A soul can never attain the knowledge of God unless God Himself in His condescension takes hold of it and raises it up to Himself. For the human intellect lacks the power to ascend and to participate in divine illumination, unless God Himself draws it up - in so far as this is possible for the human intellect - and illumines it with rays of divine light. (Saint Maximos the Confessor)

Is God condescending? We use the term for patronizing behavior, designed to sharpen the sense of separation between higher and lower.

The original Latin means to "let oneself down" or literally "together descend." I am not sure of Saint Maximos' meaning, but I hear something nearly opposite to our typical meaning.

God reaches out to be together with us. Given the nature of God, we can perceive this as a reaching down. At some point we deigned ourselves too big to take the hand of our mother or father crossing the road.

Did there also come a time when we reached out to hold the hand of another? Was there another time in love, or grief, or joy, or in simple thanksgiving for being together that we received the hand of another?

We can refuse to receive what God offers, but the opportunity continues to be offered.