Saturday, March 2, 2024

Heaven and hell — Saint Symeon the New Theologian


Heaven:

You the Kingdom of Heaven, You Christ, the land of the meek, (Mt 5.5) …

And You, the unapproachable sun, shall shine in the middle of them, (1 Tim 6.16) and all shall gain glory in proportion  to their faith, practice, hope, and their love, their purification, and their enlightenment from your Spirit. O God, Alone, Long-suffering, and Judge of all, (Heb 12.23) those who shall receive mansions and different places, (Jn 14.2–3) the measure of their illumination, the measure of their love,  and the measure of their contemplation shall be the measure of their grandeur and glory, their luxury and fame that distinguishes their homes and their wonderful mansions. These are the different tents, the many houses, the brilliant robes of the many dignities,  and the variegated crowns, stones, and pearls, and unfading flowers that have a strange appearance, both the sofas and the bedding, both the tables and the thrones, and all that is the sweetest luxury, was, is, and shall be to see You and You alone.

the attainment of the place where you shall find fulfillment. I do not mean bodily fulfillment, but you shall be able, by your mind, to attain the full measure of the incorporeal world; but it is not the world, but the air as it was before, but not the air, but an inexpressible receptacle, which they call the All,  and it is an utterly endless abyss, equally whole from every direction, from one part and from others; this All is filled with the divine divinity.

For they also are covered by the light of divine glory; they are enlightened, and they shine, and they revel in all these things. And they truly know as though by every certainty that their perfection shall be endless, and the progress of their glory shall be everlasting.


Not heaven:

I wonder where those who fall away from God stand, …These also shall certainly be within the All, but they shall be outside the divine light and certainly outside of God; for just like those who do not see when the sun shines, …they finish their lives outside the light,  they are separated from the sun by perception and contemplation; so also is the light of the Triune Divinity in the All, and in the middle of the light the sinners are enclosed in darkness, not seeing, not having any divine perception at all, but burning in their conscience,  and being condemned, they shall have unspeakable calamity, and an unutterable suffering unto eternity.

Hymn 1: Hymns of Divine Eros, SVS Press

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