Exodus. Artist: Horace William Petherick
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us. Amen.
The Pentateuch and its contents
The clearest collection of books in the Old Testament is called the Pentateuch. This term comes from the Greek πεντάτευχος, which means “five volumes”. It refers to the so-called books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
The main narrative in the Pentateuch is the movement of the Israelites from their native land to Egypt, where after some time they became the slaves of Pharaoh, until God decided to get them out of slavery in Egypt, and under the leadership of Moses bring them back through the Arabian Desert to the Promised Land.
Some of you will wonder: Why is this narrative so important? What is its great significance both in the Old Testament and in Church history? Of course, one of the reasons is that God’s help is clearly visible in this narrative. But there is also another reason, less obvious, that the story of the Exodus of the chosen people from Egypt, their wandering through the desert and entering of the Promised Land reflect the stages of the ascetic’s spiritual life on his path to Paradise.
A similar phenomenon in modern society
Pharaoh burdened the Israelites with work and did not give them time to worship God. A similar phenomenon is seen today: we have tyrannical rulers, who don’t know God and make their subjects work all the time so that they don’t have time to think about themselves, about others and about God. Scads of “needs” are generated that are not real needs. The prince of this world, through his instruments, offers us numerous temptations and passions to keep us captive so that we can’t strive for our loving God.
Egypt in the Old Testament was a symbol of the material world, the world that we live in today.
The first period of spiritual life
The first period of spiritual life is the struggle with passions, a period when grace should be as obvious as possible, when you need to see how your spiritual mentor performs many miracles by the grace of God. These miracles can be real—that is, overcoming by the grace of God the laws of nature established by God Himself—or they can be an attitude that is miraculous only for a neophyte. Such a neophyte vision is also from grace, and it is of great importance, because the neophyte needs to have reverence for his spiritual mentor just as he needs the air to breathe, because otherwise he will not be able to continue on his path to Paradise.
Grace helps the disciple very much by giving him zeal, prayer and willingness to obey. Here he needs self-denial and attention to obedience, prayer and his daily routine.
The obstacle created by self-love
If a young man shows selfishness, demands logical explanations for his mentor’s orders and grumbles, then he stops on his journey even before leaving Egypt. And if he does not stop there, he will stop on the shores of the Red Sea—that is, where a horde of memories and worldly pleasures will rush in pursuit of him, and a huge miracle from God through his spiritual mentor will be required to shield him from temptations and memories of the world, which the love of God will plunge into the depths of the Red Sea.
The second stage of spiritual life. Entering the Promised Land
After crossing the Red Sea, wandering in the Arabian Desert begins, because our faith is not strong enough to be able to enter the Promised Land directly. Remember that God led the Israelites directly to the Promised Land; but since the scouts—except for two—disobeyed Moses, the man of God, and put logic first, God led them through the Arabian Desert for forty years until the entire generation who had had experience of tasting the worldly pleasures in Egypt died out.
For this reason the second period of spiritual life is called enlightenment, because a person, as a result of gradual liberation from passions, begins to see the light of God’s love in his heart. Grace leaves him after three or four years, but if during the period of grace the disciple does not waste time from the very beginning and zealously and faithfully fulfills his obedience and prayer rule, then he lights his tiny candle from the great light of grace, which abounds at the first stage.
Surely, this little candle is also grace and a gift from God, but it is different, because now he has also made his tiny contribution. But during this period he must have patience, because grace hides, and the person remains in relative isolation so that he can have the opportunity to show that he loves God. And if he had a good start, thanks to focusing on obedience, prayer and sacrifice, then he manages to reveal his best qualities before Christ crucified and those whom Christ will send him as mentors, and he will safely move forward. If he fails to start and does not light his candle before the great light disappears, then he will blindly drag in the darkness of pleasure, thoughts, curiosity and self-will.
How the old man dies and what it leads to. The departure of grace
The old man must die in the desert of isolation from the world, because if the disciple does not cut off all the ties connecting him with the world, it is very likely that his ascent to God will be partially or even totally unsuccessful. He will crash on takeoff. It is very important not to have links with the world that are not to our benefit, but to focus on Christ and people around us, whom God sends us and who can help us move forward on the path to the promised Land without returning to the “Egypt” of bodily pleasures. For this reason, shortly before grace leaves him, the young man is made a novice or a monk according to the abbot’s decision, depending on the disciple’s obedience and diligence.
We must step forward, focusing on our transformation from caterpillars of hate (which is what we are) into butterflies of love that we are called to become. This is true even if we take considerable pleasure in having achieved something in the eyes of others or even in our own; and it is also true when we experience the anguish of demonic despair due to some mistake.
If we are curious to see what others are doing, then we are like dogs which, instead of chasing the game, stop to see what the other dogs are doing, and thus miss the game. If the other dogs run back and/or go astray, we will nevertheless continue on our way to the aim that the “Hunter” has outlined for us. Even if we remain alone on the path, we will try not to hesitate or slow down: we will be constant in our routine, established by God through the Church.
We must have patience in temptations, since without them no one will soften his heart so that it can love people and God. If the heart is not softened, there will be a “stone” inside us. We need to split the “stone” around our heart so that it can become intelligent (understanding), and the light of the love of God can penetrate into it. Then, by his experience and feeling, a person begins to understand things he did not even suspect, and little by little further reflect this love, refracted through the diamond of his heart.
An example of understanding the interconnectedness of people
I will cite you such an example. There was a young brother who many times heard the teaching of the “global Adam”, wherein the Holy Fathers say that we are all members of one single person, and are interconnected, even if due to sin this bond has become much weaker. But he understood this only rationally—that is, he misunderstood it. At some point a monk who loved him dearly asked him to try not to sin, as it dragged him down too, because of the love that bound them as members of the global Adam.
The brother, who knew that he had sinned, said, staring with surprise:
“It that so?”
And the monk answered him:
“Haven’t you heard that so many times? How else could it be?”
Then the brother came to realize this and constantly repeated: “It is so!” because he had begun to understand it from experience.
Brethren, the teachings of the Holy Fathers are real, truly real! But we often lack the spiritual mind to understand that they are concrete, and we do not have genuine faith. We must have faith and undergo Orthodox “therapy,” so that the mind can be enlightened by the grace of God, and we can truly contain with our mind what the Holy Fathers say. Otherwise, we will focus at best on rational knowledge, which is far from true knowledge.
The impact of personal sin on our neighbors
I emphasize this because it applies to all of us. We must try not to sin, because then we slide down and hurt both those who are related to us by love and those around us, especially if this love is great. And since you may not be aware of this, I will tell you even more specifically so that you will understand. Those of you who have young and pure children bound to you by great love: Try not to sin, because you do them great harm.
Never say that they don’t see or don’t understand. Since a small child has committed no personal sins and is pure, he feels both grace and demonic activity alike coming through his parents who gave him life and to whom he is bound.
The purity of a spiritual mind
By the way, regarding small children and the first signs of clearing the mind: When a person through obedience moves forward towards the light of God, he begins to acquire the purity of a small child again—but with the mind and experience of a mature person and with the depth of experience that such a mind bears.
I remember once being with a brother who was in a similar state, and we touched on the topic of light. Then I said that light is radiation emitted by a star (the Sun), a light bulb, or a candle, and is partially absorbed by all the bodies around it. A part of the wave particles of wave packets, which is reflected from the chemical structure of the corresponding object and is perceived by the back of our eye, creates a sense of the color of this object. All these particles/packets, continuously moving at a speed of 300,000 km/s, collide with all objects and form combinations of the colors that we see.
The young monk opened his eyes wide and exclaimed, “Really?!”, and then began to look around, discovering all this for the first time. With indescribable joy he looked at everything around him, starting with the light coming through the window and colliding with dust particles, and ending with coils of colored thread in the tailor’s shop where we were. He gazed around in admiration and amazement, as if wanting to touch everything, but stopped so as not to inadvertently crush this wonderful beauty of the world. This also happens to other brothers in the same spiritual state, when so much beauty is opened up around them that those who see it begin to weep and praise God.
The Departure of Grace
During this period the departure of grace begins, and if the traveler is careless, he falls and hits his head on the ground, and can be injured. I remember once telling a very young brother, who had made a very specific mistake, to say in such cases, “Please forgive me.” To which he flared up:
“You are not my elder!”
Such outbursts of anger throw the traveler many steps back and often injure him unless he repents. Let’s be truthful—these actions traumatize those who do them, and not those who are objects of such aggression. The same thing happens in the family. Parents are not upset by the outbursts of their children’s anger—they feel pain because they know that they will suffer evil in accordance with spiritual law, unless of course they ask forgiveness.
What leads to the departure of grace?
During this period, light alternates with darkness, and grace with demonic influence. It is impossible for anyone to retain grace without being completely cleansed of the passions.
The most common problems at this stage are trust in your own thoughts, disobedience to your mentor, and mental extremes—that is, despair or pride. The devil, who knows his work well, incites the traveler to rely on his own strength, since he has gained some experience and “plumbed the depths of misfortune”. The Devil wants him to get out from under the protection of obedience so that he can beat him mercilessly, forcing him to sin, and then push him to the other extreme—despair and refusal to fight. This rapid change is the most dangerous. It destroys.
What saves us when we lose grace?
What is absolutely vital is constancy in the spiritual struggle, obedience to your mentor and brethren in Christ, and your daily routine. The daily routine should be viewed with some flexibility, like a car’s suspension, which smooths out everyday difficulties. Then our journey will become smooth, and the mind will remain undisturbed and crystal clear, like water in an untouched glass. If you shake a glass, then all the dirt lying on the bottom muddies the water, and it becomes opaque. Likewise, the mind that attaches excessive importance to certain things or is filled with all kinds of passing curious facts becomes opaque to the light of the grace of God.
Thoughts and imagination are the devil’s gates
These impulses can come from the past or the future—that is, we remember all sorts of past events and the anguish they caused us. If they are from the future, they excite or agitate us because we think how pleasant or, conversely, painful it will be for us in the future, depending on the phantasmagoria that The devil fills our mind with.
True, worries can also come from the present, from outside or from within us, based on incorrect judgments related to various factors of influence—people or events. The Devil piles up lots of thoughts for us, because he knows that he can influence us only through thoughts, and any mistake in the real world stems from an error in the world of thoughts. We should be very cautious, preserve our minds and protect our imagination, because these are the gate there through which the enemy enters.
The stage of fluctuation: From grace to temptations
This stage of enlightenment is characterized by the stabilization of alternating periods of grace and temptation. Temptations can be caused by some specific factor, but it can simply be a consequence of Adam’s fall—that is, grace leaves, no matter what we do, for educational purposes. No wonder this period is likened to the passage of the chosen people through the Arabian Desert. Grace leaves to teach us humility, but it will come again. It will also leave again, and then come again. If we fight with all our might, then although we are not able to keep grace or practice virtue, and we cry bitterly when grace leaves us, if we still fight, our Heavenly Father will look down at our unsuccessful struggle as proof of our determination, and will make us victors.
God does this intentionally so that both our weakness and God’s loving omnipotence can be manifested. The whole point is that we must resolutely, heroically and zealously remain on the path of our ascent to God. The passion that St. Joseph the Hesychast feared the most was negligence, because it shackles a person within the very narrow limits of his own blind selfishness.
To be continued…
