Wisdom abides in the glory of grace, releasing the divisive opinions of clever sophistry when hearts turn and see God present in the midst. Wisdom purifies the heart of sophistry, to illumine the mind in the heart, centred in the uncreated light of glory, resurrecting saints with the support of ascended elders, opening their glorification to depths and heights that only wisdom knows. In an age where elders are rare and saints are institutionally unsupported in their spiritual warfare, the Holy Spirit is the teacher and the guide, raising up wisdom from nothing with wondrous facility. This proves that external structures are not decisive for Hesychast wisdom, because wisdom is from above, being the gift of the grace of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 2; 7-13). Peace purifies the heart with the wonder of the Name, hallowing saints despite the rarity of functioning elders. Sophistry, however, thrives in an age of narcissist nihilism, extinguishing living wisdom by confining itself to shallow, narrow surfaces, rather than listening to the Spirit from within. When wisdom is excluded, pious opinions take over, easy prey for cultish demagogues to exploit mindless idolatry with a plethora of scams. In times like these, Hesychast circles remain centred in the Spirit’s hallowing of the Name in the heart, unveiling God steadfast in the midst.
Wisdom abides in the radiance of the Name, seated in the glory that communicates grace to all. Stillness wisely silences the sophisticated chatter that gossips about special states of consciousness or argues about their cultivation rather than abide in the light of the glory of the Name. The way of the Name is always one, securing the heart in the wisdom of bright oneness. But seekers are addicted to seeking, quite unable to find that they are already found by God, through God, in God: Holy Trinity. Wisdom is indivisible and unconfused, whereas sophistry is forever running after novelty, anxious to obtain more disciples so as to increase profits from donations. Sophistical success fails wisdom just as true wisdom fails to win the financial successes of popular sophistry. Wisdom blows where it wills, as free as the wind. Saints abide in the unfathomable radiance of wisdom, humbly abstaining from pious ambitions to posses and parade humility. For them, the strains and stresses of obsessive struggle are the antics of vainglorious pride, no better than the indifference and presumptuous lethargy that cannot tell the difference between peace and sloth. The Name saves, which is enough for wisdom.
Crooked sophistry is cured with straight wisdom, putting death to the deadly virus of sophisticated pride. Conceited fulness is emptied of its inflations as hearts are reborn in the Spirit of wise insight. Wisdom has nothing to prove, nothing to lose, abiding in the grace of the saving Name. Sophistry has everything to lose, everything to prove, terrified of letting go of its compulsive struggles, terrified of looking like a loser. Wisdom teaches loss to release its obsession with winning, revealing the glory of self-emptying love. When sophistry implodes, wisdom explodes, turning pious faith in the Name into union with God in his Name. Openness of spirit frees the spirit to abide in the Holy Spirit, as wisdom residing in the glory of the Name. Sophistry cuts itself off from the grace of wisdom, because it cannot bend the knee to what transcends it. Its effort to impress deprives sophistry of all wisdom, separating it from glory by the vacuity of its vanity. Wisdom is timeless in its lucid awareness as it is timeless in its radiant presence, spontaneously hallowing the Holy Name, effortlessly ascribing glory to God. Wisdom does not hate sophistry as its enemy, but shows it how, by losing itself, it finds wisdom. The Name wisely abides in its source, calling on the Father through the Son, interceding in the Spirit, ‘Abba, Father,’ praying with the Spirit’s wordless sighs and groans, prayer without ceasing in the heart. Wisdom discerns the glory of the Holy Trinity encircling and interpenetrating every perception with healing power, dissolving shallow sophistry in the effulgent depths of boundless wisdom.