Today's episode touches on the ontological necessity of living a life of simplicity.
Divine Simplicity
But first, let me lay some important groundwork. Simply put, simplicity is necessary because God is simple. That may sound strange at first. I mean, God is the creator of vast complexity. How could He be simple?
Well, He is simple because He is One. Our Lord Himself affirmed the opening words of the Hebrew Shema, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One.” Deuteronomy 6:4; John 10:30.
God is one because He alone has aseity, or existence originating from and having no source other than Himself.
St. Gregory Palamas teaches us that God “alone is not only genuinely simple but simplicity itself.”
And St. Basil the Great, in his letter 234 says:
The operations [of God] are various, and the essence simple, but we say that we know our God from His operations, but do not undertake to approach near to His essence."
