The soul comes
to know herself first and foremost face to Face with God. And the fact that
such prayer is the gift of God praying in us shows that the persona is born
from on High and so is not subject to the laws of Nature. The persona
transcends earthly bounds and moves in other spheres. It cannot be accounted
for. It is singular and unique.
Absolute Being
is Hypostatic; and man, the image of the Absolute, is hypostatic. God is
Spirit, and man-hypostasis is spirit; yet spirit which is not unconnected,
abstract, but given concrete expression by the corporal body. Just as the
Divine Logos took on Himself human flesh and thereby showed that God is not a
fantasy of man’s imagination, born of ignorant fear of unknown phenomena, but
actual reality. So, too, the human hypostasis is actually real. The Divine
Spirit embraces all that exists. Man as hypostasis is a principle uniting the
plurality of cosmic being; capable of containing the fulness of divine and
human life.
The persona
does not determine himself by opposition. His is an attitude of love. Love is
the most profound content of his being, the noblest expression of his essence.
In this love lies likeness to God, Who is Love. Per se the persona is
excellence surpassing all other cosmic values. Rejoicing in the freedom that he
has discovered, man contemplates the divine world.
Scientific and
philosophical knowledge may be formulated but the persona is beyond definition
and therefore incognisable from without, unless he himself reveals himself.
Since God is a Secret God, so man has secret depths. He is neither the author
of existence nor the end. God, not man, is the Alpha and Omega. Man’s godlike
quality lies in the mode of his being. Likeness in being is the likeness of
which the Scriptures tell. –Elder
Sophrony
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