Apostleship of Prayer Spirituality
 
 

    ORIGEN

Origen's spiritual teaching, everywhere present in his exegesis, makes him the creator of a spiritual theology. Mystical theology occupies a large place in his commentaries on John and on the Canticle of Canticles; but in his later works, written as a priest, he was more attentive to the practical aspects of the Christian life than he was in those written in Alexandria. The Exhortation to Martyrdom, addressed to Ambrosius during the persecution of Emperor Maximinus the Thracian, betrays one of the constants in the life of Origen, the spirituality of martyrdom.  The Treatise on Prayer, which is preserved in Greek, contains, among other things, the first methodical explanation of the Our Father.

The moral and ascetical doctrine of Origen is worthy of careful study, for it can render service in the attempt to clarify the origins of monasticism. A thesis regarding spiritual combat pervades his anthropology and his angelology: the soul, the seat of free will and of the personality, is fought over by the spirit (pneuma, spiritus, including grace and participation of the Holy Spirit) and the flesh. The soul is divided into a superior part, the organ of contemplation and virtue, and an inferior part, which is called intelligence (nous, mens) or the dominant faculty (hegemonikon, principale cordis), and an inferior part, which corresponds in a certain measure to concupiscence. In this battle man is solicited by both good and evil angels to follow Christ or Satan.

On many points Origen possessed an integral doctrine, which is not outlined in systematic fashion but is dispersed amongst his writings on exegesis; on martyrdom, virginity, chastity, mortification, etc. Virtues are the names (epinoiai) given to Christ and identified with him as pertaining to His very substance. He who possesses them participates in the divine nature. But human beings only receive them through the humanity of Christ, which is His "Shadow"; here below man has only the "shadows" of virtue.

Many of the great themes of mystical literature go bask to Origen. In his commentary on the Canticle of Canticles, instead of the traditional, ecclesial interpretation given to this allegory, he sees the soul of the Christian as the spouse of Christ and closely relates the individual with the collectivity of Christ's body, the Church. The Ascent of the mountain prefigures a spiritual ascension through prayer and virtue: as on Mt. Thabor the divinity of Christ appeared more and more in His transfigured humanity.

In order for the Incarnation to produce its effects in an individual, Jesus has to be born in him by Baptism and grow there, as He will if the subject gives Him the opportunity by leading a virtuous life. Among those making progress five spiritual senses develop: sight, which uncovers divine realities; hearing, which lets the words of God by heard when He reveals the meaning of the Scripture interiorly to the soul; touch, which allows one to examine the flesh of the Word; smell and taste, which express the delicacies of knowledge -- a connaturality that increases with the ascension of a soul dedicated to perfecting its immediate knowledge of the divine. Such is the object of the charism of Wisdom, of which one effect is the discernment of spirits. the source of this connaturality is the creation of the soul according to the Image of God, who is the Word; only the similar can know the similar.

The object of this knowledge is Mystery: the mysteries of visible and invisible realities, or of the relations in the Trinity, all of which are recapitulated in the person of the Son, the Image of the Father, containing the intelligible world, insofar as wisdom is concerned, the ideas and reasons for all things. Perceived in this light, which the divine Persons freely communicate, mystery is a nourishment, transforming the soul to the true nature of mystery, which is supernatural; it is a wine rejoicing in a "sober drunkenness," which is an encounter of two liberties, includes at once passivity and activity: divine grace does not lay hold to man despite himself, in an ecstasy that would be a kind of divine folly; inconscience or lack of understanding is a sign of diabolic possession.

Knowledge is given in meditation on Scripture and requires the renouncement of sin and the world, as well as purity of heart. Faith is its necessary principle; but with faith the object becomes present; it is seen and touched without an intermediary; to comprehend and to love are confounded in union. The "esotericism" with which Origen is often reproached is common to all the mystics; it is not necessary to give someone something he can comprehend; otherwise revelation will be useless to him and could even prove to be an evil. To accuse him of spiritual snobbishness, one would have to ignore the continual exhortations contained in his homilies urging all Christian to make progress in their spiritual knowledge. It is necessary to call attention likewise to the profoundly affective devotion Origen has for the person of Christ, which is so similar to that of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Evidence for his own personal mystical experience is rare, for Origen speaks little of himself; but it is sufficiently explicit. Origen had a great influence on the writings of Evagrius.
 

For more information contact The National Secretary.

Return to Home Page.