A New Word about Saint Gregory Palamas

Exclusive. Today is the Second Sunday of Lent. Especially during Lent, the Church teaches us more about what it means to be an Orthodox Christian. Last Sunday we remembered decision of the 7th Ecumenical Council— understanding that we can depict God in material form because our God entered into creation, becoming humanToday we commemorate Saint Gregory Palamas, known as a theologian of Hesychasm, the mystical tradition of experiential prayer in the Orthodox Church.

The feast of Saint Gregory Palamas this Sunday is the second the triumph of Orthodoxy. The first day of his memory as a canonized saint was established less than 10 years after the repose of Saint Gregory in the Lord. Since then, he has been venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church. Although the Roman Catholic Church recognizes him as a saint, but unofficially. The second Sunday of Great Lent in those Churches that honor his memory according to the Byzantine rite is called Gregory Palamas Sunday. Some of his works are collected in the Philokalia, a book highly valued in the Orthodox Church.

This is a remarkable fact. It has something to say to us. It says that our fathers recognized something so important and essential in the life and teaching of Saint Gregory that they did not hesitate to give it public veneration and to sing his praises in sacred hymns, even while he was still alive. This feast is much greater than the personal holiness of Saint Gregory. It is about him being the “pillar of Orthodoxy.” Therefore, this Sunday is the second Sunday of Orthodoxy. And this Sunday is even more important than the first, because the teaching of Saint Gregory gives us the key to discovering for ourselves all the richness of our holy Tradition.

Okay, let’s start with some basic facts about Saint Gregory: he was born in 1296 and entered the monastic life at the age of 20. However, Saint Gregory was not just a monk; he had to leave Mount Athos during the Turkish raids. He settled in Thessaloniki and was ordained a priest. So now he is in the world. During the week he lived as a monk, working on spiritual perfection, but on weekends he returned to the community and served – liturgically through the sacraments and personally to his flock. He later demonstrated that being a monk (practicing prayer) is not incompatible with being in communion with others and being in the world. He brought the practice of constant prayer to people outside the monastery. He also realized that his own spiritual life was enhanced by the benefits of communion with people. He recognized that we can have a relationship with God both through communal life and through personal practice.

Three years before his death, Saint Gregory performed many miracles, healing the sick. Before his last day, Saint John Chrysostom appeared to him in a vision. With the words “To the heights! To the heights!” Saint Gregory Palamas reposed in the Lord on November 14, 1359. In 1368, he was canonized at the Council of Constantinople under the leadership of Patriarch Philotheus, who composed the Life and Services of the Saint.

In general, church historians note that Saint Gregory Palamas played an important role in defending the practice of the Hesychasts (practicing prayer) by more fully articulating the distinction between the energies and the essence of God. While we can never know God in God's essence, Gregory explained that man can become more like God by experiencing God's "energy."

God, as an uncreated being, is different from us. He is different in ways we cannot even comprehend, and yet His presence is powerfully felt in Creation. Moreover, our theology claims that we are actually created to become gods, that we are called to cross the great divide between created and uncreated and become by grace what He is by nature? How is this even possible?

St. Gregory Palamas comes to the rescue and explains this. That is why he has been given a place of remembrance on the second Sunday of Lent, which is today. He comes with the bold revelation that God is unknowable in His essence, His inner core, yet He is accessible through His divine energies… I probably lost you right here.

So, let me put it in terms that are easier for you to understand. I will use the coronavirus as an example, of course not a perfect one. With the naked eye (forget about microscopes for a moment), no one has ever seen a coronavirus. It is simply too small. In fact, in ancient times, when infectious diseases such as plague, leprosy, rubella, etc. struck, people did not even suspect that these diseases came from such tiny organisms. However, what was very clear then and now, in these times of coronavirus, is the impact that the virus has on us. So, while we cannot know the essence, the true nature of the coronavirus disease, we can clearly see what it does, all the harmful effects that it has: the physical symptoms, the deaths, the panic, the economic consequences, right down to the shortage of toilet paper. Everything is clearly visible and felt by everyone.

It is the same with God: He is unknown in His essence, which is known only to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but He becomes known through His works in the world: that

St. Gregory calls it “divine energies.” The way to communicate with God, to overcome the gap, is to participate in His energy, to become His collaborator. This is achieved through the work of asceticism, which we try to work on during Lent, but first and foremost it is achieved through prayer. This is what we do now, here, this is what people who are sick or at risk do at home, also now. By praying, we give ourselves to God, and He in return comes and lives in us, opening the door to knowing Him; not through books and logic, but through direct and personal contact. This brings enlightenment to the mind and opens the way to understanding the holy wisdom of God, Hagia Sophia. Through prayer, the enlightened mind becomes such that if you want a microscope that can give us an idea of ​​Who God really is – you get it.

This experience of contemplating God is life-changing. The enlightened person gains new paths from a new understanding of creation and begins a truly new life. “Again, I feel like I lost you for a moment. Let’s try this instead: It’s hard to understand what people in China or Italy are doing right now, we can understand more by reading the news, watching some videos, etc., but when your own children’s school is closed, when your church cancels all social events or evening services, when your Kroger runs out of essentials, when, God forbid, you or someone in your family gets sick, then you understand. This knowledge, this enlightening experience will make you more understanding, more patient, more compassionate, more caring. Now you know, now you have your own experience of fighting the coronavirus and you can be a bright beacon to those who are still in the dark.”

Imagine this with God, imagine yourself illuminated by uncreated light, experiencing the bosom of God’s boundless love. This is the experience of God’s presence in our lives. It can be yours. The saints experienced this and left us the story of their lives. Let us be moved by them and run to God in prayer. Only prayer will provide true communion with Him and through Him with all Creation. So if you are here with us, whether at home or in the hospital, pray, pray unceasingly, know God intentionally, intimately, personally, and all the worries and challenges of this life will make sense, because now you have a mind illuminated by the uncreated light of God.

Why is this so important? Why is this important? Because this activity holds the key to everything else in Christianity – to the Liturgy, to the Scriptures, to the dogmas, to spiritual fatherhood, to personal prayer, repentance, and salvation. All of these things will remain fundamentally foreign to us until we find our heart and make every effort to keep our minds steadfastly there.

Without Hesychasm, the Triumph of Orthodoxy is simply a pious charade, because the Faith has not triumphed in our hearts. Now we understand why the Fathers of the 14th century were so quick to canonize St. Gregory and his teachings. It is because they understood that the preservation of a living, active, and effective knowledge of God was at stake. They knew firsthand what would secure our salvation.

St. Gregory Palamas takes us back to the early fathers, who simply taught that Christ became man so that men could become gods. By this we do not mean the New Age nonsense of men becoming God and usurping His power and Being, since God surpasses all that we can be; rather, we mean that through the ascetic struggle to transform ourselves, becoming a special people, separate from the world, we take on the features of Christ and become, as the Scriptures tell us, “partakers of the divine nature,” or, to translate the original Greek into idiomatic English, “partakers of the divine nature.” God remains what He is when we unite with Him, but we become what we are not, but what we were created to be: Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ, as St. Maximus the Confessor writes, sons of gods in the Son of God. And again, we achieve this through humility, through the death of the ego, through fasting, through the taking of Christian names, through a life centered on the Eucharist and dedicated to purity and love for God. This is not something we claim, like the deceptive New Ageists, but it is something we achieve and are achieving through ascetic struggle in synergy with the Grace of God.

Indeed, the goal of the Christian life is to to become one with God,even in this life, and to conquer and overcome our sexual passions, our greed, our envy, our jealousy and sin itself, remaining always subject to sin and, through our closeness to God, even more aware of our sinfulness; but, despite this, remaining resistant to sinful actions. Our union with God, which begins in this life, transforms our flesh, as we see in the relics of the saints, which give off a pleasant aroma and often do not spoil, and transforms the world around us. This enlightenment is salvation, and the transformation of the world at the Parousia, the Second Coming, will partly express the power that comes from those who have been transformed in Christ and who have overcome and gone beyond this world of sin.

Are you devoid of good works and clear signs of steadfast virtue? Are you drowning in despair because of your passions and constant falls into sin? Do you see yourself killed by anger, lust, and pride? Do not give up!

Christ, if we truly repent, forgives more than seventy times seven during the day, if we humbly acknowledge our wrongdoing, confess our weakness, beg Him for help and do not give up. He does not judge us as people do, by our outward appearance, but He takes into account everything: our strengths and weaknesses, our upbringing, our upbringing in virtue or our upbringing in evil, our sorrow, our dissatisfaction with our failures, our tears, even the smallest sighs and groans, even the simple form of words of repentance. He looks at our inclination. If we always try to reorient ourselves to Him, He will condemn us as those who sought to love Him, even if we have not become perfectly pure. As the Fathers say, it is not possible for everyone to achieve dispassion in this life, but it is possible for everyone to be saved.

Have we fallen? Let us now return. Have we sinned? Let us ask God for forgiveness in prayer with the simple words of a child. Have we offended others? Let us seek to make peace and to renew the bonds of affection through courageous humility. Have we drowned in the pleasures of the flesh? Let us implore the Holy Spirit, Who dwells within us, to grant us only a taste of conscious participation in His deep and imperishable joy, that we may flee from the worst and strive for the best. Do we love material riches and senseless amusements and often forget God? Let us now say: “O Christ, let me know that You—O infinite Source of all fulfillment, joy, sweetness, and life—are always with me and in me!”

Do we run after the attention and glory of others and are struck with envy, anger and sadness when deprived of them? Let us beg Christ to open our minds to see that He alone—both God and Man—is the One Whom we should seek to please, to love, and from whom to seek glory. Are we overly occupied with the work and production of our own hands or intellect? Let us then beg Christ to grant us to sacrifice all our labors to glorify Him, to teach others, and to benefit our souls. Do we love food and drink too much? Let us beg Christ for temperance, that we may—with unclouded mind and lightness of body—be in unceasing prayer to Him, and receive from Him all His earthly and heavenly gifts and joys as the sacred door to a constant remembrance. and gratitude to Him.

Let us awake from sleep. Let us arise from idleness, idle distraction, selfish motives, hatred, envy, petty jealousies, misunderstandings, suspicious interpretations of the actions and words of others, offensive and easily wounded pride, ambitious comparison of ourselves with others, disputes, quarrels and love of vanity, materialism and sensuality. Let us always beseech Christ: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us! Since we, sinners, have no defense, we, sinners, pray To you as the Master: Have mercy on us!

Let us pray simply, humbly, and constantly, becoming little children who are constantly dependent on their Father for everything. When we suffer, let us cry out: “Lord, help me!” When we sin, let us groan: “Forgive me, Lord!” When we enjoy life and its gifts, let us exclaim: “Thank you, Lord!” When we find ourselves at peace in soul and free from the annoyance of evil thoughts and passions, let us say: “Glory to you, God!” When we are in need, let us pray: “Guide me, Lord!” Before beginning any work or undertaking, let us say: "God, bless!"

As Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh once wrote, when we recall the name of Saint Gregory Palamas, one of the great saints of Orthodoxy, who, “against heresy and doubt, proclaimed, based on the experience of ascetics and all believers, proclaiming that the grace of God is not a created Gift – it is God Himself who communicates Himself to us, so that we may be permeated by His presence, so that we may gradually, if only we accept Him, open ourselves to Him, to become transparent or at least translucent to His light, so that we may at first and increasingly become partakers of the Divine nature. This is not just a promise; it is a certainty that we have because this has happened to thousands and thousands of those men and women whom we honor as saints of God: they have become partakers of the Divine nature, they are for us a revelation and certainty of who we are called to be and who we have become.”

And that is why Saint Gregory Palamas is for us not only a defender of theology against heresies, but also a living witness to the mystery of theosis, to which every Christian is called. He reminds us that light Transfiguration on Mount Tabor was not symbolic or metaphorical, but a true manifestation of God's energy that sanctifies those who open their hearts to God.

This light, which the saints saw, which was revealed to the apostles, is an incorruptible and eternal light. And this grace of God is not something external, created or alien to man, but is God Himself, Who descends to us and deifies us. Gregory Palamas, with his life and theology, confirmed the truth that through purification of the heart, repentance and prayer, every Christian can become a partaker of this grace.

Saint Gregory not only defended the hesychastic teaching, but also personally lived it. He showed that union with God is not just an idea or a theory, but a real experience, to which Christ calls: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matt. 5:8). He emphasized that true prayer is not just words, but an encounter with the living God, who transforms man and makes him a temple of the Holy Spirit.

The light that Gregory Palamas testified to not only illuminates the soul, but also transforms the whole life of a person. It is the light of love, humility, and truth, which shows us the way to salvation. It leaves no room for the darkness of despair, for even in our greatest weakness and fall, God extends a helping hand to those who humbly seek Him.

Today, in an era of turmoil, uncertainty, and temptation, we are called to revive within ourselves this hesychastic wisdom that Gregory Palamas taught. He teaches us that silence of the heart and unceasing prayer are not an escape from the world, but the path to true victory over sin and suffering. This is the path that leads to the peace that the world cannot give, to the joy that cannot be taken away, and to life in God that has no end.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, may Saint Gregory become for us not only a teacher of faith, but also a prayerful intercessor before the Lord. May his teachings inspire us in our spiritual struggle, so that we too may in our lives, through repentance, prayer, and works of love, become partakers of the Divine light and share the glory of Christ's Kingdom. Amen.

Hieromonk Theophanes of Polotsk (Skorobogatov).