If you do not set your mind on things above, you will not ascend to the things above, there “where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” But if you do not ascend there, where Christ is at the right hand of God, then consider, earthborn man, what will become of you. The visible heaven and earth will pass away. Outside the heavenly kingdom of Christ nothing will remain except Hades. Behold how the earth beneath you collapses and Hades opens. There is no other means of salvation than to cling with all your strength to what is above. We must learn to “set our mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” Learn to set one’s mind! Let no one be frightened by this demand. Let no one think that he is being subjected to the many difficulties joined to acquiring what on earth is called wisdom. Among these difficulties must be counted the very instruments of worldly wisdom: many teachers contradicting one another, and many books. These often act on both eye and mind only as harmful dust. Do not be afraid. Learning to think according to the Gospel is not the same as learning worldly wisdom. The heavenly mind does not depend so much on outward means. It does not require so many helps. It is not hedged about with difficulties as worldly wisdom is. Yet it does use outward means, does not reject helps, and is not exempt from difficulties of its own kind. The Apostle who wrote to us the commandment to set our mind on things above used the means and helps of earthly wisdom. He was “brought up at the feet of the learned Gamaliel.” But afterward he rejected all this, together with other advantages, as “loss” and “refuse,” “for the surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus,” and “that he might gain Christ” (Phil 3:7-8). Therefore he rose in the heavenly mind even while he rejected the means and helps of earthly wisdom. The other Apostles learned only to mend fishermen’s nets, not to untangle learned arguments from books. Yet this did not hinder them from advancing in the heavenly mind for themselves, and from becoming teachers of it even for the sages. So it was also after the Apostles. Basil the Great acquired the wisdom of Athens and handed it over as a servant to the mind of the Gospel. Arsenius, also called Great, possessed Greek and Roman learning. Yet he found himself ignorant enough, and an uneducated Egyptian elder learned enough, that he might learn from him the rudiments of spiritual wisdom. Thus the heavenly mind, though still lofty for sages, is also simple enough for babes. For Thou, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them unto babes” (Mt 11:25). What then does it mean to set one’s mind on things above? I repeat: if you do not understand this, it is evident that you do not do it. If you do not set your mind on things above, then there is no doubt that you set your mind on earthly things. Therefore you already know this. What do you do when you set your mind on the earthly? For example, what do you do when you devise how to become rich? You desire riches. You often think about them. You invent means for acquiring and increasing them. You actually use these means. Whatever you do, you do with the intention of acquiring and increasing riches. You place your welfare in possessing riches. By this example one may say generally that to set one’s mind on earthly things means to desire the earthly, think of the earthly, do earthly things, intend the earthly, and place one’s welfare in the earthly. Change the object, and it will appear what it means to set one’s mind on things above. It means to desire what is above, that is, what is heavenly, or otherwise spiritual and divine. It means to think of the heavenly, to do heavenly things, or, according to the Gospel saying, “to do the works of God” (Jn 6:28). It means to intend the heavenly and place blessedness in the heavenly. How difficult, some will think. In order to have the heavenly in thoughts, desires, and works, an earthly man must change his deeds, his desires, and even his thoughts. I do not dispute that this is necessary, or that it is not altogether easy. But what is to be done? To ascend a height is harder than to fall into an abyss. Is it therefore better to fall into the abyss? It is difficult to set one’s mind on things above. But is it not also difficult to set one’s mind on earthly things? For example, is the chosen mindset easy for a covetous man? He labors day and night. He deprives himself of food and rest. Sometimes he leaves home. He withdraws from those dear to his heart. He crosses dry land. He launches into the sea. He descends into the depths of the earth. He is tormented now by hunger for acquisition, now by care to preserve, now by fear of possible loss, or by despair over actual loss. If the thought of becoming rich on earth with corruptible treasure, for a little time, makes one endure such hardships, is the thought of acquiring heavenly treasure not worth an ascetic struggle? Is incorruptible treasure forever not worth it? It is difficult for an earthly man to set his mind on things above. Yet does not a grain of wheat, buried in the earth at your feet, set its mind on things above in its own manner? It opens. It breaks upward through the earth with its sprout, struggling against the earth’s weight and its own. It grows higher and higher. Striving ceaselessly upward, it blossoms and bears fruit. Do you think that an earthly man has been given less strength than a grain of wheat to arise into the higher realm according to his kind? It is difficult for an earthly man to set his mind on things above. But are you wholly earthly, O man? Is man properly that which is taken from the earth and returns to the earth? Is this not only your garment, or, if you will, your prison? You yourself, the true man, are the breath of life that proceeded from the mouth of God Himself. For it is written: “He breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7). Thus, if it is difficult for you as earthly, is it not easy for you as heavenly to set your mind on things above? Is it hard for fire to go upward, where its natural realm lies? Is it hard for a stone to fall to the earth, where it was born? Is it hard for the human spirit to strive toward the things above and draw near to the Most High? If the fall of the old Adam turned man’s striving away from the things above toward the lower and nether regions, did not the Resurrection and Ascension of the new Adam, the God-man, Jesus Christ, restore this striving with double power to its first direction? Did it not set up a ladder to heaven? Did not the descent of the Holy Spirit kindle in mankind a spiritually burning fire? Does this fire not naturally go upward and draw upward that in which it dwells? After this, is it still difficult to set one’s mind on things above, even if deeds, desires, and thoughts must be changed for this? But how can one leave earthly deeds, desires, and thoughts, when earthly things surround us and are necessary for earthly life? Watch yourself, how you leave what is above for earthly thinking, and you will find a very simple way to leave the earthly for the heavenly. You shorten for yourself the time of works of piety, in order to have more time for worldly affairs. Sometimes you go to the temple of God, yet meanwhile you still think of what occupies you at home. Sometimes, even while you stand bodily in the temple of prayer, your thought departs where earthly thinking or the passion ruling in you draws it. Your very spiritual exercises are damaged by earthly recollections coming into their midst. Act in the opposite way. Do the works necessary for earthly life, but try not to extend them beyond necessity. As far as possible, free yourself from this labor for the liberty of works of piety. Do not only, while standing before God in the temple, restrain your thought from turning aside to earthly things. Outside the temple also, when necessity occupies you with earthly things, draw your thought and desire away from them and raise them to heaven and to God. When you go to worldly work, remember God and ask His blessing and help. When you enter into rest from this work, remember God and thank Him for His help in labor and for the gift of rest. Thus one may join spiritual thought to every earthly occupation that is not contrary to the law of God. One may, so to speak, turn everything earthly and visible into what is heavenly and spiritual. “When thou lookest at the sun,” teaches Saint Macarius, “seek the true Sun, for thou art blind. When thou stretchest thy gaze toward the light, turn thence with thine eyes toward thy soul, and see whether thou hast in it the true and good Light, that is, the Lord” (Homily 33). May the light of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten us. May His Spirit strengthen us. May following His word and His life raise each of us to the heavenly mind on earth, and thereby to the blessed vision of Him in heaven, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Amen.
THEOSIS