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Part 2: On Battling Pride
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Part 3: The Spirit, and Spirits
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Part 4: The Role of Christian Women
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Part 5: On Seeking the Kingdom of God
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Part 9: The Silence of the Theotokos
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Part 10: On the Monastic Life
Photo: amusingplanet.com
Hermits
Hermits withdraw from the world not only because they recognize its value and don’t want to belong to the world, but more often because the desert calls them, and its quiet yet sad voice is a hundred times more desirable than the empty joys of the world.
The most perfect and greatest thing a man can desire and achieve is drawing near to God and abiding in solitude with Him. Of course, few achieve this perfection, because it’s impossible without reclusion. Monasteries are for the many, and the desert for the few, and it’s natural that the path to hermeticism runs through the monastery.
Cleansing the heart
It’s unjust and harmful to develop only the mind, leaving the heart without attention. On the contrary, the greatest attention should be given to the heart, for in the heart is life, and it’s full of sins. Therefore, it’s appropriate to direct our main concerns to this source of spoiled and wicked life.
Who doesn’t need a clear, pure, bright flame of life to be ignited in their heart, one that doesn’t smolder, doesn’t go out, doesn’t flicker, but burns and gives direction to the desires and aspirations of the mind? For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man (Mt. 15:19-20).
It’s precisely due to the lack of formation of the heart and spirit that modern society is so depraved and corrupt. Isn’t it time for Christians to understand what the Lord wants from us? Above all—a pure heart. Listen to His sweetest voice in the Gospel! And why? Because the true life of the heart is Christ, and therefore our main task is to instill Christ in the heart through faith.
Thus, whatever can direct us to this goal, that is, purity of heart, we must follow with all our strength; whatever distracts from it, we must avoid as destructive and harmful.
To this end, sometimes we must leave parents, homeland, positions, wealth, the comforts of this world, and all pleasures; to this end, we retreat into the wilderness, keep fasts, practice vigilance, embrace bodily poverty, and devote ourselves to reading and other virtues.
Cleansing the mind
Unceasing prayer, contemplation of God and the Kingdom of Heaven, and the abiding of the human mind in the heart facilitate the purification of both mind and soul from the passions, enlightenment by the true light, the acquisition of positive knowledge and aid in work, the obtaining of means for living, and the fulfillment of numerous duties.
If the mind wanders in the outside world, is carried away by imaginary images and feelings, then it’s useless to others, harmful to itself, and barren for life.
Repentance
Only repentance purifies the heart. It’s a fire devouring all the impurity, corrosion, and scum in the passionate human heart. The Lord, Who hearkens to the heart’s draw to Him, heals a man with the touch of the grace of the Holy Spirit.
As long as the impurity of the heart prevents the entry of Divine grace, only our mind, submitting to the will of the heart, gravitates towards God in its consciousness. But then the Lord, seeing human volition, allows us to approach Him, and He Himself heals us from weakness and impurity with a single word, a single touch.
This spiritual attraction is like a magnet attracting metal, and the faster the latter rushes towards it, the sooner the union takes place. So in a spiritual sense, the more resolutely human volition inclines towards God, the sooner the heart unites with the Lord…
Man is healed from his moral and spiritual weakness by the touch of Divine grace, and the Lord tells him: Son, thy sins be forgiven thee (Mk. 2:5).
Repentance has a miraculous power, but it first of all depends on whether we see our sins, whether we notice them, whether we remember our falls, sins, and iniquities.
The heart and mind of a sinner usually lose this ability, and a man ceases to feel, see, and notice his sins, which he’s accustomed to committing every day, such that it seems to him he can’t live without them. On this basis, the Holy Fathers compare the conscience of a sinner with a book that hasn’t been read for a long time, covered in dust and eaten by moths, such that if anyone wants to pick up this book to read, it will be quite difficult, as many places will be damaged and it would require great patience to parse the words.
What is required of a man who comes to the Sacrament of Repentance? First of all it requires the firm intention to amend his life. Such an intention can exist only when a man is clearly aware of the full horror of his sins. This is why St. Basil the Great says that “a penitent is not he who says: ‘I have sinned,’ and then remains in sin, but he who, according to the Psalm, has known and hated his sin!”
Therefore, in order to repent, we must recognize our sin and hate it! But for whomever hates sin, it’s not hard for him to sincerely say to his loving Father: “Forgive me, I won’t do it again!” What kind of children will find it difficult to pronounce these words? And they will quickly pass through Heaven and appear as an intercessor at the throne of God!
Repentance is sometimes hindered by the consciousness that another fall is inevitable after forgiveness. But the Lord allows only those people to fall whose work was insufficient and who resorted to His help with little faith and without hope. Whoever knows his own infirmity only in part will certainly fall, for he still relies on himself, his mind, his strength.
But if you’re aware of yourselves as children in the spiritual life, then the fear of falling and sinning again shouldn’t confound you; it’s inevitable. Those who are experienced and have grown spiritually understand well that progress, rising, and finally, complete liberation from the passions depend on falling.
The Heavenly Father is infinitely merciful to repentant sinners, and therefore neither despair nor hopelessness should take hold of men, no matter how guilty they are before God, no matter how lost, as long as there is still time for enlightenment and repentance.
Repentance and grace
None of us are able to understand what perfect repentance is until we realize our impotence in the struggle with the passions and learn how hopeless our own repentance is when the heart doesn’t thirst for grace.
Ordinary repentance alone isn’t enough—something more is needed. And what exactly that is can be learned by every man who is tormented by his passions and sinful falls.
How painful it is for such a man, when, calmed by the remission of sins, reconciled with God and himself, hoping to resist and not succumb to temptations or suppress sinful desires within himself, he again falls and remains alone with his conscience, like a criminal exposed in his incorrigibility.
The more a believer strives for righteousness, the more clearly the striking picture of his own infirmity is revealed to him: He wants to achieve the best, but does the worst.
He strives for prayer, for unity with God, but during the services or prayer at home, his mind is dispersed, he dreams, he ponders his worries and affairs.
He decides to fight ruthlessly against a pernicious passion, abstains, exhausts his body, depletes it through fasting, and then unexpectedly, without noticing it, is overcome by sin and gives in to the fall with even greater passion.
In the struggle, during prayer he makes vows, promises the Lord or the Mother of God as proof of his determination to devote himself only to truth and a pious life, but becomes a deceiver, an oathbreaker, and weeps in despair from his impotence before evil!
How much shame, heartache, bitterness, and disgrace before his conscience a believer experiences here! Especially unbearable is the realization when these carnal sins and excesses offend the believer’s own love for Christ.
What a horror it is to love God and yet offend Him; to take advantage of His goodness and boundless mercy, and respond with ingratitude and disobedience; to understand His truth and yet resort to deception and lies! Then the penitent in prayer finds no other name for himself but “accursed,” for everything that was bright inside has been polluted, destroyed, lost, corrupted; everything sincere and lofty has been obliterated by unrighteousness and offended by deceit.
Such sincere, conscious self-abasement and self-reproach is a sign of humility and serves as a harbinger of coming healing, for a proud man never entreats the help of the grace of God. And only a broken heart is capable of receiving grace, which comforts, encourages, and strengthens.
Such a sincere man, humbled in his passions and weaknesses, having recognized his wretchedness, begins to strengthen in prayer by grace. His mind gradually becomes enlightened, firmness appears in his thoughts and actions, and the obstacles that previously hindered him in the struggle against evil and sin disappear.
Then the believer again draws near to the Lord, recognizing the power of His grace. In penitent prayer, he now fervently asks regenerating grace to be sent down to him, and in the days when the heart grows cold towards God, he becomes even more convinced that without Christ’s grace, it’s unthinkable to be healed of the passions.
Repentance isn’t enough; Christ’s power and God’s sanctifying grace are also needed. It’s fitting, therefore, to persistently pray, ask, and call upon the Lord for help, for the healing of moral ailments, in full, clear awareness that Christ alone is our Savior and all human happiness is in grace!
This is perfect repentance: recognizing our powerlessness, the insufficiency of ordinary repentance, the impossibility of achieving righteousness without Christ’s grace-filled power, and offering fervent, persistent prayer to the Son of God for our healing and salvation! But Christ can’t heal those who don’t recognize their pernicious weakness, who aren’t ready to receive Divine grace, and don’t pray for healing. And without the healing of the soul, it’s impossible to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Repentance and lamentation
When one of St. Poemen the Great’s disciples asked him what to do with his sins, the Elder replied:
“He who wants to rid himself of the sins living in him does so by weeping, and he who desires not to fall into sins, avoids them by weeping. This is the way of repentance given us by Scripture and the Fathers, who said: ‘Weep, for there is no other way but to weep!’”
“But what am I to do with my passions that trouble me?” the same monk asked.
The Elder said, “Let us weep with all our might before the goodness of God, until it works mercy for us!”
Only those who have never experienced the battle with their sins and passions fail to understand these words. But for those who are experienced in the spiritual life, such counsel isn’t perplexing; they don’t condemn it, because it’s not for monks only, but for all Christians striving to be delivered from their passions that offend the grace-filled heart, that anger God and respond with ingratitude to Him Who cannot but be glorified, thanked, and loved with all our hearts for His unceasing beneficence, forgiveness, and boundless mercy!
Beloved, not every repentance is salvific repentance, and true repentance has its identifying characteristics. Thus, the Holy Fathers assert that people who have no tears or weeping but who say they’re aware of their sinfulness and are repenting only deceive themselves and others.
There is no repentance in us, no true intention to change our lives, no fear of God in our hearts, no consciousness of guilt, no self-condemnation. Our soul hasn’t yet felt the future judgment and eternal torments if we don’t weep. After renouncing the Lord, the holy Apostle Peter went out and wept bitterly (Lk. 22:62).
Without lamentation, it’s impossible to soften our hardness of heart, to acquire spiritual humility and unite with the Lord by the illuminating grace of the Holy Spirit.
But there is weeping without spiritual humility, out of self-pity, due to a nervous condition, and it’s a mistake to think that such weeping cleanses sins. Those who don’t have humility, yet weep, are easily inflamed with anger, irritated, and can’t completely abandon worldly fascinations. Such lamentation, without spiritual humility, doesn’t generate sweetness in a man and doesn’t attract God’s grace.
Before his birth, God’s anointed king is determined by the moral state of the people. As the merits of the people are before God, so is the king, bestowed by the Heavenly Father.
The further life of God’s anointed depends on the people in the same way, for the piety and virtues of the subjects best adorn the royal crown, serve as a source of strength and power for the state, and combat dangers. What have Russian tsars not accomplished relying on the faith of the people, on loyalty to the throne and the Fatherland, and on the readiness to obey for Christ’s sake! If the king is protected by the prayers and virtues of the people, can evil nest at the foot of the throne?
On the other hand, an unbelieving, dissolute, and depraved people is a heavy burden for the king. Can the skill and diligence of even the best helmsman accomplish anything if he has to steer a completely disordered ship amid incessant storms and tribulations?
The iniquities of the people remove God’s blessing from the land, as a result of which success is taken away from even the wisest of the king’s undertakings. The years of the kings’ lives are also shortened for the sins of the people, as is known from the history of Israel. Finally, the state of the people influences the fate of kings even after their death, and in eternal life, where they must give a strict account to God for what they have done on earth. What, then, is the splendor of all the crowns in the world compared to the very great responsibility that lies on the shoulders of every autocrat?
