The Inhabited World and the Joy of Creation

Confessing and receiving beauty, having God within himself as a temple and becoming sanctifieds fitting that holiness and magnificence are said of such a thing; indeed, partaking in the holiness of the present God and Christ, the sanctification of God, and also of the Holy Spirit, and seeking that which is becoming and appropriate in great and superior things; for magnificence is that which is becoming in great things, but smallness is that which is in small things.

For you, indeed, if you wish to be well-appearing in human honors and dignities and in perceptible strength and wealth, you are small if you are in the sanctification of God through the one who has enriched according to those things assigned in the intelligible and spiritual virtues and piety, but he who seeks to excel in all great things and by this possesses magnificence, is a companion not unequal to the holiness which he has acquired (Ps 95:7-8).

Since we are servants of Christ, having his name called upon us, let us perform all things wisely and rationally, justly and holily, and let us bring glory to the name of Christ which is upon us. And also let the appearance of sacrifices be excellent; that is, elevate the concept concerning sacrifices, not plunging down low and slaughtering animals, but thinking highly of those things signified by them, the spiritual and heavenly sacrifices, of which the perceptible sacrifices are types and shadows (Ps 95:9b-11a).

And every intellect having possessed a worldly quality, shaken by sympathy toward matter, casts off the former and earthly disposition in order to take up the spiritual and heavenly nature. For truly, this is to have the earth shaken in order to pass into heaven and to put on the image of the heavenly.

Following this are the things brought about: 'The Lord has reigned among the nations' (Ps 97:1). For having suffered and having risen from the dead, He reigned among the nations, having said, 'All authority was given to me in heaven and on earth' (Mt 28:18). As it becomes the will of God as in heaven and on earth, and the Lord reigning in all the nations, the whole earth is shaken in the said manner from His face, so that the nature of virtue, having been made steadfast by the Lord, might take up the inhabited world instead of the earth, having become steadfast, reigning...

For the Lord's domain is not merely earth but an inhabited world, with Father and Son and Holy Spirit dwelling in it and through divine gifts. He who ruled over all living things will judge the peoples with uprightness, judging according to his own order, since his wonders were announced to all, not only to Israel. He will judge them in uprightness, examining not only their works but also their dispositions. These things will happen according to his second coming, when the heavens will rejoice and the earth will exult (Ps 95:11-12a).

For the purpose of ascent, those bearing the image of the heavenly one and having citizenship in the heavens are heavens themselves, rejoicing in being laden with fruit coming from the Unconquerable from the true vine; wisdom poured it into the vessel. Some of these heavens are to inherit the high and above-lying earth through meekness, being called earth by a homonymous metonymy, rejoicing in the joy produced by the Holy Spirit.

If any mind is awakened by passions, as if by saltiness and bitterness, and the soul is treating the sea as a storm-tossed sea due to disordered movements, it is fitting for this to be shaken by a blessing, so that it might change from tossing and waves into stability and calm, according to its fullness, from the bitter and disordered. For the first blessing is for those who repent, to die to disordered and disturbed impulses. And those souls, because they have received the seed of Jesus, rejoice in unspeakable and glorified joy as they reap a harvest in tears amidst the exultation (Ps 95:12b-13b).

The 'then' refers to the inhabited world being made upright by the Lord. The 'then' also refers to 'Let the heavens rejoice.' For the heavens shall rejoice and the earth shall exult; then the trees of the forest shall exult (Ps 95:12b). The 'trees of the forest' are those not bearing fruit; but rather the former fruits bearing fruit exult, running ahead as the Lord comes down, 'Come!' For the Lord is coming to judge the earth, then the trees of the forest exult, always rejoicing like the trees of paradise in luxury. But of these not...