The Impossibility of Depicting God and the Possibility of “Seeing” Him

“There is no specimen in creation that can represent the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

(St. Ammon)

 

 

A Mystery Which Cannot Be Expressed or Depicted. In a previous article, [1] we presented the teaching of the Holy Fathers on God: that He is “in every respect without form or figure” and “beyond every image” [2] and that, consequently, “it is the height of insanity and impiety to give form to the Divine.” [3] In order to deter our minds from the eror of attempting “to circumscribe the Divine in figures and forms,” [4] the Saints insist emphatically on the impossibility of depicting God.

The Mystery of the Holy Trinity, although mystically revealed to the Prophets and the Saints, remains beyond conception and is, therefore, incapable of being expressed or depicted. The Holy Fathers, as one theologian correctly writes, “never allowed their thought to cross the threshold of the mystery, or to substitute representations of God for God Himself.” [5]

“Types” of the Holy Trinity Deriving from Divine Revelation. Yet, God, Who loves mankind, while not allowing us to endow Him with form or figure or to depict Him, has, in His gracious condescension, nonetheless revealed His Triune nature to many Saints, and this through a variety of “types,” so that we might be confirmed in the Divinely-inspired dogmatic teaching of our Church.

1. During the period of the Arian heresy, St. Theodore the Sanctified (commemorated on May 16), while at prayer, saw “something like three pillars of light that were equal in every way and identical with each other” and heard a voice saying to him: “Pay no heed either to the separation in the figure that you see, or to its circumscription, but only to its sameness; for there is no specimen in creation that can represent the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” [6]

2. St. John of the Ladder (commemorated on March 30) enigmatically describes an astonishing revelation that he had while at prayer. After reaching a state of ecstasy and Divine vision, he found himself in the midst of the Holy Angels. In his thirst and longing to know the mysteries of God, the Saint was impelled to ask the Angel who was serving as his companion and guide, “What was the Ruler [Christ] before He assumed a visible form?”; “In what form does He now exist?”; “What is the meaning of His standing and sitting at the right hand of the Cause [the Father]?”; and “Lead me to that to which my longing has been drawing me”—that is, to the vision of the ineffable majesty of the Holy Trinity! His Angelic guide “could not teach him these things, because he was not permitted to do so.” “It is impossible,” he said, “for human ears to be instructed in these mysteries”; “the time has not yet come,” he went on, “since you lack the fire of incorruption.” [7]

 

3. St. Symeon the New Theologian (commemorated on March 12) recounts a mystical vision, during which he conversed with the three Hypostases of the Blessed and most regal Trinity. The Essence of God, among other astounding revelations, assured the Saint:

According to the nature that is in Me, I am entirely invisible, indescribable, without form, impalpable, untouchable, immovable, ever-moving, filling all fillings and yet being nowhere at all, neither in you, nor in any other of the Angels or Prophets who of old or now are close to Me, by whom I have never been seen in any way, nor am I ever seen. [8]

The “Vision” of God. According to the Holy Fathers, it is therefore “absolutely impossible for anyone to see God with the eyes of his senses, since God is wholly invisible and without form and is, first and foremost, completely simple.” [9]

“No man hath seen or can see” [10] God—that is to say. His transcendent Nature and Essence—, but all that we have seen or heard through His condescension, God effects “by conforming Himself for the sake of accommodation [οίκονομικώς, or “by economy”—Trans.] to our needs,” [11] for the Lord “is higher than forms and words of this kind.” [12] In spite of this, God is (and becomes) “participable and visible” “according to His energy, Grace, and power,” to which “the whole choir of holy theologians attests.” [13]

Pure and sincere love towards our brother is also one of the Divine Energies. The more we cleanse our hearts, the greater will be our love for our brother and God’s love for us, and all the more will we “see” God, Who will then abide and dwell in our hearts: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” [14] When we have God dwelling and abiding in our hearts by means of His uncreated Energies, then we are enriched by a spiritual gift even greater than that of beholding God with the eyes of our senses: “No man hath seen God at any time; if we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.” [15]

 

Notes

1. For an English translation of the article in question, see “On the Ascension of Our Lord,” Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XIX, No. 2 (2002), pp. 2-4.

2. St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite, ’Αόρατος Πόλεμος [Unseen Warfare], Part I, Chap. 25.

3. St. John of Damascus, Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book IV, Chap. 16, Patrologia Grceca, Vol. XCIV, cols. 1169C-1172A.

4. St. Neilos, On Prayer, §116, Patrologia Grceca, Vol. LXXIX, col. 1193A.

5. Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology’ of the Eastern Church (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1976), p. 42.

6. St. Ammon, Epistle to Theophilos, §11 (Athens: “Harmos” Publications, 1991), pp. 52-53.

7. St. John of Sinai, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 27.B.13, Patrologia Grceca, Vol. LXXXVIII, col. 1109C.

8. St. Symeon the New Theologian, “Ethical Discourse (8),” Sources Chretiennes (Paris: Cerf. 1967). Vol. CXXIX. 11. 99-123.

9. St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite, “Interpretation of I St. John 4:12.”

10. I St. Timothy 6:16.

11. Cf. St. Cyril of Alexandria, “Commentary on the Gospel of St. John,” Patrologia Grceca, Vol. LXXIII, col. 417D (note on St. John 5:37).

12. St. John Chrysostomos, “Homily 40 on the Gospel of St. John (§3),” Patrologia Grceca, Vol. LIX, col. 232 (note on St. John 5:37).

13. See note 9.

14. St. Matthew 5:8.

15. I St. John 4:12; cf. I St. Timothy 6:16.

 

Original Greek source: ’Άγιος Κυπριανός. No. 308 (May-June 2002), pp. 129-130.

English source: Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XXI (2004), No. 3, pp. 48-49.