Part 64 (2/2)

He who speaks of a hierarchy indicates thereby a holy order which in a holy manner works the mysteries of illumination which is appropriate to each one. The order of the hierarchy consists in this, that some are purified and others purify; some are illuminated and others illuminate; some are completed and others complete.

(_b_) _De Clesti Hierarchia_, VI, 2. (MSG, 3:200.)

The heavenly hierarchy.

Theology has given to all heavenly existences new explanatory t.i.tles. Our divine initiator divides these into three threefold ranks. The first is that, as he says, which is ever about G.o.d, and which, as it is related (Ezek. 1), is permanently and before all others immediately united to Him; for the explanation of the Holy Scripture tells us that the most holy throne and the many-eyed and many-winged ranks, which in Hebrew are called cherubim and seraphim, stand before G.o.d in the closest proximity. This threefold order, or rank, our great leader names the one, like, and only truly first hierarchy, which is more G.o.dlike and stands more immediately near the first effects of the illuminations of divinity than all others.

As the second hierarchy, he names that which is composed of authorities, dominions, and powers, and as the third and last of the heavenly hierarchies he names the order of angels, archangels, and princ.i.p.alities.

(_c_) _De Ecclesiastica Hierarchia_, I, 1. (MSG, 3:372.)

The nature of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

That our hierarchy which is given by G.o.d, is G.o.d-inspired and divine, a divinely acting knowledge, activity, and completion, we must show from the supernal and most Holy Scriptures to those who through hierarchical secrets and traditions have been initiated into the holy consecration.

Jesus, the most divine and most transcendent spirit, the principle and the being and the most divine power of every hierarchy, holiness, and divine operation, brings to the blessed beings superior to us a more bright and at the same time more spiritual light and makes them as far as possible like to His own light. And through our love which tends upward toward Him, by the love of the beautiful which draws us up to Him, He brings together into one our many heterogeneities; that He might perfect them so as to become a uniform and divine life, condition, and activity, He gives us the power of the divine priesthood. In consequence of this honor we arrive at the holy activity of the priesthood, and so we ourselves come near to the beings over us, that we, so far as we are able, approximate to their abiding and unchangeable holy state and so look up to the blessed and divine brilliancy of Jesus, gaze religiously on what is attainable by us to see, and are illuminated by the knowledge of what is seen; and thus we are initiated into the mystic science, and, initiating, we can become light-like and divinely working, complete and completing.

(_d_) _De Ecclesiastica Hierarchia_, V, 3. (MSG, 3:504.)

The most holy consecration of initiation has as the G.o.dlike power or activity the expiatory purification of the imperfect, as the second the illuminating consecration of the purified, and as the last, which also includes the other two, the perfecting of the consecrated in the knowledge of the consecrations that belong to them.

5. The divine order of the hierarch(209) is the first under the G.o.d-beholding orders; it is the highest and also the last, for in it every other order of our hierarchy ends and is completed.(210) For we see that every hierarchy ends in Jesus, and so each one ends in the G.o.d-filled hierarchs.

6. The hierarchical order, which is filled full of the perfecting power, performs especially the consecrations of the hierarchy, imparts by revelation the knowledge of the sacred things, and teaches the conditions and powers appropriate to them. The order of priests which leads to light leads to the divine beholding of the sacred mysteries all those who have been initiated by the divine order of the hierarchs and with that order performs its proper sacred functions. In what it does it displays the divine working through the most holy symbols [_i.e._, sacraments] and makes those who approach beholders and partic.i.p.ants in the most holy mysteries, sending on to the hierarch those who desire the knowledge of those sacred rites which are seen. The order of the liturges [or deacons]

is that which cleanses and separates the unlike before they come to the sacred rites of the priests, purifies those who approach that it may render them pure from all that is opposing and unworthy of beholding and partic.i.p.ating in the sacred mysteries.

(_e_) _De Ecclesiastica Hierarchia_, I, 3. (MSG, 3:373.)

The sacraments.

The mysteries or sacraments, according to Dionysius the Areopagite, are six in number: baptism, the eucharist, anointing or confirmation, the consecration of priests, the consecration of monks,(211) and the consecration of the dead. These he discusses in chs. 2-7 of the _Ecclesiastical Hierarchy_.

Salvation can in no other way come about than that the saved are deified.

The deification is the highest possible resemblance to G.o.d and union with Him. The common aim of all the hierarchy is the love which hangs upon G.o.d and things divine, which fills with a divine spirit and works in G.o.dlike fas.h.i.+on; and before this is the complete and never retreating flight from that which is opposed to it, the knowledge of being as being, the vision and knowledge of the holy truth, the divinely inspired partic.i.p.ation in the h.o.m.ogeneous perfection of the One himself, so far as man can come to that, the enjoyment of the holy contemplation, which spiritually nourishes and deifies every one who strives for it.

Chapter II. The Transition To The Middle Ages. The Foundation Of The Germanic National Churches

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