Prophetic wisdom springs from the ineffable openness of uncreated awareness, opening prayer to the ineffable oneness of uncreated presence, wisdom beholding glory in the Name, unveiling God in the midst. God unveils God through God, the Spirit proceeding from the Father to abide in the Son, revealing God’s Name, ‘I AM.’ Elders know that God’s ‘I’ awareness is ever-present, beholding God’s ‘AM’ presence ever-aware, here where there is no trace of anything created, here before Abraham was, here where the Name ‘I AM’ unveils God (John 8:58). In the fallen state, confusion separates awareness from presence, seer from seen, knower from known, degenerating God’s regenerative oneness into countless divisive dualisms. Awareness and presence fall apart to the degree that separation gets a grip, but in Holy Trinity,’I’ and ‘AM’ are one. ‘I AM,’ the Father, generates oneness in union with ‘I AM,’ the Son, unveiling communion in ‘I AM,’ the Spirit, bearing witness to the union of the Father and the Son. The Father generates the Son as God from God and the Spirit proceeds from the Father to reveal the Son as light from light, true God from true God, to the glory of the Father. For ‘I AM’ is God, ‘I AM’ is one, opening union to all through communion in all.
In prophetic wisdom, the hallowing oneness of the Father unifies the Name so that through pure prayer, the Name is glorified by the Son, unveiled by the Spirit through the Son. The Name is transmitted in the desert through prophecy and assimilated in the heart through prayer. This prophetic wisdom generates pure, unceasing prayer as way in purification, as truth in illumination and as life in glorification. As way, the Name purifies the heart, as truth the Name illumines the mind in the heart, and as life the Name is glorified on earth as in heaven so that the kingdom comes on earth as in heaven. The way of purification is sustained by the truth of illumination when the way of glorification grounds both way and truth in the life of completeness that sustains completeness in the midst of our incompleteness. The Great Peace bears witness to completeness in the midst of the strains and stresses of our compulsive incompleteness. Incompleteness appears definitive but in reality, glory descends in union with wisdom to bear witness to completeness, communicating the grace of resurrection as way, of ascension as truth and glorification as life in the Name.
In prophetic wisdom, God whispers to the heart saying, “I am ‘I AM’ thy God, hear me name my Name in thee. Give me back my Name ‘I AM,’ and wisdom shall to glory raise thee. Hallow this my Name aright and glory will consume your confusion so that wisdom will restore you in glory, curing division.” In pure prayer, the Great High Priest enters as King into his Kingdom when God’s Name is revealed unto his own, so that his own are known by name in his Name. His own know him as He knows them, by name in his Name, deifying those who turn and see him in the midst. His own are his because he knows them in his Name. Recognition is mutual in the hallowed Name, recollection is reciprocal in wisdom and glory, conjoining awareness and presence, ‘I’ and ‘AM.’ Prayer sustains what prophecy opens, working together in holy synergy to restore glory to all who love wisdom.
The poetics of prophecy is renewed by wisdom so that the grace of the Spirit’s unceasing prayer is then sustained, opening glory to glory in stillness. This is the living heart of Orthodox Hesychasm, restoring Orthodox Tradition from within. Persecuted by those who confuse wisdom, glory and the Name with old heresies, the witness of elders is treasured by the saints, just as the witness of the prophets was treasured by the apostles. There is trial by fire in every generation, because revelation of God in his Name, ‘I AM,’ offends those who confuse ‘me’ with ‘I AM.’ Wisdom is sheer scandal to those whose hearts are closed and hard, suffering from a deadly sclerosis, just as the Name is dazzling light to those whose hearts are awake, alive to glory in resurrection.
The Church always includes a mainstream that keeps a safe distance from wisdom, making sure that glory never strays too close. The vast majority are unaware of God’s saving presence unveiled in the Name, preferring a safe distance to God’s saving presence, maintaining a mountain of separation rather than letting God’s saving wisdom come too close. Conventional religion prefers to feel safe rather than risk exposure to God’s saving presence. Ethnic piety postpones union with God so that self-centred control is maintained within prescribed limits rather than let God be God in the kingdom of glory. Prophetic wisdom is confined to a long lost past and prayer is reduced to prescribed verbal prayers, preserved from any exposure to mysteries of glory. The Lord’s Prayer is said by rote rather than prayed, its hallowing power held in check and its healing energy forgotten.
Prophecy, however, never forgets glory and prayer moves mountains of separation the moment God’s Name is hallowed. Hesychasm lives from prophetic wisdom that is the renewing legacy of elders, inspiring unceasing prayer in the purified hearts of the saints. Confusion is nowhere to be seen when separation dissolves into luminous wisdom, liberated into the uncreated light of glory, glory revealed by the Spirit to the saints. Ineffable openness conjoins with incomprehensible oneness when uncreated awareness weds uncreated presence. God reveals God through his Name ‘I AM,’ imparting union in wisdom and communion in glory. Prophecy is restored to the desert when elders transmit the Name, so that the prayer of the Spirit in the awakened heart sustains the glorification of the saints. Wisdom restores glory to God, inspiring prophecy in elders that bestows pure prayer in the saints. Their prophetic wisdom hands on the mysteries of the Name, awakening hearts to the Spirit’s unceasing prayer, opening glory through pure prayer to ever deepening glory without end.