Most men believe in the resurrection of Christ, but very few have a clear vision of it... The most sacred formula which is daily on our lips does not say, "Having believed in Christ's resurrection," but, "Having beheld Christ's resurrection, let us worship the Holy One, the Lord Jesus, who alone is without sin." How then does does the Holy Spirit urge us to say, "Having beheld Christ's resurrection," which we have not seen, as though we had seen it, when Christ has risen once for all a thousand years ago, and even then without anybody's seeing it?... {In fact} the resurrection of Christ takes place in each of us who believes, and that not once, but every hour, so to speak, when Christ the Master arises in us, resplendent in array (cf. Ps. 93:1) and flashing with the lightnings of incorruption and Deity. For the light-bringing coming of the Spirit shows forth to us, as in early morning, the Master's resurrection, or, rather, it grants us to see the Risen One Himself. Therefore we say, "The Lord is God, and He has given us light" (Ps. 118:27)... Those to whom Christ has given light as He has risen, to them He has appeared spiritually, He has been shown to their spiritual eyes. When this happens to us through the Spirit He raises us up from the dead and gives us life. He grants us to see Him, who is immortal and indestructible. More than that, He grants clearly to know Him who raises us up (cf. Eph. 2:6) and glorifies us (Rom. 8:17) with Himself, as all the divine Scripture testifies.
("Symeon the New Theologian: The Discourses", pp. 182-184)
We have thus demonstrated that, just as God is unconfusedly and indivisibly worshipped in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so in turn does man, without confusion or division, become in God a god by grace in both his soul and body. The body is not changed into soul, nor the soul transformed into divinity, nor is God confused with the soul, but God remains what He is as God, and the soul what it is by nature, and the body such as it was fashioned, of clay... {However God} unites Himself unconfusedly with both of these {i.e. body and soul}, and I myself am in His image and likeness... Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the one God Whom we worship. Body, soul, and God are the man who is created according to the image of God and made worthy of becoming god.
("On the Mystical Life (Vol. 2)", pp. 69-70)
From the Spirit who renews him he obtains new eyes as well as new ears. From henceforth unlike an [ordinary] man, he does not see the objects of sense with physical vision; he sees them spiritually as one who has become superhuman, and sees them as images of things invisible, and their forms are to him formless and shapeless. One might say that he no longer hears any human voice or voices, but only the voice of the Living Word whenever it speaks through a human voice. By its hearing the soul admits Him and no other, and permits Him to enter because he is well known and loved; it gladly welcomes Him when He has entered, even as the Lord said, "My sheep hear My voice (Jn. 10:27), but they do not hear the voice of strangers" (Jn. 10:5). As for other men, though he hears all their words he does not accept them within. He does not at all permit them to enter but turns away from them and sends them away. Sometimes he does not even notice their presence or their knocking for admission, but even though he hears them he is as one who is deaf and hears not. This is his attitude toward them!
("Symeon the New Theologian: The Discourses", pp. 189-190)
Such a man sees God as far as it is possible for a human being to see Him, and to the extent that it pleases God that he should. He is anxious constantly to behold Him and prays that he may see Him forever after death. He is content to enjoy nothing else but the vision of God and asks for nothing else. So he does not want to forsake his Master and his God, who fills him with light and from whom he has the enjoyment of the unending life, and instead turns his attention to his fellow-servants. Such a man on whom God looks, or whom He illuminates from above, himself contemplates God's exceeding glory. It is impossible for others to see what he is, or what is the glory in which he finds himself, nor can he understand it. Every holy soul is set free from all vainglory, since it is clothed with the royal garment, the most radiant vesture of the Spirit, and is filled with God's superabundant glory (cf. 2 Cor. 3:10). Not only does it disregard the glory of men, but even it is honored by them it pays no attention to it. Since God sees the soul and it in turn sees Him, it will in no way ever desire to look on another man or be looked on by him.
("Symeon the New Theologian: The Discourses", p. 191)
Having been made rich with Him, they shall see invisibly the inexpressible beauty of God Himself. They shall hold Him without touching. They shall comprehend incomprehensibly His imageless image, His formless form, His shape without shape which, in sight without seeing and in beatuy uncompounded, is ever varied and unchanging.
What is it that, comprehending, they will see? The simple light of divinity, this is what they will see richly with the eyes of their intellect; this what they will also handle, drawn by irresistible love, with immaterial hands; what they will eat without consuming with the spiritual mouth of their intellect and soul. They will never have enough, never be satiated with the contemplation of that beauty, of that sweetness. For, stranger still, the light which wells up in them is always increasing in sweetness and kindling their desire ever the more greatly. And, yet more, if ever it should not appear to them the more piercingly so as to leave them deprived of the whole, or if though it be but for a little while, it should wish to disappear completely, then it produces in them the sharp and unbearable pain of ineffable longing.
("On the Mystical Life (Vol. 2)", p. 39)
{While beholding the glory of Christ in an ecstatic vision, Symeon converses with Christ:}
Furthermore, as I was struck with amazement and my soul was all spent, and my strength completely gone, I answered, "... what have I, wretched and miserable man, done, O Master, that Thou shouldest consider me worthy of such blessings and make me a partaker and fellow-heir of such glory?" I thought that this glory and this joy were beyond understanding; then Thou again, the Master, didst speak as a friend conversing with his friend, and didst say to me through Thy Spirit, which spoke in me (cf. Mt. 10:20), "I have given you these things, and will continue to give them, solely for your intention, your will, and your faith. Whatever else have you ever had as your own? I brought you into the world naked (cf. Job 1:21) -- for what could I have given you in exchange for these things?..."
After these words Thou wast silent. Bit by bit, O sweet and good Master, Thou wast hidden from my eyes; whether I moved away from Thee or Thou didst depart from me, I know not. Again I returned wholly into myself, whence I thought I had come out, and entered into my former dwelling [i.e., the body].
At the memory of the beauty of Thy glory and of Thy words, as I walked about, sat down, ate, drank, and prayed, I wept and lived in an unutterable joy, because I had known Thee, the Maker of all things. How could I have failed to rejoice? Yet I again fell into sorrow and so I longed to see Thee again, I went off to reverence the spotless icon of her who bore Thee {i.e. the virgin Mary, who carried God within herself while pregnant with Jesus}. As I fell before it, before I rose up, Thou Thyself didst appear to me within my poor heart, as though Thou hadst transformed it into light; and then I knew that I have Thee consciously within me. From then onwards I loved Thee, not by recollection of Thee and that which surrounds Thee, nor for the memory of such things, but I in very truth believed that I had Thee, substantial love, within me. For Thou, O God, truly art love (1 Jn. 4:8, 16).
("Symeon the New Theologian: The Discourses", pp. 375-376)
O grandeur of ineffable glory! O excess of love! He Who embraces all things makes His home within a mortal corruptible man, He by Whose indwelling might all things are governed, and the man becomes as a woman heavy with child. O astonishing miracle and incomprehensible deeds and mysteries of the incomprehensible God! A man carries God consciously within himself as light, carries Him Who has brought all things into being and created them, including the one who carries Him now. He carries Him within as a treasure inexpressible, unspeakable, without quality, quantity, or form, immaterial, shapeless, yet with form in beauty inexplicable, altogether simple, like light, Him Who transcends all light. And, clenching his hands at his sides, this man walks in our midst and is ignored by everyone who surrounds him. Who can then adequately explain the joy of such a man? Will he not be more blessed and more glorious than any emperor? Than whom, or than how many visible worlds, will he not be more wealthy? And in what shall such a man ever be lacking? Truly, in no way shall he lack any of God's good things.
(On the Mystical Life (Vol. 2), p. 135)
... when we believe wholeheartedly and fervently repent, we conceive the Word of God in our hearts, like the Virgin -- given, that is, that our souls, too, are virginal and pure... the same undefiled flesh which He accepted from the pure loins of Mary, the all-pure Theotokos, and with which He was given birth in the body, He gives to us as food... {Through communion} He is present in the body bodilessly, mingled with our essence and nature, and deifying us who share His body, who are become flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. This is the greater thing which is within us by virute of His inexpressible economy. This is the mystery all full of holy terror which I hesitate even to write, and tremble in recounting.
(On the Mystical Life, Vol. 1, pp. 56-57)
Accordingly, as soon as he has attained this state, God dwells in him and becomes for him all that he desires, or, rather, more than he desires... So God who dwells in him teaches such a man about things to come and things present, not by word, but by action and experience and reality. As God removes the veil from the eyes of his mind he shows him what is His will and what is useful for him. As for other matters, He persuades him not to be inquisitive about them or seek them or be curious about them, for he cannot boldly look into even the things that God reveals to him and shows him. When he stoops low to inquire into the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God (Rom. 11:33) he immediately becomes dizzy and is struck with amazement as he thinks of himself and who he is to be counted worthy to behold such things... He is constrained by trembling, fear, and reverence to cry, "Who am I, Lord... that Thou shouldest reveal such mysteries to me, unworthy as I am, and has wondrously made me not only to have a vision of such things, but even to participate and share in them?"
("Symeon the New Theologian: The Discourses", pp. 190-191)
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