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In order to be able to see anything, the eye needs light. In order to see truths about God, ourselves, the world, we require light of another kind. The “enlightenment” of our minds depends on God. As the 20th-century monastic elder Sophrony tells us, “To apprehend sin in oneself is a spiritual act, impossible without grace, without the drawing near to us of divine Light. …”
Divine Light and the insight that it brings is a matter of gift; it is grace. My access to it doesn’t depend entirely on me. I can’t will it into existence. For that matter, I can’t save myself, I can’t have faith purely out of my own intellectual acumen. I can’t become virtuous purely out of my own willpower; I can’t come to a right understanding of myself and my sinfulness on my own. God grants these gifts.
I have to seek divine Light, and cooperate with it. I have to earnestly desire it. I have to pray about it and pray for it.
—Dr. Peter Bouteneff, How to Be a Sinner
