In sextum Psalmum

Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, on the Sixth Psalm, concerning the Eighth. Those who proceed from power to power according to the prophetic blessing and arrange the good ascents in their own hearts, when they grasp some good thought, are led by that thought to a higher thought, through which the soul makes its ascent to the height. And thus, always extending themselves to what lies ahead, they will never cease from the good ascent, being always guided through the lofty thoughts to the understanding of what is above them. I have said these things, brothers, to you, attending to the meaning of the sixth of the Psalms and seeing the necessary sequence of the order, how after the one concerning inheritance the discourse about the eighth was added for us. Surely you are not ignorant of the mystery of the eighth. For it is not likely that the understanding of some should be carried away toward Jewish notions; those who bring down the magnificence of the mystery of the eighth to the unseemly parts of our body speak of the law of circumcision and the purification after childbirth and such things as being indicated by the number eight. But we, having been taught by the great Paul that the law is spiritual, even if in the laws mentioned this number appears in legislation, both for the male the circumcision and for the woman the sacrifice for purification, we neither reject the law nor receive it in a lowly manner, knowing that truly by the eighth the true circumcision takes place, effected by the stone knife.

You certainly understand through the rock that cuts the unclean the rock itself, which is Christ, that is, the Word of truth, and that then the defiling flow of the affairs of life ceases, when human life is transformed toward the more divine. But so that the meaning in such matters might become clear to all, I will set forth the account more clearly, as best I can. The time of this life was completed in the first creation of the world through a single week of days. For the creation of beings began from the first day, and on the seventh day the limit of creation concluded together with it. For there came to be one day, it says, in which the first things came to be; and thus on the second day the second things, and so on up to the sixth, all things. And the seventh day, having become the limit of creation, circumscribed within itself the time that extended along with the construction of the world. Therefore, just as no other heaven came into being after that, nor was any other part of the world added to those that came into being from the beginning, but creation stood by itself, remaining without need and undiminished in its own measures, so also no other time came into being besides that which was revealed together with the preparation of the world, but the nature of time was bounded by the week of days.

And for this reason, when we measure time by days, beginning from the one and closing the count with the seventh, we again return to the one, always through the cycle of weeks measuring the whole interval of time, until, when the moving things have passed and the flowing motion of the world has ceased, as the apostle says, the things that are no longer shaken come, which change and alteration no longer touch, that creation remaining always in the same way in the same state for the subsequent ages, in which the true circumcision of human nature takes place in the removal of bodily life and the true cleansing from true filth. The filth of a human being is sin, which is born together with human nature (for "my mother conceived me in sins"), which the one who has performed the cleansing of our sins then completely purifies, consuming from the nature of beings everything that is bloody and foul and uncircumcised. And thus we receive the law concerning the eighth, which cleanses and circumcises, because when the hebdomadal time has ceased, an eighth day will come after the seventh, called eighth because it comes after the seventh, but no longer receiving the succession of number upon itself. For it remains one continuously, never divided by nocturnal darkness. For another sun makes it, which radiates the true light.

Once it has dawned upon us, as the Apostle says, it no longer hides in the west, but, having embraced everything with its own illuminating power, it produces a continuous and unceasing light for those who are worthy, and, as the word in the Gospel says, it makes those who partake of that light into other suns, for then the righteous will shine like the sun. Since, then, the preceding psalm was composed concerning the one who inherits, and the inheritance is reserved for the worthy in the eighth, and in this also the just judgment of God takes place, assigning to each according to merit, the prophet fittingly introduced the discourse concerning repentance together with the mention of the eighth. For who, upon recalling the fearful judgment of Christ, is not immediately torn in his own conscience and seized with fear and anguish, even if he happens to have lived his life conscious of having done better? But still, looking at the precision of the judgment, in which even the slightest oversights are brought to examination, he is utterly terrified by the expectation of dreadful things, not knowing to what end the outcome of the judgment will lead for him. For this reason, having taken those fearful punishments before his eyes—that Gehenna, the dark fire, and the unceasing worm of conscience that always gnaws at the soul through shame and renews the pains by the memory of things badly lived—he already becomes a suppliant of God, begging not to be handed over to that wrath for examination, nor to have the punishment for his offenses brought upon him through that anger.

For those condemned to the bitter discipline of that terrible punishment, judgment is thought to be a work of wrath and anger. And therefore, as if already in the midst of painful things, he imitates the cries of those in pain, for whom what is brought against the impious for punishment seems to be wrath and anger. He says, then, that I do not await that from that wrath, through terrible scourges, the revelation of my hidden things should come to me, but I anticipate by confession the necessity arising from that anger. For what pain does in those who are scourged, making the hidden things of their lawlessness manifest against their will, this the choice does of itself, scourging and punishing itself through repentance, and making public the sin concealed in the hidden places. Having said, then, that neither reprove me with your wrath, nor discipline me with your anger, he accordingly takes refuge in mercy, attributing the cause of evil not so much to choice as to the weakness of nature: Heal me, who have fallen into evils, with mercy; for I came to the passion from weakness. And what is the weakness? My bones were dislocated and dissolved from their mutual harmony. And by bones he means the prudent reasonings that support the soul: Heal me, Lord, for my bones have been disturbed. And he interprets the riddle of the speech by what he added to what was said: that my soul was greatly disturbed.

Why then does he delay the healing, he says, O Lord? How long do you not bring mercy? Do you not see the brevity of human life? Anticipate with the turning of my soul the necessity of our life; lest death overtake and every thought of remedy be idle. For in death there will no longer be one who, through the memory of God, can heal the disease that has arisen in him from wickedness; because on earth confession has power, but in Hades this is not so. Then, as if someone said, How do you call upon mercy for the healing of transgressions? In what way have you propitiated the divine? He speaks thus: I have labored in my groaning, and I will wash away the bed of sin with the water of tears. Why this? Because, he says, my eye was disturbed in wrath, and because of this I became old and moldy, the wrath from my enemies having caused putrefaction in my soul. If wrath alone instills such fear in the one who has transgressed through it, how much more likely is it that those who have recognized in their own life not only the passions from wrath, but also all that desire, greed, pride, ambition, envy, and the whole swarm of human evils produce, fall into despair of saving hope? Therefore, turning his speech to the manifold enemies, he says, Depart from me, all who work lawlessness. And he shows in the following discourse the good hope of the success that comes to us from repentance.

For immediately he both brought words of repentance to God and, having come to an awareness of God’s benevolence toward him, he publicizes the grace and exults in the gift, saying, The Lord heard the voice of my supplication; the Lord accepted my prayer. So that the good that came to him from repentance might remain with him perpetually and life might not again require a second repentance, he prays that his enemies be turned away, scourged by shame. For he who is ashamed at the undertaking of evil, using shame as a pedagogue to prevent being carried away again by the same things, will abstain from experience of similar things in future time. This, then, is the sequence of the good ascent: the fourth psalm distinguished the immaterial good from the bodily and more fleshly; the fifth prayed for the inheritance of such a good; the sixth indicated the time of the inheritance, making mention of the eighth; the eighth revealed the fear of judgment; judgment counseled us sinners to anticipate the terrors by repentance; then repentance, when brought to God in accordance with reason, announced the profit that comes to us from it, saying that The Lord heard the voice of him who turns to him with tears. This having happened, so that the good might remain unaltered for us in future time, the prophet prays that the annihilation of enemy thoughts be brought about through shame. For it is not possible for an enemy and lawless thought to be extinguished otherwise, unless shame produces its annihilation.

For a chasm fixed in depth is formed by the shame of evil living, which through itself walls off the man’s sin. Let us say, then, Let all my enemies be put to shame and be greatly disgraced. And enemies are clearly the household ones that issue from the heart and defile the man; when they have quickly turned away in shame, the hope of glory that does not end in shame will succeed us by the grace of the Lord, to whom is glory for the ages. Amen.