Homily for the Sunday of Saint Gregory Palamas
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
I congratulate you all on the feast day of Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, whose memory, since the 14th century, the Church has celebrated on this day, the second Sunday of Great Lent. Saint Gregory Palamas is a singer of the Divine Light, as the Holy Church calls him. Saint Gregory came from a very noble family — his father was a senator and advisor to the emperor. Gregory's father was always distinguished by his love for the Jesus Prayer. He was married and had three children, yet he always immersed his mind in the vision of God and Holy Scripture. Gregory's life recounts how his father, during a senate meeting, would often become so immersed in the Jesus Prayer that he failed to hear what the emperor was saying. And when the emperor asked Senator Andronikos what he thought of the matter, he would ask again, "What was the matter?" The Emperor responded, "He's praying again!" The Emperor greatly valued and loved Senator Andronikos, as he gave wise and sound advice.
This pious father fathered a pious son, Gregory. From childhood, he possessed a truly phenomenal memory. Later, on Mount Athos, he memorized the entire Bible. Saint Gregory mastered the basics of education very quickly and completed school at the age of fourteen. He was then expected to graduate from the Imperial University and enter the service of the emperor, who wanted to make him one of his ministers. But Saint Gregory decided otherwise. He left home without permission and went to Mount Athos, where, at the age of twenty, he became a monk. At thirty, he was ordained a priest. Gregory studied with the great teachers of the time and was acquainted with Gregory of Sinai and other great saints.
Saint Gregory, as his life attests, first saw God at the age of twenty-five, and from then on the vision of the Divine Light never left him. On Mount Athos, he encountered a terrifying phenomenon. At that time, the West had already fallen away from Orthodoxy, and the Pope sought to subjugate the Orthodox Church not on the basis of truth, as the Church had always demanded, but on the basis of simple obedience. For this purpose, a Calabrian monk named Barlaam was sent to Mount Athos.* He brought the pope's proposal — a union between East and West, under which the East would submit to the heretical pope. Barlaam, seeing that there was no way to defeat Orthodoxy, decided to take a cunning stance and pose as its defender. He officially renounced heresy, converted to Orthodoxy, and even wrote a treatise titled "Against the Latins," in which he denounced them for their incorrect teaching on the Holy Spirit.
But at the same time, he spread a teaching now officially called Nominalism: man can only know individual objects, but cannot comprehend the truth hidden behind them. This heresy held that God is unknowable and divine power and grace cannot be attained. Barlaam, after speaking with an elder on Mount Athos, learned how the Jesus Prayer was performed there, using certain techniques to introduce the nous into the heart, and accused the entire Athonite monastic community of heresy. Thus, thanks to Barlaam, unrest began in the Church. Archbishop Gregory Palamas of Thessaloniki opposed him with his great work, "Triad in Defense of Sacred Hesychasm," in which he argued that physical prayer is beneficial, does not contradict anything, and is based on Holy Scripture. We know how the Prophet Elijah prayed — with his head bowed and placed on his knees to achieve maximum concentration.
Gregory Palamas also defended the idea that God can be seen in this life, something Barlaam denied. God can be seen in His uncreated radiance, in His glory, which appeared in the Tabernacle (Book of Exodus), when the pillar of fire stood over it. This was a real manifestation of God. God also appeared on Mount Sinai. One can see God as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob saw Him; God even visited them. God can be seen not by His essence, but by His energies or actions, by His glory. And any Christian can see Him, not sometime later, but right now, in this life — this is what Gregory Palamas defended.
He argued that God's incomprehensibility concerns only His essence. It is impossible to comprehend how God lives within Himself, but it is possible to see how God manifests Himself, to see God Himself face to face. Our inner life is also invisible to everyone, but we reveal it by sharing ourselves with others. The external manifestation of God, called grace, not created by God's energy, His glory, power, and might, is attainable by people and becomes part of their nature. Divine grace enters the human personality. Thus, God inhabits people, begins to guide and act within them, and begins to manifest His divine life in them. Thus, people become Gods by grace, becoming superhumans, whom we call saints. A saint is not simply a good person; he is a person in whom the Divine life is active.
Controversy arose over the teachings of Gregory Palamas, but he was vindicated by the Synod of Constantinople, while Barlaam was condemned and excommunicated. He then left for Rome and became a Catholic cardinal. Soon, a new patriarch was elected in Constantinople, sympathetic to the heretics. He attempted to depose Gregory Palamas, and the Saint was imprisoned. But the Lord did not abandon Gregory, and a new synod again vindicated Saint Gregory and deposed the heretical patriarch. Gregory Palamas's teachings were upheld by three synods, which proclaimed the dogma of the Church — "The uncreated Divine Light, attainable by men." This is a very important dogma, proclaiming what we should strive for and how we can access the sources of life within ourselves. What do we receive in the mysteries? If we receive some created force, as Barlaam and his disciple Akindynos taught, then we will never meet God; we become autonomous, godless beings for whom God is something unattainable. It follows that no connection between God and man is possible.
But Saint Gregory, based on Scripture, the teachings of the Church, his own experience, and the experience of the saints with whom he interacted, confirmed that it is possible to see God, and not just see Him, but to live with Him, His life, His power. Man can overcome his passions with the uncreated power of God, with God's grace, with the glory eternally co-existent with the Holy Trinity, which eternally flows from the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit, which illuminates the angelic realms, which sustains the existence of the entire world, which was poured out upon us and enters us through the incarnation of God the Son. And with this power, we can conquer evil. This power is God, who acts within us. This understanding, championed by Saint Gregory, is the core of all Christianity, for if we cannot personally see God, then Christianity is useless; if we cannot receive His own life from God, then Christianity is useless. In the Church, the reality of God is tangible, verifiable, and attainable. There isn't a single Christian in the world who lives the Christian life and doesn't feel at least a little of the Divine touch. When a person confesses, sin is washed away precisely by this uncreated Power of God. We touch a pre-temporal power. Atheism arose in the West because, thanks to the false doctrine of the Holy Spirit, Christians began to teach that grace is created, effectively saying that God is cut off from people and inaccessible. But the Orthodox Church has always known that God acts within man and that He is accessible to Christians.
Having defended this teaching, Saint Gregory was returning to Thessaloniki and was captured en route by Muslim Turks. He preached Orthodoxy to Muslims and successfully debated Muslim leaders (imams). His works became the foundation for preaching Christianity to Muslims in Byzantium. Saint Gregory then returned to his see in Thessaloniki, where he denounced the rich and urged them to support the poor rather than rob them, for which the rich nearly drove him out of the city. And then the time came for him to depart to another world. He was still quite young — forty-seven years old — but he fell ill with intestinal cancer. The illness was quite severe, but when the last day of the Saint's life arrived, his disciples gathered around him and saw him rejoicing and exulting, despite all the pain of his cancer. This was because he felt the radiance of God within himself; he saw Him. His dying words were these: "To the things on high! To the Highest! To the Light!" And with these words, his soul left his body, and instantly the uncreated Light shone above his body, and for the entire day his entire room glowed. Thus, the uncreated Light, the teaching of which Saint Gregory defended, glorified him!
As the Lord said: “I will glorify those who glorify Me, but those who dishonor Me will be put to shame” (1 Samuel 2:30).
Saint Gregory ascended to Heaven and now lives in Paradise. His teachings gave rise to a vast movement of silent hesychasts, who strive to cleanse their souls from all filthiness of sin. One such hesychast was Saint Sergius of Radonezh, a spiritual disciple and contemporary of Gregory Palamas. Thanks to Saint Gregory, the teaching of the transfiguration of man, of victory over death through the uncreated power of God, transformed and created both Russia and other Christian nations, who were given the strength to overcome both the Turkish and Mongol yoke and to create conditions on earth for the growth of holiness. Saint Gregory was canonized eight years after his death. Countless miracles continue to flow from his relics. His relics are now housed in the cathedral built in his honor in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Let us remember today what we are called to. Fasting is not for dieting, but for cleansing ourselves and embracing the Divine radiance, for becoming God by grace, for rising above all and achieving deification, so that the Light of Christ's transfiguration may transform us too!
May the Lord God help us in all this through the prayers of Gregory Palamas!
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
* Calabria is an administrative region in Italy. It is divided into five provinces: three historical ones, Reggio Calabria, Cosenza, and Catanzaro, and two modern ones, Crotone and Vibo Valentia. The capital of Calabria is Catanzaro, which is also the center of the province of the same name.
