John 6:35
67. ….. In the same way, in His unutterable and inconceivable bounty Christ reduces and embodies Himself, commingling with and embracing the soul that aspires to Him with faith and love and, as St Paul puts it (cf. 1 Cor. 6:17), becoming one spirit with it, His soul united with our soul and His Person with our person. Thus such a soul lives and has its being in His divinity, attaining immortal life and delighting in incorruptible pleasure and inexpressible glory.
68. In a soul of this kind the Lord when He wills is fire, consuming every sinful and alien thing in it, in accordance with the words, ‘Our God is a consuming fire’ (Deut. 4:24); at other times He is repose, wondrous and indescribable; or else joy and peace, cherishing and embracing it. Only it must aspire to Him with love and devote itself to holy ways of life, and then through direct experience, with its own perception, it will see itself partaking of unutterable blessings that ‘the eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard, and man’s heart has not grasped’ (1 Cor. 2:9). For to the soul that proves itself worthy of Him the Spirit of the Lord is now repose, now intense joy, now delight and life. Just as He embodies Himself in spiritual food, so He embodies Himself in indescribable raiment and beauty, so that He fills the soul with spiritual gladness. As He Himself said: ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6:35); and: ‘If anyone drinks of the water that I give him … it will be in him a spring of water welling up for eternal life’ (John 4:14).
St Symeon Metaphrastis, Paraphrase of the Homilies of St Makarios of Egypt, IV The Raising of the Intellect, Philokalia, V3.314
