St. Maximos the Confessor answers the following question:

What is the meaning of: “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast in the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him”? And how are we to understand the words: “and does not doubt”?

An excerpt from his answer: “Since the human person is composed of soul and body, he wavers between two laws, by which I mean the law of the flesh and that of the spirit. On the one hand, the law of the flesh operates by virtue of the senses, but that of the spirit by virtue of the intellect [i.e. nous]. Now the law of the flesh, operating by means of the senses, is of a nature to bind one closely to matter, but the law of the spirit, operating by means of the intellect, brings about an unmediated union with God. Thus it is only reasonable that “he who does not doubt in his heart,” that is, who does not distinguish in his intellect—which is to say, who does not sever the unmediated union with God, which has come about through faith, inasmuch as he is dispassionate, or rather because he has already become God through union with Him by faith—is able to “say to this mountain, move, and it will be moved,” indicating, through the demonstrative pronoun “this mountain,” the mind and law of the flesh, which truly is heavy and difficult to move, and as far as our natural powers are concerned, is absolutely immovable and unshakeable.”

Read the full text here: https://www.scribd.com/document/40331...

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