The wisdom of stillness is the wisdom of God for whom there is no sin, no fall from glory, no fall from grace. It is the Gospel of wisdom that God’s grace announces to sinners whose glory is to forgive sin. Sin comes into existence when delusion seduces false gods to usurp God and icons of God to degenerate into idols, which is spiritual adultery that betrays the mysteries of the Bridal Chamber. Sin separates from God all who unconsciously confuse themselves with God, whereas wisdom restores glory to God by undoing confusion and division. Primordial glory is original completeness in the beginning of time and eschatological glory is consummate completeness at the end of time, revealing glory is originally and ultimately free from sin and able to undo falls from glory, changing confusion into union and division into communion. The wisdom of stillness abides in glory at centre, upstream from sin, transmuting sin’s confusions into deifying union and diabolical divisions into hallowing communion. Desert elders love the wisdom of stillness and treasure this wisdom as the luminous heart of their HESYCHIA, because it is the grace of the Gospel of forgiveness that liberates the heart from passions. Elders guard the heart because passions confuse union and divide communion until the energies of wisdom and glory transmute them into union and communion. The heart is limpid purity in its original translucence, with pure capacity to be sound and whole through the vision of God. Great Peace abides where purity of heart abides, which is the Son’s union and the Spitit’s communion with the Father, abiding at centre in the midst. The Gospel of the realm of peace turns desert wastelands of desolation into paradise gardens of the enlightened heart.
Desert elders impart the mystery of the awakening eye of the heart which bears witness to the wisdom of stillness when it unites wisdom with glory. The mysteries of glory free the heart from all seven passions that wisdom cures by restoring sevenfold glory to God. Wisdom heals the glory of the image of God by restoring the glory of likeness to God, wisdom in God, restoring glory through God. Grace rests in Great Peace in the silence of wise stillness, but religion despises wisdom and refuses to listen. The desert has always been a place where religion tries to undermine wisdom, where the blind discredit seers to keep firm control over the blind, blindly unaware that great delusion and spiritual harm occur when the blind together fall into the ditch. The blind love to impose rules and regulations in order to control the blind, reducing the Gospel of grace to the narrow shallows of conventional religion. It is sadly impossible for blind elders to communicate the Gospel to saints and difficult for saints to find elders who are not themselves blinded by clerical ambition or self-interested pride. It has been the same, one way or the other, over many centuries, which is why the wisdom of stillness is driven out of many monasteries and even excluded from isolated sketes that were founded by Hesychast seers.
The wisdom of stillness is perceived in accordance with the capacity of the perceiver to receive her. We create gods in our own image until Christ turns us inside out and outside in, freeing us to turn and see God in whose image we are created, so that in his likeness we may become as he is. Prophecy in the desert takes old prophetic icons and re-imagines them, turning them into wisdom song and wisdom dance so that in their light all things are made new. Religion sees Christ not as he is but as religion is able to perceive him, until wisdom is born in the heart and reveals him in glory as he is. Literal historicity becomes mystical theology when wisdom renews prophecy and prophecy rejuvenates prayer. Historical facts do not cease to be historical facts when the Beloved Disciple turns them into signs in the Fourth Gospel. But Synoptic parables fall away when ‘I AM’ sayings are revealed and literal truths turn into analogical reflections of the ineffable glory of Truth. Dancing wisdom plays and sings in wisdom’s moving stillness, regenerating elders and saints in desert cells. If religion is preferred elsewhere, that is of no interest here where wisdom and glory transform tired idols into transfiguring icons on the Holy Mountain of Transfiguration.
Stillness abides in wisdom so that even when religion shuts wisdom out, stillness secretly welcomes wisdom home in the awakened heart. Surrounded by shallows that narrow the heart, stillness gives wisdom hidden space to breathe and expand. Baptism resurrects when it is lived and Chrismation enlightens when it is loved, even when spiritual conditions are inauspicious. The Holy Eucharist empowers union even when it is infrequent, as it was over many centuries when it was celebrated by the blind for the blind. Christ and the Eucharist are one so enforced general excommunication, aside from Pascha, Christmas and Pentecost conveniently suspended Christ, so that his wisdom and glory were kept at a safe distance. Resurrection in Christ dies to the deadly delusion of death even when religion is determined to dumb it down. So even when religion was in control, wisdom still came in behind closed doors to sustain humble hearts. The Holy of Holies in illumined hearts restored glory to God, freeing the conjugal embrace of wisdom and glory wedded in the Bridal Chamber, which is the holiest holy sanctuary of all. Wisdom is at work in stillness when the Jesus Prayer is invoked in solitary cells, even when a regime of blind separation reigns. Christ indwells this holiest of hallowing sanctuaries, bridegroom wisdom embracing his glorious bride, bridegroom glory embraced by his wisdom bride. Here, despite religion, wisdom and glory unite, empowering uncreated grace to wed created nature and the Father to generate the Son by grace in the unveiling of his revelatory Face. Christ comes in glory whenever wisdom welcomes his coming. Stillness thrives when wisdom weds glory as the presence of uncreated grace, renewing enlightened hearts in the wisdom of holy stillness.