The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite — trans. John Parker

tlie proselyte, as it were, of his former life, and discarding to the very utmost the habits within that life, makes him stand naked and barefoot, looking away towards the west, whilst he spurns, by the aversion of his hands, the participations in the gloomy baseness, and breathes out, as it were, the habit of dissimilarity which he had acquired, and professes the entire renunciation of everything contrary to the Divine likeness. When the man has thus become invincible and separate from evil, it turns him towards the east, declaring clearly that his position and recovery will be purely in the Divine Light, in the complete separation from baseness ; and receiving his sacred promises of entire consort with the One, since he has become uniform through love of the truth. Yet it is pretty evident, as I think, to those versed in Hierarchical matters, that things intellectual^ acquire the unchangeableness of the Godlike habit, by continuous and persistent struggles towards one ^'^, and by the entire destruction and annilnlation of

1 TO »©epa. m John xvii. 21.

on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. 85 things contrary. For it is necessary that a man should not only depart from every kind of baseness, but he must be also bravely obdurate and ever fearless against the baneful submission to it. Nor must he, at any time, become remiss in his sacred love of the truth, but with all his power persistently and perpetually be elevated towards it, always religiously pursuing his upward course, to the more perfect mysteries of the Godhead.

Section VI.

Now you may see the distinct illustrations of these things in the religious rites performed by the Hierarch. For the Godlike Hierarch starts with the holy anointing, and the Priests under him complete the Divine service of the Chrism, summoning in type the man initiated to the holy contests, within, which he is placed under Christ as Umpire : since, as God, He is Institutor of the awards of contest, and as wise, He placed its laws, and as generous, the prizes suitable to the victors ". And this is yet more Divine, since as good. He devotedly entered the lists with them, contending, on behalf of their freedom ^ and victory, for their power over death ^ and destruction ^1, he who is being Jnitiated will enter the contests, as those of God, rejoicing, and abides by the regulations of the Wise, and contends according to them, without transgression, holding n I Cor. ii. 9. ° Ps. Ixxxviii. 5.

P 2 Tim. i. 10. <l Ps. xvi. lo.

who is being Jnitiated will enter the contests, as those of God, rejoicing, and abides by the regulations of the Wise, and contends according to them, without transgression, holding n I Cor. ii. 9. ° Ps. Ixxxviii. 5.

P 2 Tim. i. 10. <l Ps. xvi. lo.

86 Dionysius the Areopagite fast the hope of the beautiful rewards, as being enrolled under a good Lord and Leader of the awards : and when after following: in the Divine footsteps of the first of athletes, through goodness, he has overthrown, in his struggles after the Divine example, the energies and impulses opposed to his deification, he dies with Christ — to speak mystically — to sin, in Baptism.

Section VIL

And consider attentively, I pray, with what appropriateness the holy symbols are presented. For since death is with us not an annihilation of being, as others surmise, but the separating of things united, leading to that which is invisible to us, the soul indeed becoming invisible through deprivation of the body, and the bod}^, through being buried in earth in consequence of one of its bodily changes, becoming invisible to human ken, appropriately, the whole covering by water would be taken as an image of death, and the invisible tomb. The symbolical teaching, then, reveals in mystery that the man baptized according to religious rites, imitates, so far as Divine imitation is attainable to men, by the tliree immersions in the water, the supremely Divine death of the Life-giving Jesus, Who spent three days^' and three nights in the tomb, in Whom, according to the mystical and secret teaching of the sacred text, the Prince of the world found nothinoj ^.

^ TptrjfjLfpovvKTOv racpris. - ^ John xiv. 30.

on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. 87

Section VIII.

Next, they throw garments, white as light, over the man initiated. For by his manly and Godlike insensibility to contrary passions, and by his persistent inclination towards the One, the unadorned is adorned, and the shapeless takes shape, being made brilliant by his luminous life.

But the perfecting unction of the Muron makes the man initiated of good odour, for the holy perfecting of the Divine birth unites those who have been perfected to the supremely Divine Spirit. Now the * overshadowing which makes intelligibly of a good savour, and perfect, as being most unutterable, I leave to the "mental consciousness of those who are deemed worthy of the sacred and deifying participation of the Holy Spirit within their mind.

Spirit. Now the * overshadowing which makes intelligibly of a good savour, and perfect, as being most unutterable, I leave to the "mental consciousness of those who are deemed worthy of the sacred and deifying participation of the Holy Spirit within their mind.

At the conclusion of all, the Hierarch calls the man initiated to the most Holy Eucharist, and imparts to him the communion of the perfecting mysteries.

CAPUT III.

/. Concerning things acconplished in the Synaxis.

Courage, then, since we have made mention of this (Eucharist) which we may not pass over to celebrate any other Hierarchical function in preference to it. For according to our illustrious

' iirKpolT-qais. ^ iiriyvwuai vofpws.

88 Dionysiiis the Areopagite

Leader, it is ^ " initiation of initiations," and one must first lay down the Divine description of it, before the rest, from the inspired and hierarchical science of the Oracles, and then be borne by the supremely Divine Spirit to its sacred contemplation. First, let us reverently consider this ; for what reason that, which is common also to the other Hierarchical initiations, is pre-eminently attributed to it, beyond the rest; and it is uniquely called, " Communion and Synaxis," when each consecrating function both collects our divided lives into uniform deification, and gives communion and union with the One, by the Godlike folding together of our diversities. Now we affirm that the Perfecting by the communications of the other Hierarchical symbols springs from the supremely Divine and perfecting gifts of it. For it scarcely ever happens, that any Hierarchical initiation is completed w^ithout the most Divine Eucharist, as head of the things done in each, ministering the collecting of the person initiated to the One, and comj)leting his communion with God, by the Divinely transmitted gift of the perfecting mysteries. If, then, each of the Hierarchical initiations, being indeed incomplete, will not make perfect our communion and our gathering to the One, even its being initiation is precluded on account of the lack of completeness. Now since the imparting of the supremely Divine mysteries to the man initiated is the head and tail of every initiation, naturally then the Hier* on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. 89 archical judgment hit upon an appellation proper to it, from the truth of the facts. Thus, for instance, with regard to the holy initiation of the Divine birth ; since it imparts first-Light, and is head of all the Divine illuminations, we celebrate the true appellation from the enlightening effected.