The third aspect highlights the offering and appreciation of the spiritual essence of understanding. Each of these elements manifests in three distinct ways to help the faithful recognize the divine principles that guided Moses, Joshua, and the inheritors of the promised land to offer God a plentiful yield.
The Sabbath embodies a state of serenity in the rational soul, which, through spiritual diligence, has cleansed itself from the marks of sin. It signifies liberation, allowing the rational soul to transcend physical desires through spiritual insight. Moreover, the sacred rest of the rational soul directs its focus entirely towards God in a fervent love, achieving tranquility through divine contemplation. Circumcision, as a symbolic act, represents the detachment of the soul from passionate inclinations towards the created world. This deeper circumcision signifies the complete rejection of the natural inclinations that draw the soul towards temporal existence.
Harvest denotes the collection and understanding by the rational soul, shaped by virtue, of the spiritual truths within creation. This understanding of God emerges mysteriously in the mind after profound contemplation of perceivable realities and is offered back to Him with reverence by those who honor their Creator, drawing glory from both visible and invisible creation. Yet, there exists a more profound harvest, one directly attributed to God. There is also a hidden circumcision and a secret Sabbath where God rested from His creative works, as conveyed in the scriptures: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Lk. 10:2); “circumcision, which is of the heart, in the spirit” (Rom. 2:29); and “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in that day He rested from all His works” (Gen. 2:3).
God’s harvest is the perfect communion and dwelling of the righteous in Him, which will be realized at the culmination of time. The circumcision of the heart signifies a complete cessation of natural mental and sensory activities, rededicating them to spiritual contemplation. Through the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, both body and soul are uplifted to a higher state of divinity.
The Sabbath of God represents the ultimate return of creation to its Creator. At this moment, God rests, withdrawing His natural energies from creatures, simultaneously ceasing His divine actions that transcend human understanding. In this light, it is conceivable that God may also release the natural energies in each being, allowing them to align their own existence with Him through the reception of His divine energy.
Those devoted to faith should contemplate which of His creations God intentionally initiated and which are eternal truths. If God ceased from His works, then it follows He did not rest from those that are eternal. Thus, the creatures whose existence began in time are beings that spring from non-being, given life after the eternal God had already existed. Conversely, some creatures exist outside of time and do not derive their essence from created beginnings, but partake in the divine perfection through grace. These include virtues and concepts such as goodness, life, immortality, simplicity, and immutability, which are inherently timeless and precede all finite creation.
God stands infinitely apart from all beings, whether they are contiguous or potential. Every entity that embodies being is a creation of God, possessing a divine essence brought into the world by His grace. All that is immortal and embodies life, all saints and holiness, all virtues and goodness—all are undoubtedly God's creations. Some were initiated in temporal existence, while others transcend time altogether; without virtues and divine truths, the very nature of God would be absent.
As conveyed in Scripture, the sixth day marks the completion of the natural creation, the seventh day signifies the cessation of time, and the eighth day reveals the dispensation of the eternal and the divine. The individual who observes the sixth day merely through the law, suppressing personal passions, embarks towards spiritual enlightenment, marking a form of Sabbath through the removal of passions. Conversely, the one who crosses the Jordan, moving beyond mere passivity, may inherit deeper virtues.
By embracing the sixth day through the lens of the Gospel, one eradicates initial sinful tendencies, attaining a state devoid of corruption through virtue, while observing the Sabbath in the purity of thought and imagination. Crossing the Jordan elevates the individual into a realm of divine understanding, where the mind, constructed as a sacred edifice, becomes the dwelling of God in the Spirit.
THEOSIS