3. The Cycle of Desire (The Commentary on Ecclesiastes,
GREGORY OF NYSSA
truth the finest aspect of our mutability is the possibility of growth in good; and this capacity for improvement trans forms the soul, as it changes, more and more into the divine.
And so my discourse has shown that what appears so ter rifying (I mean the mutability of our nature) can really be as a pinion in our flight towards higher things, and indeed it would be a hardship if we were not susceptible of the sort of change which is towards the better. One ought not then to be distressed when one considers this tendency in our nature; rather let us change in such a way that we may con stantly evolve towards what is better, being transformed from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3.18), and thus always improving and ever becoming more perfect by daily growth, and never arriv ing at any limit of perfection. For that perfection consists in our never stopping in our growth in good, never circum scribing our perfection by any limitation.
3. The Cycle of Desire (The Commentary on Ecclesiastes, homily 1, PG 44.624B-625D)3 Now the man that has been instructed in the divine mys teries is surely aware that the life that bears a likeness to the divine is completely in accord with human nature. The life of the senses, however, which is transacted by the operation of our sense faculties, is bestowed upon our nature that the perception of sense phenomena might lead the soul to the knowledge of the invisible, as the book of Wisdom says: By the grandeur of the beauty of creatures we may by analogy see the creator of all things (Wisd. 13.5). But man, in his lack of wisdom, does not penetrate the phenomena to see what is
FROM GLORY TO GLORY 85
truly to be admired, and admires instead what he sees. Now since the sense function is only temporary and shorthved, we learn from the profound words of our text (Eccles. 1.2) that he who sees thus sees nothing. But the man who penetrating sense phenomena proceeds to an intuition of being, and perceives the permanent nature under that which is con stantly changing, and enjoys the comprehension of that which is always the same, it is he who sees the highest good and is in possession of what he sees. For the knowledge of this good is indeed its possession.
Thus, says the text (Eccles. 1.3), What hath a man of all his labour, that he ta\eth under the sun? By labour here it refers to the life of the body which does not seek its advan tage in any good deed. And it says: What hath a man—that is, What does the soul get out of all the toil of life in those men who live only for the superficial ? In what is life to be found ? Of all the things that appear to be good, how many of them endure? The sun completes its course, now giving light and now in darkness, illuminating the air that surrounds us when it shines above the earth, and drawing the darkness after it when it sets. Again, the earth stands still, remaining fixed and immovable (for indeed what stands does not move, and what moves does not stand still). It is clear that every thing is, in itself, nothing at each particular moment of time, since it is always evolving into something else through the process of change. The sea is the receptacle for the waters which flow into it from all sides, and though the inflow never stops, the sea grows no larger. What is the purpose of this passage of water constantly filling what is already filled?
Why does the sea continue to receive this stream of water without being increased by the addition ?
GREGORY OF NYSSA
Ecclesiastes tells us this (Eccles. 1.7) in order to teach us that of all the elements which make up human existence those are the least stable which are the most sought after. If the appointed cycle of the sun has no ending, and there is no end to the succession of light and darkness; if the earth is to remain solid and immovable, and the rivers to labor in vain, consumed by the greedy sea which never increases despite all the water that is constantly poured into its bosom—if this is the nature of the universe, then what is man's condition likely to be when he passes his life in this world ? And should we find it strange that generations come and go and that this cycle of nature never ends, as each new generation displaces the one that preceded it, and the new one is in turn displaced by the one that is to come ?
And what is the message which this text proclaims to the Church? It is this: Mortal men, as you look upon the uni verse, see in it your own nature. What you see on earth and in the heavens, what you behold in the sun and contemplate in the sea, apply this to yourselves and to your own nature. In the sun we have a symbol of the rise and setting of our nature.
There is one path for all; there is one cycle for all in life's journey. By birth we rise, and then we are drawn back again into our connatural place. And when we come to life's setting, our light too goes below the earth with the sense faculty which perceives light. What is of earth is completely re solved into its element, and so the cycle continues on and on in the same way.
It is similar, he tells us (Eccles. 1.5-6), with the sun's course.
Rising up in the northern part of the earth, the sun proceeds to the south, and then going underneath, it moves in the opposite direction until it comes up again under the northern