brought them into being, although they themselves made the distinction between evil and good - after their coming into being. 1242 Nevertheless, in the consciousness of the Creator there is no first and no last in love, 1243 - from all those who were created and brought into being and from all rational nature. But He has one equal love, extending to the entirety of the rational creation, whether visible or invisible, to everyone in general: He does not have the first or last place 1244 in this love for each of them, as I said. 3. And just as in the knowledge of the Creator there is not a single created nature that would be earlier or later, but in His consciousness there is eternally that which He brought into being - and not so that He knew one earlier or later than another, but all of them equally without anyone being earlier or later, even for one second - so there is no one ahead or behind 1245 in His love for them: He has no “more” or “less” at all. 1246 On the contrary, just as there is equality and constancy in His knowledge, so there is equality and constancy in His love, for even before they became righteous or sinners, He knew them. And the Creator did not change in His love because they underwent change after He brought them into being; His intention 1247 which He had from all eternity has not changed. For if it were the other way around, He, too, would be subject to change, like creatures - but this is crazy! 4. If there is anyone, my brothers, who finds it difficult to believe in these things, let him be careful lest, having avoided one, he falls into blasphemy in another: while he seems to reject the words of man, he may find himself armed against the divine Nature, so that he is forced to reduce the glorious Nature of his Creator to weakness and change. 5. But we know, and every person is convinced that the Creator has no variability, He does not have any earlier or later intentions, 1248 there is no hatred or indignation in His nature, there is no “more” or “less” in His love, there is no “before” or “after” in the knowledge of Him. For if every person believes that through the goodness and love of the Creator the creation came into being, we know that these never diminished or changed in the nature of the Creator as a result of the disordered course of creation. Var. “prepared in advance, according to a different arrangement, the things necessary to decorate the greatness.” The meaning of this paragraph: the same love that brought the world into existence also arranged everything connected with the eschatological end of the world. The entire history of the universe is moving towards this glorious end. In other words, the division into evil and good is secondary; originally all people were created good; the division did not occur by the will of God, but by the will of the people themselves. Var. “There is no one who is ahead and no one who is behind in love.” Lit. “primacy or succession (secondary).” Var. “there is no primacy or succession (secondary).” Those. there is no greater or lesser degree of love. Lit. "consciousness" (tar'ita). You might be interested in: