St. Gregory Palamas (1296-1359)
On the second Sunday of Great Lent, Orthodox believers commemorate St. Gregory Palamas. Gregory's thirst for God’s presence experienced in unceasing prayer ultimately led him to the revelation that “The Light of Christ illumines all." His belief and teaching -- that the experience of God's grace is available to everyone -- is why he is counted among the most significant teachers of Orthodox spirituality.
Gregory's spiritual theology teaches us how it is possible for humans to know a transcendent and unknowable God. He distinguished between God's transcendent essence (beyond this world), and God's energies (in this world). God's uncreated energies are what created, and now sustains and governs the cosmos. Further, God's uncreated energies transfigure and deify the cosmos. By his energies, the Spirit of God is everywhere present and fills all things. Through God's actions or energies, God is revealed to us and experienced by us ... as love, as grace. God's energies are how God makes it possible for us to experience his immanent presence. Out of His love for the world, God enters into a direct encounter and immediate relationship with humanity.
This revelation opens out to the very heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The love and grace of God also needed to be seen through the Incarnation of God in Christ, so that in identifying with us in our humanity, we would also be able to identify with Christ, and so participate in his life-giving divinity. In his second Sunday of Lent homily, Vladika Lazar Puhalo presents the gospel of living faith, the 'faith once delivered,' in the spirit of St. Gregory Palamas. In this homily, he identifies and emphasizes the energies by which God communicates his grace to us; the meaning of the Incarnation as Christ's participation and identification with us; and especially the meaning and revelation of the Cross, both for our salvation and as our own calling to communicate God's grace and compassion to the world as well, while fasting from judgment, malice, envy and condemnation.
Second Sunday of Lent Homily - Vladika Lazar Puhalo
Gregory of Palamas - The Homilies (Mount Thabor Publishing, 2014)
Saint Gregory Palamas, The Homilies.
Thankfully, we need not only hear about Gregory Palamas or read archaic versions of his works. We can now read his homilies for ourselves in Christopher Veniamin's beautiful, fresh translation. Sixty-three of Gregory's inspired sermons (in 525 pages) are followed by another 230 pages of rich notes and indexes by subject, scripture and Greek words. By way of a sample, the following paragraph demonstrates Gregory's glorious gospel of living faith in Jesus Christ. It also highlights both the quality of his preaching and the exquisite transposition of his words into English.
When, by means of nature and creation, He had opened the school of virtues, he appointed guardian angels over us, raised up fathers and prophets as our guides and showed signs and wonders to lead us to faith. He have us the written law to assist the law implanted in our reasonable nature and the teaching given by creation. In the end, as we treated everything with scorn - how great is our laziness, and what a contrast with the long-suffering and care of Him who loves us! - He gave himself to us for our sake. Emptying the riches of the Godhead into our lowest depths, he took our nature and, becoming a man like us, was called our teacher. He Himself teaches us about His great love for mankind, demonstrating it by word and deed, while at the same time leading his followers to imitate His compassion and turn away from hardness of heart. (p. 17, my emphasis).
While the homilies address a variety of themes, most striking are those on the Gospel texts. His many helps and insights no doubt came from his years as a priest and monk, serving God in ceaseless prayer and serving God's people with Christ's mighty words and works (for he had the gift of healing). The Homilies are a must read for anyone pursuing spiritual theology, especially with an eye for the gifts which the Eastern monastic intercessors might offer us.
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