LAWTON CHURCH OF GOD, LAWTON,
OKLAHOMA
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HOMILY
5
1. The world of Christians is of a special kind, their style of living, their
thinking, their speech, and all their actions. That of men of this world is
completely different. There is a great difference between them. The inhabitants
of this world, the children of this age, are like wheat in a sieve. They are
being sifted by restless thoughts of this world. They are constantly tossed to
and fro by earthly cares, desire, and absorption in a variety of material
concerns. Satan tosses such souls as a sifter sifts wheat. He sifts the whole
sinful human race by means of such earthly pursuits, ever since Adam first fell
by disobeying God’s command and came under the power of the prince of evil.
From that time when he gained such power, Satan is constantly sifting all the
sons of this world with thoughts of deceit and agitation. He dashes them
relentlessly on the sieve of this earth. 2.
As the wheat in the sieve is shaken by the sifter and is continually tossed up
and down, so the prince of evil holds all people engrossed in earthly concerns.
By these concerns he disturbs people, keeps them anxious and in a state of
nervous motion. The result is that they are disturbed by vain thoughts and base
passions and are in bondage to earthly attachments to this world. Satan
constantly holds them as captives. He agitates and entices the whole human race,
infected by the sin of Adam. In
such a manner the Lord forewarned his Apostles about the future attack of the
prince of evil against them. “Satan has sought to sift you as wheat, but I
have prayed to my Father so that your faith would not fail” (Luke 22:31–32).
That work spoken by the Creator to Cain, which has been a sentence openly
pronounced upon him, namely, “Groaning and trembling you shall be tossed upon
the earth” (Genesis 4:12), is a type and image of what all sinners secretly
undergo. After the race of Adam had violated God’s command and entered into
the sinful state, it began to live in that acquired likeness interiorly. It is
tossed to and fro relentlessly with continuous thoughts of fear and terror and
every sort of disturbance. The prince of this world keeps each soul that is not
reborn of God tossed on the waves of various passions and lusts. As wheat is
shaken up constantly in the sieve, so he keeps men’s thoughts jangling in all
directions. He shakes and entices them all by the seductions of this world, by
the carnal pleasures, fears, and agitations. 3.
So the Lord, showing that those who follow the wiles and wishes of the evil
prince and bear the likeness of Cain’s evil, reproved them when he said,
“The lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning
and did not abide in the truth” (John 8:44). In such a way the whole sinful
race of Adam has received that condemnation interiorly, namely, “Groaning and
trembling shall you be” (Genesis 4:12) and shaken in the sieve of the earth by
Satan sifting you. For just as from one Adam the race of men was multiplied over
the earth, so one depravity of passion infiltrated into the entire human race.
The prince of evil is thus able to sift all of them by continued crass, vain,
and passionate thoughts. For as one wind is capable of shaking all the plants
and seeds or as one darkness of the night spreads over all the entire earth, so
the prince of evil, who is similar to a spiritual darkness of sin and death, is
like a hidden yet wild wind. He shakes the entire human race on the face of the
earth. He tosses them about to and fro with restless thoughts. He entices the
hearts of people with the pleasures of the world. He fills every soul with a
dark ignorance, blindness, and forgetfulness. Only those escape him who have
been reborn from above and have been transported in mind and heart to another
world, as it was said: “Our citizenship is in Heaven” (Philippians 3:20). 4.
In this we see the difference between true Christians and the rest of human
beings, and great is the difference between them, as I said above. This
difference is seen in the fact that the mind and intellect of Christians are
always centered on heavenly thoughts. They gazed on heavenly things because they
participate in the Holy Spirit. Because they have been born above from God and
are children of God in truth and power, they have arrived, through many labors
and sweat endured over a long time, at a state of equilibrium, tranquility and
peace, freed from further sifting. They no longer vacillate back and forth,
tossed about by crippling and vain thoughts. In
this they are greater and better than those of the world, because their
intellect and thinking of the soul is permeated by the peace of Christ and the
love of the Spirit, as the Lord had in mind when he said: “They had passed
from death to life” (John 5:24). It is, therefore, not in outward shape or
form that the distinguishing characteristic of Christians consists. Many
Christians believe that the difference does lie in some external sign. They are
in mind and thought similar to those of the world. They
undergo the same disturbing restlessness and instability of thoughts, lack of
faith, confusion, agitation, and fear as all other persons do. They really do
differ somewhat in some external form and way of acting in a limited area, but
in heart and mind they are shackled by earthly bonds. They do not have the
divine rest and heavenly peace of the Spirit in their heart because they never
begged it of God nor did they ever believe that he would deign to grant these to
them. 5.
It is through the renewing of the mind and the tranquility experienced in our
thoughts and the love of the Lord and the love for heavenly things that every
new creation of Christians distinguishes them from the men of this world. For
this reason did the Lord come in order that he might deign to give these
spiritual gifts to those who truly believe in him. Christians possess a glory
and beauty and an indescribable heavenly richness that come to them with hard
work and sweat, acquired in times of temptations and in many trials. All of this
must be ascribed to divine grace. If the sight of an earthly king is something
all wish to see, and everyone who passes through the city of the king desires at
least to catch a glimpse of his beauty or the elegance of his garments or the
splendor of his purple, the beauty of his many pearls, the comeliness of his
crown, the impressive retinue that accompanies him, spiritual persons, however,
spurn all of these things because they have experienced another heavenly,
incorporeal glory. They have tasted another ineffable beauty and have
participated in other riches. They have received in the inner person another
Spirit. The
people of this world who possess the spirit of the world have a great yearning
to see an earthly king, at least to feast upon his comeliness and glory. In
proportion as his share of visible accessories is greater than that of others,
so even to have only seen him, the king, is something desired by all. Each
man inwardly says to himself: “I would really like someone to give me
something of that glory, comeliness, and splendor.” He believes that king is
happy, a man like him, of the earth, having the same weakness of passions,
subject to death. He makes him an object of envy because of his fleeting
comeliness and desired glory. 6.
If, I say, carnal persons so desire the glory of an earthly king, how much more
those whom the touch of the Divine Spirit of life has touched and whose heart
divine love has pierced with a desire for Christ, the heavenly King, who have
been captivated by his beauty and ineffable glory and by the incorruptible
comeliness and incomprehensible riches of the true and eternal King, Christ!
They are held captive by desire and longing for him. Their whole being is
directed completely toward him. And
they desire to obtain those ineffable goods which through the Spirit they
contemplate. For the sake of Christ, such Christians regard such earthly beauty,
adornment, glory, honor, and the riches of kings and princes as nothing because
they have tasted divine beauty and the life of heavenly immortality has dropped
like dew onto their souls. Therefore, they ardently long for that love of the
heavenly King and they have him alone before their eyes in every desire. For his
sake they detach themselves from every worldly love and tear loose from every
earthly attachment so that they may possess that one desire always in their
hearts and never mix anything else with it. However,
few indeed are those who begin well the race and successfully complete it,
reaching the goal without falling, who have love for God alone and who are
detached from all others. Many have a conversion experience and many become
participators of heavenly grace and are wounded by heavenly love, but, because
of the daily battles and struggles and the work involved and the various
temptations from the evil one that they have not conquered, they do not
persevere. They are overwhelmed by various worldly passions, because everyone
has something of this world that he loves and he does not detach himself
completely from that attachment. And so such as these have stopped in the race
and have immersed themselves in the abyss of the world because of their
weakness, laziness, and cowardice of will or through an earthly attachment. Those
who really wish to reach the goal by good living must not willingly allow and
mix any other love or affection with that heavenly love lest they be hindered in
their spiritual pursuits and fall back and finally lose their very own life.
Just as God has made great, ineffable, and indescribable promises, so, too, they
demand on our part great faith, hope, and effort and great struggles. The goods
that a person seeks in striving for the Kingdom of Heaven are not of little
importance. To reign with Christ forever, if this is what you desire, will you
not be ready to bear manfully struggles and labors and temptations for the brief
space of this life up until death? The Lord says: “If anyone wishes to come
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily with joy and let him
follow me” (Matthew 16:24). And again he says: “If anyone does not hate
father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sister, yes, even his own life also,
he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Most wish to obtain the kingdom and
desire to have eternal life, but, following their own wills, they refuse to
control them. They
are rather more like the sower who sows vain desires. They refuse to deny
themselves and still wish to receive eternal life, which is a thing impossible.
The saying of the Lord is found to be true. For those reach the goal
successfully without falling who, according to the Lord’s injunction, deny
themselves totally. They have spurned all things of the world: concupiscences,
attachments, pride, pleasures, and impediments. They keep him alone before their
eyes and seek to observe his commandments so that each person of this type goes
against his own will. He would reject any kingdom of this world by denying his
own interests. He would mingle no other love with the love he has for his Lord.
He takes no pleasure in any of the pleasures or passions of this world. He only
wishes to place his total love in the Lord as far as he can willingly wish to do
so. Let
me give an example that comes to me. Take someone who is led to judge another.
He knows that the thing he wishes to do, to make such a judgment, is not
becoming. But when he is drawn to such a judgment by a certain pleasure in the
thought and does not repulse it, he falls a victim to it. For at first in his
heart there is interiorly a war. There is a struggle, a conflict, a discernment
between what is of the love of God and what is of the love of the world. Then he
yields and makes a judgment against his brother, which may even lead to
quarreling and angry blows. He weighs the matter, dialoguing with himself:
“Should I say it? or, should I not say it?” He is mindful of God, but still
he wants his own glory, and he will tend not to deny himself. If the love and
esteem for the world in his heart dips the scale, immediately the evil word
leaps to his lips. Then the mind interiorly, like an archer, aims its arrow,
using the tongue to hit the neighbor. It discharges arrows of unseemly words in
a spontaneous willing bent on seeking self-glory. Then this shooting of arrows
against the neighbor continues with unbecoming words, augmenting the sin until
it reaches the point of blows and wounds as other members of the body enter into
the war, even sometimes to the point of inflicting physical death. So you see
what is the origin and end result of the love of worldly glory when it once has
turned the scale in the balance of the heart toward self-will. Because such a
person refused to deny himself, but rather loved something of this world, all
those worldly desires and evil passions of the flesh resulted. In
this way every kind of sin and every immoral practice, all theft, also avarice,
sloth, desire for money, and vainglory, so likewise envy and ambition and
whatever is of evil arise. Sometimes actions that may appear to be good for the
glory and praise of men are done, but God reckons these on the same level as
deeds of injustice, theft, and all other sins. For God says: “He has scattered
the bones of those who please men” (Psalm 53:5). Thus an evil person loves to
give the appearance of doing things that seem to be good, yet he is still a
shifting liar in his attachments to the world. For by means of a certain love
for the things of the world and the flesh by which he is held in bondage to his
own will, evil entices him until it becomes an enslaving bond, a heavy chain and
weight that sucks him down and stifles him in a world of evil that does not
allow him to rise up and return to God. The reason is that whatever anyone loves
of the world oppresses his mind, holds him and does not allow him to rise up.
For from this scale and discernment which tilts man toward evil, the whole of
mankind hangs and is tested, including Christians living in cities or in
mountains or in monasteries or in wild places or in the desert. The reason is
that a person is seduced by his own desires and loves something that binds him
that is not wholly centered on God. One
person, let us say, sets his heart on possessions, another on gold and silver,
another on the persuasive wisdom of the world to gain the glory of men; another
has ardently sought power, another, the praise and honors of men; still another
lives by anger and violence. For when one yields quickly to such a passion, he
shows his love and preference for that desired object. One shows this attachment
to unbecoming actions, another to jealousy, another all day long shows pride and
amuses himself, another deceives himself with meaningless thoughts, another
loves to parade as a teacher of law to impress people, while another takes
satisfaction in laziness and carelessness. Another is absorbed by dress and
clothing and still someone else gives himself to earthly pursuits. Another
overindulges in sleep or trivial gossip or lewd conversation. But regardless of
how anyone is bound, whether by a small or a great chain to the world, he is
possessed by that attachment and is unable to extricate himself from it. For
whatever passion a person does not manfully fight against, that is an object of
his love. Such an attachment dominates and holds him down. It becomes for him an
impediment and a chain that prevents him from directing his mind to God and from
pleasing him. In no way can he serve God alone and obtain the kingdom and reach
eternal life. The
soul that truly tends toward the Lord completely forces itself to a total love
of him. It is held fast in a willed dedication, as far as is possible, to God
alone. From him it obtains the help of grace. Such a person denies himself and
does not obey the will of his mind, because he knows that the mind tends to deal
with us in a deceitful way, seducing us to evil. He yields himself perfectly to
the Word of the Lord and frees himself from every visible bond as far as he can
will it. He surrenders himself completely to the Lord and thus will be able to
undergo successfully struggles, labors, and setbacks. Wherever there is a
question of affection, there is either a help or an obstacle. If a person loves
something of the world, this becomes for him a burden and a bondage dragging him
downward and not allowing him to rise upward to God. If,
however, he loves the Lord and loves his commandments, this becomes his help. He
is strengthened by this. His observance of all the Lord’s precepts becomes
easy for him and this tilts him toward the good, or rather, it makes lighter and
easier every battle and affliction. Through divine power he cuts through the
world and through the powers of evil which lay snares for the human soul in the
world and which use all sorts of desires as nets to ensnare the soul in the
depths of the world. In
such a way he is freed from such snares by means of his own faith and great
courage and through heavenly aid. He is accounted worthy of the eternal kingdom
which was the goal of his desiring. He receives from the Lord help and he will
not lose eternal life. To be able to illustrate all of this with concrete
examples, think how many, by their own wills, perish and are drowned in the sea
or are taken into captivity. Or suppose a house is on fire. One person wishes to
save himself. As soon as he is aware of the fire, he flees naked. He completely
leaves all else behind. He wishes only to take care for his own life and he is
saved. Another person wishes to save something of the house furniture or other
objects. He enters to get those things and when he gets them, the fire sweeps
through the whole house. He is caught within and burned. Do you not see that by
attaching himself by his own will to some temporal object, he really perishes in
the fire? Similarly,
at sea people encounter raging waves and are shipwrecked. One strips himself
naked of all clothes and throws himself into the waters, hoping to save himself.
He is tossed about by the whitecap waves and swims through the treacherous sea
and saves his life. Another person wants to save some of his clothes. He thinks
he can swim and pass through the sea with them on but those things he carried
along with himself pull him down and sink him in the depth of the sea. For a
paltry gain he loses everything, even his own life. Do you not see how by
following his own will he perishes? Again,
take the example that comes to mind of a rumor of an invading enemy. One person,
as soon as he hears of it, flees at once, escaping without any clothing but his
naked self. Another person, however, does not believe that the enemy will come
or wishing to save something of his possessions, he delays his flight in seeking
to take things with him. The enemy comes and captures him. They carry him off as
a captive into a land of foreigners and there they force him to serve as a
slave. Do
you not see how, by following his own will, he was captured because of his lack
of attention, energy, and attachment to possessions? In a similar manner, those
who do not obey the commandments of the Lord and do not deny themselves,
refusing to love God above all else, freely decide to be held by earthly bonds.
When the eternal fire comes, they, having been caught as captives in a foreign
land and drowned in a love for the world, tossed mercilessly in a bitter sea of
wickedness, are held captive by a spirit of wickedness and so come to their
ruin. If
you want to learn from the lives of the saints what complete dedication to the
love of the Lord means and from Holy Scripture inspired by God, look at Job. How
he gave up all he possessed, so to speak: children, wealth, livestock, servants,
and everything else that he had, stripping himself completely to escape and save
himself. He even gave up his very clothing, throwing it at Satan; yet all the
time he never blasphemed in word, neither in his heart nor with his lips before
the Lord. But on the contrary he blessed the Lord saying: “The Lord gave; the
Lord has taken away. As it has pleased the Lord, so be it. Blessed be the name
of the Lord” ( Job 1:21). Although it was true that he had many possessions,
but, tested by the Lord, he showed that God alone was his possession. Similarly,
Abraham, ordered by the Lord to leave his country and family and the home of his
father, at once, so to speak, stripped himself of everything—fatherland,
property, relatives, parents—and obeyed the Word of the Lord. Then he
underwent many trials and temptations as when his wife was taken from him or
when he, living in an alien land, was subjected to injustices. Yet through all
he proved that God alone was his sole love over all things. Then when, through a
promise and after many years, he had his only son whom he so very much wanted,
he was ordered to sacrifice him with his own hands. Abraham stripped himself and
truly went against himself. He showed how by the sacrifice of his only son he
loved nothing more than God. If indeed he so generously gave up his own son, how
much more, if he had been ordered to surrender all other possessions, or to give
them all up in one moment, he would have willingly done it. Do
you not see the complete centering upon the Lord of a perfect love freely given?
And so also those who wish to follow in their footsteps must love nothing
besides God so that, when they are tried, they may be found authentically prompt
in preserving their love, their perfect love for the Lord. Such as these are
able to endure conflict to the end who have completely and with their whole
heart loved God alone and who have freed themselves from all other loves for the
world. Few, however, are found who enjoy such a love, turning away from all
pleasures and desires of the world and who manfully endure the assaults and
temptations of the evil one. Are
there not among the many who, in crossing the rivers, are sucked under by the
waters, some who pass over the turbulent streams of worldly passions, so
diverse, and successfully overcome the various temptations of evil spirits?
Also, just because many ships on the sea are shipwrecked by waves, are there not
some ships that succeed and pass over the waves and reach safely the haven of
peace? For this there is great need always of much faith and courage, struggle,
patience, labors, hunger and thirst for the good, alacrity, perseverance,
discretion, and reflection. Most want to possess the kingdom without labors and
struggles and sweat, but this is impossible. As
in the world certain people offer themselves to a rich man to work in his fields
or to do some other work so as to obtain the necessities for their livelihood,
out of these some are lazy and sluggish, not working or laboring as they should.
These very ones, not having toiled or labored diligently, still want equal pay
as those who manfully, with full force, have labored, as though they too had
fulfilled their job. Likewise
when we read in Scripture how such and such a just man pleased God, how he was
made a friend and companion of God and how all the fathers were considered
friends and participators of God, we forget one thing: What great afflictions
they had to suffer, how much they had to endure on behalf of God, with what
great courage they struggled and fought battles! We congratulate them and we
wish to enjoy rewards and honors equal to theirs. We desire ardently to receive
their outstanding gifts, but we fail to notice their labors, struggles,
afflictions, and crucifixions. We eagerly want honors and dignities such as they
received from God, but we are not ready to accept their labors and struggles. Truly,
I tell you this. Every person, even prostitutes, publicans, and the wicked,
desires and wants all this, namely, to possess the kingdom easily without labors
and struggles. But because of this there lie along the path temptations and many
trials and afflictions and struggles and sweat in order to sift out those who
have truly loved the Lord alone with might and main right up to death itself and
have desired nothing else along with their love for him. They justly, therefore,
enter into the Kingdom of Heaven who have denied themselves according to the
Lord’s Word and have loved the Lord alone with their whole heart. Because of
their great love they will be recompensed with the greatest of heavenly gifts.
For in the afflictions, crucifixions, patience, and faith are hidden the
promises, the glory, the possession of heavenly good things just as in the seed
that is thrown into the earth the fruit lies already hidden or in the tree that
is covered with thorns and grows amid vile and dirty dung. Then they will reveal
that in them were the dignity and glory and manifold fruit as the Apostle says:
“Through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Acts
14:22). And
the Lord says: “In your patience you will possess your souls” (Luke 21:19),
and again: “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). For there
is need of effort and patience, restraint and every kind of watchfulness, of
alacrity and perseverance in prayer to the Lord so that one can rise above
earthly desires and the snares and traps of sense pleasures, above the
enticements of the world, and avoid the attacks of evil spirits. One needs to
know well by what vigilance and attentive faith and love the saints possess the
heavenly treasure, that is, the power of the Spirit in their souls and in
Heaven, which is the balm of the kingdom. Blessed Apostle Paul, in describing
this heavenly treasure, that is, the grace of the Spirit, explains also the
multitude of tribulations and at the same time shows what each one ought to
strive for while in this life: “We know that if our earthly house of this
tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made by hands,
eternal in Heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:1). 7.
Therefore, let all strive and labor with all the virtues and let them believe
that they, even here, may possess that house. For even if the house of our body
is dissolved, we have no other house to which the soul can turn. It is said:
“If, being clothed, we shall not be found naked” (2 Corinthians 5:3), naked,
that is, of the communion and fellowship of the Holy Spirit in which the
faithful soul can alone find rest. For
this reason, Christians who are genuine Christians are optimistic and are glad
to leave the body because they have that house not made by hands, which house is
the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. Therefore, even if the house of
the body is destroyed, they do not fear, for they have the heavenly house of the
Spirit and the incorruptible glory, which glory in the day of the resurrection
will build up and glorify the house of the body, as the Apostle says: “He that
raised Christ from the dead shall raise up also your mortal bodies through his
Spirit that - 72- dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). And again he says: “That the
life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians
4:11). And he says: “That mortality which is in us may be swallowed up by
life” (2 Corinthians 5:4). 8.
Let us, therefore, strive by faith and excel in every virtue to gain after this
life that clothing so that when we lay aside our body we will not be naked and
that there will be nothing in that day to glorify our flesh. For insofar as
anyone, through faith and zeal, has been deemed worthy to receive the Holy
Spirit, to that degree his body also will be glorified in that day. What the
soul now stores up within shall then be revealed as a treasure and displayed
externally in the body. It is something like the trees once winter has passed.
They are warmed by the invisible power of the sun and winds. The trees shoot
outwardly and send out leaves and flowers and fruit like external clothing.
Similarly also in spring flowers of the plants blossom forth from within the
bosom of the earth and the earth is thus covered and decorated. The plants are
like those lilies described by the Lord that “not even Solomon in all his
glory was arrayed as one of these” (Matthew 6:29). For all examples of this
nature are types and images of Christians at the resurrection. 9.
So to all God-loving souls, I mean, true Christians, there is the first month,
Xanthicus, which is called April. This is, indeed, the day of resurrection in
which, by the power of the Sun of Righteousness, the glory of the Holy Spirit
rises up from within, covering and warming the bodies of the saints. This is the
glory they interiorly had before, hidden in their souls. For what they now have,
that same then pours out externally into the body. This, I say, is the first
month of the year (Exodus 12:2). This
brings joy to every creature. It clothes the naked trees; it opens the earth.
This produces joy in all animals. It brings mirth to all. This is for
Christians. Xanthicus, the first month, the time of the resurrection in which
their bodies will be glorified by means of the light which even now is in them
hiddenly, this is the power of the Spirit who will then be their clothing, food,
drink, exultation, gladness, peace, adornment, and eternal life. For the Divine
Spirit, whom they were considered worthy even now to possess, will then bring
about in them every beauty of radiance and heavenly splendor. 10.
How, therefore, ought each of us to believe and to strive and to be dedicated to
live a full virtuous life? With much hope and endurance we should now desire the
privilege of receiving that heavenly power and the glory of the Holy Spirit
interiorly in the soul so that then, when our bodies will have been dissolved,
we may receive what shall clothe and vivify us. It says: “If so be that being
clothed we shall not be found naked” (2 Corinthians 5:3), and “He shall
bring to life our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in us” (Romans
8:11). For
blessed Moses provided us with a certain type through the glory of the Spirit
which covered his countenance upon which no one could look with steadfast gaze.
This type anticipates how in the resurrection of the just the bodies of the
saints will be glorified with a glory which even now the souls of the saintly
and faithful people are deemed worthy to possess within, in the indwelling of
the inner man. It is written: “For we all with open face [that is to say, in
the inward man], reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed
into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Likewise:
“Moses for forty days and forty nights did not eat bread or drink water”
(Exodus 23:28). It is not possible that a natural body can live without bread so
long, unless he partook of some other spiritual bread. This bread even now the
saints invisibly partake by the power of the Holy Spirit. 11.
In a double way, therefore, the blessed Moses shows us what glory true
Christians will receive in the resurrection: namely, the glory of light and the
spiritual delights of the Spirit which even now they are deemed worthy to
possess interiorly. Because of this, these gifts of the Spirit will redound also
in their bodies then. The saints even now possess this glory in their souls, as
said above, but it will then cover and clothe their naked bodies. It will sweep
them up into Heaven and we will at last come to rest, both body and soul, with
the Lord forever. When
God created Adam, he did not furnish him with material wings as birds have, but
he prepared for him the wings of the Holy Spirit. The same he plans on giving
him at the resurrection, to lift him and direct him wherever the Spirit wishes.
These wings the saints already now are deemed worthy to possess to fly up
mentally to the realm of heavenly thoughts. For Christians live in another
world, eat from another table, are clothed differently, prefer different
enjoyment, different dialogue, and a different mentality. Because of this they
exceed all other men. This power already they are considered worthy to enjoy in
their souls through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, also in the resurrection their
bodies will be worthy to receive those eternal blessings of the Holy Spirit.
They will be permeated with that glory which their souls in this life have
already experienced. 12.
Therefore, each one of us should strive and make every effort to pursue
diligently all virtues. We ought to believe and seek from the Lord that the
inner man receive even now this glory and that we may participate in the
holiness of the Spirit so that, purged from all sordid traces of evil, we may
receive also in the resurrection what will clothe our bodies as they rise naked,
what will cover over any deformity, will vivify and transform them in the
heavenly kingdom forever. Christ will descend from Heaven and raise up all
generations of Adam that have fallen asleep from the beginning of time, as Holy
Scripture proves. And he will divide all into two parts. Those who bear his
particular sign, that is, the sign of the Spirit, he will call to himself as his
very own and place them at his right hand. He says: “My sheep hear my voice
and I know mine own and I am known by mine” (John 10:27, 14). Then shall their
bodies be surrounded with the divine glory because of their good works. They
themselves will be filled with the glory of the Spirit which in this life they
enjoyed in their souls. And thus, illumined by the divine light and caught up
into Heaven “to meet the Lord in the air (as is written), we shall be always
with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17), reigning with him forever and ever.
Amen.
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