The Reward of the Seeking Is the Seeking Itself: Preaching Gregory of Nyssa

August 07, 2011 by Daniel Harrell

Continued from Page 2

"Evil exists by being chosen," Gregory insisted. "It comes into existence when we choose it. Evil does not exist anywhere in and of itself apart from deliberate choice."

Since a fellowship of light with darkness is impossible and inconsistent, a person who possesses both of these opposites becomes his own enemy. Being divided between virtue and vice, a battle line of opposing armies is drawn up within. Just as it is impossible for two enemies both to be victors over the other—for the victory of one certainly causes the death of the adversary—so also in this civil war brought about by a mixed life it is impossible for the better army to conquer except through the total and absolute destruction of the other.

Imitating Christ may be the meaning of Christianity, but that does not mean it's an easy thing to do. All of us constantly find ourselves in those places where we know what imitating Christ looks like—loving God with all of our heart, loving our neighbor, loving our enemy; we know what's right, we just don't do it. We can't forget what is behind because it's too much a part of the present. How do we keep pressing on toward becoming the people we already are in Christ when our Christianity looks so pathetic?

It's not merely a matter of doing better. Besides, doing better mostly just reinforces virtues already present, it never works to reform your vices. True perfection in Christ does not result from our successful efforts at righteousness, but from the collapse of such efforts and from recognizing the absolute necessity for that collapse. It is only once our futile efforts fail that we realize once again how it is that all we do depends on God.

We shall be blessed with clear vision if we keep our eyes fixed on Christ for he is our head, and in him there is no shadow of evil. As no darkness can be seen by anyone surrounded by light, so no trivialities can capture the attention of anyone who has their eyes on Christ. The one who keeps his eyes upon the head and the origin of the whole universe has them on virtue in all its perfection; on truth, on justice, on immortality and on everything else that is good, for Christ is goodness itself.

Scarcely anything is known of the latter years of Gregory of Nyssa's life. The last record we have of him is that he was present at a synod in Constantinople. It was there Gregory delivered his final sermon. Hear in it again the echoes of Philippians 3:

If someone is making a journey in the middle of the day, when the sun with its hot rays scorches the head and by its heat dries up everything liquid in the body, and under one's feet is the hard earth which is difficult for walking and waterless; and then such a person encounters a spring with splendid, transparent, pleasing, and refreshing streams pouring out abundantly—will that same person sit down by the water and begin to reason about its nature, seeking out from whence it comes, whether is it a certain moisture which exists in the depths of the earth that comes to the surface under pressure and becomes water, or is it canals going through long desert places that discharge water as soon as they find an opening for themselves? Will this person not rather, saying farewell to all rational deliberations, bend down his head to the stream and press his lips to it, quench his thirst, refresh his tongue, satisfy his desire, and give thanks to the One Who gave this grace? Therefore, may you emulate this thirsting one.

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About Daniel Harrell

Daniel M. Harrell is Senior Minister of The Colonial Church, Edina, MN and author of How To Be Perfect: One Church's Audacious Experiment in Living the Old Testament Book of Leviticus (FaithWords, 2011). Follow him via Twitter, Facebook, or at his blog and website.

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