The Hope of Seeing God
From a homily by Saint Gregory of Nyssa, bishop (c. 330-c. 395)
The hope of seeing God
Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California
The happiness God promises certainly knows no limits. When one has gained such a blessing, what is left to desire? In seeing God one possesses all things. In the language of Scripture, to see is to have. May you see the good things of Jerusalem is the same as May you possess the good things of Jerusalem. When the prophet says: May the wicked man be carried off and not see the glory of the Lord, he means: May he not share in the glory of the Lord.
One who has seen God has, in the act of seeing, gained all that is counted good: life without end, everlasting freedom from decay, undying happiness, a kingdom that has no end, lasting joy, true light, a voice to sing pleasingly in the spirit, unapproachable glory, perpetual rejoicing, in a word, the totality of blessing.
Such is the wonderful hope held out by the beatitudes. As we have seen, the condition for seeing God is purity of heart, and now once more my mind is in confusion, as from an attack of giddiness, wondering if purity of heart is something impossible, something beyond the capacity of human nature. If the vision of God is dependent on purity of heart, and if Moses and Paul did not attain this vision – they state that neither they nor anyone else can see God – then the promise of the beatitude spoken by the Word seems to be something impossible of realization.
What do we gain from knowing the means by which God may be seen if we have not the power to see him? It is like saying that one is blessed if one is in heaven because in heaven things are seen that are not seen on earth. If we were told beforehand how to get to heaven, it would be helpful to know that one is blessed if one is in heaven. But as long as the way to heaven is impossible what do we gain by knowing about the happiness of heaven? This only saddens and annoys us when we realize the good things we are deprived of, because it is impossible to get there.
Surely the Lord does not encourage us to do something impossible to human nature because the magnitude of what he commands is beyond the reach of our human strength? The truth is different. He does not command those creatures to whom he has not given wings to become birds, nor those to whom he has assigned a life on land to live in water. If then in the case of all other creatures the command is according to the capacity of those who receive it, and does not oblige them to anything beyond their nature, we shall come to the conclusion that we are not to give up hope of gaining what is promised by the beatitude. John and Paul and Moses, then, and any others like them, did not fail to achieve that sublime happiness that comes from the vision of God; not Paul, who said: There is stored up for me a crown of righteousness, which the judge who judges justly will give me, nor John, who leaned on the breast of Jesus, nor Moses, who heard God saying to him, I know you above all others.
If it is clear that those who taught that the contemplation of God was beyond their powers are themselves blessed, and if blessedness consists in the vision of God and is granted to the pure in heart, then purity of heart, leading to blessedness, is certainly not among the things that are impossible.
Hence it can be said that those who with Paul teach that the vision of God is beyond our powers are right in what they say, and that the voice of the Lord does not contradict them when he promises that the pure in heart will see God.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings
Saint Gregory of Nyssa, (c. 330-c. 395) the son of Saint Emmilia, was born at Caesarea, Capadocia, (Turkey) and raised by his brother Saint Basil and his sister Macrina. Well educated, he became a rhetorician and a professor of rhetoric. He then turned to the religious life under the guidance of St. Gregory Nazianzen. He was ordained a priest and lived in seclusion at Iris in Pontus. Later he was named bishop of Nyssa in lower Armenia, in 372 at the age of 42. With his see infested with the heresy of Arianism he was falsely accused of stealing Church property by the governor of Pontus, deposed and imprisoned. Having escaped, he remained in exile until 378, when Emperor Gratian restored him to his see.
In 379 he attended the Council of Antioch, which denounced the Meletian heresy and was sent by that council to Palestine and Arabia to combat heresy there. He was active in the General Council of Constantinople in 381 and eloquently attacked Arianism and reaffirmed the decrees of the Council of Nicaea. By this time he was widely venerated as the great pillar of orthodoxy and the great opponent of Arianism. Greatly influenced by the writings of Origen and Plato, he wrote numerous theological treatises which were considered the true exposition of the Catholic faith. Among them were his Catechetical Discourse, treatises against Eunomius and Appolinaris, a book on virginity, and commentaries on Scripture. The second General Council of Nicaea in 680-81, called him “Father of the Fathers.”