Thereafter, we enter the realm of the new creation and restored nature, where the air and the climate, according to our blessed elder, are different. The proprietors of this state become sons of the new age, according to Saint Makarius, and come to develop different kind of senses. “What is mortal is swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 5, 4). Our senses are completely revived so that they no longer behave irrationally but only as “in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness” (Romans 6, 19). Let no one think, however, that this luxury comes handy and effortlessly to anyone, but only after his victory over a tough trial of being patient in the face of temptation, through which the divine grace tests and tempts the fighters. “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on rock and gave me a firm place to stand” (Psalm 40, 1-2). This saying comes from David’s psalms, who wishing to declare the hyperbolic degree of something, repeats the word “ypomenon ypemeina”( I waited patiently): I have excelled myself in the state of perseverance. This is what draws the Lord’s attention. He subsequently “lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire”. These are the deprivations and the desperation which follow harsh temptations. Then, “He set my feet on rock and gave me a firm place to stand”. “The rock” on which He set his feet is the acquired state of freedom. “The firm place” is the virtue of discernment. This is how the “old self” is being renewed. Soon, those who receive Christ with faith, conceive the hitherto strangeness of his teaching as the absolute truth. Man recognizes his worthlessness and comes towards the Father who has no beginning. He regards everything else as made of stone, as corrupted and worthless and the desire for prayer attracts him towards the personal, living God. He comes to perceive Him by His emptying of himself, since He went down to the infernal realm, down to Hades and subsequently ascended above all heaven and sat to the right of the Father in order to fulfill everything. Therefore from now on, He is the path and only through Him each one of us is able to come to the Father: “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14,6).

‘Practical Repentance and its Fruits’