The Holy Name ‘I AM’ is an ineffable union of ‘I’ and ‘AM,’ wisdom’s active deifying awareness and glory’s receptive deifying presence inseparably conjoined as communion of their uncreated creative energies, radiant wisdom and resonant glory. The Name saves by unveiling deifying awareness and glorifying presence. Wisdom and glory are uncreated dynamic energies communicating the mysteries of turning or metanoia, seeing or theoria and deification, theosis. Turning purifies the heart by consuming confusion between the uncreated ‘I AM’ and the created ‘me’ in the midst, so purification opens the eye of the heart to God, awakening the heart to God’s knowledge of God in God. Seeing illumines the heart by undoing the division between wisdom’s uncreated awareness and glory’s uncreated presence in the midst, so illumination enlightens the heart, awakening it to God’s God-centred glorification of God through God. Purification consumes confusion through the radiant wisdom of Holy Trinity and illumination undoes division in the resonant glory of Holy Trinity. Together, purification and illumination, turning and seeing, open to deification, which is both glorification of God and glorification by God. God’s God-centred glorification of God sustains wisdom’s active glorification of God through God and glory’s receptive glorification of God in God. Wisdom and glory are one in the loving grace of God’s Holy Name, being the grace of God’s active energies of radiant awareness and receptive energies of resonant presence uniting knower and known.
The uncreated energies of God’s Name, ‘I AM,’ deify elders and saints, being the uncreated radiance of wisdom in union with the uncreated resonance of glory. The radiance of wisdom is to the eye of the heart what the resonance of the glory of the Name is to the ear of the heart. There is also a wisdom and glory of touch and taste, as well as smell, because grace deifies all five senses when the Name is way and truth as well as life. Union with God embraces every faculty as a union of awareness and presence. Wisdom weds glory, mirrored by the Bridegroom and Bride in the Song of Songs mysteries of the Bridal Chamber, mysteries which are revealed by the Name within us, rather than being something external to us. They open to the glory of expanding openness in the Holy of Holies, wisdom expressing the mysteries of pure awareness, glory the mysteries of pure presence. The mysteries of holiness and beauty are unveiled by wisdom and glory together, although holiness is actively hallowed by wisdom whereas beauty is the receptive radiance of glory. Both are intrinsic to the Name as the ‘I’ and ‘AM’ of God’s deifying ‘I AM,’ the wisdom of God’s awareness and the glory of God’s presence revealed by and in the Holy Name. Both wisdom and glory impart purification and illumination to the heart as integral consituents of glorification, although the way wisdom glorifies God in his glory differs from the way glory receives glorification of God by wisdom. God’s Name above all names is one, but God’s two names of wisdom and glory differ, so there is difference of uncreated energies within the Name as well as hypostatic difference in God distinguishing but never dividing the Name of the Father, the Name of the Son and the Name of the Holy Spirit.
The radiance of the Holy Name as wisdom cuts through every obstruction to deifying awakening, whereas the resonance of the Holy Name as glory leaps over all mountains of separation dividing awareness from presence in his Name. Wisdom severs confusion whereas glory heals division, but both are integral to the saving activity of God as liberating energies of the hallowing Name. Both are at work in purification of the hardened heart and both are at work in illumination of the awakened heart. Glorification, which Patristic Tradition also calls deification, is a hallowing union of wisdom and glory which may be likened to God’s own eternal Song of Songs, God’s own celebration of primordial mystical marriage hidden as union of awareness and presence within every perception whatsoever. Falls from glory divide awareness from presence, resulting in countless unconscious divisions or conditioning dualisms. Separation insinuates itself into every perception when confusion between the uncreated and the created conceals itself at centre in the midst. Of course, this insidious idolatry is unconscious until uncovered with the help of the uncreated light of the Name, but it is projected out onto others in repeated accusations of delusion, feeding a compulsive fear of delusion which plays into the hands of delusion, adding deception to deception. Delusion reigns until wisdom cures vainglory, and glory is restored to God as God’s God-centred glorification of God. This glorification of Holy Trinity arises freely from within God’s own God-centred glorification of God, which is Holy Trinity. It is wisdom’s glorification and glory’s graceful hallowing that rightly glorifies God’s Holy Name.
Wisdom ever-aware and glory ever-present are God’s uncreated energies hidden in the Name ‘I AM,’ purifying and illumining the heart, whether or not we are aware of God’s presence or are present to his deifying awareness. When the Spirit’s unceasing prayer in the heart glorifies the Father through the Son, the heart remains unaware of it until God’s eye of the heart opens and the heart awakens. Glorification unveils glorification when recognition generates the remembrance of God. It is not that the experience of glorification reifies or is reified by traditional theological language, because true awakening is always utterly free and ineffable. Rather, the language of Holy Orthodoxy enables elders to point by means of symbol and apophatic negation to what cannot otherwise be said. Every sacred wisdom has its world of symbols that communicate and rites that empower the experience of wisdom and glory. Orthodox wisdom has been silent about many things and of course remains silent concerning what literally cannot be said. But the mysteries of wisdom, glory and the Name have been handed on for many centuries, mainly in silence but also in poetic prophecy that communicates light from light, God through God. The tradition was manifestly alive and well in Saint Silouan and Saint Sophrony on Mount Athos but also perhaps lies hidden in unknown saints and seers who do not leave a literary legacy. As long as wisdom is aware and glory present, there is active radiance and receptive resonance that ineffably communicate ineffable glory. Wisdom opens to glory as unrestricted radiance and sings wisdom songs of glorification as unmuffled resonance, communicating ineffable light and glory in countless ineffable ways. Wisdom and glory reveal God’s saving Name on the Day of Doom, and whoever calls upon this saving Name shall be saved (Acts 2: 21; Joel 2: 28-32).
The radiant wisdom and the resonant glory of God’s Name are always abiding at the heart of Holy Orthodoxy, but have not always received the recognition they deserve, recognition that is truly intrinsic to the remembrance of God. Too often, these mysteries were overlaid by self-centred and ethnocentric concerns which required the illusory extinction of wisdom to maintain an underlying, unconscious confusion. When fundamentalism insinuates its many subtle divisions, it is proliferating delusions fed by these confusions, poisoning the heart of the glorified body of Christ. In such circumstances, Orthodox Hesychast wisdom appears to be under permanent siege, hidden with Christ in God, waiting to be loved and known. This signifies far more than a theological crisis of identity. It is a case of spiritual warfare in which the world appears to have defeated the Spirit and quenched her inspiration so that prophecy is silenced. But Hesychasm is the true nature of things, which is grace, wisdom and glory. God is at centre in the midst, whether or not there is recognition or remembrance. God’s Name reveals God through God, whether or not there is turning and seeing. The neglect of wisdom and glory does not signify that God is dead but that the death of religion we call secularism appears to have extinguished God. But religion’s crisis is wisdom’s opportunity. Secularisation clears away mountains of reified god-substitutes within religion whilst creating a seductive global market for secular god-substitutes that have no substance. The capitalist commodity crisis of idols out there begins to expose the underlying crisis of an insidious, unconscious idol within. Confusion is eventually exposed with the result that division falls away, leaving wisdom face to face with glory in the midst.
The Holy Name ‘I AM’ unveils glory to wisdom beyond all possible falls from glory, dissolving the delusion of confusion and the illusion of division. Awareness of presence conjoins presence of awareness as wisdom embracing glory in the midst. Radiance of wisdom and resonance of glory are the active and receptive energies of the Name, deifying all who turn and see, but aware and present whether turning turns or not, or seeing sees or not. Wisdom sees with God’s eye on God’s own ‘near’ side of every delusion, discerning glory on the ‘inside,’ which is God’s undoing of every confusion. Falls from grace do not destroy grace any more than falls from glory extinguish God’s own God-centred glorification of God, which is the deifying life of Holy Trinity. Wisdom keeps faith with grace and glory, which never fail to restore glory to glory by renewing grace through grace. Glorification is wisdom’s steady awareness of presence that restores glory to God as God’s awareness of God, the completeness of Holy Trinity uncovering divine completeness everywhere. Glory is wisdom’s pinnacle that opens incompleteness to completeness in the eternal present of awakened presence. The Name is the ineffable radiance of wisdom resonating as glory in the hallowing Name, renewing wisdom with glory in the Kingdom of God.
Wisdom reveals timeless glory when glorification of God completes purification and illumination beyond all temporal conditioning ways and means. Wisdom’s radiant completeness rises with glory’s resonant completeness into the timeless completeness of their hallowing union, union that is the unconditioned grace of the Holy Name. But glorification is hidden with Christ in God until the grace of glory is revealed, grace which purifies and illumines the heart. When time determines that the Gospel is perceived as temporal, purification and illumination are perceived as a temporal process of spiritual unfolding, but when revelation of timeless glory beholds the Eternal Gospel, time falls away and the completeness of God’s God-centred glorification of God in Holy Trinity is revealed. Then the uncreated fire of purification and the uncreated light of illumination are simultaneously and spontaneously present as awareness conjoined with presence. The Name is then revelation of divine completeness as radiant wisdom actively severs union from confusion and resonant glory receptively transforms separation into holy communion. But timeless glorification does not need time to purify confusion or illumine division, because glorification is always already now, wisdom’s ever-present awareness conjoined with glory’s ever-aware presence of glory. God’s God-centred glorification of God in Holy Trinity does not require purification or illumination, but on the contrary, purifies and illumines anew in every moment. This is wisdom’s timeless radiance conjoined with glory’s timeless resonance, curing confusion and division through the Name. Glorification is God’s completeness restoring every temporal incompleteness to God’s own timeless completeness, union without confusion unveiling communion without division.