"It is better to have ignorance that does not err, than knowledge which is so called and is not."
This is what I said a little earlier: Learn to not know God, so that you may deserve to find Him. For you learn to not know Him with a better ignorance than with false knowledge. For better is ignorance that does not err, than knowledge that is called and is not. For you will have said to me: "I know God." I ask what God is. You begin to want to explain, and first by that very thing you do not know what you think you can explain which you cannot conceive. Therefore, you will tell me your thoughts, those thoughts you will tell which have risen in your heart. But see, because you are a man, and what you will tell me has risen in the heart of a man. But He who promises Himself for the delight of His lovers does not at all promise what eye has seen nor what ear has heard nor what has ascended in the heart of man. But how do they love whom they do not see, except because they believe before they see? Therefore, what does He promise to His lovers? What eye has not seen nor ear heard. Perhaps it can be conceived? Do not deceive yourself: it has not ascended in the heart of man.
Since it is changeable, the mind of man is not God.
What then? How do you prepare yourself? Speak. "I want to see my God." Tell him: "I want to see," tell him who said: Ask and you shall receive, knock and it shall be opened to you. Knock at the door placed before you, knock vehemently. He who shuts does not expel: he wants to exercise the knocker. Therefore knock, knock, not with a bodily hand, but with the affection of the heart. Tell the Lord your God what you sing in the psalms: My heart said to you: I sought your face, your face I will seek. Also say what is said in another psalm: One thing I asked from the Lord, this I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may contemplate the delight of the Lord. Desire to contemplate and tell him: "I want to see you." But how will I see? If with fleshly eyes, then you are a bodily light. Now my heart already renounces to me, for you are not, my God, a bodily light. What then are you? I have transcended all these things; I have now reached my mind, but it itself is not my God. And yet the nature of the mind transcends all bodily things whether earthly or heavenly, but it is not yet my God. For my mind is mutable: but my God is immutable. I seek something immutable when I seek my God. But how do I recognize the mind as mutable? Now it remembers, now it forgets, now it is wise, now it is foolish, now it wills, now it does not will, now it gets angry, now it is tranquil. I seek something immutable when I seek my God. Thus my God has spoken to me in the Scriptures, so that I may somehow think what I believe, not yet have what I see. I seek something that always remains immutable.
The inner eye must be cleansed so that it can see God.
But how will I see? The Gospel will answer you: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Therefore, if the pure in heart are blessed because they shall see God, and we carry impure hearts burdened by sin, what shall we do? How shall we cleanse our inner eye, that we may see the face of our God? How shall we cleanse it? You also have this in Scripture: Purifying their hearts by faith. Let us then hold these two testimonies: one from the Gospel, the other from the Acts of the Apostles. What is from the Gospel? Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. You looked at yourself, you found some impurity of your heart; desiring to see God and hearing that He is not seen except by pure hearts, inflamed with the desire of seeing, you surely seek to purify your heart. How then will you cleanse it? Consider what is said in the Acts: Purifying their hearts by faith. Hold these two: one in promise, the other in action. What in promise? Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. What in action? Purifying their hearts by faith. Therefore, believe before you see, that you may rejoice when you see.
We are sick: let us allow ourselves to be treated by the doctor.
Do not let a vain thought ascend to your heart: "What is it that Christians say: Believe, believe?". A doctor says this, who knows what is happening in your eye. Now also resist the doctor's hands and say: "I do not believe unless you show me." The doctor will respond to you: "There is nothing to show you; I want to heal in you that by which you may be able to see what you now wish me to show." Imagine a man blinded by some darkness, and perhaps from the beginning of his life, so that he already does not know what those who see even see, the doctor to say: "There is something I am to show you; behold you know with a certain sense that you are blind, but others see: because you need a guide which they do not need, certainly there is a difference between them and you. Therefore, they see something that you do not see; if you were to see, you would greatly rejoice." He arouses in him a desire to see what he does not know, wanting to heal him to be able to see what he does not see. But if he is so absurd and averted from all reason of truth that he says to the doctor: "You will not heal me unless you show me what I will see," what do you think the doctor will respond? "It is necessary that you be healed to see, not to see to be healed. You are perverse, you are preposterous. First let that be done which you do not want, so that you may be able to reach what you want. If you had eyes with which I could show you what I say, there would be no need for you to be healed." Perhaps he will respond: "And what am I to do? Heal as you wish." And the doctor: "I will apply certain sharper ointments, which will cleanse away the darkness, from which acrimony you will feel some pain. But it is necessary that you bear the salutary pain patiently and not anxiously and impatiently drive away my hands. For I know what I am doing with your eyes, that they may be eyes which now are not even to be called eyes. I know what I am doing, and therefore I tell you beforehand that you will suffer some discomfort with the fruit of illumination." Perhaps frightened lest he be bitten by those medicines which the doctor is about to apply, he returns again to that worn out and excluded notion: "Am I to endure such great pains which you are about to apply to me? Unless I first see what you are to show, I will not bear it." On the contrary, he: "You cannot. This is what I seek; I ask you: heal. You will see, the darkness will be expelled, that light will shine upon you which you hear those seeing name and do not see. For you hear: light, color, brightness; you hear these names. These names are of certain things, the things themselves you do not see. Those who see are happier than you. Therefore bear some pain with the compensation of great joys." If he consents, he will be healed and will see. If he does not consent, wishing to see first before being healed so that there may be a means by which he may see, most absurd and an enemy of his health, he will abandon the doctor.
To see God, a clean heart is needed.
Pay attention now, the healing physician, our Lord Jesus Christ, has come to us. He found the blindness of our heart and promised the light which no eye has seen nor ear heard nor has entered into the heart of man. This the angels see, they rejoice in it. For just as healthy men see what the blind man does not see, so the angels see what man does not see. Why does man not see? Because he still wants to be a man. Therefore, let the man himself begin to be healed, so that from being a man he may become one among the sons of God, because He gave them the power to become sons of God. This means: He gave them the power to be healed, so that the darkness of the heart may be wiped away, because blessed are the pure in heart because they shall see God. And hear, for it is also in the Gospel, what is said elsewhere: purifying their hearts by faith. When the Lord said: He gave them the power to become sons of God, He immediately added: to those who believe in His name. Therefore, if He gave the power to those who believe to become sons of God — the sons of God will be able to see what has not entered into the heart of man — He purifies their hearts by faith so they can be pure in heart, because they shall see God.
Under the hands of the heavenly physician, one must persist.
Blessed are you, therefore, brothers, who believe; pray for the unbelievers, that they also may be deemed worthy to see. Blessed are you who believe: you do not see, but you believe; you are not yet healed, but are still being cured. Your salvation is in hope, not yet in reality. Persevere under the hands of the doctor, endure his prescriptions as though they were bitter medicines, abstain from the pernicious pleasures of the world: do not let illicit desires of the gentiles lead you, nor theatrical trifles, nor the luxury of drunkenness, nor the poison of illicit curiosity. Abstain from all these things. But you are accustomed to rejoice in these things, and when you begin to abstain from them, the longing for broken habits will grieve you. But these are the bitter medicines by which the eyes are healed. Accept the prescriptions of the doctor. Whatever he imposes on you to bear, he himself first endured. In him, indeed, there was nothing to be cured, for nothing was sick, but in the duty of healing, he endured what he imposed on the sick. He gave a certain bitter cup to the one swollen and puffed up with pride; he, coming with humility, suffered all humiliations from prideful men.
"The humility of Christ is the remedy for pride."
The humility of Christ is the remedy for your pride. Do not ridicule what cures you. Be willing to be humble, for the sake of Him who became humble for you. For He who knows well from where you ail and how you are to be healed has judged that you should be healed by this medicine. Good doctors investigate in all parts of the body the cause of enduring all that is most difficult to bear. And so many unskilled, treating incidental causes and not treating the original cause, seem to provide a temporary cure; but, with the source of the diseases remaining, what persists in the origin again flows into the streams of calamity. Therefore, listen to why man is ailing, why he has not only sick eyes but no healthy limbs. Hear from where he is ailing, take from the Scriptures where the art of the physician is written. For the one who reads a disease to you from Hippocrates is not more certain than the one who shows you from divine Scripture from where you suffer inwardly. Therefore, listen to what Scripture says: The beginning of all sin is pride; and you still rush for your bodily health, you are lazy for your soul. If a speck falls into your eye, it is not put off to remove it. The iniquity presses on the eye of your heart, you do not run to the physician. Yet, when you could not run to the physician, the physician came to you, and, which is more serious, you scoff at the fact that He came to you, you hold His mercy in contempt. He came, wants to help, knows what to administer. Therefore God came humble, lest He not be imitated by man. For how could you imitate the lofty? Without imitating Him, how would you be healed? Therefore He came humble, because He knew what cup to give you. Indeed somewhat bitter, but healing. But you still mock the one who brings the cup and say to yourself: "What kind of God will I have? One who is born, suffers, smeared with spit, crowned with thorns, suspended on the cross?" O wretched soul! You see the humility of the physician, you do not see the swelling of your pride. From this, the humble one displeases you, what displeases you is from your pride, what comes displeases your disease, the medicine given to you by the physician.
"Christ made remedies from his very death."
If you still mock, you are insane. The insane often attack their doctors, and the compassionate not only do not become angry with those attacking them but also seek the well-being of the attackers. They sometimes prevail to the extent that they can kill the doctor. But the doctor vehemently avoids being killed by the insane because he cannot rise again and heal the insane. However, our doctor neither feared being killed by the insane, and from his very death he prepared remedies for the insane. For he died and rose again. And see that the true doctor does not become angry with the insane assaulting him, but rather pities them and wishes to heal the raging ones from what he suffers. Listen to the doctor hanging on the cross; surrounded by a crowd of raging madmen, he says: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And his voice was not in vain. For after he rose again and was glorified in the eyes of his disciples, so much so that he showed them the scars of the same resurrected flesh, not only presenting himself to be seen but also to be touched, he ascended into heaven, sent the Holy Spirit: miracles began to occur in the name of the one killed, in the name of the crucified, and those who killed him were more deeply pierced than when they saw him hanging on the cross. For they thought that such things happened in the name of the one who was believed to have been killed by their hands. They felt the living one, whom they had mocked as he was dying. They were pierced in heart, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles; many of the Jews who crucified the Lord sought counsel from the apostles; they also received counsel, because that hanging one did not say in vain: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. The apostle said to them: Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and your sins will be forgiven you. It happened: they were baptized and believed in the one whom they crucified. This is what I said, brothers, for he made remedies even from his very death for the insane.
Believing in Christ, we become His body.
From there, they went to the nations. The apostles were sent to the nations: they found the entire world given to idols. The disciples of the physician himself, in whom the physician himself presided, because they had become heaven and carried God, began to preach Him who was crucified and died for our sins and rose for our justification. With such signs and miracles testifying, the world began to be filled. And at first, so that it might be filled, the disciples of the physician were killed, just as the physician himself had been killed. But why would they fear to be killed, when they saw even his flesh rise in their head? What would souls, never to die, fear, considering they had already risen in the body in the Lord? However, He made all believers a body as the head, so that He would be their head, and all who believe in Him would be joined as members. From the beginning of the world to the end, it has been believed and will be believed in Christ, because even before He was born of the Virgin Mary, many believed He would come, just as now they believe in Him who has already come. And through that same faith, all are healed, nor is there any other salve for that darkness of spiritual sight, except, as it is written: “Cleansing their hearts by faith”. Therefore, He made all the saints His body, of which He is the head. Nor would He be the head of this body unless He had taken something from that body. From where did He assume flesh, which could die in Him? For if the soul of man cannot die, how could the divinity of the Word die? Therefore, thousands of martyrs were killed, and as if their blood were sown, the crop of the Church arose throughout the world.
The things which the prophets announced have been displayed in our age.
Therefore, brothers, these things were foretold thousands of years ago and, as they were foretold, thus they seem to be expressed and revealed. Few things are left that we read and believe, for we have already read and seen many. From these things we read and see, it is not a great thing to believe the few things that remain. It was a great thing to believe for those who saw none of these things that we see. Now it is no longer praiseworthy to believe, but condemnable not to believe. Let those who still refused to be healed finally awaken and be healed. Let them believe: they will see. Let them not be so perverse as to say to us: "Let me see first and then I will believe." What is "let me see and then I will believe?" For he who sees, does he by any chance believe? He believes who does not see. To believe is one thing, to see is another. Believe because you do not see, so that by believing what you do not see you may deserve to see what you believe. The merit of vision is faith. The reward of faith is vision. Why do you seek the reward before the work? Therefore, believe and walk in faith: your salvation is in hope. Indeed, the greatest physician has begun to heal you, for whom no disease is incurable. Do not fear your past crimes, however immense, however unbelievable, that you might have committed: the diseases are great, but the physician is greater. Therefore, do not worry about the past: in one moment of sacrament, they will be forgiven, and absolutely all will be forgiven. Nothing of the past will remain to trouble your care. You will be secure not in your own strength, but in the hand of the physician. Therefore, be secure under him, for he will also heal what remains: that same infirmity of our mortality, from which indeed smaller sins creep in while we live here. He will heal everything, he will cleanse everything. All obscurity will be taken away, but such an eye of the heart will be given that you may be blessed when you see, because believing you heard: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Let those who have not yet believed look, my brothers, let them look at how much God has revealed. All that is seen to be done throughout the whole world in the name of Christ was foreseen, foretold, prescribed. In our hands are the books, in our eyes the deeds.
More difficult is what God has already done than what He has promised to do.
And if we think truly, brothers, he has done something more difficult than what he will do. What is it that he has done something more difficult? He has justified the ungodly, made a believer from an idolater, a sober person from a drunkard, a temperate person from a lustful one, a generous person from a miser, not giving to hunters applauded by the devil but giving to the poor crowned by Christ, and acquiring for himself that which cannot pass away. It was more difficult what he did. For he who made a pious person from an impious one, will he not give the reward to the pious one? Notice, my brothers. What is more unbelievable? To make a pious person from an impious one, or to make an angel from a pious one? Impious and pious are opposites. Pious and angel are not opposites. Will he not fulfill from being close by, who has changed you from being opposite? For now when you have begun to be pious, you begin to imitate the life of an angel. But when you were impious, you were far removed from the chorus of angels. However, faith came and justified you. You are humbled before God, who used to blaspheme God. And you who were turned towards creation, now desire the Creator. See what he has done for you: he has shown his Church to the world; as he promised, he has shown it. It was foretold that idolatry would once be destroyed and removed: our ancestors read these things and did not see them, but we read them and see them. Heresies were foretold, schisms foretold: they also exist. Therefore, Christians are not disturbed when they see heresies and schisms. For they more certainly hope for the things promised, when the things foretold happen.
Happiness and unhappiness are now intermixed.
Therefore, flee from the wickedness of all heresies and schisms, flee from the sacrileges of the pagans, the curiosities of demons, the adoration of idols, the sacrilege of remedies, the consultations of astrologers. Flee from these, brothers. You have no reason to hope in them. They have never promised eternal life; and as for the present life, if they make any promises, they lie to you. Let someone come forward and say: “For me, I know, the astrologer spoke the truth, and for me, I know the diviner spoke the truth, and I had that remedy, and it worked.” Have only this known, beloved, which can be easily seen. The happiness and unhappiness of the present time, which is neither true happiness nor complete unhappiness, is interspersed among all people. If only those who do these things were happy according to time, you, brothers who have believed, would have to despise the present for the sake of future happiness. But when you see the healthy and those who do and those who do not do these things interspersed, the dying interspersed with those who do and those who do not do these things, the rich and poor interspersed with those who do and those who do not do these things, the honored and the dishonorable interspersed with those who do and those who do not do these things, when, therefore, you see temporal happiness or unhappiness interspersed within the human race, why do you not avoid eternal unhappiness, when it will be said: “Depart into the eternal fire,” and compare true happiness when it will be said: “Receive the kingdom”?
Whoever consents to the devil will be damned with him.