The consequences of indifference and lack of struggle
If we do not fight, then we will begin to spiral down into the abyss, falling from passion to passion, from addiction to addiction. The light of grace will come less and less often, and darkness will descend more and more steadily, until the star of love and grace ultimately dies, and the person will remain in his tiny infernal world—immortal, numb and cold.
If we struggle, then the periods of the presence of grace will become ever more intense and longer, while the periods of its absence will be ever shorter, and we will rise from glory to glory. Prayer will begin to break through ever more often, and our inner universe will become ever more beautiful in the light of grace, which begins to pour out ever more abundantly. The mind will become ever more open, until we can embrace all of humanity in the loving embrace of our minds. Then our drama will be in the fact that we cannot convey this truth, this beauty to others, to make them understand what the true reality is.
Those who tell the truth…
Such a person is like a great man who has acquired knowledge to which others do not have access, and therefore they do not believe him; but he is right. Now I recall a brother who was in a similar situation. One day he was standing at the Vigil and praying in the stasidia, with his arms crossed over his chest: “Lord, what’s going to happen?” And then he saw a tree in his arms. Astonished, he looked up and saw that he was holding the Cross of the Lord in his arms, with Christ Himself on the Cross in boundless light. The Lord turned His gaze down on him and said with great love and peace:
“This is how those who tell the truth live.”
Those who tell the truth always live in the light, but are not fully understood by those who have not attained such a level of fullness. In fact, misunderstanding between people stems from the lack of fullness in the perception of the truth of Christ, which manifests itself in various ways and in varying degrees of brightness in everyday life. For this reason, the Holy Fathers did not focus so much on describing the fullness of the truth of the Promised Land; they would have been misunderstood anyway, since we have no experience of this truth, and errors lurk at every step.
The path to the Heavenly Kingdom and what it is like
Therefore, the Holy Fathers concentrate on describing the path of the liberation from passions, which continues right up to theosis, to the Kingdom of Truth, so that we can reach it and not some other place. We need advice, confession, and spiritual guidance because we don’t know what the Kingdom we long to enter looks like. Let’s not forget that the true Heavenly Kingdom is within us, because the King of Heaven abides within us.
In fact, theosis, perfection, the attainment of the Promised Land—the Heavenly Kingdom—means not so much a movement in space as spiritual ascent, even if the Heavenly Kingdom is a certain place. And it is called the Heavenly Kingdom for several reasons: It is the place farthest from the heaviness of matter, from the earth—that is, it is spiritual; it is a place from where everything is seen purely, in a vision that is like a loving embrace overcoming all egoistic limitations; it is a total unity in love with everyone and everything; and lastly, this place, free from the limitations of physical laws, is the whole universe.
When a person gets here, the love of God and knowledge of God based on experience help him transcend the boundaries of pain. The Promised Land is the holiness for which we were created. There is a habit called patience in pain, and those who possess this blessed gift are no longer afraid of pain and will never run away from it, because they know that Paradise awaiting them. Thanks to this virtue the martyrs easily endured torments.
On keeping the mind and its importance
To attain this state we need obedience, zeal, prayer, watchfulness, attention to our thoughts and soberness of mind. The latter two are often mixed up and used interchangeably, but it is extremely important to distinguish them.
Attention to thoughts is an ascetic practice that includes prayer and other means through which we ward off all kinds of demonic thoughts and attacks. A thought is a movement of the mind. If we take it into account, it will become clear that soberness of mind is much more difficult than chasing away thoughts, since it is a global approach rather than a one-time rejection. Soberness of mind is keeping it impregnable to any attacks, but open, like an open window, to the love of God. This happens when the grace of God helps the person abundantly, because without it he is only dust and sin.
Returning to the ways of chasing away thoughts: in addition to prayer (of course, first of all the Jesus Prayer), there is also resistance to them, as well as rising above them. As for chasing them away by prayer, it can be done through the first prayer that comes to our mind, praying in our own words. However, the most effective is the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” performed with a prayer rope. This is the way of beginners who struggle with passions; since they cannot resist the enemies, they escape into prayer. But this method is always useful, because we are always beginners.
The second method, ascetic resistance to thoughts, is used by those who struggle and are in the stage of enlightenment, when the mind gains strength.
The third method is mockery of the demons, when the person in his humility attains theosis, when he is overwhelmed with the love of the Heavenly Father and the Almighty, while looking outwardly as if he were nothing.
Enslavement to passions. The analogy with thoughts
Surely, chasing away thoughts is vital at any stage of spiritual life, but when the person is a slave to passions, he is used to giving attention to them and even attaching excessive importance to them.
If the person is still enslaved to passions—just as the Israelites were slaves to Pharaoh—and has not even begun to fight passions properly, then labor will be the means that brings results in chasing away thoughts. Let us always have something to do. Let us have a well-planned daily routine that will not allow the mind to stagnate and return to its vomit (cf. Prov. 26:11). This rather bodily method is often effective, since we are all more or less in bondage to the “Pharaoh of the mind”—that is, the devil.
The categories of ranks and passions
In order for us to better distinguish which category each one of us should be in, let me give you the following classification based on physical ranks. Because from a spiritual perspective it is very hard for us to make distinctions, since for this we would have to know everyone’s heart. Therefore, in our talk we will consider three stages of spiritual life:
1. purification—that is, the struggle with passions;
2. enlightenment;
3. and perfection.
We will also consider three groups: the purifying group—that is, the deaconate; the enlightening one—the priesthood; and the perfecting one—the episcopate.
In the early Church, at the Divine Liturgy the deacon did almost everything, while the priest prepared the Holy Sacrifice, and the bishop only offered the Holy Sacrifice at the moment of epiclesis (the Eucharistic Prayer), prayed and blessed. He did nothing else, because these acts are the most important. In fact, to be more precise, the Holy Sacrifice is offered by the eternal Priest and Bishop—that is, by Christ, through ordained men.
Priests should more accurately be called presbyters, because they have “πρεσβεία τιμής”—that is, they are revered more than others, because through them Christ sacrifices Himself. However, in the Church they are called priests, and for this reason we follow this custom as well. The priests are the enlightening class, because thanks to the sacraments they perform and thanks to their teaching people are enlightened—as long as they listen to them, because God never forces anyone.
The distinctive attributes of bishops, archimandrites, and priests
The bishops are the perfecting rank, because they bring to perfection the enlightenment that priests begin. In fact, “αρχιερέας” means “the head of the priests”. The attribute that distinguishes a bishop from a priest is an encolpion, a round or oval decoration worn by a bishop on his chest. The number of panagia he wears depends on his rank and whether he serves or not. This is more complicated, but I will explain it to you briefly.
If he is a bishop—that is, “overseer” in Greek, he wears only one panagia. If he is a metropolitan—that is, has a seat in the metropolis and several bishops under his control, then he wears two panagia. A Patriarch wears two panagia and a cross.
The cross is the distinctive attribute of an archimandrite, which derives from the words “αρχηγός της μάνδρας”, meaning “the chief of a sheepfold”. An archimandrite is—or, rather, should be—every abbot of a monastery. In practice, the situation is a little different, since “archimandrite” is also a title below the bishop today. As we said, the distinctive attribute of the Archimandrites is a pectoral cross.1
In our days you will also see some priests with a cross, who are called stavrophores, but this honorary title is more modern and is assigned to priests who carry out special pastoral work.
And now, since we have already plunged into these categories, it may be good to mention the vicar bishop—that is, the bishop who helps the titular bishop manage his diocese. For this reason, in Greek they are called chorbishops, with “χώρος” meaning “place”. The exarch, the bishop’s legate (εξ-αρχή means “the leader”), is engaged in monastic affairs and serves as a bishop’s deputy in the provinces. The bishop’s assistants also include the protosinghel, who is the bishop’s authorized representative in the internal affairs of the bishopric. He was the first of those who would live together in the cells of the bishopric, which in ancient times was a form of a monastery (πρώτος του συγκέλλων). In fact, he is something like the “general secretary” of the bishopric.
The spiritual correlation of the three ranks
Those under the care of these three ranks are other three groups: those being purified, those being enlightened and those being perfected.
The group of those being purified consists of people who are more or less slaves to their passions, but are beginning to lead a spiritual life. The group of those being enlightened are lay believers; and the group of those being perfected are the monastics—those who have devoted themselves entirely to God.
It is true that a person always remains free and can refuse this dedication without even realizing it. For this reason, time is needed to strengthen a person’s decision to leave Egypt and embark on the path of obedience and repentance—to the Promised Land; and for this reason, the abbot waits for some time before tonsuring a young man who came to the monastery as a ryasophore monk. Eventually, if he lives an attentive life, the brother becomes a simple monk—the moment when grace increases even more, and then his name is changed because he becomes a different person.
A monk receives the fullness of the grace of the Holy Spirit when he becomes a schemamonk. I say “schemamonk” because the difference between the small and the great schema is determined only by the difference in measurement. The difference in service between these two is an innovation. A schemamonk is not obliged to pronounce only five words a day, or make thousands of prostrations, or perform any other special physical labor. True, his rule increases slightly, but it depends on the ability of every individual schemamonk. The struggle is spiritual here, and it is done so that everyone can attain the fullness of grace—if only they truly want it.
We thank and bow down to the loving Lord for giving this opportunity to people, regardless of whether they are men or women, more or less sinful, etc. All these things are done in order for the person to devote himself to God wholeheartedly, and then God will devote Himself to him!
So may God help us!
Thank you for spending so much time with me on my journey.
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us. Amen.
