Dialogue with Heraclides · §28

From the shadow into the life

Origen went on from Jeremiah's call: Before I formed you in the belly I know you, and before you came out of the womb I consecrated you — such as Ezekiel had when seeing the cherubim, seeing the wheels, the unspeakable mysteries — how shall we live when we no longer live under the shadow of the life, but come to be in the life itself?

For now our life is hidden with Christ; but when Christ, our life, is manifested, then we too will be manifested with him in glory. Let us hasten toward this life, groaning, grieving that we are in the tent, that we are at home in the body. So long as we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. Let us long to be away from the body and at home with the Lord, so that being at home with him we may become one toward the God of all, and [perhaps: behold] his only-begotten Son, being saved in all things and becoming blessed, in Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power unto the ages of the ages.

Greek

σε ἐξελθεῖν ἐκ μήτρας, ἡγίακά σε», ὁποίαν εἶχεν Ἰεζεκιὴλ βλέπων τὰ Χερουβίμ, βλέπων τοὺς τροχούς, τὰ ἀπόρρητα μυστήρια, πῶς ζησόμεθα, ὅταν μηκέτι ὑπὸ τὴν σκιὰν ζῶμεν τῆς ζωῆς, ἀλλὰ γενώμεθα ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ζωῇ. Νῦν γὰρ «ἡ ζωὴ» ἡμῶν «κέκρυπται σὺν τῷ Χριστῷ· ὅταν δὲ Χριστὸς φανερωθῇ, ἡ ζωὴ ἡμῶν, τότε καὶ» ἡμεῖς «σὺν αὐτῷ» φανερωθησόμεθα «ἐν δόξῃ». Ἐπὶ ταύτην τὴν ζωὴν σπεύσωμεν, στενάζοντες, λυπούμενοι ὅτι ἐσμὲν ἐν τῷ σκηνώματι, ὅτι ἐνδημοῦμεν ἐν τῷ σώματι. Ὅσον «ἐνδημοῦμεν ἐν τῷ σώματι, ἐκδημοῦμεν ἀπὸ τοῦ Κυρίου».

Ἐπιποθήσωμεν «ἐκδημῆσαι ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος καὶ ἐνδημῆσαι πρὸς τὸν [Κύριον]», ἵν' ἐνδημοῦντες αὐτῷ γενώμεθα ἓν πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν τῶν ὅλων [καὶ] τὸν μονογενῆ αὐτοῦ Υἱὸν [ὁρῶμεν] πρὸς πάντα σωζόμενοι καὶ μακάριοι γινόμενοι, ἐν Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ ᾧ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων.