Isaac of Stella, Sermons

by the ardour of compunction attentive to himself, by the rigour of justice acceptable to God, by the sweetness of mercy made all things to all?

SERMON IV. ON THE SAME FEAST IV

Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8). It belongs to the appetite of all to wish to see what they love. Therefore after the rest there follows fittingly: Blessed are the clean of heart, and so on. For only the clean of heart will see God, and by the clean heart alone will God be seen. But what, I ask, brethren, have we accomplished by so many things, for so long, and with such great efforts, if we have not yet cleansed the heart? If we have cleansed it for virtue, it must be cleansed for truth; if we have cleansed it for loving, it must be cleansed for seeing. We have indeed healed the lame man, but the blind man is still to be given light. For there are two penalties on the sons of Adam, ignorance and difficulty, of which the one shuts the eyes of reason, the other binds the affection, as it were the feet of the soul. The Prophet, lamenting these common sufferings, says: My strength has forsaken me, and the light of my eyes is not with me (Ps. 37:11). Virtue is formed in the affection, or rather the affection itself is formed in virtue. To reason indeed the truth is shown, but it is by the truth itself that reason is enlightened to see it. So the Lord, when He purges the eyes of the mind to see the truth, gives light as it were to the blind man. Hence the sermon that follows is woven on the cleanness of the heart: not that it be cleansed from vices, which are reckoned under the name of perverse love or disordered affection, but from the phantasms which are drunk in through the bodily senses and turn about within in the imagination, and which, like little clouds set in between, hide from us the brightness of the sun, or rather shut off from us the fountain of light through the very body of the sun, though they are utterly remote from it, or at the least blunt the keenness of our sight. For just as, if someone were given the power of flying up into this visible heaven, he would have to leave behind the earth, and the waters, which are said to lie higher than the earth, and those lighter waters too which are suspended by a wonderful art and become clouds; so, assuredly, whoever raises the eye of the mind to behold what is purely incorporeal must pass beyond not only every body, or likeness of a body, but also the whole restless turning of thoughts. Why do you wonder? When by vigilance of mind and purity of heart, with every thought silent, nay [even] remaining behind, you have passed through all these clouds of which we have spoken, there will at last appear a bright cloud, a shining cloud, no longer turbid, no longer dense, no longer a cloud of ignorance but of wisdom. For there is darkness in light, and much more in much light: in that, when the light itself enters its own incomprehensibility, its own inaccessibility in which it dwells, and finally its own peace which surpasses all understanding, [this cloud] takes it up from our eyes: so that thenceforth you may learn anything of it by revelation rather than by contemplation, as the holy apostles did from the men who stood beside them in white garments (Acts 1:10). And just as this visible world rises upward in a certain fivefold distinction, earth, water, air, ether or firmament, and the highest heaven itself, which is called the empyrean:

so too for the soul, journeying as a pilgrim in the world of its body, there are five advances towards wisdom: sense, imagination, reason, intellect, intelligence. By sense it perceives bodies; by imagination the likenesses of bodies; by reason the dimensions of bodies and the like, that is, the first incorporeal, which nevertheless needs a body in order to subsist, and therefore place and time. By intellect it perceives, above all that is body or [belongs to] body, created spirit, which needs no body in order to subsist, and therefore no place, but can by no means [subsist] without time, since it is mutable by nature. By intelligence, which, in whatever way and so far as is lawful for created nature, above which there is only the Creator, it beholds without intermediary Him alone who is supremely and purely incorporeal, who needs neither body in order to be, nor place in order to be somewhere, nor time in order to be at some time.

The heart must therefore be cleansed, and one must withdraw far from all earth and water, so that it may come out into the serenity of reason. For discerning the first incorporeal, let it rise into the solidity of the intellect; for beholding the second kind of incorporeality, let it ascend into the fiery whiteness of intelligence, as into Mount Tabor, exceedingly high, so as to see the third and invisible incorporeal: and so let it behold with its eyes Jesus thus transfigured, thus glorified; His garments, by reason of the glory of the flesh, such as no fuller can make upon earth (Mark 9:2); but His face, by reason of the simple form of incomprehensibility, incorporeality and invisibility, in which He remains equal to the Father, let it not bear, but rather let reason, intellect and intelligence fall upon their face. Let Peter, James and John hear the Father, yet not see Him; and what they have seen or heard, let them tell no one as they come down. For many things, dearly beloved brethren, wonderful, sweet, delightful, most full of light, do spiritual men, and those who by habit have their senses exercised, see, taste and feel in their prayer and contemplation, swiftly and as it were in an ecstasy of mind, which, when they are restored to themselves, they can by no means tell, nay can scarcely even remember. See from what, how far, and for what the heart must be cleansed: so that it may be able to behold what subsists without any body, is beautiful without quality, great without swelling, everywhere without place, always without time; otherwise it will by no means be able to see God. And therefore: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God; here through a mirror and in an enigma, there as He is. This is that beautiful one, keen of sight, whom that fugitive and exile chose and desired for himself, for whom he served seven years, burnt by heat and frost, and the whole time was short and light to him, because of the hope in which he exulted (Gen. 29:20). This is she whose name, because of her simplicity, is interpreted "ewe", or "the beginning seen". May it be granted me, brethren, I beseech you, to investigate in each thing, from the state in which it is perceived, its property and differences, its nature and form, its cause and pure essence, until I see its efficient, formal and final principle: that is, whence it is, and how, whence, and why. For all things have in themselves nature,

form and use; number, measure and weight. But whence these things come, and what is their principle, I seek and do not easily find; for this I gladly serve, and bear all things. But because of the custom of the country there is put in her place for me the blear-eyed and toilsome one, whom I was not seeking. It is not the custom with us, says Laban, that the younger should marry first, or be given to a husband (Gen. 29:26). This is the affection of the soul, or concupiscibility, of which we have already said so much and so many things: which must first be wedded to the rational sense, composed, ordered, and always left at home, so that in the heat of the day one may go out without care to meet the three angels, like Abraham, Sarah being left at home (Gen. 18:1–2). For, to speak more plainly, no one will be able to be fully and perfectly spiritual, nor to gird himself fit for the leisure of contemplation, nor to go out of the tent without care, who has not first left it emptied of vices, that is, of all perverse and disordered love, adorned and set in order with good conduct, endowed and fortified with virtues; lest, if the adulterous and unclean spirit return, lying in wait for the lawful bed, and find the house swept with brooms and adorned, but empty of virtues, he break in or creep in, seize the house, fortify himself with seven other attendants more wicked than himself, corrupt the affection herself, the mistress of the house, and the last state of that spiritual man become worse than the first, since he has begun in the spirit and is being finished in the flesh, or rather is being consumed.

So, to finish in a few words: the affection must be set in order with discretion, sobriety, fortitude and justice, so that there may be in it the habit of a mind that orders well, which is called virtue, and that it may be formed into charity and ordered, as we read: He has set charity in order in me (Song 2:4); and let him who desires to be spiritual be so first in affection rather than in reason, and in way of life rather than in meditation. Let him strive with his feet so as to rise into flight; and since he will not be able to fly always, let him take himself back to his feet, lest he fall headlong: that is, lest the affection fall, which has the care of the house and of all its furniture and of the whole household. She is anxious and troubled about all things; she gives their name and office to all works and to the movements of the members: if she is good and ordered, a good and ordered one; but if bad, a bad one; if perverse, a perverse one; if corrupt, a corrupt one. Let the will, then, or the affection, be subject to reason, as action is to the will; and reason to wisdom and to the Word of God. So that the man may be wise, and with unveiled face may contemplate God as His very image; and let him have no veil over his head, since he is subject without intermediary to God alone. But let the woman, prudent and not quarrelsome, veil her head, subject to the man, whose image she is: that there may be peace in her house, and that she may deserve to be blessed and be multiplied exceedingly, and that even her beasts may not be diminished. Let there be sons and daughters, the fruits of spiritual meditations; a household of virtues exceedingly great; sheep too, bearing young, of gentle and simple manners; beasts of burden and oxen of bodily exercises; and let the whole house be ordered, enriched and made fruitful by the wise and prudent: but at the last let it be kept, as it is written: That

he might work it and keep it (Gen. 2:15); and so let all that they possess be in peace. And when they themselves have made peace their borders, that is, between the man and his lord, reason, the mind, and God; between the woman and her husband, that is, the affection of the soul and the rational mind; and finally between the woman herself and what is owed to her rule, so that in consequence they may deserve to hear: Blessed are the peacemakers, and so on. But what the Lord of hosts will deign to reveal concerning this last and highest virtue, brethren, you are to expect from another beginning. Meanwhile, let us rest today in Christ. Amen.

SERMON V. ON THE SAME FEAST V.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God (Matt. 5:9). What more does a servant seek than to become a son? Nay, who, my brethren, would dare even faintly to imagine this, unless the very kindness of God both permitted it and promised it? We were ungodly, and therefore enemies, giving no thought to salvation, hoping for nothing: and He came freely and went before us when we did not expect it, Christ, who truly loved us first, and died for the ungodly. This is what the Apostle, marvelling, says: Why did Christ die for the ungodly, when no one is willing to die for a just man? (Rom. 5:6–7.) For for a good man, that is, for a friend and one useful to himself, perhaps someone would dare to die (ibid.), as we read of Pylades and Orestes. But we were enemies, as follows: If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more now, and so on (ibid. 5:10). What is "much more"? Truly, that we may receive sonship through the Son Himself; mark the steps, distinguish the advances. We were enemies, slaves of sin, free from justice. The Son set us free, and we were truly made free from sin and the devil, made servants of justice. And this is the first step: longing for which someone cries out: O Lord, deliver my soul (Ps. 114:4); and having obtained it he exults: O Lord, because Thou hast set me free, I am Thy servant, and the son, I do not yet say Thine, but of Thy handmaid. Thou hast broken my bonds (Ps. 115:16), with which the devil had bound me like a four-footed beast, so that I was free neither to go out nor to work, as it is written: Man shall go out to his work, and to his labour (Ps. 103:23). Now I move my foot, now I stretch out my withered hand, turned from perversity, from an enemy a servant, that I may do good to Thee, wholly useless as I am, Who hast no need of my goods, and yet useful to myself, who with fear and trembling work out my salvation. When you have done all things well, He says, say: We are unprofitable servants, and so on (Luke 17:10). See: he who does evil, or does good badly, is reckoned an enemy; he who does all things well is not yet called a friend, but a servant.

So to do good, to carry out the works of virtue, of justice and mercy, belongs to the servant; but the friend shares in secrets, he knows the counsels. Hence at the second step those who were once enemies and have been made servants hear: I will no longer call you servants, but My friends, and so on (John 15:15). What do we still wait for? Why, that from friends we may become at the third step brothers of Christ, sons of God, and thereby, last of all, heirs

of Him (for if sons, heirs also), He says: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. To the clean of heart, through contemplation, all things have been made known which the Son heard from the Father; and they too, because of their peacemaking, shall be called sons. What is this, dearly beloved brethren, what is this, I ask you by the very charity of Christ, this peace or peacemaking so lovable, so desirable, so dear, which is placed above all the steps of the virtues, set above all merits, has held the citadel of all, and has bestowed the highest and greatest of all the beatitudes? Let us seek it from men; let us seek it from the holy angels, who are present to us and to our affairs. Above all, since we are in every way in need of this wisdom, let us ask it of Him who gives abundantly and does not reproach. Let us seek by praying, meditating, reading, never failing. For if we seek as seekers should, we shall certainly find, because of the very Truth we seek, which says: Seek, and you shall find (Luke 11:9). This is the treasure hidden in the field, this the most precious pearl, to be sought most zealously, bought most dearly, possessed most greedily. This is the mountain of mountains, on which the Son alone is by nature with the Father. But lest He be the only heir, He has deigned to adopt brothers. We must therefore seek with all our might whatever it is by which we may be made brothers of Christ and sons of God: heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ. And see, one of the seraphim cries out, in whom is the fullness of love, and perhaps the very [peace] we are seeking: But as many as received Him, to them He gave power to become sons of God (John 1:12). Does he say, as many as saw Him? The clean of heart see, but the peacemakers receive. Here perhaps, nay truly here, is the field where the treasure is hidden. As many, he says, as received Him (John 1:12). I have come, He says, in the name of My Father, and you have not received Me (John 5:43). What then is it to receive the Word of God? It is wretched not to see the Word of God; most wretched to see and not to receive. How and where is this Word to be received? There are two parts of the management of a household: to work and to keep. Hence it was said of the first man: That he might work and keep it (Gen. 2:15). The first belongs to the man, the second to the woman. It is his part to go out abroad to his labour (for man is born to labour), and to carry home what he has gained. It is hers to stay at home, to wait for her husband, to hang upon his return; to make ready for use what he had brought, so that when he comes they may feast and drink together and delight in gladness. Many labour much and profit little: in the sweat of their face they gather riches and put them into a bag with holes: whence they fall to the ground and go to waste.

These things must be said more plainly. Have you understood everything? You know well enough, and have already heard above, who that man is of whom we mean to speak; and who the woman, what his labour, what the feasts, and the rest that has been set out. For many, by keenness of wit, by vehement application of the soul, by liveliness of mind, and by long familiarity with the thing itself, search out deep things, high

penetrate high things: so that what is known of God is manifest in them, His eternal power also and divinity, so that they are without excuse. But because they do not seek wisdom itself for its own sake, they become vain in their thoughts, and take delight in vainglory among men, and in reputation or gain; even when they have seen, they do not receive in the affection of the heart, and in the love that comes from the Father, but in the desire of their soul they draw in the wind, and following vanity they become vain; and what they gained above they cast down below, and squander every portion of the precious substance in riotous fornication. And so they have no peace at all with the lawful bed; whence they are not worthy to hear: Blessed are the peacemakers, and so on. These are they who, lifted up on high, admire themselves; looking down, they suffer giddiness, and having nothing to cling to, they fall headlong. For by a deep judgement a spirit of giddiness is mingled for them, and makes them stagger as a drunken man staggers and vomits. For they vomit out abroad that by which they ought to live within. Their foolish heart is darkened, and boasting of their wisdom they appear fools, loving rather the darkness by which they may be darkened yet further than the light by which they had been enlightened. Hence, brethren, that holy mind, truly devoted to God, which had entered into the sanctuary of God and had understood the last things, as holy Jacob had served in the beginnings, considering what had been laid up for it in heaven, and rebuking itself for having coveted anything upon earth, its flesh now failing, and its heart too, with which it had coveted, says: God of my heart, that is, my meditation, and my portion (Ps. 72:26), which I await, towards which I strive, in which I delight, where I set my end, for which I labour, that I may carry it home to the ordered affection, whereon she may sup with me and I with her: God Himself. He is my meditation, He is my delight. Him I seek above myself for His own sake. On Him, from Him, I feed myself within. He is the field in which I labour, He the fruit for which I labour. He is my cause, He my effect, He my beginning, He my end without end for ever: and my portion, he says, is God for ever (ibid.). For those who withdraw themselves far from Thee, so as not to hear Thee, or if they have heard, not to see, or if they have seen, not to receive, but hear, seek, see and preach Thee not for Thine own sake, committing fornication away from Thee with other things, shall perish. For in Thy hidden judgement Thou hast already destroyed all who go fornicating away from Thee. Therefore, he says, it is good for me to cleave to God always, that I may ascend through Him to Him, and, when I have ascended, may not fall from Him. And since we do not yet rest by sight but walk by hope: to put, he says, my hope in the Lord God.

See, my brethren, in what field, with what hands, in what hope you have to labour: you who have entered not only the solitude of the place but also that of the spirit; or even that of God, where He left the ninety-nine sheep. See where you ought to bring back the fruits you have gathered, where and with whom you are to feast and drink the bread of life and of understanding and the water of saving wisdom. For it is fitting that the labouring husbandman at least should partake of the first fruits of his own harvest. Who

plants a vineyard and does not drink wine from it? (1 Cor. 9:7.) Attending to this always and in all things, take the greatest care, dearly beloved, that in this secret marriage of yours the husband neither grow torpid in idleness, nor labour in another's field, nor gain anything except for his lawful wife; and that the wife order nothing, however small, among those subject to her without consulting her husband; so that, if you are eager to keep order, you keep it first within, in your own dwelling: and let all bodily exercise, which is profitable for little, be subject to devout affection; all affection and will to reason; and the rational mind to the Word of God, so that it never departs from His teaching, but as it has heard and seen there, so it judges, tempers and orders all things below. Let it learn there what it is to teach, saying: My doctrine is not mine, but His to whom I am subject. Let it cleave to Him always with unwearied love, let it delight to look towards Him, saying: It is good for me to cleave to God (Ps. 72:28): for he who cleaves to God is one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). For if he who cleaves to the flesh in that unmanned and enervating pleasure, where the spirit itself becomes almost wholly flesh, becomes one flesh, so that those who cleave together carnally are no longer two but one flesh: is it not right that he who with a manly heart and a virile mind, with a love not less but more chaste and more pure, pouring his whole self into God, keeping nothing of himself for himself, reserving nothing, cleaves to Him, stripped of himself, should become one spirit with Him? Or is that plague more effective to harm, to take captive, to swallow up, to change, than this power to help, to set free, to glue together, to transform? The almighty Word, to whom power is at hand whenever He wills, nay whose power and will are the same, says: Father, I will that, as I and Thou are one, so these too may be one with Us (John 17:21–24). O devout will, will of God worthy of God, will full of grace and charity, will full of truth, because it is the Truth's! That, as I and Thou are one, so these too may be one with Us. See to what the servant is advanced, to what the enemy is reconciled: so that from an enemy he becomes a servant, from a servant a friend, from a friend a son, from a son an heir, from an heir one, nay one thing even with the inheritance itself; so that, as he cannot be deprived of himself, so neither of the inheritance, which is God Himself: and therefore, he says, God is my portion for ever. See, that they are one with Us. O One, one! O One, unitedly one! O one thing wholly necessary! The one thing for whose sake all the sweet things of this world are to be left, the bitter endured, the shameful fled, and the honourable embraced. The one thing to which one runs in many ways, in which one stands, rests and delights in one way. O, if boldness be granted to words! O, if it be allowed to compare base things with fair, shameful with chaste, the highest of the spirit with the lowest of the flesh! never better, never more properly, never more expressly is this holy, spiritual, divine union shown in this darkness than by a likeness through its contrary. For nothing is more unlike the truth, nothing more like it by comparison. For just as in the moment of carnal union the whole spirit passes into the flesh, unmanned, not master of itself, unmindful of its own,