Wisdom abides at the heart of glory, delighting in the beauty of her glory’s holiness, rejoicing in the limpid purity of her uncreated energy. She does not neglect those she loves, but embraces them with her in-seeing gaze, seeing through the hardened surfaces of external form to the formless translucence of God’s Holy Name. To love her is to die to the fallen world of power and abusive control, to dance with her in the heavenly realms of dazzling glory. She is perfectly at home in these realms of mutually empowering glory, glorious in her capacity to open earth to heaven and heaven to earth, gracious in her skill in cutting through confusion, generous in her capacity to leap over mountains of division. She transfigures whoever loves her by overwhelming confusion with uncreated light, extinguishing division by annihilating delusion. Her gaze is enough to make the heart forget its self-obsession, but not its wholesome self-integration, blessing hearts with co-inherent bliss whilst hallowing them with harrowing holiness. Wisdom abides in her hallowing glory, whilst glory delights in her harrowing insight, unveiling conjugal union at the heart of Holy Communion.
The mystagogia of harrowing communion leads saints into mysteries of hallowed conjunction, dancing co-inherence of wisdom and glory that dwells concealed in the Holy of Holies. Love’s glory is a Song of Songs, which is not about the institutions of engagement or marriage, but the irreducible mysteries of love, not about conceiving and giving birth to babies but rebirthing mysteries of wisdom and glory. The heavenly dance of wisdom was never about courtship or marriage but courtly love that courts heaven on earth by courting earth in heaven. Dante tells us of this in his Divine Comedy, inspiring his companions to court the love of wisdom and the glory of courtly love. The court in question was not the court of earthly kings, but the heavenly court of the King of Kings, opening heavenly realms. Love of wisdom bears witness to wisdom’s love of glorified saints, turning love’s earthly salutation of love into wisdom’s heavenly salutation of love. Wisdom of the heart of glory was always known, known by wisdom as in glory she was always wondrously known.
Glory’s mystagogia is concealed with Christ in God, inaccessible to curious scrutiny, concealed in parables, revealed in wisdom’s signs and ‘I AM’ sayings, unveiling the Name of God. The Beloved Disciple often spoke of this but was silenced except in the deserted wastes of the wilderness, where stillness remembered her and what she said. Her presence lay hid in the heart of the Holy City of Byzantium, whose inmost light was hers, as the Book of Revelation concurred, bearing her witness. Her apocalypse was always Christ’s Apocalypse, wisdom’s secret, opening all to him through her, unveiling her to all through him. Apparently condemned to lurk in esoteric circles, she was actually actively present in every market place, watching at every gate. For wisdom’s open secret opens every heart to Christ’s Apocalypse. As wisdom, she beholds his glory because he first beheld hers, glorifying the beauty of her presence with the glory of his wisdom. Hidden in the Holy of Holies, his heart embraced her where she embraced him, her Holiest of Holies, infusing the Holy City of God with holiness of heart. Everywhere, her beauty bears witness to his glory, transfiguring the Holy City with her heavenly love, beholding her wisdom at the heart of his glory, revealing his wisdom in the midst of her presence. Glorious, reciprocal, co-inherent beauty opens earth to heaven and heaven to earth, everywhere receiving him through her, everywhere welcoming her through him, the beauty of glory revealed.