Friday, August 16, 2024

Gregory of Nazianzus On the Immediate Glorification of Believers at Death

Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390), Oration VII, "Panegyric on His Brother S. Caesarius," section 21:

I believe the words of the wise, that every fair and God-beloved soul, when, set free from the bonds of the body, it departs hence, at once enjoys a sense and perception of the blessings which await it, inasmuch as that which darkened it has been purged away, or laid aside—I know not how else to term it—and feels a wondrous pleasure and exultation, and goes rejoicing to meet its Lord, having escaped as it were from the grievous poison of life here, and shaken off the fetters which bound it and held down the wings of the mind, and so enters on the enjoyment of the bliss laid up for it, of which it has even now some conception. 

Πείθομαι σοφῶν λόγοις, ὅτι ψυχὴ πᾶσα καλή τε καὶ θεοφιλής, ἐπειδὰν τοῦ συνδεδεμένου λυθεῖσα σώματος ἐνθένδε ἀπαλλαγῇ, εὐθὺς μὲν ἐν συναισθήσει καὶ θεωρίᾳ τοῦ μένοντος αὐτὴν καλοῦ γενομένη, ἅτε τοῦ ἐπισκοτοῦντος ἀνακαθαρθέντος, ἢ ἀποτεθέντος, ἢ οὐκ οἶδ' ὅ τι καὶ λέγειν χρή, θαυμασίαν τινὰ ἡδονὴν ἥδεται καὶ ἀγάλλεται καὶ ἵλεως χωρεῖ πρὸς τὸν ἑαυτῆς δεσπότην, ὥσπερ τι δεσμωτήριον χαλεπὸν τὸν ἐνταῦθα βίον ἀποφυγοῦσα, καὶ τὰς περικειμένας ἀποσεισαμένη πέδας ὑφ' ὧν τὸ τῆς διανοίας πτερὸν καθείλκετο, καὶ οἷον ἤδη τῇ φαντασίᾳ καρποῦται τὴν ἀποκειμένην μακαριότητα

(source for English and Greek)

πᾶσα means all.

εὐθὺς is an adverb that is normally translated as "immediately."   

ἀνακαθαρθέντος literally means "having been thoroughly cleansed."