2. Just as God created heaven and earth for man to
inhabit, so did He create Man so that He may reside as in His house in the
human body, having a soul created in His image as His magnificent bride. That
is why the Apostle Paul states: " but Christ as a Son over His own house,
whose house we are…" (Hebrews 3:6).
2. Just as a bee builds its honeycomb in its hive,
unnoticed by people, so does benevolence secretly build its love in the heart
of a person, changing bitterness to sweetness and a cruel heart — to a kind
one. Just like a master silversmith, in making cuttings in a plate and slowly
covering it with patterns, does not show his work in all its beauty until he
had finished it.
11. Whoever strives towards God and really wants
to become Christ’s follower must follow Him, endeavoring to improve himself and
become a new person, not retaining anything within oneself that is peculiar to
the ancient person — for it is said:" if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation."
11. If a soul genuinely loves God and because of
its insatiable aspirations toward God, although it may have performed thousands
of good deeds, it considers itself as having done nothing. Although it has
exhausted its body through fasting and labors, it thinks that it has not yet
commenced to acquire virtues; even though it is worthy by having acquired
various spiritual gifts, either revelation or the Heavenly Mysteries, because
of its great love for God, it considers having obtained nothing….
It is inflicted with love for the Heavenly Spirit.
With the help of God’s blessing, it continually stimulates within itself a
fervent aspiration toward the Heavenly Bridegroom; wishing to fully achieve the
mysterious and indescribable communion with Him in the holiness of the Spirit;
it looks upon the Heavenly Bridegroom — face to face — with purified spiritual
eyes; enters into union with Him in a spiritual and indelible light, in accordance
with His death, continually expecting death for Christ with great anticipation;
certain in its faith that through the Spirit it will receive complete
deliverance from sins and dark desires, so that having been cleansed by the
Spirit, enlightened spiritually and physically, become worthy as a pure
receptacle for accepting into itself the heavenly world and as a dwelling for
the heavenly and true King Christ. Only then it becomes worthy of a heavenly
life, having become a pure dwelling for the Holy Spirit here on earth.
13. There are very few people that have combined a
righteous beginning with a righteous end. Rejecting everything without
stumbling, they reached their aim in loving the one God. Initially, many enter
a state of magnanimity; many become worthy of heavenly grace and become
inspirited with heavenly love.
13. Just as a person conceived in a mother’s womb
does not take on human form immediately but gradually, and is not born as an
adult but grows and develops over a period of many years, until he reaches
maturity….and just as the seeds of barley or wheat do not send out roots as
soon as they are planted but after a period of cold and winds, and after a
given period of time, sprout shoots….so it happens with spiritual life, where
so much wisdom and experience is demanded — a person grows gradually until he
reaches completeness, taking on the likeness of Christ (Eph. 4:13).
13. A person by nature is inconstant. That is why,
just as a person who fell into the depths of iniquity and is enslaved by sin
can turn toward good, so is that person who is sealed with the Holy Spirit and
filled with heavenly gifts free to return to evil. Some, having savored God’s
grace and becoming communicants of the Holy Spirit, lose their alertness and
vigilance, and spiritually extinguished, become worse than what they were
formerly. This happens not because God changes or that the grace of the Holy
Spirit wanes, but because the persons themselves lose that grace, deviate and
fall into a multitude of sins.
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