The Vision of Light and Mercy to the Knowing

Is it so? For all things reported about it signify their own bodily properties, I was saying this: each of the bodies has that form according to which it is; but when it is spoken of in terms of participation, nothing is spoken of sensorially. God is called, Spirit is called, Light is called, as a human form with limbs; for Spirit does not have limbs; God does not have a seat or resurrection or feet and the rest; from which it is evident that the essences, about which these things are said, are certain things intelligible.

9 And you make them drink from the torrent of your delight. The flowing liquid is able toward quenching thirst and leading into a sober drunkenness. He names it a 'torrent of delight,' just as it is said, 'a river of delight issues forth from Eden and waters the paradise' (Gen 2:10). And the provision of teaching, the participation of instruction, is called 'torrents' of 'delight.' 'You make them drink upon it.' And it is well also to say, 'you make them drink upon it,' since after this torrent they come to be and are in that very spring. As infants they are being made to drink, and so that I may speak from apostolic wording: to those being led in, Paul writes, 'I gave you milk' (1 Cor 3:2). And those unable to drink for themselves are being made to drink; those being instructed are being made to drink. When they are made to drink from this river of delight, they consequently come to that life from which this river flows, 'for with you is the spring of life' (Ps 36:9). Since with you is the spring of life. He did not say, 'for with you the spring of life has become' or 'a spring of life shall exist,' but 'with you is the spring of life.' This spring of life is always. But when those being made to drink approach, a stream also flows and becomes from the spring, called the 'torrent of delight.'

10 For with you is the spring of life, in your light we shall see light. Behold the spring again here; he has spoken differently; and the light is spoken of as a spring. But these things are not possible regarding history or bodily imagination. If, therefore, the good things flow from it and it does not receive them from elsewhere like a pit or a head, it is a spring of life. And what am I saying? He himself was saying, 'I am the life' (John 14:6). It is the same to say 'life' and 'spring of life.' Life, indeed, because it vivifies and leads into immortality; but a spring, because it does not receive the vivifying thing from elsewhere, but has it itself within itself. 'In your light we shall see light.'

If this voice speaks to the Father, it says: since he who saw the Son, being true light, sees you as existing in light, in your own light we shall see you as existing in light; for 'he who saw the Son saw the Father' (John 1:18). And 'he is the image of the invisible God' (Col 1:15) indicating the one of whom he is the image, and 'he is the character of the divine hypostasis' (Heb 1:3) revealing the hypostasis of God. Therefore, 'in your light we shall see light'. And if this is also spoken to the Son, in your luminous instruction and teaching we shall see you existing as light.

Where he says: 'extend, O God, your mercy to those who know you' (Ps 103:8), he speaks of that knowledge concerning which it is said: 'this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God' (1 John 5:20). These ones, having this knowledge, are loved by God. And God 'makes mercy into thousands for those loving' him. We take 'into thousands' in this way: this number has a kinship with the unit. Therefore, those approaching the one God following and becoming one spirit with him, following, become thousands and myriads. But this is said in this sense: 'the chariot of God is myriad-fold, thousands of the straight'; for we do not take thousand in this way, as ten times a hundred, but because of the intimacy with the unit. And mercy becomes for them.

If, then, the mercy of God is extended into a thousand, as it is said: 'for his mercy is unto the age', he rightly says here: 'extend your mercy to those who know you'. Otherwise, he shows mercy to those coming in a manner of repentance, those asking for the forgiveness of sins. He shows mercy to those knowing him so that they may be established and ascend to that which is above all things unto the end. And your righteousness to the upright in heart. And upright in heart and pure in heart are the same. It is therefore good for the pure in heart to see God; for 'blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' (Matt 5:8).

Let no one of pride come upon me, and let the hand of sinners not shake me. Let 'the pride of the foolish' not strike my intellect, that is, let no path of pride arise in me; for it is often said of the members of even the best and the most skillful. In proverbs, indeed, it is said: 'the...