In addition, St. Simeon raises the question of the knowledge of God in the Hymns. He says that he does not know God as He is in Himself, but that God reveals Himself by His love: "That Thou art we know, and Thy light we see, what Thou art and what it is, no one knows. Yet we have hope, and we hold faith, and we know the love which Thou hast bestowed upon us, which is boundless, ineffable, incomprehensible, existing in light, in light unapproachable, in light acting (????????) all."1162 Here, love, identified with light, is depicted as divine "energy," as evidenced by the following: "It is called Thy hand".1163 In another place, St. Simeon says that love is the essence of God, but explains in what sense the word "essence" can be applied to God, Who surpasses all essence. "Love," he says, "is not a name, but a divine essence, participatory and unparticipatory, at any rate divine. That which is participatory is comprehensible, but that which is greater than it is not yet comprehensible. Wherefore I have told thee that lust is comprehensible, and that it is hypostasized (???????????) as partaking and apprehensible... For that which is devoid of essence (????????) is nothing, and is both said and is... but that which is indescribable, how do you call hypostasis?" 1164 Although the theological terminology of this passage is not very clear, and even somewhat confused, it is still possible to understand that St. Simeon, while affirming the real Divine character of love as a manifestation of God, does not, however, identify it with God as He is in Himself. In addition, he himself emphasizes that our words are inaccurate and insufficient when we talk about God. It is especially important here that St. Simeon says that the essence of God is both communicable and unattainable, since God is above all essence.

To what has been said in this chapter about love as the divine power that unites the created with the uncreated, as the action of the Holy Spirit and the appearance of Christ, as the light that fills us with joy, and, finally, about the queen of virtues, we must add what St. Simeon says about human and practical expressions of love. As we have already seen, it is the force that unites people and makes them one soul and one body,1165 it gives rise to the fatherly love of spiritual fathers for their spiritual children, even to the point of being ready to sacrifice their own salvation for the salvation of their children. We talked about this in detail in the chapter on spiritual leadership. However, for St. Simeon, these are only the consequences of the original fact of divine love, which is the door for the appearance of Christ in the flesh and the vision of the light that adores us. Consequently, it is possible to briefly express St. Simeon's teaching about love in his own words: "O deifying (????????) love, which is God".1166

5. Deification

Grace-filled deification, in which man, without losing his created state, becomes "a partaker of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4) and a god by adoption, is an ancient theme of Christian spirituality.1167 For St. Simeon, as well as for the ancient Holy Fathers – St. Irenaeus of Lyons, St. Athanasius of Alexandria, St. Maximus the Confessor, in order to limit ourselves to them alone,1168 this is the highest spiritual state that a person can attain and to which all Christians are called. Ave. Symeon the New Theologian often speaks of it in his writings. For him, the Incarnation has as its goal deification, or, in other words, the Incarnation, the source of deification: "God the Word took from us flesh, which He did not have by nature, and became man, which He was not; but He conveys to those who believe in Him from His Divinity, Whom no angel or man ever had, and they become gods, which they were not, by position and by grace (????? ??? ??????). For in this way they are given the power to become sons of God; That is why they have become, and always become, and will never cease to become."1169 Deification is, therefore, a constant process, a person takes part in it by observing the commandments, it is the only way to deification. "Thoughts to me," says St. Simeon, "the body is a palace, and the royal treasure of each of the people is the soul, which God, united with it through the fulfillment of the commandments, filled with divine light and made it itself a god through unity and grace. Everyone who walks along the above-mentioned path of virtues comes to this divine state; it is absolutely impossible to pass through otherwise and, bypassing this or that dwelling, to find oneself in another by means of any means."1170 Ave. Simeon speaks in the same sense when he speaks of "adoring humility" (???????? ???????????) 1171. Or, as he himself says: "Let us remember only the commandments of the Saviour Christ... that we may become gods by position and grace".1172 Here "by position" or "by adoption" (?????) is obviously contrasted with "by nature" (?????) – a common expression of patristic writing, which has precisely this meaning.

Deification is the consequence of union with Christ, who acts together with the Father and the Holy Spirit: "Those who are vouchsafed to be united with Him (Christ) and to acquire Him with their head... they also become gods, like the Son of God. Oh miracle! Because the Father clothes them in the first garment, in the garment of the Lord, in which He was clothed before the foundation of the world. For it is said: "Those who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" – that is, in the Holy Spirit, Who also changes all of them in a divine way by a strange and ineffable and divine change."1173 Ave. Symeon says that it is possible for a person "to become a co-heir and accomplice with God, and not only to become a king, but also a god from God, and to rejoice with God forever and ever".1174 Here we are talking about deification even in this life. In other places, however, there is talk of eschatological deification, in which the saints will become like Christ. Then, "when opening the books of conscience of the saints... Christ God, hidden in them, will shine forth, as He shone forth before the ages from the Father, and the saints will be like the Highest".1175 The glory of the deified saints is compared to the eternal glory of the Son: "As never will the Father be unaware of the Son, or the Son of the Father, so never will the saints, who have become gods by having God dwelling in them, be ignorant of one another, but will see the glory of one another and of themselves, as the Son of the Father and the Father of the Son. What then and what will be the glory of the saints? What is the glory of the Son of God".1176 This will be in the age to come, but already now "He, God by nature, converses with the gods born of Him by grace".1177 The saints "theologically sing praises to Him Who, having made God, changed them".1178 However, it is possible to be "deceived by the hope of deification" and suffer a fall, as was the case with Adam, the "earthly man".1179 Nevertheless, St. Simeon calls on everyone, especially sinners, to hasten to deification by works of repentance. "Listen," he says, "you who have sinned God as I do, strive and run with good power to obtain and seize the substance of the immaterial fire, and by saying 'substance,' I have pointed out to you the divine essence, and to light the intelligent lamp of the soul, that you may become the suns that shine in the world, and those who are completely invisible in the world, that you may become as gods, possessing within you all the glory of God."1180 It is interesting to note here that first calling us to "seize" the divine essence, then St. Simeon speaks of the divine glory that lives entirely in us when we become "like gods."

Ave. Simeon is full of admiration for the miracle of the manifestation of God in man and for the fact that people take on a divine form. "Oh miracle! - he says. "O incomprehensible gift of goodness! That in the image of God there are men, and that the God who cannot be contained by anyone is formed in them, that the unchangeable, unchangeable by nature desires to live in all those who are worthy, so that each one has within himself the whole King, and the kingdom itself, and everything that belongs to the kingdom, and shines, as my resurrected God shone, more than the rays of this visible sun."1181 But this state is only the beginning of prosperity, which never ends: "For there will be no end to prosperity for the ages, for there will be a stop in growth to an endless end (????????? ??????) it would make the Incomprehensible completely incomprehensible, and the Unsaturable One satiating. But His fullness and the glory of light will be an abyss of prosperity and an endless beginning."1182

As always, affirming the conscious reality of deification even in this life, St. Simeon insists that its fullness belongs to eschatological infinity. The expression of St. Gregory of Nyssa ????????? ????? 1183, used here by St. Simeon, well conveys the metaphysical dynamism of his spirituality. St. Simeon speaks of deification after death in the following lines: "For even if God rests in the saints, the saints live and move in God, walking in the light as on the earth. Oh miracle! They will be after death as angels and as sons of the Highest, gods who dwell with God, who is by nature, who are like Him in position."1184 In another place, St. Simeon asks God: "How do You make people gods?" 1185 By grace, he himself replies in another place: "Who, having gained Christ, needs anything else of the goods of the present age? Has not he who has the grace of the Spirit in his heart acquired the revered Trinity, which dwells in him, illuminates him, and makes him a god?" 1186 In deification, man becomes Christ: "He renewed all of me, immortalized all of me, deified me all, and made me Christ".1187 Deification, in which man becomes god by grace and is essentially united with God, is an incomprehensible mystery: "Having been united," says St. Simeon to his interlocutor, real or imagined, "how can I tell you, Who is He who is united to me, and to Whom have I been united? I tremble and fear that if I were to speak, you, not believing it, would fall into blasphemy from ignorance... However, I and the One with Whom I have been united have become one, who shall I call myself? God, being double in nature and one in hypostasis, made me double. And having made it double, he gave me, as you see, double names. Look at the separation! I am a man by nature, but God by grace. See by what grace I call unity with Him sensually and intellectually, essentially and spiritually."1188