Dear Andreas,
That icon is seen very often in the traditionally Orthodox countries. I have seen it several times in different churches.
Now, regarding your Q.
We find this answer in the feast of Transfiguration, which by the way happened 40 days before the Holy Crucifixion, however because it was a great Feast (and at that time we have the Great Lent), was postponed to 40 days before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14 September), which is similar to Holy Friday.
During the Transfiguration of Christ there were only 3 Disciples present. Why not all of them?
We know very well that the revelation and manifestation of God can be Paradise for those who are fit for the vision of God and Hell for those who are unclean, or at least for those who are not prepared. [...] So it seems that the three Dispiples were most suited for receiving this revelation of God. To others He had to remain hidden and be revealed after His Resurrection.
The three disciples had some qualification which made them fit to share this vision of God. All three were superior to the other disciples (St. John Chrysostom). (p. 165) The feasts of the Lord by Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos
The word 'transfiguration' means change of form. In other words, at a certain moment Christ revealed what He had been concealing, He manifested the glory of the divinity with which His human nature was united from the moment of His conception in the womb of the Theotokos. Through His great love for mankind Christ concealed what He always had, in order that the Dispicles should not "be burned" by reason of their unfitness, because they had not yet been prepared.
At that moment Christ was transfigured, "not assuming something that he was not, nor changing into something which he was not, but manifesting what he was to his own disciples" (St. John of Damaskos). Essentially, when we speak of the Transfiguration we mean that He manifested the glory of His divinity, which He kept unseen in the visible body, because men were not able to face it.
St. John Chrysostom says that Christ did not show His whole divinity, but a small energy of it. And He did this, on the one hand, to give information about what the divine glory of the Kingdom is like, and on the other hand out of love for mankind, lest they even lose their life on seeing the full glory of the Godhead. Therefore the mystery of the Transfiguration is both a revelation of the Kingdom and an expression of God's love and His philanthropy. (pp. 147-148) The feasts of the Lord by Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos
This love and philanthropy of our God does not cease:
Saint Isaac the Syrian says that Paradise is the love of God.
And naturally when we refer to love we mean chiefly and foremost the uncreated energy of God. He writes: "Paradise is the love of God, wherein is the enjoyment of all blessedness". [Isaac the Syrian: The ascetical homilies, Hom. 46, op. cit. p.223] But also referring to Hell he says almost the same things, that even Hell is the scourge of love. He writes: "I also maintain that those who are punished in Gehenna, are scourged by the scourge of love. Nay, what is so bitter and vehement as the torment of love?" [Ibid. Hom. 28, p. 141]
So Hell is the torment of the love of God. Besides, as St. Isaac says, the sorrow caused in the heart by sin against the love of God, "is more poignant than any fear of punishment". [Ibid.] It really is a punishment when we deny and oppose anyone's love. It is terrible when we are loved and we behave inappropriately. If we compare this to the love of God, we can understand the torment of Hell. And it is connected with what St. Isaac says again, that it would be improper for a man to think "that sinners in Gehenna are deprived of the love of God". [Ibid]
So even those being punished will receive the love of God. God will love all men, both righteous and sinners, but they will not all feel this love at the same depth and in the same way. In any case it is absurd for us to maintain that Hell is the absence of God.
These things mean that men's experiences of God will be different. "To each by himself the Master will give according to the measure of his excellence and his worthiness. “For there the order of those who teach and those who learn will cease, and in each will be the ardent love of all. “Thus there will be one who will give His grace to all, that is, God Himself, but men will receive it according to their capacity. The love of God will fall on all men, but it will act in a twofold way, punishing the sinners and giving joy to the righteous. St. Isaac the Syrian, expressing the Orthodox Tradition on this subject, writes: "The power of love works in two ways: it torments sinners, even as happens here when a friend suffers from a friend; but it becomes a source of joy for those who have observed its duties" [Ibid. p.140f.]
Therefore the same love of God, the same energy will fall upon all men, but it will work differently. But how shall this difference be?
God said to Moses: "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” (Ex. 33, 19). The Apostle Paul, citing this Old Testament passage, concludes: "Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills, He hardens” (Rom. 9, 18). It needs to be interpreted in Orthodox terms. How does God want to have mercy on one and want to harden another? Is there favouritism in God?
According to the interpretation of Theophylactus of Bulgaria, this is connected with the nature of man and not with God's action. St. Theophylactus says: "Just as the sun softens the wax candle but hardens clay, not arbitrarily but because of the different materials of the wax candle and the clay: so also God is said to harden the clay heart of the Pharaoh". [Nicodemus the Hagiorite, op. cit. vol. 1, p.110] Therefore the grace of God, that is to say His love, which will radiate to all, will work according to a man's spiritual condition.
St. Basil the Great subscribes to this view. Interpreting the passage from the Psalms "the voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire” (Ps. 29, 7), he says that this miracle happened to the Three Children in the fiery furnace. The fire in this case was divided into two, so that while it was burning those outside it, it was cooling the Children, as if they were under the shadow of a tree. In what follows he observes that the fire which had been prepared by God for the devil and his angels "is cut by the voice of the Lord". Fire has two powers, the caustic and illuminating energies, and that is why it burns and sheds light. Thus those worthy of the fire will feel its caustic quality and those worthy of lighting will feel the illuminating property of the fire. Therefore he finishes very expressively: "The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire' and in the dividing, the fire of hell is without light, and the light of peace remains unburnt". [Basil the Great, On Psalm 28, PG 29, 297 A]
So the fire of Hell will be dark, it will be deprived of the illuminating quality, while the light of the righteous will be acaustic, without the burning quality, and this will be the result of a different energy of God. Nevertheless, this suggests that according to his condition a person may receive even the uncreated energy of God.
This interpretation concerning Paradise and Hell is not only that of St. Isaac the Syrian and St. Basil the Great, but is a general teaching of the Fathers of the Church, who interpret apophatically what is said about the eternal fire and eternal life. When we speak of apophaticism we do not mean that the Fathers distort the teaching of the Church, speaking abstractly and reflectively, but that as they interpret these themes they try to free them from the categories of human thought and from images of sensory things. [John Romanides, op. cit. p. 99] On this point too one can see how the Orthodox-Greek Fathers differ from the Franco-Latins who considered these realities as created. [Ibid. p. 96f]
This is the way St. Gregory the Theologian too explains this important truth, which, as will be seen, has great significance for the ecclesiastical and spiritual life. He advises his listeners to accept the teachings of the Church about the resurrection of the body, the judgement, and the recompense to the righteous. These things should be received from the point of view that the future life will be "light for those whose mind is purified", of course "in proportion to their degree of purity", and we call this the Kingdom of Heaven. It is darkness "to those who have blinded their ruling organ", which in reality is alienation from God, "in proportion to their blindness here". [Gregory the Theologian, Or. 40, 45, On holy Baptism, NPNFns vol. 7, p. 377] So eternal life is light for those who have purified their nous - and of course according to the depth of that purity - and darkness for those whose nous is blind, who have not been illuminated by this life and have not attained illumination and deification.
We can also look at this difference from the point of view of sensory realities. One and the same sun "gives light to healthy sight but darkens ailing eyes". It is not the sun but the state of the eye which is at fault. Precisely the same sort of thing will happen at the Second Coming of Christ. Christ is one, "but He stands for a fall and resurrection: a fall for the unfaithful, resurrrection for the faithful". [Gregory the Theologian, Or. 17, 7, To the citizens of Nazianzus, PG 35, 973D] One and the same Word of God, even now too, and very much more at that time, is both "terrible for those not worthy in their nature, and benevolently receptive to those thus made ready". [Gregory the Theologian, Or. 39, 9-10, On the Holy Lights, PG 36, 344D] So not all are found worthy of the same order and class, but one is worthy of one, and another of the other, "each, I think, according to his own purification". [Gregory the Theologian, Or.45, 11, On Easter, NPNFns vol.7, p.427. PG 36, 637D] A man will taste one and the same uncreated energy of God in accordance with the purity of his heart and nous.
Therefore, also according to St. Gregory the Theologian, God Himself is Paradise and Hell for man, since each man tastes God's energy according to the condition of his soul. Thus in one of his doxological phrases he can exclaim: "O Trinity, Whom I have been granted to worship and proclaim, Who will some day be known to all, to some through illumination, to others through punishment!" [Gregory the Theologian, Or. 23, 13, On peace 3, PG 35, 1165B] The same God is both illumination and hell for men. The saint's words are clear and revealing.
I should also like to mention St. Gregory Palamas, archbishop of Thessalonica, who underlines the same teaching. Referring to the words of John the Forerunnner about Christ, who "will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire", he says that these words are meant to bring out this truth that men will receive proportionately either the punishing or the illuminating quality of grace. He puts it this way: "He says: `He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire', that is to say, with illumination and punishment, according to the disposition of each". [Gregory Palamas, Homily 59, EPE 11, p. 498 (Gk).
To be sure, we must look at this teaching of St. Gregory Palamas in the full theological perspective of the uncreated grace of God. The saint teaches that the whole creation shares in the uncreated grace of God, but not in the same way and at the same depth. Thus the saints' share of the grace of God is different from that of the rest of creation. He emphasises: "If one thing is to be shared by all but is not shared in the same way, but differently, ... even if everything has a share of all the things of God, yet we see the difference of the share of the saints as large and great". [Gregory Palamas, Syggrammata vol.2, p. 145 (Gk)]
Besides, we know from the whole teaching of the Church that God's uncreated grace takes different names according to the effects which its work has. If it purifies a person it is called purifying, if it illuminates it is called illuminating, if it deifies it is called deifying. Likewise sometimes it is described as bestowing being, sometimes as life-giving and sometimes as making wise. So all creation partakes of the uncreated grace of God, but differently. And therefore the deifying grace of which the saints partake should not be confused with other energies. The same thing is true of the grace of God in the eternal life. The righteous will share the illuminative and deifying energy, while the sinners and unpurified will experience the caustic and punishing energy of God.
We find this teaching also in the ascetic writings of various saints. For example, St. John of the Ladder says that the same fire is called both "that which consumes and that which illuminates". He is referring to the holy and supracelestial fire which is the grace of God. The grace of God which men receive in this life "burns some because they still lack purification", and others "it enlightens in proportion to the perfection which they have achieved". [John of the Ladder: Step 28, CWS p. 280] Indeed the grace of God does not purify unrepentant sinners in the next life, but what St. John of the Ladder says applies now. And it is testified by ascetic experience that at first the saints feel the grace of God as a fire which burns their passions, and afterwards, to the extent that their heart is purified, they also feel the grace of God as light. Contempory men who see God on their ascetic pilgrimage affirm that as far as one repents and in grace experiences Hell, to that extent also grace, even without one's expecting it, is turned into uncreated light. It is the same grace of God which at first purifies the man, and when he reaches a great depth of repentance and purification, it is seen as light. Consequently it is not a question of created things and human emotional states, but of experience of the uncreated grace of God.
(pp. 254-261) Life after death by Metropolitan of Nafpaktos Hierotheos
If you do not have this book, you can read more here (http://www.vic.com/%7Etscon/pelagia/htm/b24.en.life_after_death.00.htm).
Dear Nina,
Very many thanks. I didn't know this image was common. Yes, I have the books you mention. Your quotes bring us back to my question at the start of this thread; they speak of the righteous and of sinners, but most people are a bit of both, not necessarily equally either. I assume there are degrees of joy and of torment.
In Christ,
Andreas.
The torments of Hell and the Second Judgment are common icons. Because those images cause compunction of heart (like the works of the Fathers do and we use them as a warm up before prayer), and in addition such icons arouse in us the fear of God - which is the beginning of Sophia tou Theou (Wisdom of God). In addition: "The Christian in the Church first experiences mindfulness of death. Not only does he not seek to forget death and to thrust it into the unconscious, not only does he deny the reality and tragic character of death, but he has it constantly in his mind and in this way acquires a naturalness, because the sense of mortality and decay is truthfulness." (Metropolitan Hierotheos). And as a favorite saying of us here on monachos says "Keep your mind in hell but despair not!"
Maybe I understand what you need to know, but I fail to find the right quotes. However as the Holy Fathers say "You fall down by sinning, you get up by repenting and confessing. Important is that the moment of the departure from this world finds us up and repented." - the same as what you said in the thread the other day that we pray against sudden death, so we may have time to repent and confess (and as we know many saints and holy fathers were granted from God to know the time of their death). Therefore people can not be a bit of both at the moment of their departure, one side is prevailing: we are either up, or down. Like in the example of many saints that we know who had dubious characters, or ill reputed, but their end found them ready for Heaven. That is why Paul above is right when he directs our attention to the mercy of God. A very good practice that Holy Fathers recommend is nepsis = alertness, vigilance, watchfulness (of what enters, and is in our soul) in addition to practical virtues.
Byron Jack Gaist
13-08-2008, 12:05 PM
Deal all,
I'm posting my query to this old thread, because it may be related to it.
In today's reading, the parable of the householder (Matthew 20:1-16 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2020:1-16;&version=50;)) the prospect of a reward given equally to those arriving at the eleventh hour, and those having worked since dawn, is presented. Everybody gets one coin, and it is suggested that those who laboured all day shouldn't grumble, if their hearts are pure.
But this doesn't seem to 'fit' with the doctrinal suggestion that in heaven there will be 'grades' of vision: those who will be closer to God in the next life, for example the great saints, will be topologically speaking 'in front of' the lesser lights who will still be in heaven, but just not experiencing divine bliss to the same depth. Furthermore, the psychology of all those in heaven will be different, so that those who are 'further back' will not envy those 'in front', but will instead experience joy for them (presumably joy in proportion to their own and the others' proximity to God?).
I suppose the two images could perhaps be reconciled, in that the 'one coin' may mean a lot more to those who are 'poorer in spirit' (ie. more saintly), than to those who do still appreciate it, but less so.
Still, the idea of 'more' and 'less', or 'first' and 'last' in heaven seems such a human image, compared to the bounty of God's inexplicable love. Maybe a 'snowflake' will be enough, after all.
Thank you Andreas, for pointing out that divine love is disproportionate!
In Christ
Byron
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