22. The Symbol of the Rock and the Sand (The Life of Moses,
GREGORY OF NYSSA
God: never to have this desire satisfied. But fixing our eyes on those things which help us to see, we must ever keep alive in us the desire to see more and more. And so no limit can be set to our progress towards God: first of all, because no limita tion can be put upon the beautiful, and secondly because the increase in our desire for the beautiful cannot be stopped by any sense of satisfaction.
22. The Symbol of the Rock and the Sand (The Life of Moses, 405A-D; ed. Danielou, ii.240-244) But what is this place that is said to be with God ? What is the meaning of the rock, and what is the hole in the rock?
What is the meaning of the hand of the Lord that covers the mouth of the hole in the rock (Exod. 33.21-22) ? And what is this passing of the Lord? And what is the meaning the bac\ the Lord, which He promised Moses he would see when Moses had asked to see His face ? Each of these details must refer to something of deep importance and worthy of the bounty of the giver. For after all the visions that God's great servant had been given, this promise is believed to be of greater depth and magnificence. How are we to understand the meaning of this summit to which the text leads us ? For it is this which Moses, after so many ascents, longed to reach; and He, too, helps us to reach it by His guidance, Who makes all things work together unto good to them that love God
(Rom. 8.28). Behold, he says, there is a place with me (Exod.
33-2i).
I think this idea quite fits all that we have already seen.
When God speaks of a place, He does not mean a space that
FROM GLORY TO GLORY
can be quantitatively measured—for we cannot measure any thing that does not have quantity—but rather by using the analogy of a measurable surface, He is guiding the reader to a reality which is infinite and without limit. Here then is something of the meaning of the text as I see it: Seeing that you have stretched forth to that which is before you with a great desire, and you never experience complete satisfaction in your progress, nor are you aware of any limit to the good, as your yearning goes out to ever more and more—here is a place with me that is so vast that he who runs in it will never be able to reach the end of his course. And yet, from another point of view, this course has its stability; for God says: 1 will set thee on the rock (Exod. 34.22).
But here we have a very great paradox: motion and stability are the same. For usually speaking, one who is rising is not standing still, and the man who is standing still is not rising.
But here he arises precisely because he is stationary. This means that a man advances farther on the path of perfection precisely insofar as he remains fixed and immovable in good.
It is impossible for a man to soar towards the heights of virtue if he tends to slip and fall in the ways of the spirit and is not firmly balanced in virtue, but is tossed to and fro, and carried about, as the Apostle tells us (Eph. 4.14), fluctuating and uncertain in his ideas of reality.
It is like men who try to climb through sand. It does not matter whether they take big strides or not; they waste their effort. For their feet constantly slip to the bottom with the sand, and so, despite all their energy, they make no progress whatsoever. But if, in the words of the Psalmist (Ps. 39.3), a man drags his feet from the mire of the pit and sets them firmly upon the rock (and the rock is Christ, Who is all per-