Second theological point. And now the second definition, which is equally important. It is found in the theological treasure of Saint Maximus the Confessor. I will convey it in a simplified form. It says that everything –man of course included– has acquired its existence, its very being from a state of nothing, of non-being and it now moves. It is because everything was made by a cause that it moves. This is how man was made by God: he moves, because he was made by God. He moves; he is in continuous motion. This motion was bestowed by God, so that man can move towards God. That is the purpose of the motion. It is an ever upward motion; man is forever and ceaselessly moving upwards and towards God, until he finally ends up inside God, where – as the great theologian Maximus the Confessor says – man reaches a condition that seems as if he has paused, but in fact he hasn’t. God is never-ending; He is eternal. Doesn’t the Apostle Paul say: “from glory to glory”? And yet, man does eventually come to feel comfort, in God. And what does that mean? It means that man eventually becomes an inconvertible man. You see, although we may be incessantly moving towards God, we nevertheless succumb to sin – a little bit here, a little bit there – and we frequently fall into sinful thoughts, but, we still keep moving towards God, and the therapeutic method of our Church is precisely a prompting, to keep us moving towards God. The Church prompts us to keep moving, with its therapeutic advice: we pray, we repent, we put all our might into it…this is the kind of movement that will take us to Him. But we constantly fall, again…and again… Well, to “come to feel comfort in God” means to –at last- reach a motionlessness, which however is not motionlessness as we know it; it is the state of man when he becomes forever inconvertible. Only now, his soul is forever in motion; because, how would it be possible for the soul to cease moving, inside the Eternal? Inside the Never-ending? So, we have here something extremely significant: the movement of the soul towards its Creator, as a therapeutic process. By ignoring this movement, how can you approach therapy? Pay attention to what is going on in the world today: people move about, horizontally. They run about incessantly. Others run excessively and become worn out, while others go to rest themselves because they are tired. Then there are others, who do nothing but rest themselves. Well, those who run may become ill, and those who don’t run, may also become ill. What does the Church say? Both of these examples are wrong. If you simply run, without running towards your Maker, you run incorrectly. If you don’t move, and therefore if you don’t become inconvertible (which is a pausing – a “stasis” – as we have said), again it is an illness. How should a lazy person move, and how should a dynamic and active person move? Both of them should move towards God. It is not a matter of putting the lazy one to work, or putting the overworked one to rest a while. Both these conditions are illnesses.
If we do not comprehend this concept of “movement towards God” as saint Maximus the Confessor described it –which is the only therapeutic course for man- then we have achieved nothing. Not even within the realm of the Church. See how repentance is combined with confession. “Make a move”, you are advised. Make a move with your body. What is kneeling? What is fasting? What is observation of an icon with the eyes? What are all these physical acts that we perform in Orthodoxy, which cannot be comprehended by many people of other denominations? They are the movements of man as a whole, towards God. What is this continuous cycle of services by our Church? It is a cycle comprised of movements, morning, noon, evening: Midnight prayer, Evening prayer, Matins, Vespers…a continuous movement: The Hours – First, Third, Sixth, Ninth…a continuous motion, towards Him, towards God.
So, this point of “movement”, is momentarily called “comfort” by Maximus the Confessor, but he also gives it a slightly different name; you see, the term “stasis” is not the most suitable word. Instead, he calls it “ec-stasy” – a different kind of “stasis”. It is a “standing still” within God. You stand still in Him, in comfort. And because God is Never-ending, you will continue to be in motion, but now it will be “from glory to glory”. Thus, our Church’s therapeutic approach – this one and only therapeutic approach –defines this method as “therapy of the soul”. You see, first we have the “essence” and the “energy”, and then we have this “movement”, this continuous movement towards God. So, if one doesn’t guide the ailing person along the lines of this “movement”, he will only be subjecting the patient to more oppression from all sides.
Usually, the patient is simply restrained so that he does not commit suicide, or become despondent, or destroy the world around him. Restraint is commendable, but a person cannot be restrained forever unless he is guided into this “movement” therapy. See, this is another determining difference; the crucial, unprecedented difference between our Church and any other psychotherapeutic procedures, even those with the best of intentions. I will say it again; I do not want to be misunderstood. People’s intentions are basically good; they truly do put in their best efforts and they really do exert and exhaust themselves in their efforts, but the exit from the patient’s tragedy is not exactly where they seek it.