THEOLOGY OF HESYCHASM

By Very Rev. Dr. Matthew Searfoorce

Palamas uses in all his work the mystical Tradition of Orthodoxy which had roots in Evagrius and Macarius, Christian teaching based on the Bible and a wide knowledge of the Church Fathers. Palamas rooted all of his thoughts even the "Method of Nicephorus in the entire life of the Church and the placement of Christ at the center of the Church community - the Body of Christ.

Barlaam, Palamas' main opponent, based his position on two postulates;

1) The Aristotelian postulate that all knowledge,

including knowledge of God, is derived from

perception of the senses -"experience,"

2) A Neoplatonic postulate based also in Christian

writers, especially Pseudo-Dionysius, according

to which God is beyond sense and experience, and

therefore unknowable.

Barlaam held that all knowledge of God must be indirect, passing always "through beings" perceptible to sense. Therefore mystical knowledge itself can have only a symbolic reality.

Palamas could not accept Barlaam's statements, and supported the possibility of direct knowledge of God, or more specifically, the possibility of the direct intervention of the Spirit in man's knowledge of God

"I hold that among God's gifts some are natural; they are granted indiscriminately to all, before the law, inder the law, after the law. Others are supernatural and full of mystery. These latter gifts I hold to be higher that the former, as those who have been judged worthy to receive the Wisdom of the Spirit are superior to the whole tribe of Hellenists. I hold that philosophy is one of the natural gifts of God, as are also the discoveries of human reason, the sciences...I give each the honor it merits..."(Triads II;1;25, pages 275-277)

Palamas considered the supernatural gifts of the Spirit to be of higher value than the natural gifts of philosophy or reason.

Palamas spoke what Orthodox have held, that we may experience or participate in God in this life as we follow the teachings of the Gospel to become perfect.

Barlaam's arguments presuppose to identify supernatural with the immaterial. He could not imagine the human body as a receptacle for Grace. Palamas, on the contrary, along the lines of Pseudo-Macarius that at the moment of God taking flesh in the womb of Mary, the visible Church was manifested on earth, and the sacramental Grace of the Church sanctifies the whole man as a promise of bodily resurrection. Truly this controversy is a conflict between philosophy and the Christian theology of Theosis (References Baruch 3:38, Ephesians 3:6, Colossians 3:4).

Clearly from the time of the Incarnation, our bodies have become Temples of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 6:19). Grace comes with the Sacraments. We partake of the Body of Christ and become the Body of Christ. Therefore God dwells in us.

The idea of unworthiness making th Holy Spirit dwelling within impossible is typical of Western thinking;

"We who carry as in vessels of clay, that is, in our bodies, the light of the Father, in the person of Jesus Christ, in which we know the glory of the Holy Spirit - how can it dishonor our mind to dwell in the inner sanctuary of the body?" (Triads I,2,2).

St. Gregory replies in Triads II,2,9 - When spiritual joy comes to the body from the mind, it does not suffer from communication with the body, but transfigures the body, and raises up the whole man.

All that the Orthodox feel and believe about God within us the West seems to agree to, but not to really accept. Palamas thought to re-establish the sanctity of matter which the Hellenistic philosophies and consequently Western thinking tended to deny.

Triads II,2-20; Rom. 12:1; Ps. 102:18; John 3:6,8 - the Apostle Paul wants us to be a sacrifice acceptable to God (Rom 12:1) and St. Gregory offers us a way to be living and active sacrifices. As we serve God with hands and feet is this not a common activity of body and soul. The Sacraments nourish the body and soul in the interior work the Hesychast movement perpetuates. Homily 50 advises at least attendance of Sunday Liturgy while Homily 38 seems to advise Holy Communion.

Meyendorf points out that the Ascension and Second Coming are founded on Historical Facts - Incarnation and the Bodily Resurrection.

In Triads II, 3,66 - St. Gregory uses the quotation from Matthew 13:43 about light of the just shall shine as the sun as a Scriptural basis for Hesychast Uncreated Light, and tells us while the Apostles saw the Uncreated Light on the exterior of a vision, we can (since we are sacramentally united with the Son of God after His death and Resurrection) contemplate the Uncreated Light internally.

"...who will rejoice in eternity and glory in communion with the One who has given our nature divine glory and radiance."

God grants Grace thereby saving the whole body and soul of man. Palamas uses Holy Scripture to reinforce his argument while Barlaam with his Nihilistic mysticism could not accept this.

Christian mysticism seeks a new life in Christ; an active life for him whole being. Having been given a new life in Baptism and Eucharist, the mystic awaits this new life in the interior of his own being.

Palamas opposes the pagan Hellenism and looks to see a renewed place and use of Holy Scripture, making the Source of God's revelation the life of the people and the arbiter of understanding about God.

The Apostle who went with Jesus to Mt. Tabor saw the Uncreated Light exteriorly from Christ with their senses, however we may see that Uncreated Light supernaturally because we are now Sacramentally united with Christ after His Death, Resurrection, and Ascension. We see that Light from our hearts, interiorly.

Orthodox thought crystallized by St. Gregory truly affirms the continuous place of God in the history of the world, and in the life of mankind. St. Gregory clearly tells us that God reveals Himself directly through Jesus Christ, rather than to the world through His creation or its creatures (Triads II 3,6-7)

"Since this power has no other means of acting, having gone beyond all other beings, it becomes wholly light in itself and like that which it sees; it is united without admixture, being light (itself), and seeing light through light. If it looks at itself, it sees light; if it looks at the means by which it sees, again it sees light. That is what union means; all is so one, that he who sees can make no distinction either of the means of the end or the object; he is conscious only of being light and seeing light distinct from all that is created." (Triads II 3, page 36) - in speaking of the supernatural power of God, gives us by the presence of the Spirit power is beyond all other beings, it becomes wholly light in itself, and like that which it sees. It is united without mixture being light itself and seeing light through light. It looks at the object of its light which it sees, again it sees light. THat is what union means, all is one, that he who sees can make no distinction between the means (or the source) and the ends (or the object).

If we look at John 3:6 we are told that if we are born of water and the Spirit (i.e., Baptism) then we are Spirit. Jesus Christ through His taking flesh has permitted us to do this.

St. Paul says he "lives no more but Christ lives in him." We participate in the Uncreated Grace of God Himself, our human passions, etc.. almost our humanity itself is repressed and Christ lives in us.

"When God conversed with Moses, he did not say " I am the essence," but "I am he who is" (Exodus 3:14). For He who is does

not come from the essence, but the essence comes from Him who is, for He who is embraces the totality of Being in Himself" (Triads III,2, par 12). This tells us we do not, when we come face to face with God "see His Divine Essence" but rather we see that which the Essence reveals to us - His Energies. If we knew the Essence, we bring God to the level of His creation and make ourselves "God by nature" rather than by Grace. We do not possess God when the supernatural Grace of the Holy Spirit comes to us, but rather, God always possesses us, remaining the only one taking action.

The whole goal of St. Gregory's theology is to reconcile two contradictory facts necessary to Patristic Tradition. 1) The revelation of God in Jesus Christ is a total

revelation that establishes an intimacy and union

between God and man expressed by St. Paul in the

image of one Body that gives man a vision of God

face to face.

2) God is, by nature, unknowable.

We are, by nature, created, and God is, by nature or Essence, Divine. We cannot know the nature or Essence of God. We know and intimately experience the Energies of God.

The Gnostics or Neoplatonists view the inaccessibility of God because of the fallen character of the soul rather than our created state.

We are possessed by God - to know the Divine Essence would be to possess God.

God acts to reveal Himself to us - the Energy, but the Essence would be to possess God.

It is the Uncreated Light of Christ that is revealed to us.

St. Maximus tells us God multiplies Himself. God is wholly and entirely present in His Essence and in His Energies. The Divine Energies are not "things." Grace, creative, redemptive or sanctifying is not something God rewards His creatures with, but a manifestation of the Living God Himself. God multiplies Himself to us.

"But as in His mercy and His infinite love He desires to share His beatitude and make happy those who participate in His glory, He calls forth His infinite perfections and reveals them in His creatures; His glory is resplendent in the heavenly powers, reflected in man, clothing the invisible world with a garment of magnificence; He gives His glory to those whom He allows to participate in it and receive it; it then returns again to Him. This eternal circulation of the Divine Glory, as it were, constitutes the blessed life, the happiness of creatures..." - speaks about Divinity existing in the human all gifts of Divine power that belong to life and were communicated to us (II Peter 1:3). That is why our weakness will be filled with Divine Strength (if we allow this to happen) our lives are cleansed by Divine Truth, our darkness illumined by Divine Light.