Friday 21 March 2014

Lent 2nd Week Life of Moses by St Gregory of Nyssa

   Patristic Lectionary,    
   Midday
We enjoy Bright sunshine and windy nights.
Beautiful views in all directions.
The Japanese Lilac tree is radiant in full bloom, especially from my refectory window.             















Friday of the Second Week in Lent Year II

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF EXODUS

(Promise of the covenant and appearance of the Lord on Sinai: Exodus 19:1-19; 20:1 2nd Week 8-21)
On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone forth out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. And when they set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, they encamped in the wilderness; and there Israel encamped before the mountain. And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” ...........
                Responsory        Ex 19:5-6; 1 Pt 2:9
If you do what I tell you and keep my covenant, out of all the nations you will be my own possession, dearer to me than any other people. + You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation.
V. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people God has claimed as his own. + You shall be ...

A reading from the Life of Moses by St Gregory of Nyssa
2.162-66 (SC 1, 80-82)
At first God appeared to Moses in light but later, on Mount Sinai,
he appeared in da
rkness
 The Life of Moses was written sometime between 890 and 392. Gregory teaches that the divine essence is unviable. The true knowledge and the true vision of God consists in realizing this. At first God appeared to Moses in light but later, on Mount Sinai, he appeared in darkness.

Moses entered into the darkness and there he saw God. What does this signify? This present account seems in a way to contradict that of the first theophany. Then God appeared in light, but now he appears in darkness. Yet we must not imagine this to be at variance with our normal experience of spiritual contemplation. By this statement the text teaches us that religious knowledge is first experienced as light. All that is seen to be opposed to religion is darkness, and darkness vanishes when we receive the light. But the more the mind advances and by ever increasing and more perfect application attains an intellectual comprehension of realities and approaches contemplation, the more clearly it sees that the divine nature is invisible. Having left behind all appearances, not only those perceived by the senses but also those the intellect seems to see, it plunges ever deeper within itself, until by spiritual effort it penetrates to the invisible and the unknowable, and there it sees God.

This is the true knowledge of what is sought; this is the seeing that consists in not seeing, because that which is sought transcends all knowledge, being separated on all sides by incomprehensibility as by a kind of darkness. This is why John the contemplative, who had penetrated this luminous darkness, said that no one had ever seen God, declaring by this negation that the divine essence is beyond the reach not only of men but of every rational nature as well.
And so, when Moses had advanced in knowledge he declared that he saw God in the darkness, or in other words that he recognized that the Divinity is essentially that which transcends all knowledge and which no mind can apprehend. The text says: Moses entered into the darkness where God was. What God? He who has made the darkness his covering, as David declared, who had himself been initiated into the divine mysteries in that same sanctuary.

When Moses arrived there, he was taught by word what he had formerly learned from darkness, so that, I think, the doctrine on this matter may be made more firm for us by the witness of the divine voice. The divine word at the beginning forbade that the Divine be likened to any of the things known by men, since every concept which comes from some comprehensible image constitutes an idol of God and does not proclaim God.

Responsory        In 4:23-24
Those who worship the Father must worship him in spirit and in truth. +The Father seeks such worshipers as these.
V. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit
and truth. + The Father seeks ...

St Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses, 2.162-66 (SC 1, 80-82); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

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