EPEKTASIS
“Gregory’s concept of always progressing toward God echoed St. Paul’s exhortation about ‘stretching forth’—constantly pressing forward, as in a race, toward the prize of Christ (Philippians 3:13-14). Commenting on Paul’s attitude, Gregory wrote: ‘Paul does not let the graces he has obtained become the limit of his desire, but he continues to go on and on, never ceasing his ascent’ (Homilies on the Song of Songs).
“The ascent never stops because there is always more of God. And therefore the ascent constantly brings more and more joy, as we are transformed ‘from one degree of glory to another’ (2 Corinthians 3:18).”
https://wau.org/resources/article/st_gregory_of_nyssa/
—Gregory Roa, “St. Gregory of Nyssa: Charting Our Journey toward God,” The Word Among Us, 2023
About the first week of March last year, I came across this delightful
piece in The Word Among Us on Saint Gregory of Nyssa. It puts him in the
context of the Arian crisis in the Church, tremors of which we experience even
today. Overshadowed by the Carmelite giants of Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint
John of the Cross or even by visionaries like Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque or
Saint Faustina Kowalska, Saint Gregory made lasting contributions to mystical
theology. Today the via negativa has become practically enshrined as a
canon of the mystical way. And epektasis is now understood, rather
persuasively, as a defining feature of the beatific vision mirrored in the
inverse experience of the damned. The mysteries of the spiritual life astonish
us without end.
Public domain photo, cropped
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THE OPPOSITE OF EPEKTASIS
ReplyDeleteIf epektasis is continual growth in the knowledge and love of God in heaven, what is its opposite? Does epektasis have an antithesis in hell?
Because hell is the state of eternal separation of souls from God, the essential punishment of hell is the pain of loss, that is, the immortal and irrevocable loss of the vision of God—the knowledge of God and the love inseparably joined to it.
Private revelations have described the pain of sense in hell—for example, unending incineration of the flesh together with its constant regeneration, imprisonment in enclosed spaces, custom torments inflicted by demons, that is, punishments specific to particular sins that can never be repented and that will never be forgiven. They are secondary to the pain of loss.
In hell the soul is fixed in its choice of moral evil, so that it is unable to choose any moral good. The damned in hell are free to choose only evil.
We witness this incapacity to do any good in the demons—the evil angels condemned to hell—who haunt the world and who, according to the exorcists who deal with them, lie as a matter of nature, are solely motivated on earth to multiply the number of the damned, and are unable to give any form of praise, glory, or thanksgiving to God or to his holy ones.
In perfect inversion, the beatified in heaven, who are also free, exercise their freedom to choose only good. Because their wills are perfectly united to the infinite good, who is God, they unable to will evil.
We witness the continual goodness of the angels and saints when we receive on earth the fruits of their intercessory prayers. They are destined to do good throughout eternity.
Beatitude is manifestly a dynamic reality. Epektasis captures one aspect of this dynamism.
Damnation is also a dynamic reality, yet the opposite of beatitude. How might we conceive of this unspeakable reality?
Hell is a state of utter aloneness. The damned are unable to love God and anyone in and through God, including individual members of the company of the damned, even though each and every one of them may be mutually aware of their condemnation to hell.
Whereas the beatified love God eternally and relate to each and every one of the saved by loving them in God, the damned are unable to love—they cannot love themselves, for having knowingly chosen eternal separation from God, they are only able to turn their wills towards themselves in self-hatred.
Their wretchedness worsens endlessly as they exclaim their hatred towards God in despair. Indeed, visionaries tell us that the damned continually blaspheme God.
Every evil act they will compounds their defining misery, which is the pain of loss.
To be continued
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THE OPPOSITE OF EPEKTASIS
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If beatitude is continual growth in the knowledge and love of God, damnation would be its opposite—unending hatred of God, themselves, and everyone else. It is the unrelenting dereliction of entire and compounding aloneness. “Aloneness” here means separation from God, oneself, and everyone else in the most utter and perfect sense of the word.
“Hell is being alone, absolutely and forever, preferring a life of complete self-enclosure to any connection with or to another. Neither God, who is everywhere, nor the neighbor, who is next door, will the damned soul permit himself to engage. And because to be is always to be in relation to another, such an act of self-estrangement tears at the very heart of what it means to be human.
…“In Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov,” he writes, “Father Zossima says: ‘Fathers and teachers, I ponder, What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.’”
https://www.ncregister.com/blog/grace-freedom-necessary-nexus
—Regis Martin, “Hell Is Being Alone, Absolutely and Forever,” National Catholic Register (February 9, 2023)
Dante wrote about…Hell in his Inferno. In contrast to a place of pure fire, he describes it as a lake of ice.
…Instead of a place of burning, it is seen as a place of darkness, cold and despair. These images from Dante display the reality of eternal separation from God and the resulting extreme loneliness.
Separation from the source of all light and love should be terrifying. It means an eternity of being alone, away from humanity and away from all that is true, good and beautiful. Hell is the opposite of Heaven, where the blessed experience eternal communion, joy, love and friendship.
https://aleteia.org/2017/10/06/the-real-reason-hell-is-so-terrifying/
—Philip Kosloski, “The real reason Hell is so terrifying,” Aleteia.org, October 6, 2017
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