Psalms 85:6

"O God, You shall turn us again, and make us alive" [Psalm 85:6]. Not as if we ourselves of our own accord, without Your mercy, turn unto You, and then You shall make us alive: but so that not only our being made alive is from You, but our very conversion, that we may be made alive. "And Your people shall rejoice in You." To their own evil they shall rejoice in themselves: to their own good they shall rejoice in You. For when they wished to have joy of themselves, they found in themselves woe: but now because God is all our joy, he that will rejoice securely, let him rejoice in Him who cannot perish. For why, my brethren, will you rejoice in silver? Either your silver perishes, or thou: and no one knows which first: yet this is certain, that both shall perish; which first, is uncertain. For neither can man remain here always, nor can silver remain here always: so too gold, so garments, so houses, so money, so broad lands, so, lastly, this light itself. Be not thou willing then to rejoice in these: but rejoice in that light which has no setting: rejoice in that dawn which no yesterday precedes, which no tomorrow follows. What light is that? "I," says He, "am the Light of the world." [John 8:12] He who says unto you, "I am the Light of the world," calls you to Himself. When He calls you, He converts you: when He converts you, He heals you: when He has healed you, you shall see your Converter, unto whom it is said, "Show us Your mercy, O Lord, and grant us Your salvation" [Psalm 85:7]: Your salvation, that is, Your Christ. Happy is he unto whom God shows His mercy. He it is who cannot indulge in pride, unto whom God shows His mercy. For by showing him His salvation He persuades him that whatever good man has, he has not but from Him who is all our good. And when a man has seen that whatever good he has he has not from himself, but from his God; he sees that everything which is praised in him is of the mercy of God, not of his own deserving; and seeing this, he is not proud; not being proud, he is not lifted up; not lifting himself up, he falls not; not falling, he stands; standing, he clings fast; clinging fast, he abides; abiding, he enjoys, and rejoices in the Lord his God. He who made him shall be unto him a delight: and his delight no one spoils, no one interrupts, no one takes away....Therefore, what says John in his Epistle? "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be." [1 John 3:2] Who would not rejoice, if suddenly while he was wandering abroad, ignorant of his descent, suffering want, and in a state of misery and toil, it were announced, You are the son of a senator: your father enjoys an ample patrimony on your family estate; I bid you return to your father: how would he rejoice, if this were said to him by some one whose promise he could trust? One whom we can trust, an Apostle of Christ, has come and said to us, You have a father, you have a country, you have an inheritance. Who is that father? "Beloved, we are the sons of God." [1 John 3:2] ...Therefore He promised us to show Himself unto us. Think, my brethren, what His beauty is. All those beautiful things which you see, which you love, He made. If these are beautiful, what is He Himself? If these are great, how great is He? Therefore from these things which we love here, let us the more long for Him: and despising these things, let us love Him: that by that very love we may by faith purify our hearts, and His vision, when it comes, may find our heart purified. The light which shall be shown unto us ought to find us whole: this is the work of faith now. This is what we have spoken here: "And grant us Your salvation:" grant us Your Christ, that we may know Your Christ, see Your Christ; not as the Jews saw Him and crucified Him, but as the Angels see Him, and rejoice.