Section LXXXII

And indeed the Savior, in the words of Theophilus¹,

having once entered into the Holy of Holies, ἄδειαν τοῖς βουλομένοις δέδωκεν, imparted to each one who wills the free faculty of entering.

Who, therefore, do not enter, and who remain outside? Only those, answers Dionysius of Alexandria², who imitate the Synagogue,

which does not will to believe, ἡ περιλελυμένη ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ νυμφίου, καὶ τῷ Βαραββᾷ ἑαυτὴν περιπλέξασα, which withdrew itself from the true Bridegroom and entwined itself with Barabbas.

Only those, the same man adds³,

whom God⁴ reproves as those who have refused to be participants in wisdom.

For God, the fountain and author of wisdom, Serapion writes⁵,

knocks, and if the mind delays and gives itself to sleep, he utters the voice⁶: “Open to me, my sister, my bride, for my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night.” He says these things, ἵνα τὴν φιλίαν δείξῃ, καὶ τὴν κηδεμονίαν σημάνῃ, that he may declare friendship and signify provident care; and when he is outside he endures and does not depart, ἕως ἂν τῇ συνεχείᾳ τῆς αἰτήσεως καὶ τῆς κρούσεως ὑπανοίξῃ ἑαυτὴν ἡ διάνοια, τόπον τῷ κρούοντι παρέχουσα, until through the continuity of the petition and the knocking the mind opens itself, furnishing a place to him who knocks.

His clemency, says Orsiesius, the Tabennesiot abbot⁷,

is so great that he provokes us to salvation, and therefore sustains and delays, that we may awaken from heavy sleep and, converted to better things, may not be handed over to torments.

This is supremely dear to God; whence, according to the testimony of Anthony the Great⁸,

moved in his inward parts for us, by his own goodness he willed

to convert us to that beginning without end and made a visitation of creatures, not sparing himself for the salvation of us all. For he delivered himself for our sins; and indeed our iniquities humbled him, but⁹ by his bruise we have all been healed. For by the word of his power he gathered us from all regions, from the end of the earth even to the furthest part of the world, teaching that we are members of one another… He made his Angels minister to us, commanded his own Prophets to prophesy, and also ordered his Apostles to evangelize us. But this is more distinguished than all the rest: that he made his Only-begotten assume the form of a servant for us.

All these things, most numerous in number and most noble in dignity, return to this¹⁰:

That God continually made a visitation of his creatures, manifesting his own goodness.

For he visited them ἐμμέσως, mediately, when he bound by benefits¹¹ τοὺς πάντων τῶν ἐν κόσμῳ κίονας, the pillars of the whole world¹²; but he visited them, and further proceeds to visit them ἀμέσως, immediately, because¹³ great everywhere is the mercy of God; because¹⁴ our God and Lord Jesus Christ did not cease to manifest and enlarge his faith throughout the whole world as the one remedy of our salvation; and because it ought to remain fixed and established¹⁵ that

τὸν κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐνανθρωπήσαντα δι᾽ ἡμᾶς, ἵνα πᾶσαν μὲν ἁμαρτίαν ἐκκόψῃ, ἐφόδια δὲ τῆς εἰς αἰώνιον ζωὴν εἰσόδου ἡμῖν καταθῆται, our Lord Jesus Christ was made man for our sake in order that he might utterly cut away all sin and prepare for us provisions for the journey of entering eternal life.