556. Saint Symeon the New Theologian

 

 

 

The first thing I want to say is that Saint Symeon makes me feel embarrassed. First, because of how little I’ve known of this great man. How have I missed him all these years? Second, because my prayer life, in comparison to heights he calls us to, is shallow and pathetic.

I hope none of you have the same reaction.

I’m not sure why in English this “Symeon” is often spelled with a “y”. Perhaps to distinguish him easily from other Simeons? There is no distinction in the original Greek. Just in care you were wondering. But we’re wandering.

A  Brief Account of the Life of Saint Symeon the Theologian

Symeon was born in the year 949 in Basileon, a town near modern-day Ankara, Turkey. His parents were of Byzantine nobility, so when the boy showed early signs of brilliance, he was sent to Constantinople to be educated for a career in the court of the Emperor, which began while he was in his early teens.

However, when he was fourteen, he met the Elder Simeon the Studite (from Studion Monastery), a devoutly holy man, who deeply impressed him. He immediately wanted to join the Elder and become a monastic. Simeon, however, required him to wait, under his direction. By day Symeon lived in the world. His evenings and nights were devoted to the mystical life. Even then he began to experience the vision of the Uncreated Light of God, which he later described like this:

It shines on us without evening, without change, without alteration, without form. It speaks, works, lives, gives life, and changes into light those whom it illuminates. We bear witness that “God is light,” and those to whom it has been granted to see Him have all beheld Him as light. Those who have seen Him have received Him as light, because the light of His glory goes before Him, and it is impossible for Him to appear without light.

Ever after he saw this as the goal and summation of the Christian life – but not to the discounting of the moral life, which he said was the means to the vision of God.

When Symeon was 27, Elder Simeon allowed him to entered the monastery,  remaining under his spiritual direcrtion.

The following paragraph is taken directly from his “hagiography” in the Orthodox Church of America website.

“[The Elder] Simeon the Pious recommended to the young man the writings of Saint Mark the Ascetic (March 5) and other spiritual writers. He read these books attentively and tried to put into practice what he read. Three points made by Saint Mark in his work “On the Spiritual Law” (see Vol. fI of the English Philokalia) particularly impressed him. First, you should listen to your conscience and do what it tells you if you wish your soul to be healed (Philokalia, p. 115). Second, only by fulfilling the commandments can one obtain the activity of the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, one who prays only with the body and without spiritual knowledge is like the blind man who cried out, “Son of David, have mercy upon me” (Luke 18:38) (Philokalia, p. 111). When the blind man received his sight, however, he called Christ the Son of God (John 9:38).”

Perhaps jealous of his piety, some monks rose up against Symeon, and he was sent to the Monastery of Saint Mamas in Constantinople, a place which had fallen into neglect, both materially and spiritually.

After some years Saint Symeon was made igumen (abbot) of the monastery, where he continued for about 25 years, bringing order to both the monastery and to the monks. Then, because of his insistence on strict monastic discipline, also here some monks rose up against him, physically! The Patriarch of Constantinople expelled them from the monastery and wanted to hand them over for punishment by the civil authorities – which they deserved. However, Symeon begged and obtained leniency for them.

Not long after, Saint Symeon resigned as igumen and settled in a cell near the monastery, so that in peace he could write. This was when he produced his poetry and his books of theology, based on his many years of experience. *

• Some of these are found in the Philokalia, the classical Orthodox books of spiritual advice. These, please note, are intended primarily for experienced monastics. I know of others who have read them and have been unnecessarily overwhelmed.

His “Hymns of Divine Love,” consist of about seventy poems filled with profound prayerful meditations.

Because of this, Symeon gradually became known as the “Theologian”.

The title “New Theologian” was originally a criticism given by those who disapproved of his teachings, thinking his emphasis on attaining the vision of God directly, that people can not only know about God but can know Him directly, was a novelty. His description of his interior life also was unusual in the Orthodox Church. However, it only seemed “new” to those whose Faith had become chiefly intellectual, based only on following the teachings of the Fathers. Over time, “New Theologian” came to be an accolade. In the Orthodox way, all this took place without a formal decision by the hierarchs. It just sort of happened.

However, Constantinople’s church authorities got involved in another way.  Saint Symeon had been ordained, but now he began to teach that any who had received the divine vision could hear confessions and pronounce absolutions. Also, since he venerated his teacher Elder Simeon as a saint/holy, he authored services and even had icons written in his honor. When he was criticized for this, unfortunately he said some really nasty things about the hierarchs.

Saint Symeon was banished from the City. He went across the Bosphorus and settled in the ancient monastery of Saint Makrina. It must have been intensely painful to him, but he had taught that one should be indifferent both to pleasure and pain. Later he was forgiven, but he never returned.

Saint Symeon the New Theologian peacefully fell asleep in the Lord on March 12 in the year 1021. The account of his Life was written by his disciple Nicetas Stethatos.

Some Orthodox commemorate Saint Symeon on March 12. In order that his celebration not be lost among the Lenten services, other Orthodox move him to October 12 – which inspired this Blog Post at this time.

A few Teachings and Hymns of Saint Symeon the New Theologian

These are in no particular order. They have been very difficult to select, because he wrote so much that went so high and so deep. If I exceed our usual limit, please forgive me. If you can, I would take time and read through these slowly, perhaps over a few days.

—But, Oh, what intoxication of light, Oh, what movements of fire!
Oh, what swirlings of the flame in me, miserable one that I am,
coming from You and Your glory!
The glory I know it and I say it is your Holy Spirit,
who has the same nature with You, and the same honor, O word;
He is of the same race, the same glory,
of the same essence, He alone with your Father,
and with you, O Christ, O God of the universe!
I fall down in adoration before You.
I thank You that You have made me worthy to know, however little it may be,
the power of Your divinity.”

 … “the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force’ (Mt. 11:12), and it is impossible for the faithful to enter it by any other way, unless they come through the narrow gate of trials and tribulations, the divine oracle rightly commands us, saying: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow door’ (Lk. 13:24). Again He says, ‘By your endurance you will gain your souls’ (Lk. 21:19), and, ‘Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of heaven’” (Acts 14:22).

 

“Arm yourself with prayer rather than a sword; wear humility rather than fine clothes”. “Humility is the gateway to acquiring all other virtues. The path to humility is through joyfully obeying the commandments of Christ.”

“There are times when I, without willing it, mount to the height of contemplation; with my will I am drawn down from it because of the limitations of human nature and [find] safety in abasement. I know many things that are unknown to most men, yet I am more ignorant than all others. I rejoice because Christ, ‘whom I have believed’ (II Tim. 1:12), has bestowed on me an eternal and unshakable kingdom, yet I constantly weep as one who is unworthy of that which is above, and I cease not.”

“O man, do you believe that Christ is God? If you believe, fear, and keep His commandments? there is no other God but He (cf. Dt. 4:35). To Him no one is equal, nor can become equal (cf. Is. 40:18). He is Ruler of all things, the Judge of all, the King of all, the Maker of light and the Lord of life. He is the Light that is ineffable, inaccessible (cf. I Tim. 6:16), and He is the Only One. By His appearing He causes all His enemies to vanish before His face (cf. Ps. 68:2 f.), as well as those who do not perform His commandments, just as the sun when it rises drives away the darkness of night.”

“Spiritual knowledge is like a house built in the midst of secular and pagan knowledge, in which there is laid up, like a solid and well-secured chest, the knowledge of the inspired Scriptures and the inestimable riches they contain. Those who enter into the house will never at all be able to see those treasures unless this chest is opened for them. But it does not belong to human wisdom (cf. I Cor. 2:13) ever to be able to open it, so that the riches of the Spirit deposited in it remain unknown to all who are worldly.”

“If you know that all visible things are a shadow and all pass away, are you not ashamed of playing with shadows and hoarding transitory things? Like a child you draw water with a bucket full of holes; do you not realize it and take it into account, my dear friend? As though there were nothing more serious than appearance and illusion, as though reality has been taken from them?”

 

“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 Christ, who alone is without sin.” * How then does the Holy Spirit urge us to say ‘Having beheld Christ’s resurrection’ which we have not seen, as though we have seen it?”  

• sung today at Sunday Matins, also during Paschal season

“If you … wish, you shall become his member,
and thus every member of each one of us
shall become a member of Christ, and Christ our members,
and He shall make all shameful things decent
by the beauty of his divinity and by his glory He shall adorn them,
and when we are united to God we shall at the same time become gods,
not looking upon the indignity of the body at all,
but completely made like Christ in the whole body,
and each of our members shall be the whole Christ.
For while we become many members He remains one and indivisible,
and each part is the whole Christ himself.
And so thus you well know that even my fingers and my genitals are Christ.
Do you tremble or feel ashamed?
But God was not ashamed to become like you,
yet you are ashamed to become like Him?
I am not ashamed to become like Him.
But in saying He is like a shameful member
I suspect that you speak blasphemy.
So then, you suspected badly, for there are no shameful members!”

“He is seen by me and he looks at me, he who looks upon all things.
Amazed, I am astonished at the shapeliness of his beauty,
and how the Creator stooped down when he opened the heavens
and displayed his unspeakable and strange glory to me.
Who therefore shall also come closer to him?
Or how shall one be carried up to the immeasurable heights?
When I considered this, he himself was found within me,
flashing forth within my wretched heart,
illuminating me from all directions with immortal radiance,
shining upon all my members with his rays,
folding his entire self around me, he tenderly kisses all of me.
He gives his whole self to me, the unworthy,
and I take my fill of his love and beauty,
and I am filled full of divine pleasure and sweetness.”

“There are times when I, without willing it, mount to the height of contemplation; with my will I am drawn down from it because of the limitations of human nature and [find] safety in abasement. I know many things that are unknown to most men, yet I am more ignorant than all others. I rejoice because Christ, ‘whom I have believed’ (II Tim. 1:12), has bestowed on me an eternal and unshakable kingdom, yet I constantly weep as one who is unworthy of that which is above, and I cease not.”

“Spiritual knowledge is like a house built in the midst of secular and pagan knowledge, in which there is laid up, like a solid and well-secured chest, the knowledge of the inspired Scriptures and the inestimable riches they contain. Those who enter into the house will never at all be able to see those treasures unless this chest is opened for them. But it does not belong to human wisdom (cf. I Cor. 2:13) ever to be able to open it, so that the riches of the Spirit deposited in it remain unknown to all who are worldly.”

 

“The aim of all those who live in God is to please our Lord Jesus Christ and become reconciled with God the Father through receiving the Holy Spirit, thus securing their salvation, for in this consists the salvation of every soul. If this aim and this activity is lacking, all other labour is useless and all other striving is in vain. Every path of life which does not lead to this is without profit.”

“When a man really considers his neighbor as himself, he will never tolerate having more than his neighbor. If he does have more, but refuses to share things generously until he himself becomes as poor as his neighbor, then he will find that he has not fulfilled the commandment of the master. He no longer wants to give to all who ask, and instead turns away from someone who asks of him while she still has a penny or a crust of bread. He has not treated his neighbor as he would like to be treated by him. In fact, even if a man had given food and drink and clothes to all the poor, even the least, and had done everything else for them, he has only to despise or neglect a single one and it will be reckoned as if he had passed by Christ and God and He was hungry and thirsty.”

“The roof of any house stands upon the foundations and the rest of the structure. The foundations themselves are laid in order to carry the roof. This is both useful and necessary, for the roof cannot stand without the foundations and the foundations are absolutely useless without the roof—no help to any living creature. In the same way the grace of God is preserved by the practice of the commandments, and the observance of these commandments is laid down like foundations through the gift of God. The grace of the Spirit cannot remain with us without the practice of the commandments, but the practice of the commandments is of no help or advantage to us without the grace of God.”

“When a man walks in the fear of God he knows no fear, even if he were to be surrounded by wicked men. He has the fear of God within him and wears the invincible armor of faith. This makes him strong and able to take on anything, even things which seem difficult or impossible to most people. Such a man is like a giant surrounded by monkeys, or a roaring lion among dogs and foxes. He goes forward trusting in the Lord and the constancy of his will to strike and paralyze his foes. He wields the blazing club of the Word in wisdom.”

“For those who believe in Him, Christ will become all this and even more, beyond enumeration, not only in the age to come but first in this life, and then in the world to come. Thou in an obscure way here below and in a perfect manner in the Kingdom, those who believe see clearly nonetheless and receive as of now the first-fruits of everything they will have in the future life. Indeed, if they do not receive on earth everything that was promised to them, they do not have any part of foretaste of the blessings to come, their higher hope being set on the hereafter. However, it is through death and the resurrection that God in His foresight has given us the Kingdom, incorruptibility, the totality of life eternal. Given these conditions, we unquestionably become partakers of the good things to come, that is, incorruptible, immortal, sons of God, sons of the light and of the day, inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven, since we carry the Kingdom within.”

“The more a man enters the light of understanding, the more aware he is of his own ignorance. And when the light reveals itself fully and unites with him and draws him into itself, so that he finds himself alone in a sea of light, then he is emptied of all knowledge and immersed in absolute unknowing.”

Next Week: Why I believe in Everlasting Life

Week after Next: Now that things have quieted down, I think I’ll say a little about The Charlie Kirk Incident and also a couple of other things.

Sources consulted for this Post:

Orthodox Christian Fellowship: ocf.com

azquotes.com

goodreads.com

orthodoxchurchquotes.wordpress.com

orthodoxriver.org

Orthodox Wiki

goodnews.le

onejourney.net

Wikipedia

Orthodox Church in America: oca.com

Orthodox Christian Laity: ocl.org

Patriarchate of Antioch: https://www.antiochpatriarchate.org/en/