On Prayer

Origen, tr. Oulton, 1954

It is not to be wondered at if to all alike who receive, so to speak, the bodies that …

¹ It is not to be wondered at if to all alike who receive, so to speak, the bodies that cause such shadows, a shadow like to it is not given, and to some no shadow is given at all.² Students of the problems connected with sun-dials³ and with the relation of the shadow to the luminous body are clearly aware of what happens according to latitude.⁴ For example, in some latitudes the gnomons give no shadow at a certain season, in others the shadow is short, so to speak, and in others again longer than in others. It is not strange, then, if the design of him who bestows pre-eminent gifts grants them in accordance with certain ineffable, mystic analogies to suit the recipients and the times when these pre-eminent gifts are made; sometimes no shadows at all follow for the recipients, sometimes there are shadows not of all the gifts, but of a few, sometimes they are smaller in comparison with the rest, sometimes larger accompany others. If a man who seeks the rays of the sun has this indispensable thing, he is neither rejoiced nor grieved by the presence or absence of bodily shadows, when having been enlightened he is either deprived of the shadow or has more or less of the shadow. So also, if spiritual things are present to us and we are being enlightened by God in the complete possession of what is truly good, we shall not waste words about the paltry thing which is the shadow. For all material and bodily things, of whatever kind they may be, have the value of an unsubstantial and feeble shadow, and can in no way be compared with the saving and holy gifts of the God of the universe. What sort of comparison can there be between bodily riches and the riches “in all utterance and in all”⁵ wisdom? Who that is not a madman would compare health of flesh and bones with a healthy mind and a robust soul and a balanced reason? When all these are duly ordered by a God-given reason, they cause bodily sufferings to become a trifling scratch, so to speak, and indeed, in my opinion, less than a scratch.

He who has perceived what the beauty of the Bride is, whom the Bridegroom,⁶ who is the Word of God, loves in the full bloom of the super-celestial and super-mundane beauty of the soul, will be ashamed to honour even with the same name of beauty the bodily beauty of woman or boy or man. Flesh does not contain beauty in the true sense of the word, seeing that all of it is shameful. For “all flesh is” as “grass,” and the “glory” of it, which appears in the so-called beauty of women and children, has been compared, according to the word of the prophet, to a “flower,” as follows: “All flesh is” as “grass, and all the glory of it is as the flower of grass: the grass withereth, and the flower falleth away: but the word of the Lord remaineth for ever.”⁷ Again, who would properly continue to use the term “noble birth” as it is commonly employed by men, once he has perceived the noble birth of the sons of God? When the mind has contemplated “a kingdom” of Christ “that cannot be shaken,”⁸⁹ it cannot but despise as of no worth or account every kingdom upon earth. When a man sees as clearly as he can (in so far as the human mind still imprisoned in the body is capable) the “host”¹⁰ of angels and the “commanders” among them “of the powers of the Lord,”¹¹ and archangels and “thrones” and “dominions” and “principalities” and “powers,”¹² and when he comprehends that he can attain to equal honour with them¹³ from the Father, it must needs follow that, even though he be feebler than a shadow, he will despise by comparison as utterly mean and of no account the things that foolish men set great store by, and, should he be offered all these things, he will disdain them, so that he may not fail to attain unto the true principalities and diviner powers. We must pray, therefore, we must pray concerning the pre-eminently and truly great and heavenly blessings; and as concerning the shadows that accompany these pre-eminent blessings we must commit this matter to God, who “knows before” we “ask him what things” we “have need of”¹⁴ for the perishable body.

Notes

XVII, 1. This chapter is an example of the imperfect arrangement, due no doubt to its hasty composition, that is to be found here and there in the De Oratione. Obviously it ought to follow XVI, 2, immediately. In that section, q.v., Origen speaks of the “shadows,” i.e., earthly blessings, which accompany, as a natural consequence, spiritual blessings. He now qualifies this statement. Just as in some latitudes and at some times the gnomon of the sun-dial gives no shadow, or a greater or less shadow, so God’s spiritual gifts are sometimes accompanied by no earthly blessings or only to a more or less degree. This will cause the spiritually minded man no real concern. He who rejoices in the sunlight will pay no attention to the presence or absence of a shadow on the dial; neither should we, in the presence of God’s spiritual gifts, take thought concerning material blessings, whether they be given or not.
So Bentley emends.
XVII, 1. problems connected with sun-dials] Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist., II, (72) 74–(76) 78, where the variations, according to latitude, of shadows on the sun-dial are discussed.
Reading κλίματα for σώματα.
I Cor. 1:5.
Cf. John 3:29.
Isa. 40:6–8.
Heb. 12:28.
XVII, 2. “a kingdom” of Christ “that cannot be shaken”] Cf. Heb. 12:28. An emendation of Bentley. T reads “a kingdom of Christ of those who reign,” which has been emended to “a kingdom of Christ, king of those who reign” (Klostermann), with reference to I Tim. 6:15, and “a kingdom of Christ who reigns” (Anonymous).
Luke 2:13.
Josh. 5:14.
Col. 1:16.
Luke 20:36.
Matt. 6:8.