Macarius of Egypt
The infant, even if it does not have the power to do anything and cannot go to its mother on its own, it twists and shouts and crys, asking for her with pain and cry, without being able to approach her. And, after its many pleadings, the mother herself, who is captured by her love for her child, approaches it, holds it in her arms, and with a lot of affection, she cares and feeds it.
This is what the philanthropist God does with the soul that approaches Him and asks Him with great desire. And God, motivated by His own love and kindness, is much more tied to this soul, and together they become one spirit, as the apostle says.
When the soul clings to the Lord, then the Lord, with His mercy and love, will approach it and cling to it.
And the thought will remain, from now on, seamlessly in the grace of the Lord.
Then the soul and the Lord become one spirit, one union, one thought. And the body of the man is down upon the earth, but his soul lives in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The soul of the man ascends up to the third heaven and unites with the Lord and provides Him its services.
And He, who sits on the high throne of His greatness, in the city of heaven, is at the same time close to it, to its body.
He put the image of this soul in the heavenly city of saints, and His own image, the image of the ineffable light of the deity, He placed it in its body.
He serves the soul in the city of the body, and it serves Him in the city of heaven.
The soul gets the riches that God has in heaven and He takes the property that the soul has on earth, because the Lord becomes the heir of the soul and the soul, the heir of the Lord.
Thought and mind, even that of the sinful people who live in the dark, can travel and go far away from the body; they can be found in the farthest lands in an instant.
And many times, while the body is on earth, the thought is in another place, near to the beloved person, and sees how it is to live there with the beloved person.
So, if a sinner’s soul is so light and has wings, and long distances do not stop the mind, imagine the soul that was illuminated by the Holy Spirit, whose mental eyes saw the heavenly light, and was completely redeemed by the unworthy passions; the soul, which Grace has carved and cleaned.
This soul, as a whole, is in heaven through the Spirit and serves the Lord. And it is in the body too, as a whole, and serves Him too.
And it is so much spiritually enlarged that this soul is everywhere, wherever it wants to be and wherever it desires to serve Christ.
