The Sight of God in the Theology of Saint Symeon the New Theologian [91]

Here, parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90.

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Eschatology

2. 8. The Sight of Light and the Eschatology

The last theme of symeonian theology which we discuss here and namely the universal eschatology proves, once again, the eternal validity of personalist theology, as long as the holiness is the interior reality which reveals in perfect mode in the stage of plenary transfiguration of whole creation.

If now, our interior relation with God can be put under the sign of question by those who have not the ghostual perception of God’s presence in believers, then, in the day the one of then, our interior becomes explicit for all, the reality of union with Christ will be incontestable and the living relation with God will prove our source of joy and eternal fulfillment.

We will begin our discussion all with the ethical Discourse 1, in which Symeon speaks, very concentrated, about the transfiguration of the world through the Ghost.

Symeon, starting from what has done Christ God for us, through His incarnation as man, speaks about the growth in holiness and he says that, after the dormition of Saints, their bodies do not remain „altogether incorruptible, nor again altogether corruptible, but, keeping in them both the signs of incorruptibility [tis aftarsias ta gnorismata], but and [on those] of corruptibility, are kept towards being made ​​incorruptible in perfect face  [telios] and renewed [anachenistine] at the resurrection from latter”^[1].

The reality of the Holy Relics indicates, on the one part, that has not come the time of renewal, of total transfiguration of creation but that it has begun still of now.

The personal holiness is a full rallying, assumed, at the process of the transfiguration of creation.

The transfiguration of bodies is reserved, says Symeon, of eschatology, for that „it ought not as the bodies of men to be resurrected and to be made incorruptible before of the renewing of creatures [ton ctismaton anacheniseos], but so how this [the creation] has been brought first at existence incorruptible, and after it the man, all so again, first, the creation must to premade and so to change from corruptibility at incorruptibility, and so, together with it and suddenly with it [sin afti che ama afti], will renew and the corruptible bodies of men, for as the man, making again ghostual [pnevmaticos] and immortal [atanatos], to dwell into a place incorruptible [aftarto horio], eternal [edio] and ghostual [pnevmatico]”^[2].

The sight of divine light has direct link with the transfiguration of creation, for that this will renew through the divine light and the sight of light leads to the incorruptibility of soul still of now and of body in partial mode but, in full mode, in the next age.

Symeon speaks about a concomitance of the transfiguration of creation and of the man and about a habitation of men, which will have a ghostual body, into a transfigured creation, transformed into a place of incorruptibility and of eternal joy, of eternal communion with their Creator.

The renewal of creation is at our Father a its restoration in the beauty which it had it from the beginning, at the initial beauty [to arheon callos]^[3].