The Orthodox Church and "Cur Deus Homo"

Icon by the hand of Fr. Stamatis Skliris

"the entire goal of this world and of every element and of every species in the whole of creation, and of every race and tribe of men in all ages and tribes has as its flower our lady the Theotokos and as its most beautiful fruit her only begotten Son." -Joseph Bryennios

Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians

“…according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foun­dation of the world” (1:4); “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ” (1:10); “In Whom also we have obtained an inheritance” (1:11)

Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians

“Who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation, for in Him were all things created, that are in Heaven, and that are in earth,... all things were created through Him, and for Him.... And He is the Head of the Body, the Church” (1:15-18)

First Universal of St. Peter

“as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.  He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” (1:19&20)

Saint Maximos the Confessor

“This is the blessed end, on account of which everything was created. This is the Divine purpose, which was thought of before the beginning of Creation, and which we call an intended fulfillment. All creation exists on account of this fulfillment and yet the fulfillment itself exists because of nothing that was created. Since God had this end in full view, he produced the natures of things. This is truly the fulfillment of Providence and of planning. Through this there is a recapitulation to God of those created by Him. This is the mystery circumscribing all ages, the awesome plan of God, super-infinite and infinitely pre-existing the ages. The Messenger, who is in essence Himself the Word of God, became man on account of this fulfillment. And it may be said that it was He Himself Who restored the manifest innermost depths of the goodness handed down by the Father; and He revealed the fulfillment in Himself, by which creation has won the beginning of true existence. For on account of Christ, that is to say the mystery concerning Christ, all time and that which is in time have found the beginning and the end of their existence in Christ. For before time there was secretly purposed a union of the ages, of the determined and the Indeterminate, of the measurable and the Immeasurable, of the finite and Infinity, of the creation and the Creator, of motion and rest-a union which was made manifest in Christ during these last times.”

Saint Nicholas Kavasilas

Indeed, it was for the sake of the new man that human nature was formed at the beginning, and for him both mind and desire were fashioned. We received reason, in or­der that we might know Christ, and desire, in order that we might hasten to Him; we have memory, in order that we might bear Him within us, since He Himself was the ar­chetype for us when we were being created. For it is not the old Adam that was the paradigm for the new; rather, the New Adam was the paradigm for the old (680A).

…Man yearns for Christ, not only on account of His Di­vinity, which is the goal of all things, but also for the sake of His human nature (681AB).  The old [Adam] was an imi­tation of the second [i.e., the incarnate Word], and the first was fashioned according to His form and image (680B).

God did not create human nature with any other purpose in mind... rather, He created it with this end in view, that, when it was fitting for Him to be born, He might receive His Mother from it; having first established this purpose [the Incarnation] as a kind of standard, He then fashioned man in accordance with it.

The Faithful…were born when Christ entered this life and was born into it. For the birth of the Head was the birth of the blessed members, for it was the birth of the Head which brought the members into existence’ (604A).

Further Reading: http://www.synodinresistance.org/Theology_en/E3c8002cGiatiEns3.pdf

Saint Gregory of Nyssa & The Eucharist

(Fr. George Florovsky: Fathers of the 4th Century)

The Eucharist and the Christian Life

The summit of Christian life is the sacrament of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the food of incorruptibility, the antidote against the poison of death and the "all-healing power." "Our nature had tasted of something ruinous to it and hence we necessarily needed something that would save from decay that which had been destroyed." This antidote is that Body "which proved Itself to be stronger than death," which arose and was glorified. How is it possible that a single body which is separated into portions and distributed to the faithful does not remain divided but, on the contrary, reunites those who have been separated, "becomes whole in each of its portions and thus endures in each who receives it as a whole?"

Gregory answers by comparing the Eucharist to the food which nourishes the physical body. "The Word of God," he writes, "entered into union with human nature. When the Word lived in a body like ours He did not make any innovations in man's physical constitution but He nourished His own body by the customary and proper means and maintained its existence through eating and drinking . . . His body was maintained by bread and thus His body was once bread in reality. This bread was consecrated by the Word dwelling within the body. Therefore, for the same reason as that by which the bread in His body was transformed and received a Divine potency, so now a similar result takes place. For in that case the grace of the Word sanctified the body, the substance of which came from the bread, and so in a way the body which was sanctified was itself bread. So also in this case our bread, in the words of the Apostle, is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer (1 Timothy 4:5), not in such a way that by the process of eating it becomes the Body of the Word but it is changed into the Body of the Word at once."

The Eucharist and the First Stage of Resurrection

Thus, the flesh which had contained the Word of God receives again a portion of its "own substance," and through this portion this substance "is communicated to every believer and blends it self with their bodies, so that by this union with the immortal, man too shares in incorruptibility." Through the sacrament of the Eucharist all humanity is reunited in Christ and is resurrected. This is, however, only the first stage of resurrection. The Savior's victory over corruption and death is completely accomplished only at the last great resurrection of all mankind.

Excerpts from The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus (2nd century AD)

CHAPTER V -- THE MANNERS OF THE CHRISTIANS.

For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.
CHAPTER VI -- THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANS TO THE WORLD.
To sum up all in one word--what the soul is in the body, that are Christians in the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, yet is not of the body; and Christians dwell in the world, yet are not of the world. The invisible soul is guarded by the visible body, and Christians are known indeed to be in the world, but their godliness remains invisible. The flesh hates the soul, and wars against it, though itself suffering no injury, because it is prevented from enjoying pleasures; the world also hates the Christians, though in nowise injured, because they abjure pleasures. The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and [loves also] the members; Christians likewise love those that hate them. The soul is imprisoned in the body, yet preserves that very body; and Christians are confined in the world as in a prison, and yet they are the preservers of the world. The immortal soul dwells in a mortal tabernacle; and Christians dwell as sojourners in corruptible [bodies], looking for an incorruptible dwelling in the heavens. The soul, when but ill-provided with food and drink, becomes better; in like manner, the Christians, though subjected day by day to punishment, increase the more in number. God has assigned them this illustrious position, which it were unlawful for them to forsake.
CHAPTER VII -- THE MANIFESTATION OF CHRIST.
For, as I said, this was no mere earthly invention which was delivered to them, nor is it a mere human system of opinion, which they judge it right to preserve so carefully, nor has a dispensation of mere human mysteries been committed to them, but truly God Himself, who is almighty, the Creator of all things, and invisible, has sent from heaven, and placed among men, [Him who is] the truth, and the holy and incomprehensible Word, and has firmly established Him in their hearts. He did not, as one might have imagined, send to men any servant, or angel, or ruler, or any one of those who bear sway over earthly things, or one of those to whom the government of things in the heavens has been entrusted, but the very Creator and Fashioner of all things--by whom He made the heavens--by whom he enclosed the sea within its proper bounds--whose ordinances all the stars faithfully observe--from whom the sun has received the measure of his daily course to be observed--whom the moon obeys, being commanded to shine in the night, and whom the stars also obey, following the moon in her course; by whom all things have been arranged, and placed within their proper limits, and to whom all are subject--the heavens and the things that are therein, the earth and the things that are therein, the sea and the things that are therein--fire, air, and the abyss--the things which are in the heights, the things which are in the depths, and the things which lie between. This [messenger] He sent to them. Was it then, as one might conceive, for the purpose of exercising tyranny, or of inspiring fear and terror? By no means, but under the influence of clemency and meekness. As a king sends his son, who is also a king, so sent He Him; as God He sent Him; as to men He sent Him; as a Saviour He sent Him, and as seeking to persuade, not to compel us; for violence has no place in the character of God. As calling us He sent Him, not as vengefully pursuing us; as loving us He sent Him, not as judging us. For He will yet send Him to judge us, and who shall endure His appearing? ... Do you not see them exposed to wild beasts, that they may be persuaded to deny the Lord, and yet not overcome? Do you not see that the more of them are punished, the greater becomes the number of the rest? This does not seem to be the work of man: this is the power of God; these are the evidences of His manifestation.
CHAPTER VIII -- THE MISERABLE STATE OF MEN BEFORE THE COMING OF THE WORD.
For, who of men at all understood before His coming what God is? Do you accept of the vain and silly doctrines of those who are deemed trustworthy philosophers? of whom some said that fire was God, calling that God to which they themselves were by and by to come; and some water; and others some other of the elements formed by God. But if any one of these theories be worthy of approbation, every one of the rest of created things might also be declared to be God. But such declarations are simply the startling and erroneous utterances of deceivers; and no man has either seen Him, or made Him known, but He has revealed Himself. And He has manifested Himself through faith, to which alone it is given to behold God. For God, the Lord and Fashioner of all things, who made all things, and assigned them their several positions, proved Himself not merely a friend of mankind, but also long-suffering [in His dealings with them.] Yea, He was always of such a character, and still is, and will ever be, kind and good, and free from wrath, and true, and the only one who is [absolutely] good; and He formed in His mind a great and unspeakable conception, which He communicated to His Son alone. As long, then, as He held and preserved His own wise counsel in concealment, He appeared to neglect us, and to have no care over us. But after He revealed and laid open, through His beloved Son, the things which had been prepared from the beginning, He conferred every blessing all at once upon us, so that we should both share in His benefits, and see and be active [in His service]. Who of us would ever have expected these things? He was aware, then, of all things in His own mind, along with His Son, according to the relation subsisting between them.
CHAPTER XII -- THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWLEDGE TO TRUE SPIRITUAL LIFE.
When you have read and carefully listened to these things, you shall know what God bestows on such as rightly love Him, being made [as ye are] a paradise of delight, presenting in yourselves a tree bearing all kinds of produce and flourishing well, being adorned with various fruits. For in this place the tree of knowledge and the tree of life have been planted; but it is not the tree of knowledge that destroys--it is disobedience that proves destructive. Nor truly are those words without significance which are written, how God from the beginning planted the tree of life in the midst of paradise, revealing through knowledge the way to life, and when those who were first formed did not use this [knowledge] properly, they were, through the fraud of the Serpent, stripped naked. For neither can life exist without knowledge, nor is knowledge secure without life. Wherefore both were planted close together. The Apostle, perceiving the force [of this conjunction], and blaming that knowledge which, without true doctrine, is admitted to influence life, declares, "Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth." For he who thinks he knows anything without true knowledge, and such as is witnessed to by life, knows nothing, but is deceived by the Serpent, as not loving life. But he who combines knowledge with fear, and seeks after life, plants in hope, looking for fruit. Let your heart be your wisdom; and let your life be true knowledge inwardly received. Bearing this tree and displaying its fruit, thou shalt always gather in those things which are desired by God, which the Serpent cannot reach, and to which deception does not approach; nor is Eve then corrupted, but is trusted as a virgin; and salvation is manifested, and the Apostles are filled with understanding, and the Passover of the Lord advances, and the choirs are gathered together, and are arranged in proper order, and the Word rejoices in teaching the saints,--by whom the Father is glorified: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Saint Maximos: Anthropological Insights

Man’s Path
By Fr. George Florovsky
Man has been created in freedom. He had to come into being in freedom, and he fell in freedom. The fall is an act of will; and sin is primarily in the will — it is a condition, or form, or arrangement of the will. Man is a free being. This means that he is a volitional being. Sin is a false choice and false contrariness and arbitrariness of the will. Evil is the feebleness and insufficiency of the will. Evil is of an "elliptical" nature. Here St. Maximus comes very close to St. Gregory of Nyssa and the thought expressed in the Corpus Areopagiticum as well. Evil does not exist by itself. Evil is really the free perversion of reasoning will, which turns aside from God, which circumvents God, and thus turns to non-existence. Evil is "non-existing" primarily as this striving or this will to non-existence.
The fall manifests itself primarily in the fact that man falls into the possession of passion. Passion is a sickness of the will. It is the loss or limitation of freedom. The hierarchy of the soul’s natural forces is perverted. Reason loses the capability and power to control the soul’s lower forces — man passively — that is, "passionately" — subordinates himself to the elemental forces of his nature, and is enticed by them — he spins in the disorderly movement of these forces. This is connected with spiritual blindness. The feebleness, the weakness of the will is connected with the ignorance of reason — άγνοια, as the opposite of γνώσις. Man forgets and loses the ability to contemplate and recognize God and the Divine. His consciousness is overcrowded with sensual images.
Sin and evil are movements downward, away from God. Man not only does not transform and animate the world or nature, where he was placed as priest and prophet, not only does not raise nature above its level; but rather descends himself, and sinks below his measure. Called to deification, he becomes like the dumb beasts. Called to existence, he chooses non-existence. Created from a soul and body, man loses his integrity in the fall, and splits in two. His mind grows coarse, and becomes overcrowded with earthly and earthy and sensual images. And his very body becomes coarse.
In these general conclusions about the nature and character of evil St. Maximus is merely repeating generally accepted opinions. The only thing of his that is original is his insistent stressing of volitional factors. This allows him to develop the ascetic doctrine of the "ordeal" as the transformation of the will with greater consistency. In general, in his anthropology St. Maximus is closest to St. Gregory of Nyssa. For sin — that is, the "sin of volition" — man was "vested in leathern garments." This is the feebleness of nature — its passivity, coarseness, and mortality. Man is drawn into the very maelstrom of natural decay. His passivity is a certain immanent exposure of passion, an unmasking of its inner contradictions. The decay of man is proclaimed most clearly in his sinful birth, a birth from a seed, from male lust and voluptuousness like the way of the dumb beasts. Here St. Maximus follows St. Gregory of Nyssa. It is through this sinful birth that the decay and feebleness of nature spreads and, as it were, accumulates in the world. For St. Maximus “birth” — γέννησις as opposed to γένεσις — is a synonym of original sin and sinfiilness. Objectively, sin is the quality of having no exit from passion — a fatal circle: from passionate birth in lawlessness and sin and through decay to decayed death. This first of all must be healed through a new animation, through Christ’s entering the region of death.
Man’s freedom did not, however, fade away in the fall and in sin — it merely grew weak. Rather, inertia of nature increased very much after the fall — it was shot through and through with the sprouts of "unnatural" or "para-physical" passions and grew heavy. But the capacity for free movement, for circulation and return, did not dry up and was not taken away. Here is the pledge of resurrection and liberation from under the power of decay and sin. Christ delivers and frees, but everyone must accept and experience this deliverance within himself, creatively and freely. It is for this reason that this is liberation, a way out of slavery and the oppression of the passions to freedom — a shift form passivity to activity — that is, from passivity (being included in the rotation of non-verbal nature) to mobility, to creativity and the "ordeal."
St. Maximus always makes a clear distinction between these two factors: nature and volition or will. Christ heals nature once and for all, without the actual participation of individual persons, and even independently of their possible participation — even sinners will be resurrected. But everyone must be liberated in a personal "ordeal." Everyone is called to this liberation — with Christ and in Christ.
Christian life begins with a new birth, in the baptismal font. This is the gift of God. It is participation in a pure and chaste birth of Christ from the Virgin. However, one must approach baptism with faith, and only through faith does one receive the gifts of the Spirit which are offered. In baptism forces or energies — δύναμις — for a new life or the possibility of a new life are offered. Realization is the task of free "ordeal." Man is given the "grace of innocence" — της άναμαρτησίας. He can simply no longer err, but he must also actively not sin. He must become perfect. He must fulfill the commandments and activate good principles in himself.
Grace through the sacraments frees man, tears him away from the First Adam, and unites him with the Second Adam. It raises him above nature’s measures — for deification has already begun. This is, however, only the fulfillment of man’s most natural calling, for he was created to outgrow himself, to become higher than himself. It is precisely for this reason that the activity of grace cannot be only external, and is not forced. Grace presupposes exaction and susceptibility. It awakens freedom, and arouses and animates volition. It is "volition" which is the repository of grace. St. Maximus considers the synergism between "volition" and "grace" to be self-evident. The gifts which are given in the sacra -ments must be kept and nurtured. Only through volition can they manifest themselves and change into the activity of the New Man.
The sacraments and the "ordeal" — these are two indissoluble and indivisible factors of Christian life. Again, the way of Divine descent and human ascent, the mysterious meeting of God and man, is in Christ. This relates both to the personal life of every Christian. In every soul Christ has to be born and "become incarnate" anew — as St. Paul writes in Galatians 2:20: "but Christ… lives in me." And it relates to the Church as the Body of Christ. In the Church the Incarnation continues and is fulfilled. But God, when he humbles himself and descends, must be recognized and acknowledge. In this is the theme of "ordeal" and history — movement towards a meeting, abnegation for the sake of deification.
The "ordeal" is, first of all, a struggle with passions, for the goal of the "ordeal" is precisely apatheia. Passion is a false arrangement of will directed to the lower, to the sensual, instead of to the spiritual, the higher. In this sense it is a perversion of the natural order, a distortion of perspective. Evil is the preference for the sensual. And precisely in the quality of being falsely preferred the sensual or visible becomes sinful, dangerous, venomous, evil. The "visible" must signify and manifest the "invisible" — that is, the spiritual. It is in such a symbolic transparency that the whole sense and justification of its existence lies. Consequently, the "visible" becomes senseless when it becomes non-transparent, when it covers and conceals the spiritual, when it perceives itself as something final and self-sufficient. Not the visible as such, but an excessive and fallacious evaluation of the visible is what is an evil and a sin.
Passion is such an over-evaluation, or preference, a certain riveting to or affection for the sensual world. "Passion is the unnatural movement of the soul, either through illogical and nonsensical love or foolhardy hatred for something sensual, or for the sake of something sensual. Or again: evil is a sinning judgment about cognized things which is accompanied by their unseemly use." St. Maximus repeats the customary ascetic outline of the development of passion: around the sensual image which is introduced into soul. Fallacious points of crystallization arise in man’s spiritual life, as it were. For this reason, the whole spiritual structure gets out of order. One can distinguish three types of passion: pride (carnal), violence (or hatred), and ignorance (spiritual blindness). But the world of passions is very motley and heterogeneous. There are two poles in it: pleasure and glory. At the same time St. Maximus always stresses that man constantly finds himself, if not under the sway of, then under the secret influence of demonic actions. Diverse demons swirl or hover around every soul, trying to entice it, interest it with the sensual, and lull the mind and spiritual susceptibility. This demonic influence is a very mighty factor. But all die same, the outcome of the struggle always depends on the will and on the ultimate choice.
Evil itself, and passion, are of a dynamic nature. It is a false assessment of things, and therefore false and harmful behavior is false and harmful because it leads us away from our genuine goals into the emptiness and impasses of non-existence. It is aimless, and therefore realizes nothing. On the contrary, it loses us and breaks us down. In other words, it is discord, disorder, disintegration. One could say it is illegality, lawlessness — ανομία. Law in general forms a counterbalance to illegality and lawlessness. Partly this is the "natural law" which is inscribed in man’s very nature as a demand to live "in conformity with nature." Through contemplation of the world one can understand that this "natural law" is God’s will and measure, which has been established for that which exists.
Law is order, measure, harmony, coherence, and structure. However, it is very difficult for man in his fallen feebleness to be guarded by this "natural law" alone. He was given a written law, the law of the commandments. In content this is the same law of nature, but it is expressed and exposed differently. It is simpler, more comprehensible, and more accessible. For precisely this reason, however, it is insufficient. It is only a prototype — a prototype of the Gospel and the spiritual law, which is both deeper and higher than nature and leads man directly to God. Rather, these are three different expressions of a single law, a single assignment and calling of human life. The very motif of the law as a measure, more internal than external, is important.
One of the tasks of the "ordeal" is the organization of the soul. Victory over the passions is primarily organization. This is the formal aspect. In essence, it is purification, catharsis, and liberation from the sensual fetters and weaknesses. However, catharsis, too, is organization — the levelling and restoration of the true hierarchy of values. Ascetic "doing" — πραξις — or "practical philosophy" is the overcoming or eradication of passion in the human soul. In it, the main thing is not definite external actions, but inner struggle. First of all desire and lust must be controlled — set into the strict structure of the soul, so to speak. These lower, but natural, forces of the soul must be directed towards goals that are genuine and Divine through the power of reasoning discretion. The mind must become really "dominating" in man, and the focus of all the soul’s powers. And the mind itself must obtain its focus and support in God. This is the factor of abstinence. Here one frequently must resort to drastic surgical methods of healing. One is forced to cut off and eradicate inclinations and predilections, the "free passions" — that is, the predilections of the will. There is another aspect, as well — the "involuntary passions," sufferings. Mark the Hermit has written insightfully on the "free" and "involuntary" passions. Rather — temptation or testing through suffering, grief from suffering. In essence, this is an evil and worldly grief — concealed, unsatisfied and nagging lust, the desire for enjoyments. One has to endure these "involuntary passions," these sufferings, without grieving for the deprivation of enjoyments.
It is even harder to overcome hatred and rage. To court mildness and temperance it takes even longer. This is a kind of insensitivity to irritations. Thus the passionate forces of the soul are subdued, but even more remains. One must bar the way to temptations. This entails, on the one hand, exercising the senses and, on the other hand, a mental battle, purifying and overcoming one’s thoughts. It is here that the ascetic problem is solved, for otherwise the danger of sin is always generated anew. One must drive thoughts away while focusing one’s attention on something else, discipling one’s mind in spiritual sobriety and prayer — or else one must, in any case, neutralize them while cultivating a kind of indifference towards them in one’s self. Here "doing" turns from negative to positive. One must not only cut off the passions, but aiso create good. And apatheia does not end with mere suppression of the passions but also signifies a certain positive state of the soul. "Doing" begins with fear of God and is accomplished in fear. Love, however, drives fear away — rather, it transforms it into reverential trembling.
At the same time the mind begins to see clearly, and matures into contemplation in order to become capable of rising higher Apatheia and gnosis together lead to Divine Love. There are stages in it, and it is the very element of "ordeal," success, and perfection. And the courting of pure and indivisible love is the limit and task of ascetic "doing." Love flares up and absorbs all spiritual movements to the extent that it increases the "ordeal" is crowned with and ends in love. Love is free. Ascetic "doing," ascetic activity is the overcoming and extinguishing of sinful pride, and it is concluded in love. Love is complete abnegation and self-lessness," when the soul places nothing higher than knowledge of God." St. Maximus calls this love άγάπη. Later, Divine eros blazes up on the very heights of mysterious life. Love begets knowledge, "gnosis" This knowledge is contemplation, "natural contemplation" — that is, the judgment of Divine measures of existence. There are five basic themes of knowledge or contem -plation: knowledge of God; knowledge of the visible; knowledge of the invisible; knowledge of God’s providence; and knowledge of God’s judgment. This enumeration of five "contemplations" seems to go back to Origen and is also found in Evagrius Ponticus. Again, there are stages here. At first, only the foundations — logoi — of natural existence are cognized, then the intellectual world is comprehended. Only towards the end does the mind which is hardened in prayerful "ordeal" know God. "Theological knowledge" or "unforgettable knowledge" is realized only in a protracted contemplated "ordeal."
By contemplation St. Maximus generally understands not the simple perception of things as they are given in daily experience, but a unique spiritual intuition and a gift of beneficial illumination. Contemplation is cognition in the Logos, the perception of the world in God, or of God in the world, as it is implanted in incomprehensible Divine simplicity. Only through spiritual illumination does the mind obtain the capacity for recognizing the energies of the Logos which are hidden and secret under sensual covers. Contemplation is inseparable from prayer. In the contemplative penetration to the sources and creative foundations of existence, the human mind becomes like the Divine mind — it becomes a small logos as it reflects the great Logos.
This is the second stage of spiritual restoration — apokatastasis. But it is not yet the summit or the limit of spiritual ascent. In contemplation, the mind cognizes the intellectual or mental world and God as Creator, Provider, and Judge. However, the mind must leave the mental or intellectual world and ascend even higher to the mysterious darkness of Divinity itself. This is the goal and problem of the "ordeal" — meeting with God and tasting, or rather, pre-tasting Divine bliss. This is the level and condition of pure prayer. The mind rises higher than forms and ideas, and commun -icates with Divine unity and peace. It cognizes the transsubstantial Trinity in this world, and is itself renewed in the image of the Trinity. On the heights the hermit becomes the temple and cloister of the Logos. It finds repose on the all-good couch of God, and the mystery of ineffable unity is accomplished. This is marriage and betrothal to the Logos. In essence the Christian travels his whole path together with Christ, for he lives in Christ, and Christ in him. Fulfillment of the commandments unites with Christ, for they are his energies. Contemplation leads to Christ, the Logos Incarnate, as to the source and focus of an ideal world.
St. Maximus speaks much and in great detail about Christ mysteriously moving in and living in believing souls. Here he is leaning on St. Gregory of Nazianzus, especially St. Gregory’s Orations for Christmas and Easter. This is one of St. Maximus1 motives of asceticism — a life in Christ. Another motive also goes back to St. Gregory: the contemplation of the Trinity. Here, though, St. Maximus is closer to Evagrius Ponticus. Through Evagrius, he received Origen’s legacy. He handled it, however, freely. He bore Origen’s experience and piety in mind, and transformed it in his own synthesis. In addition, he resolutely rejected Origen’s metaphysical conjectures and conclusions. In general, St. Maximus was not very original in his asceticism. All of his ideas can be found in earlier teachers and writers. St. Maximus wants only to repeat accepted doctrine, but he gives a synthesis and not a compilation.
Man’s fate is decided in the Church. The Church is the image and likeness of God because it is united: "for through the grace of faith, it accomplishes in believers the same unblended unity which the Creator, who contains everything, produces in different existing things through his endless insight and wisdom." The Church unites all believers in itself. Rather, Christ himself unites and reunites with himself his creations, which have received their very existence from him. At the same time the Church is the image and likeness of the whole world, a kind of microcosm. The Church is man’s likeness, a kind of "macro-humanity" as it were. The Church takes shape and grows until it accommodates all who are called and foreordained. Then the end of the world will come.Then time and all movement will cease. Everything will stop, for it will settle. The world will die, for it will grow decrepit. Its visible side will die, but it will be resurrected anew from the obsolete on the day of the expected resurrection. Man will rise in the world or with the world, as a part with the whole, as the great in the small. Resurrection will be a renewal and an animation. Decay will no longer exist. God will be everything in everything. Everything will become a perfect symbol of the single God -head.Everything will manifest God alone. Nothing will remain outside of God — έκτος Θεου.
St. Maximus recalls the well-known analogy of white hot iron. However, in this Divine flame neither nature, nor man, nor even man’s "despotism" or freedom will be consumed. In his eschatological reflections St. Maximus is very close to St. Gregory of Nyssa and, through him, close to Origen. His whole scheme of thought is the same: disintegration and restoration of the primordial harmony — that is, apokatastasis, but an apokatastasis of nature, not of freedom. "Nature" will be restored in its entirety. This does not yet mean, however, that freedom, too, will be redefined as good. It does not yet mean, for freedom or will is a special reality which in no way is reducible to anything else. One may think that St. Maximus learned about this originality and the irrationality of the will from the experience of ascetic struggle. To recognize good does not mean to love or choose it. Man is also capable of not falling in love with the recognized good. Here St. Maximus directly parts with St. Gregory of Nyssa.
The Logos will be everything for everybody, but it will not be a blessed Sabbath and repose for everybody. For the righteous the fire of Divinity will be revealed as an enlightening light. For the impious it will be revealed as a singeing, burning flame. For people contending and mustering their natural powers in the "ordeal" it will be joy and repose. For the unprepared it can prove to be only unrest and pain. All nature will be restored in its primordial and natural measures in the unflagging apokatastasis. God in his immeasurable love will embrace all creation, the good and the evil. But not everyone will be allowed to share in his love and joy, and not everyone who is allowed will share in the same or similar ("analogical") way. St. Maximus makes a distinction between deification through grace — κατά χάριν — and union or unification without grace — παρά την χάριν. Everything which exists communes with God to the extent that it has its very existence from him and is kept by his acting powers.
This is, however, still not beneficial communion. In fulfilling the fates God will restore the full entirety of his creation not only in existence but also in eternal existence. But not in good-existence, for good-existence cannot be given from without, cannot be given without the demanding and accepting of love. God will give to sinners and return everything they lost through sin, restoring their souls in the fullness of their natural forces and capabilities. They will receive the capacity for spiritual knowledge and moral evaluation. They will cognize God. Perhaps they will even lose memory of sin and come to God in a certain understanding — τη έπιγνώσει. However, they will not receive communion with his blessings — ου τη μεθεξει των αγαθών. Only the righteous are capable of savoring and enjoying. Only they receive communion with Life, while people of evil will who have collapsed in their thoughts and desires are far from God, are devoid of Life, and constantly decay and constantly die. They will not taste Life, and will be tormented by belated repentance, by the consciousness of the senselessness of the path they took to the very end. This will be ineffable sorrow and sadness. According to St. Maximus’ notions, it is not God but the sinner himself who prepares his own torment and grief on judgment day. For bliss and joy are possible only through the free concordance of human will with the Divine will, through a free and creative fulfillment of the Divine definitions, through illumination and transformation of the will itself in creation of his commandments.
St. Maximus does not assume that clear cognition of the truth must inevitably determine the will to truth. St. Maximus flatly rejects Origen’s conception of the apokatastasis. Certainly, evil and sin are only in the will, but this does not mean that they will disperse like phantoms. As an ascetic and a theologian who defended the reality of human freedom and human will in Christ, St. Maximus could not help but be at variance with Origen and the Origenists in their intellectualism.
In the distinction of fate beyond the grave is the final basis and justification for the "ordeal." With a composing force it enters the last judgment. For man is called to creativity and work, called to the task of installing God’s will in his own. Only people of good will, people of righteous aspiration, will find satisfaction in God’s destiny, and the limit and fulfillment of their lives in the love and joy of communion with God. For the others, God’s will will remain an external act.
Deification is the goal of creation, and for its sake everything which came into being was created. And everything will be deified — God will be everything, and in everything. This will not, however, be violence. Deification itself must be accepted and experienced in freedom and love. St. Maximus came to this conclusion from a precise Christological doctrine of two wills and two energies.

Saint Nicholas Kavasilas: Falling Asleep of the Panagia

It was right that her all-holy soul should be separated from her most sacred

body – separated, and so united to the soul of her Son, the second light

united to the first. Her body remained for a short time in the earth, and then

departed thence to be together with her soul. For it was right that she should

traverse all the paths which were trodden by the Savior, that she should

shine upon both the living and the dead, and so in every way should sanctify

our human nature, before receiving as her dwelling-place the region

appropriate to her. Thus the tomb received her body for a little while, and

then heaven in its turn received this new earth, this spiritual body, this

treasure of our life, more venerable than the angels, more holy than the

archangels.... So the Tree was restored to the Fruit,

and the Mother to her Son (III, 12).

- Saint Nicholas Kavasilas 

Zizioulas: Anthropological Insights

We must comprehend fully what a “person” is.   A “person” is an identity that is formed through a relationship.  We are all persons, on account of our relationships.  We each have attained our personal identity through our various relationships, i.e., the biological ones from our parents, the natural ones from the environment, from the food we eat, from our social relations. All of these elements are necessary, in order for us to be called a person; however, it is the person that transubstantiates these relationships, and makes them its own.  You breathe this air, so you have a relationship with it, just as I do, but this air becomes mine, yours – it becomes “personal” - when it filters through each one of us as persons.  Thus, the person can similarly assume natures; but, that which defines my personal identity is not the air that I assume. It is dependent on that which is the most significant, the most decisive, which will make me be me and not someone else.  In the same way, it is up to our liberty to choose which of all our relationships is the most definitive for our personal identities.  If, for example, I decide that my relationship with my parents is the definitive one, then all of my other natural, social relationships will be coupled to this relationship with my parents, thus proving that this is where I have drawn my personal identity from.  In other words, the decisive relationship becomes the criterion that makes me be what I am.

If I do not desire to make the personal relationship with my parents the decisive element for my personal identity, then I transpose the relationship. And this is something that indeed occurs.  The young child has a personal relationship with its mother.  Gradually, it transposes its decisive relationship to either its social relationships or, later on, to its biological relationships which will remove it from the others. Thus, its personal identity no longer relates to the parental relationship, but to the other relationships.  This extends into our entire existence. If, for example, one were to imagine a person hinging his personal hypostasis on what he eats – i.e., a relationship with food – then indeed, if he persisted in this relationship, his entire personal identity would be dependent on this relationship.

Our personal identity is a matter of relationships - whatever those relationships may be.  Depending on how decisive a relationship is, that will eventually be one that will judge and subject all the other relationships, and will incorporate them therein.  It is quite obvious, that when a person is in love with someone, that will be the prevalent relationship at that moment of time, as he will be seeing everything through that prism.  The personal relationship, which gives us our identity, is always the one that makes us a person. To return to the issue of Christology : what makes Christ a person,  in other words, the relationship through which all the other relationships pass and which finally determines His identity, is His relationship with the Father.

With the Incarnation, Christ took on other relationships; He had a relationship with the Holy Virgin, with His disciples, with the natural environment; He partook of sustenance; He was Jewish – He had relationships with the entire Jewish community.  All of these are relationships that belong to His personal relationships.  In other words, all of the humanity that He takes unto Himself, all of the created, is not foreign to His person.   Mankind therefore is not lesser, by belonging in that relationship of His with the Father.

When we say that Christ (and I am trying to interpret the dogma of Chalcedon here) has only one Person but also Has two natures, this implies that His divine and His human natures (and anything else that these natures might include) all fall under the one personal relationship that determines Christ’s identity, which is His Filial relationship with the Father.  Thus, despite the new relationships that He embraces (as a Person) with His incarnation, He is, and He remains, the Son of the Father.  This is a very important point, because He could –for example- have taken on new relationships as I said before.  When we embrace new relationships, we tend to shift the center of our identity.  I will digress briefly at this point.  In his work “In search of lost time”, Proust ponders very intensely over death, and he makes several very important observations such as : when a person whom we love dies, what matters in the long run is that we will replace him with someone else. If we don’t replace him, our identity is endangered because it is indeed impossible for us to connect, to relate to something that does not exist unless we transfer that person into an existent sphere; but death strikes the person at this point. As long as we maintain our relationship with that person, that person will be giving us with our identity.  The “I” changes, when the “you” changes.”

So, when Christ says “I”, what does He mean?  Where does He draw that consciousness of “I”?  An entire discussion took place during our century – chiefly in Roman Catholic theological circles - as to whether Christ had two kinds of consciousness; a divine one and a human one. Many theologians had reached the conclusion that He had two.  The problem is, that in order to have a conscience of one’s “I”, in order to be an “I”, to be your self, it is impossible without a relationship.  Either I am me because I am not -for example- this table here (hence I am me when related to this table, but, if this table ceases to exist I can no longer be me), or, I am me when related to someone else.  We always are what we are (as a personal identity), when related to someone else.  You cannot say “me”, if there is no “you”.  After many centuries, philosophy in our day and age has reached that simple truth: that the “I” without the “you” is a myth; it is incomprehensible.

When Christ says “I”, where does He draw His consciousness of that “I”?  He draws it inevitably from His relationship with the Father. This is why the Person of Christ is only one, i.e., that of the Son.  If He drew His relationship from Mary also – from the Holy Virgin, as a child from its mother – then we would have had two persons, and Nestorius’ position would have been valid : we would have had one human with two persons : one relationship from here, and another relationship from there – both of which would have given Him His identity.  But, to be given two determining relationships for your identity is something that doesn’t eventually stand to reason, because only one of the two relationships will be the determining one.

This becomes evident in iconography also.  In a Western icon of Christ and the Holy Mother, the person of Christ is portrayed as a beautiful baby with a maternal relationship, which, however, limits the identity of the depicted baby.  If we take a Byzantine icon, we will notice that the hagiographer strives to give the impression that the One held in the Holy Virgin’s embrace is God, despite the maternal relationship between them.  This maternal relationship is not the baby’s determining relationship for the baby’s identity. The child seems to be stating that “yes, I may have a relationship with the mother, but My identity, my “I”, is governed by another relationship – the relationship that I have with the Father.

By what, therefore, are our personal identities judged? They are judged by how we place ourselves existentially.  In other words, if the Father were to ask the Son to go on the Cross and the Holy Mother –as a mother- were to say “Don’t go, my child”, or, if the Son were to stop and consider His mother and decide that His relationship with the mother was the determinant of His identity, thus deciding He would not go on the Cross, then indeed His Person would not be defined by His relationship with the Father, but a relationship with another person,  the Holy Mother.

This is what we do all the time, when verifying our personal identity.  The one who finally determines our personal identity is the one to whom we offer our existence.  The Martyrs, the Saints, all verify this fact; Why does theosis exist?  Why does the Martyr acquire theosis?  What does “theosis” mean?  This is not Platonic mysticism. These are existential, basic things.  A Martyr acquires theosis, because at that moment (of his martyrdom), he relates himself as a person to Christ. He has put aside all other relationships. When a mother tosses her children into the lions’ mouths for them to become martyrs, what exactly happens at that moment?  Her personal relationship is transposed, and consequently, that mother is judged by that specific moment.  Those Martyrs had chosen the relationship with God, just as Christ had, to be the determining relationship of their identity.  Thus, God saw in their persons the person of His Son.  They had done as the Son had done, hence were acknowledged by God as sons, and they had accordingly acknowledged God as Father, and with this relationship, they had sealed their lives forever, i.e., they had attained theosis. 

Christ, however, did not attain theosis by making this kind of a decision while being a human, i.e., while having previously chosen the human relationship as the definitive relationship and afterwards transposing it to His relationship with God.  Because, in Christ’s case, the relationship with the Father was precedent. What Christ did, was to persist in acknowledging His relationship with the Father as being the determinant relationship, hence the reason we do not have theosis in the case of Christ; we do not have an embracing, a transposing of the existing relationship and the projection of a new person; what we have, is simply a confirmation of the identity that had always existed.

Christ does not assume an identity from Himself, because there also exists that –par excellence demonic--  relationship, where one places his own will and his own interests as the supreme criterion of his decisions, like Adam had done when he put himself in God’s place and determined his identity from his own self.  Christ does not acquire an identity from a created being, despite the fact that the created element is embodied within His identity.  He subsumes all of His other relationships in His predominant relationship with the Father, and, being thus engulfed in this relationship with the Father, all of those other relationships are liberated from the restrictions that they were subject to; they are set free and are engulfed in His Body, as a part of His identity.

It is important to persist on that which the Council of Chalcedon decided; i.e., that the person is one, and that the said person is the Son and Logos of God.  Besides, even the word “Son” is a word that implies a relationship - the filial relationship – because it is only within this relationship that mankind is fulfilled; only then can we speak of the fulfilment of mankind.

If mankind had a person of its own – in the way that speculating Western theologians want it – then it would not have been fulfilled, because it would eventually have been restricted; its identity would have been governed by the limitations of the created, which determine the boundaries of Man.

Consequently, by accepting one person in Christology – and that person is the Son – we are actually allowing mankind infinite possibilities. This is an anthropological maximalism, and not a minimalism. We do not have here a demoting of mankind.

The Chalcedon dogma is of major existential significance, provided we comprehend it with the significance that has been given to the meaning of “person”.

Source: http://www.oodegr.com/english/dogmatiki1/E6.htm#10

Leontius of Byzantium: Anthropological Insights

The Byzantine Fathers
Of the Sixth to Eighth Century

Georges Florovsky

Leontius’ Dispute with the Aphthartodocetists
In his dispute with the Aphthartodocetists Leontius meticulously discloses the doctrine on the humanity of the Logos. The Aphthartodocetists, one of the divisions of the Monophysites, were founded by Julian, bishop of Halicarnassus, and hence were also called " Julianists.” They taught that from the first moment of the Incarnation the earthly body of Christ was in its nature incorruptible — άφθαρτος impassible, and immortal, although this did not stop Julian from accepting suffering and death as a free act of the will. Leontius proceeds from soteriological premises. In opposition to Julian of Halicarnassus, Leontius thinks that the primordial Adam was created in a form capable of "decay" — that is, mortal — that the flesh was "mortal." Immortality was available only through participation in the "Tree of Life" — that is, for Leontius it was a dynamic task, an opportunity, not a "natural" condition. This means that in the Fall human flesh did not become mortal for the first time but started to die — the possibility of "decay" appeared. Consequently, from the fact that Christ has the nature of the primordial Adam, it does not follow that his flesh is "incapable of decay" from the very Incarnation. For all of its chastity and purity, die possibility of death or "decay" remains and is removed only through actual death, in the resurrection. By nature — κατά φύσίν — Christ’s flesh is open to suffering and is not withdrawn from "irreproachable passions" or "suffering" states — and not through a special calamity or weakness of the Logos, as Julian thought, but precisely by nature (although there are no actual bases for death in it).
The hypostatic union does not demand changes in the natural properties of manhood and does not damage the flesh’s ability to suffer. True, by virtue of the hypostatic union, the measure of nature is exceeded — υπέρ φύσιν — but the laws of nature are not annulled, not παρά φύσίν. For the Savior, imperishability is higher than nature. Before the resurrection the measure of nature is only sometimes exceeded. It is the miracles which are the exception in the Gospel story of the Logos Incarnate, and not the weakness, as Julian depicted it. For Julian, salvation has already been completed somehow in the Incarnation, while the Gospel life was presented as some series of acts which went beyond what was necessary. For Leontius, on the contrary, the Incarnation is only the beginning, and he sees in the Savior’s whole life an inner unity and growth. Leontius reminds us that "imperishability" is not some exclusive gift, for it is promised to all. Innate imperishability of the flesh, on the contrary, would not increase the Savior’s glory. The Savior’s whole life would be incomprehensible in that case. Why did he suffer and die on the Cross, if apotheosis and deification of human nature was already completed in the Incarnation? If the Savior’s human nature has actual "impassivity and "imperishability" by virtue of the hypostatic union, then ould not its fullness be lessened with every calamity of suffering W d debilitation? The whole meaning of Leontius’ observations is fΠ emphasize the perfect reality of the Savior’s corporeal life, °hich was fulfilled through volitional death in the resurrection, when for the first time the Savior’s body is actually invested with imperishability.
Leontius makes a sharp distinction between deification of the soul and of the body. The human in Christ is free of sin and therefore from the beginning the Savior’s soul is privy to all the blessings of the Logos, to bliss and omniscience. Leontius insists on this against Theodore of Mopsuestia and his doctrine of the process of Christ’s moral perfection and his original ignorance. This original deification of the soul is connected with its purity and innocence. But from this it is impossible to come to a conclusion about the imperishability of the flesh. Chastity does not exclude growth, and the Savior was born as a child. Death triumphs actually only through a death which is volitional (for it is "for our sake"), but natural. The resurrection actualizes imperishability for the first time; it is the resurrection which becomes the source of life and imperishability for the whole human race, as something "consubstantial" with Christ in human nature, by virtue of a certain mysterious "servility" or "homeopathy."
This imperishability and impassivity will be revealed in the last days. Sinners will fall under new sufferings. However, these future sufferings differ substantially from those of today, which are connected with the natural capacity for suffering of mortal flesh. Thus, in his objections to Julian, Leontius successfully argues against the latter’s anthropological premises and his doctrine about primordial nature and original sin.