‘With thee is the fountain of life; in thy light shall we see light.’ Psalm 36:9. Saint Gregory Palamas bears witness that it is in uncreated light that the glory of uncreated light is seen. In Patristic tradition, there is no created way for creatures to know the uncreated. All created ways and means such as discursive reason fall short of the light of uncreated glory. Even the most penetrating metaphysical discernment is created and so cannot bridge the created and the uncreated. Of course, there is a bridge but it is uncreated not created. The bridge is uncreated grace, glory discerned by wisdom in the Holy Spirit. It is Christ, uncreated Word and Wisdom of the Father, who opens communion to union in the Holy Spirit. But deifying union in the Holy Trinity is ineffable, beyond the grasp of rational comprehension. Christ’s wisdom reveals God by turning confusion round into communion and healing division by union. His wisdom awakens the eye of the heart in illumination and unites the uncreated with the created in glorification. Wisdom transmits recognition and remembrance of God, which is the single eye of God awake to God through God.
God’s Name ‘I AM’ is the revelatory eye of God turning us back from oblivious distraction into remembrance of God in the illumined heart. Wisdom reveals the glory of uncreated grace here at centre where light unveils light through light. God sees God in whose light God is seen. The Name that illumined prophets, apostles and saints illumines elders who transmit wisdom to the saints even to this day. Wisdom bears witness to uncreated light of glory in the saints, opening hearts to the mysteries of glorification. Nothing can divide God’s wisdom from God’s glory once nothing created is confused with God, including created demons who parody God by appearing as angels of light. Angels fall when they confuse the uncreated light which illumines them with themselves. Demonic delusion usurps uncreated light by confusing the created with the uncreated, so that communion dissipates into confusion and union disintegrates into division.
According to Saint Gregory Palamas, on Mount Tabor, the incarnate Lord of glory is not only seen in glory but is discerned to be the uncreated glory that unveils glory. He is the uncreated light in whose light his transfiguring light is seen. The apostles and prophets saw because they were in the glory that they saw. They were in the uncreated light that enabled them to see its light. They were no longer on the outside in the dark, they were on the inside in the light. Christ stood outside them on the Mount but his light illumined them from within. The eyes of the hearts of the three disciples, Peter, James and John, were opened. Demons delude from outside so as to confuse the created with the uncreated, whereas uncreated light illumines from within so as to unite the created with the uncreated. The cloud on Tabor is uncreated glory which surrounds the three apostles from without to illumine them from within. In triune light, light is seen in light through light. This is the hesychast wisdom of the desert discerning the uncreated glory of grace. Grace is not an exterior, created phenomenon but uncreated, luminous energy from the Father, illumining them through the Son, transfiguring everything in the light of the Holy Spirit. In uncreated light of wisdom, the light of the uncreated glory of grace is seer and seen.