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On the Lord’s Prayer

St Gregory of Nyssa, tr. Graef, 1954

1. The Beatitudes: Sermon 1

And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain. And when He was set down, His disciples came unto Him. And opening His mouth, He taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven

Who among those present is a disciple of the Word, and sufficiently so to ascend with Him from the low ground—from superficial and ignoble thoughts to the spiritual mountain of sublime contemplation? This mountain leaves behind all shadows cast by the rising hills of wickedness; on the contrary, it is lit up on all sides by the rays of the true light, and from its summit all things that remain invisible to those imprisoned in the cave¹ may be seen in the pure air of truth. Now the Word of God Himself, who calls blessed those who have ascended with Him, specifies the nature and number of the things that are contemplated from this height. He points them out, as it were, with His finger; here the Kingdom of Heaven, there the inheritance of the earth that is above, then mercy, justice, consolation, kinship with the God of all creation, and the fruit of persecution, that is, to become a friend of God. And whatever other things there may be visible, the Word points them out with His finger from the summit of the mountain, so that hope may contemplate them from the height of the peak.

Since, then, the Lord ascends the mountain, let us listen to Isaias who cries: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.² If we are weak through sin, let our feeble hands and weak knees be strengthened, as the Prophet instructs us.³ For when we have reached the summit, we shall find Him who heals all illness and languor, who takes up our infirmities and bears our diseases.⁴ Let us therefore ascend quickly, so that we may be established with Isaias on the summit of hope and see from this vantage point the good things that the Word shows to those who follow Him to the heights. May God the Word open His mouth also for us, and teach us those things which to hear is bliss. May the beginning of the teaching He pronounces become to us the beginning of contemplation.

Blessed, He says, are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Supposing an avaricious man chanced upon a document supplying information of the place of a treasure, but its position was such that it would involve much sweat and labour for anyone wanting to obtain it. Do you think such a man would be discouraged by the difficulties and slow to take his advantage? Would he think the absence of the fatigue his eagerness might bring him, more pleasant than riches? Surely not. But he would summon all his friends to aid him in this enterprise; he would collect the help of a crowd of people from wherever possible, and thus make the hidden treasure his own. This is the treasure, brethren, which the document indicates; but the wealth is hidden in obscurity. Therefore let us, too, who desire the pure gold, use a multitude of hands, that is to say, prayers, so that the treasure may be brought to light, that all may divide it equally, and each may possess it whole. For the distribution of virtue is such that it is shared out to all who seek after it, and yet is wholly present to each, without being diminished by those who share in it. It is true, in the distribution of earthly wealth the man who puts by for himself more than his due, wrongs those who ought to have an equal share with him; for by increasing his own one certainly diminishes the part of the person with whom one shares. Spiritual wealth, on the contrary, does the same as the sun, which communicates itself to all who seek it and is wholly present to each one of them. Since, therefore, every man hopes for the same reward of his labour, let us all co-operate by prayer to obtain what we seek.

Now I say that one must first consider what exactly is beatitude. Beatitude, in my opinion, is a possession of all things held to be good, from which nothing is absent that a good desire may want. Perhaps the meaning of beatitude may become clearer to us if it is compared with its opposite. Now the opposite of beatitude is misery. Misery means being afflicted unwillingly with painful sufferings. The condition of either is therefore diametrically opposed to the other. For it is natural that the man who is called blessed should thoroughly relish the things that are set before him for his enjoyment; whereas it behoves the man who is deemed unhappy to be sorely grieved by his present condition. Now the one thing truly blessed is the Divinity Itself. Whatever else we may suppose It to be, this pure life, the ineffable and incomprehensible good, is beatitude. It is beatitude, this inexpressible beauty which is very grace, wisdom, and power; this true light that is the fount of all goodness, mighty above all else; the one thing lovable which is always the same, rejoicing without end in infinite happiness. Even if one has said about It all one can, yet one has said nothing worthy of It. For the mind cannot reach that which IS; even if we continue to think ever more sublime thoughts about It, yet no word can express what is meant.

But as He who fashioned man made him in the image of God; in a derived sense that which is called by this name should also be held blessed, inasmuch as he participates in the true beatitude. For as in the matter of physical beauty the original comeliness is in the actually living face, whereas the second place is held by its reflection shown in a picture; so also human nature, which is the image of the transcendent beatitude, is itself marked by the beauty of goodness, when it reflects in itself the blessed features. But since the filth of sin has disfigured the beauty of the image, He came to wash us with His own water, the living water that springs up unto eternal life. And so, when we have put off the shame of sin, we shall be restored once more to the blessed form.⁵

Now an expert painter could tell the ignorant that a face, to be beautiful, must be composed of certain physical features. It must have such and such hair, such and such eyes, a certain shape of eyebrows and form of cheeks, in a word, every detail through which beauty becomes perfect. Thus also He who paints our soul in the likeness of the only Blessed One, describes in words all that produces beatitude; and He says first: Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

But what benefit can we reap from this munificence, if we have not the meaning of the words explained to us? In the medical science, too, many precious and laboriously discovered medicines are quite unprofitable to those who do not know them, until we learn the use of each of them from that science. What, then, is this poverty of spirit through which we come to possess the Kingdom of Heaven? We know from Scripture that there are two kinds of riches, the one to be desired, the other condemned. The riches of virtue are to be pursued, but material wealth is rejected; for the one is gain to the soul, whereas the other is apt to deceive the senses. Therefore the Lord forbids laying up the latter, because it serves only as food for moths and attracts the wiles of burglars.⁶ But He commands us to be zealous for spiritual wealth, which the power of corruption does not touch. By mentioning moths and thieves, He showed what destroys the treasures of the soul. Now if poverty is opposed to wealth, one must by way of analogy also teach a twofold poverty, the one to be rejected, the other to be considered blessed. If a person is poor in temperance, in the precious asset of justice, in wisdom or prudence; or if he is found completely lacking in any other of such great treasures, he is most wretched and pitiable, because he is poor in the things of true value. On the other hand, if a man is voluntarily poor in all that has to do with wickedness, if he has no diabolical treasures hidden in his inner chamber, but is fervent in spirit, he lays up for himself the treasure of poverty in evil. He is the man whom the Word presents as enjoying that poverty which is called blessed, whose fruit is the Kingdom of Heaven.

But let us once more get back to this business of the treasure, let us not weary of letting the probing word bring to light what is hidden. Blessed, He says, are the poor in spirit. This has in some way also been said before, and will now be said again, that the end of the life of virtue is to become like to God.⁷ Yet man can by no means whatever imitate the purity that is without passion. For it is simply impossible that the life that is enmeshed in passions should become like the Nature that is impervious to passions. If, therefore, as the Apostle says,⁸ the Divine alone is blessed, and man shares in this blessedness through the likeness with God, but if, on the other hand, it is impossible to imitate God, then beatitude is out of the reach of human life.

There are, however, things belonging to the Godhead which are set up for the imitation of those who wish. Now what are these? It seems to me that by poverty of spirit the Word understands voluntary humility. As an example of this the Apostle adduces the poverty of God when he says: Who for us became poor, being rich, that we through His poverty might be rich.⁹ Now everything else that is being contemplated in the Divine Nature surpasses the limits of human nature; but humility is connatural and as it were a brother to us who walk on the ground, who are composed of earth and again dissolve into earth. If, therefore, you imitate God in what is possible to your nature, you will yourself have put on the blessed form.

But let no one imagine that humility can be achieved easily and without labour. On the contrary, it needs more effort than the practice of any other virtue. Why? Though man had received good seeds, the chief of the opposite seeds—the tares of pride—sown by the enemy of our life, took root while he was asleep. For the same thing by which the devil had caused his own downfall to earth, caused the miserable human race to fling itself down with him into the common ruin; and there is no other evil so harmful to our nature as that which is caused by pride.

Since, therefore, the vice of arrogance is ingrained in almost everyone who shares the human nature, the Lord begins the Beatitudes with this. He removes pride, the root evil, from our character by counselling us to imitate Him who became poor of His own will, who is the truly Blessed One. In this way we may, as far as we are able, become like Him by being poor of our own free will, and so be also drawn to share His Beatitude. For, as is said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.¹⁰ What greater poverty is there for God than the form of a servant? What more humble for the King of creation than to share in our poor nature? The Ruler of rulers, the Lord of lords puts on voluntarily the garb of servitude. The Judge of all things becomes a subject of governors; the Lord of creation dwells in a cave; He who holds the universe in His hands finds no place in the inn, but is cast aside into the manger of irrational beasts.¹¹ The perfectly Pure accepts the filth of human nature, and after going through all our poverty passes on to the experience of death. Look at the standard by which to measure voluntary poverty! Life tastes death; the Judge is brought to judgement; the Lord of the life of all creatures is sentenced by the judge; the King of all heavenly powers does not push aside the hands of the executioners. Take this, He says, as an example by which to measure your humility.

But perhaps it may be as well to examine also the absurdity of the contrary vice, so that the beatitude may become effective in us, when humility is established with perfect ease. For as medical experts master a disease more easily by first removing its cause, so we, too, will make the way of humility easier to walk in by first checking the vanity of conceited men through the use of arguments.

How can one best show the emptiness of pride? How, indeed, but by showing nature as it is? For if a man looks at himself rather than at the things around him, he cannot easily fall into such a fault. What, then, is man? Do you wish me to do him honour by giving a rather noble definition? But even if one would flatter our condition and greatly vaunt the human nobility, he will have to trace the pedigree of our nature to clay, and so the high dignity of the proud is related to bricks. But if you should intend to mention the things connected with generation—beware, do not speak nor even whisper about it. Do not, as the Law says,¹² uncover the shame of your father and mother; do not make public what ought to be forgotten and buried in deep silence. Then you will not have to blush, you image of earth that will soon be dust, though you are filled with short-lived conceit like a bubble, and your swollen head is full of pride and burning with vanity on account of your silly ideas. Do you not look at both ends of man’s life, where it begins, and how it ends? No, you pride yourself on your youth, you look at the prime of your age and are pleased with your handsome appearance, because your hands can move quickly and your feet are nimble, because your curls are blown about by the breeze and your cheeks show the first signs of a beard. You are proud because your clothes are dyed in brilliant purple and you have silk robes embroidered with scenes from war or hunting or history. Perhaps you also look at your carefully blackened sandals delightfully adorned with elaborate needlework patterns. At these things you look—but at yourself you will not look? Let me show you as in a mirror who and what sort of a person you are.

Have you never gazed at the mysteries of our nature in a common burial ground? Have you not seen the heaps of bones one on top of the other? Skulls denuded of flesh, fearful and ugly to look at with their empty sockets? Have you not seen their grinning jaws and the other limbs, strewn about at random? If you have seen these things, you have seen yourself. Where will then be today’s blooming youth? Where the lovely colour of your cheeks, the fresh lips, the fine brilliance of the eyes flashing under the circle of their brows? What will then have become of the straight nose beautifully set between the cheeks? What of the hair falling down to the neck, and the curls round the temples? Where will be the hands skilled with the bow, the feet controlling the horses? The purple and fine linen, the mantle, the girdle and the sandals? The neighing horses with their race-course? What will have become of all the things that now feed your conceit? Where, in these bones, are all these things about which you are now so greatly puffed up? What dream is so fleeting? What are these hallucinations? What shadow eluding touch is as unsubstantial as the dream of youth that vanishes the moment it appears?

These things I say to those who are foolish in their youth because they are lacking in years. But what shall we say about the middle-aged, who are, indeed, settled in years, but whose moral life is unsettled, and whose pride is a growing disease, though they call this moral cancer highmindedness? The foundation of this pride is usually high office and the power that goes with it. For they are affected by it either in the office itself, or whilst preparing for it; even talking about it will often fan the latent disease. But what words could penetrate their hearing which is already filled with the voice of the heralds? Who shall convince people in such a frame of mind that they are just like actors parading on the stage? For these, too, don a delicately polished mask and a gold-embroidered purple robe, and proceed solemnly in a chariot. Nevertheless the disease of pride does not invade them on account of this. But their frame of mind remains at the procession the same as it was before they appeared on the stage; and later they are not sorry to have to descend from the chariot and to discard their dignity.

Yet those whose office causes them to parade on the stage of life consider neither the past nor the future, but are blown up by conceit like bubbles. So the loud voice of the herald causes them to swell; they mould themselves another kind of face, changing completely the features of their natural face into something grim and awe-inspiring. They adopt a harsher voice which is transposed into a fiercer key to frighten their hearers. They remain no longer within human limits, but intrude themselves into the authority of Divine power. For they imagine themselves master over life and death, because, having to judge men, they bestow on some the sentence of acquittal, while condemning others to death. And they do not even realize who is the true Master of human life, who determines the beginning as well as the end of existence. Yet this alone should be sufficient to check conceit, to see so many magistrates on the very stage of their office snatched away from their bench and carried out to their graves, where the place of the herald’s voice is taken by the dirge.

How then can a man be master of another’s life, if he is not even master of his own? Hence he ought to be poor in spirit, and look at Him who for our sake became poor of His own will; let him consider that we are all equal by nature, and not exalt himself impertinently against his own race on account of that deceptive show of office, but, being truly blessed, he will gain the Kingdom of Heaven in exchange for humility in this transitory life.

Nor should you, my dear brethren, disregard the other interpretation of poverty which begets the riches of Heaven. Sell, He says, all thy possessions and give to the poor, and come follow me, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven.¹³ It seems to me that this kind of poverty does not differ from the one that is called blessed. Behold, we have left all we had and followed Thee, says the disciple to the Master, what therefore shall we have? And what is the answer? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.¹⁴ Would you like to know who it is that is poor in spirit? He who is given the riches of the soul in exchange for material wealth, who is poor for the sake of the spirit. He has shaken off earthly riches like a burden so that he may be lightly lifted into the air and be borne upwards, as says the Apostle, in the cloud walking on high together with God.¹⁵

Gold is a heavy thing, and heavy is every kind of matter that is sought after for the sake of wealth—but virtue is light and bears souls upwards. Truly these two, heaviness and lightness, are opposed to each other. Therefore, if a man has attached himself to the heaviness of matter, it is impossible for him to become light. Since, then, we ought to tend to the things above, let us become poor in the things that drag us down, so that we may sojourn in the upper regions. The Psalms show us the way: He hath distributed, he hath given to the poor, his justice remaineth for ever and ever.¹⁶ The man who gives to the poor will take his share in Him who became poor for our sake. The Lord became poor, so be not afraid of poverty. But He who became poor for us reigns over all creation. Therefore, if you become poor because He became poor, you will also reign because He is reigning. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven, of which may we also be made worthy in Christ Jesus Our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

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