Restoring Beauty

Ἰδοὺ εἶ καλή, ἡ πλησίον μου, ἰδοὺ εἶ καλή· ὀφθαλμοί σου περιστεραί. Παιδεύει δὲ διὰ τῶν εἰρημένων ὁ λόγος ταύτην εἶναι τοῦ κάλλους τὴν ἐπανάληψιν τῷ προσεγγίσαι πάλιν τῷ ἀληθινῷ κάλλει, οὗ ἀπεφοίτησε· φησὶ γὰρ Ἰδοὺ εἶ καλή, ἡ πλησίον μου· ὅπερ ἐστὶν ὅτι διὰ τοῦτο πρότερον οὐκ ἦσθα καλή, διότι τοῦ ἀρχετύπου κάλλους ἀποξενωθεῖσα τῇ πονηρᾷ γειτνιάσει τῆς κακίας πρὸς τὸ εἰδεχθὲς ἠλλοιώθης. Tὸ δὲ λεγόμενον τοιοῦτόν ἐστι· δεκτικὴ τῶν κατὰ γνώμην ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη γέγονε φύσις καὶ πρὸς ὅπερ ἂν ἡ ῥοπὴ τῆς προαιρέσεως αὐτὴν ἄγῃ, κατ’ ἐκεῖνο καὶ ἀλλοιοῦται· τοῦ τε γὰρ θυμοῦ παραδεξαμένη τὸ πάθος θυμώδης γίνεται καὶ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἐπικρατησάσης εἰς ἡδονὴν διαλύεται, πρὸς δειλίαν τε καὶ φόβον καὶ τὰ καθ’ ἕκαστον πάθη τῆς ῥοπῆς γενομένης τὰς ἑκάστου τῶν παθῶν μορφὰς ὑποδύεται, ὥσπερ δὴ καὶ ἐκ | τοῦ ἐναντίου τὸ μακρόθυμον, τὸ καθαρόν, τὸ εἰρηνικόν, τὸ ἀόργητον, τὸ ἄλυπον, τὸ εὐθαρσές, τὸ ἀπτόητον, πάντα ταῦτα ἐν ἑαυτῇ δεξαμένη ἑκάστου τούτων ἐπισημαίνει τὸν χαρακτῆρα τῇ καταστάσει τῆς ψυχῆς ἐν ἀταραξίᾳ γαληνιάζουσα. Συμβαίνει τοίνυν ἀμέσως πρὸς τὴν κακίαν τῆς ἀρετῆς διεστώσης μὴ δύνασθαι κατὰ ταὐτὸν ἀμφότερα τῷ ἑνὶ παραγίνεσθαι· ὁ γὰρ τοῦ σωφρονεῖν ἀποστὰς ἐν τῷ ἀκολάστῳ πάντως γίνεται βίῳ καὶ ὁ τὸν ἀκάθαρτον βδελυξάμενος βίον κατώρθωσεν ἐν τῇ ἀποστροφῇ τοῦ κακοῦ τὸ ἀμόλυντον. Oὕτω καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα· ὁ ταπεινοφρονῶν τῆς ὑπερηφανίας κεχώρισται καὶ ὁ διὰ τοῦ τύφου ἑαυτὸν ἐξογκώσας τὴν ταπεινοφροσύνην ἀπώσατο. Kαὶ τί χρὴ τὰ καθ’ ἕκαστον λέγοντα διατρίβειν, πῶς ἐπὶ τῶν ἀντικειμένων τῇ φύσει ἡ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἀπουσία θέσις καὶ ὕπαρξις τοῦ ἑτέρου γίνεται; οὕτω τοίνυν ἐχούσης ἡμῶν τῆς προαιρέσεως, ὡς κατ’ ἐξουσίαν ἔχειν ὅπερ ἂν ἐθέλῃ τούτῳ συσχηματίζεσθαι, καλῶς φησι πρὸς τὴν ὡραϊσθεῖσαν ὁ λόγος, ὅτι ἀποστᾶσα μὲν τῆς τοῦ κακοῦ κοινωνίας ἐμοὶ προσήγγισας, πλησιάσασα δὲ τῷ ἀρχετύπῳ κάλλει καὶ αὐτὴ καλὴ γέγονας οἷόν τι κάτοπτρον τῷ ἐμῷ χαρακτῆρι ἐμμορφωθεῖσα· κατόπτρῳ γὰρ ἔοικεν ὡς ἀληθῶς τὸ ἀνθρώπινον κατὰ τὰς τῶν προαιρέσεων ἐμφάσεις μεταμορφούμενον· εἴ τε γὰρ πρὸς χρυσὸν ἴδοι, χρυσὸς φαίνεται καὶ τὰς ταύτης αὐγὰς τῆς ὕλης διὰ τῆς ἐμφάσεως δείκνυσιν, εἴ τέ τι τῶν εἰδεχθῶν ἐμφανείη, καὶ τούτου τὸ αἶσχος δι’ ὁμοιώσεως ἀπομάσσεται βάτραχόν τινα ἢ φρῦνον ἢ σκολόπενδραν ἢ ἄλλο τι τῶν ἀηδῶν θεαμάτων τῷ οἰκείῳ εἴδει ὑποκρινόμενον, ᾧπερ ἂν τούτων εὑρεθῇ ἀντιπρόσωπον. Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν κατὰ νώτου τὴν κακίαν ποιησαμένη ἡ κεκαθαρμένη ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου ψυχὴ τὸν ἡλιακὸν ἐν ἑαυτῇ κύκλον ἐδέξατο καὶ τῷ ὀφθέντι ἐν αὐτῇ φωτὶ συνεξέλαμψε, διὰ τοῦτό φησι πρὸς αὐτὴν ὁ λόγος, ὅτι γέγονας ἤδη καλὴ πλησιάσασα τῷ ἐμῷ φωτὶ διὰ τοῦ προσεγγισμοῦ τὴν κοινωνίαν ἐφελκυσαμένη τοῦ κάλλους. Ἰδοὺ εἶ καλή, φησίν, ἡ πλησίον μου. Ἅγιος Γρηγόριος Νύσσης, Ἐξηγησις Του Αἰσματος Των Ἀσμάτων,  Ὁμιλία Δ’ Source: Migne PG 44.835c-d

Behold, you are beautiful, my close one, behold, you are beautiful: your eyes are doves. 1 By these expressions the Word teaches that the restoration of the soul's beauty consists in it once again drawing near to the true Beauty from which it departed. For he says, 'Behold, you are beautiful, my close one,' as if to declare, 'The reason why you were not beautiful before is that you had been estranged from the archetypal Beauty and had become ugly because of wrongful association with evil,' meaning that human nature which comes into being as something capable of becoming whatever it determines upon, and to what ever goal the drive of its choice leads it, undergoes alteration in accord with what it seeks. When it takes into itself the passion of anger, it becomes angry. When desire reigns, it is dissolved into pleasure. When impulse runs in the direction of cowardice and fear, it assumes the shape of the passions proper to each of these, just as, on the contrary, when it receives into itself greatness of spirit, purity, peacefulness, calmness of temper, harmlessness, courage, high-spiritedness, all of these, it shows the mark of each of them with the soul being established in peace and inner tranquility. Since virtue, then, is different from vice and there is no mean between them, virtue and vice cannot characterize one subject in the same respect at the same time. One who departs from temperance comes to live a thoroughly unbridled life, while one who abominates the impure life, in turning from evil, achieves a life that is undefiled. And so it is in all the other cases. He who possesses a humble mind is separated from arrogance, and he who is puffed up with affectation has driven out humility. And why should we waste time by mentioning each individual case, how, where naturally contrary qualities are concerned, the absence of the one must mean the establishment and presence of the other? Since, then, our choice is so constituted that we are disposed to take on the shape of whatever we want, the Word rightly says to the Bride in her new glory, 'You have drawn near to me since you have rejected the fellowship of evil, and in drawing near to the archetypal Beauty you too have become beautiful, informed like a mirror by my appearance.' For in that it is transformed in accordance with the reflections of its choices, the human person is rightly likened to a mirror. If it looks upon gold, it appears gold, and by way of reflection it gives off the beams of that substance; and if it has the look of some unseemly thing, it is imitating that ugliness with a likeness, playing, in its own appearance, the part of a frog or a toad or a millipede or some other unpleasant sight, whichever of them it reflects. Having, then, put evil behind it, the soul purified by the Word has taken the sun’s orb within itself and has been shining with the light that appears within it, because of which the Word says to her: 'You have already become beautiful by coming close to my light, since by your own drawing near you make yourself participate in the beautiful.' 'Behold,' he says, 'you are beautiful, my close one.' Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Commentary on The Song of Songs, from Homily 4 1 Song 1.14