Wednesday, April 11, 2012

St. Maximus the Confessor: All Visible Realities Need the Cross


All visible realities need the cross, that is, the state in which they are cut off from things acting upon them through the senses. All intelligible realities need burial, that is, the total quiescence of the things which act upon them through the intellect. When all relationship with such things is severed, and their natural activity and stimulus is cut off, then the Logos, who exists alone in Himself, appears as if risen from the dead. He encompasses all that comes from Him, but nothing enjoys kinship with Him by virtue of natural relationship. For the salvation of the saved is by grace and not by nature.
Τ φαινόμενα πάντα δεται σταυρο τς τν π᾿ ατος κατ᾿ ασθησιν νεργουμένων πεχούσης τν σχέσιν, ξεως· τ δ νοούμενα πάντα, χρζει ταφς· τς τν π᾿ ατος κατ νον νεργουμένων λικς κινησίας. Τ γρ σχέσει συναναιρουμένης τς περ πάντα φυσικς νεργείας τε κα κινήσεως, λόγος μόνος φ᾿ αυτν πάρχων, σπερ κ νεκρν γηγερμένος ναφαίνεται, πάντα κατ περιγραφν χων τ ξ ατο, μηδενς φυσικ σχέσει τν πρς ατν οκειότητα τ σύνολον χοντος. Κατ χάριν γάρ, λλ᾿ ο κατ φύσιν στν τν σωζομένων σωτηρία.

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