Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church

C
D
1148A
confess, through their intellectual contemplation, illuminated
in justice by good works, His resurrection, on behalf of which
and on account of which the death took place. They are most
willing to be put to death in the flesh, but have not begun to be
brought to life through the Spirit. They still cling to the
stability of their tabernacle, and have not yet had revealed to
them by the reason and knowledge of the Saints the way,
which is the Word of God who says, Iamtheway(John 14:6).
They know, from ascetical struggle, the Lord, the Word made
flesh, but have no desire to come through contemplation to the
glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and
truth (John 1:14).
21
Contemplation of Abraham
TEXTS 117
Again Abraham became spiritual, when he went out from his
land and his kindred and the house of his father, and came to
the land designated by God. 60 For by habit he broke away from
the flesh, and by separation from the passions became outside
it. He abandoned the senses, and no longer accepted any error
of sin from them. He passed beyond everything perceived
through the senses, so that nothing of them approached his
soul to deceive or afflict it. With his mind alone, free from any
material bond, he came to the divine and blessed land of
knowledge. He travelled in a hidden way throughout its length
and breadth, 61 and in it he discovered our Lord and God Jesus
Christ, the good inheritance of those who fear Him. In length
He [sc. Christ] is unimaginable in himself and is acknowledged
as divine by those worthy of Him in so far as this can be
among men. In breadth He is glorified by us, because of His
most wise providence, which binds all things together, 62 and
His economy for our sake, which is passing marvellous and
transcendently ineffable. 63 Thus [Abraham] came to partake
through ascetic struggle and contemplation in all the ways by
which praise of the Lord is inculcated, and through which
friendship with God and assimilation to Him are securely
attained. To put it briefly, he who through ascetical struggle
overthrows the flesh, sense and the world, through which the
relationship of the mind to the intelligible is dissolved, and by
his mind alone through love comes to know God: such a one is
another Abraham, through equal grace shown to have the same
mark of virtue and knowledge as the Patriarch.