On Purity (Part 1)

Fornication was a sin when the Old Testament held sway—a sin as a dishonoring of human nature, as an abuse of an important property of nature, as a transgression of the laws of nature. The offense was considered so grave that its perpetrator was punished by death. In the New Testament this sin acquired a new weight, because human bodies received a new dignity. They were made members of the body of Christ, and one who violates purity thereby dishonors Christ, severs union with Him, and transforms “members of Christ” into “members of a harlot” (1 Cor. 6:15). The fornicator is punished by the death of the soul. The Holy Spirit withdraws from one who has fallen into the sin of fornication; the sinner is reckoned as one who has fallen into mortal sin—a sin that takes away salvation, a sin that is the pledge of inescapable perdition and eternal torment in hell, if this sin is not healed in good time by repentance.

What is purity? It is the virtue opposed to the passion of fornication; it is the estrangement of the body from actual falling into sin and from all actions that lead to sin, the estrangement of the mind from thoughts and fantasies of fornication, and of the heart from sensations and impulses of fornication—and thereafter follows the estrangement of the body from carnal desire.

Some maintain that falling into the sin of fornication in body and falling into it in mind and heart are transgressions of equal gravity and significance. They base this opinion on the words of the Saviour: “Whoever looks at a woman in order to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt. 5:28). An unjust opinion! This was said as a supplement to the Old Testament commandment; it was said to those who recognized bodily fornication alone as sin, not understanding that “evil thoughts”—among which are numbered thoughts of fornication—“proceed from the heart and defile a man” (Mt. 15:19–20), “separate from God” (Wis. 1:3), and take away purity—the means of beholding God. To take pleasure in thoughts and sensations of fornication is the fornication of the heart and the defilement of a person, rendering him incapable of communion with God; but bodily fornication is an alteration of the entire human being through its commingling with another body (1 Cor. 6:16), is complete estrangement from God, is death, is perdition. To emerge from the first condition one must sober oneself; to emerge from the second, one must rise again, one must be born anew through repentance.

Some maintain that it is impossible for a person to be free from enslavement to the flesh, and still more from thoughts and sensations of fornication, and that such a state is unnatural. It is God who legislates—He who knows what is possible and impossible for us, better than we know ourselves—and therefore the attainment of purity, both bodily and of the heart, is possible for man. It is God who legislates, the Creator of nature—and therefore purity of heart is not contrary to human nature. It is unnatural to fallen nature; it was natural to nature as it was created, and it can become natural again after renewal. It can be cultivated and acquired: bread, vegetables, and fruit trees do not grow of themselves on the earth; but when the earth is properly prepared and useful plants are set and sown, then they grow in exceptional abundance for the nourishment and joy of men. Uncultivated earth produces only weeds, or produces only grass—fodder for beasts, not food for men. Ascetic struggle is necessary: the object of that struggle is worthy of the intense and laborious ascetic effort undertaken for its sake by those chosen for it. Purity is called holiness in Scripture: “This is the will of God, your holiness”, says the Apostle, “that you keep yourselves from fornication: and that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in holiness and honor, not in the passion of desire” (1 Thess. 4:3–5).

The purity of those living in marriage consists in the faithfulness of spouses to one another. The purity of virgins and widows who have betrothed themselves to Christ consists in faithfulness to Christ. And it is to them that my humble, consoling, encouraging, and truthful word is addressed—a word drawn from the teaching of truth: from the All-Holy Word of God as expounded by the holy Fathers, by their holy word and experience.

When the Lord forbade the voluntary divorce permitted by the Mosaic Law, and declared that what God has joined together cannot be dissolved by man except on account of one partner’s actual fall into fornication—at that point the disciples of the Lord raised the question of the celibate life. The Lord said in response: “Not all receive this word, but those to whom it has been given… Let him who is able to receive it, receive it” (Mt. 19:11–12). Who is this one “who is able to receive it”? By what sign should each of us judge and determine our own capacity or incapacity for the celibate life? The answer is drawn from the writings of the holy Fathers: “by our own will.” “The capacity is given to those who sincerely ask it of God with earnestness of heart”, says blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria: “ask”,—the Lord said,—“and it will be given to you… everyone who asks, receives” (Mt. 7:7–8). The sincerity of the petition is proven by a manner of life conforming to the petition, and by constancy in the petition, even if the fulfilment of the petition is deferred for a longer or shorter time, even if our desire is assailed by various temptations. The monk’s own ascetic efforts, by which he strives to overcome and transform the property of his fallen nature, are only witnesses of his true will.[1] The victory and transformation of nature belong to God alone. “Where nature has been conquered”, says St John of the Ladder, “the coming of the One who is above nature is acknowledged.” God transforms the natural impulse in one who by all means in his power proves his sincere desire that this impulse be changed: then the Spirit of God touches the spirit of the human person, who, having felt the touch of God’s Spirit, turns entirely—with all his thoughts and sensations—toward God, having lost his sympathy for the objects of carnal desire. Then the words of the Apostle are fulfilled:[2] “he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit with the Lord” (1 Cor. 6:17).[3] Then the very body is drawn whither the spirit tends.

By reason of their will—proven and attested through experience—many who had not known woman persevered to the end of their lives in this blessed state, or preserved their virginity; others after married life maintained an irreproachable widowhood; still others passed from a dissolute life to a chaste and holy one; and finally, some who had wavered in their will returned to it again, and recovered through repentance the chastity they had lost. All of them not only refrained from falling into fornication in body, but entered into battle with thoughts and sensations of passion, resisted them, conquered them, and received from God the freedom of purity, which is wholly foreign to any communion with sin, even if sin does not cease from its assaults. Thus the force of a storm ceases to affect the traveler when he enters a well-built house, even though the storm may continue or rage even more fiercely. — Beloved brethren, monks! Let us not be faint-hearted or despondent. Let us pay no heed to the demons who insinuate distrust of the path we have chosen; let us pay no heed to human judgments and counsels pronounced from ignorance or from depravity and ill intent: let us believe the Lord our God, who has promised to hear us and to help us if we remain faithful to Him. Let us attest this faithfulness by our constant striving toward Him and our constant repentance for our deviations from this striving. It is impossible not to fall into greater or lesser deviations—owing to our weakness, to our limitations, to the corruption of nature by sin, to the cunning of our invisible enemies, and to the multiplied snares that are now boundless in number. We have but a short time to labor! A short time to suffer in the struggle with ourselves! Soon will come the hour of death, which will wrest us from the torment of the battle and from the danger of falling into sin. O! if only at that hour, on the threshold of eternity, we might behold the arms of the Heavenly Father stretched out toward us, and hear His consoling voice: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things: enter into the joy of your Lord” (Mt. 25:23). Until that hour let us struggle with courage, placing no trust in our flesh, no trust in our dispassion, whether imagined or real. Those who have relied upon themselves, upon the mortification of their flesh, upon their own dispassion and state of grace, have been subjected to terrible temptations.

St Isaac the Syrian said: “He who does not voluntarily remove himself from the causes of sin is involuntarily dragged into sin against his will.” This rule, relating to monastic life in general, is especially important for those who have entered into struggle with the property of nature that appeared in it after the fall.[4] It is useful for us not to see at all that fruit of which we have renounced the tasting. For this reason the rules of the holy Fathers forbid women to enter men’s monasteries, a practice still observed to this day on the holy Mount Athos. In the Life of St John of the Ladder it is said that through solitary life in the desert and withdrawing himself from the sight of persons he finally extinguished in himself the flame of desire. All the holy Fathers endeavored as much as possible to avoid acquaintance and association with women, and handed down this manner of conduct to us in their soul-saving, divinely-inspired writings. The Fathers, knowing the ease with which man falls, trusted neither in their holiness nor in their advanced age and its incapacity for sin. They did not cease, to the very end of their lives, from withdrawing from the occasions of sin: such withdrawal is the most powerful means for victory over sin. When the Venerable Sisoes the Great had grown very old, his disciple, Abba Abraham, suggested that they take up residence closer to human habitation. The ninety-year-old elder replied: “Let us settle where there are no women.” The disciple objected: “And where is the place that has no women, save the desert?” The elder said: “Then place me in the desert, my child.” A person’s good will is strengthened far from temptations and acquires uncommon firmness and strength; on the contrary, when brought near temptations, it begins little by little to weaken, and finally is completely perverted. So ice grows ever harder in the frost; but when subjected to the influence of warmth, it melts and disappears.[5] Brethren! It is fitting for us to withdraw from acquaintance with women, especially from close acquaintance, from frequent meetings and conversation with them. You who have purposed to conquer nature! Understand that this conquest is impossible if we continually expose ourselves to the influence of nature and arouse its operation within us.

The Venerable Pimen the Great said to one who was warred upon by the passion of fornication: “If a monk bridles his belly and his tongue and preserves withdrawal from the world, he will not die”—that is, he will not die the death of the soul, which overtakes every person who has sunk into fornication.[5] By “withdrawal from the world” is meant here the removal from a scattered manner of life, from free association and broad and familiar acquaintance, all of which inflame carnal desire. — The Venerable Isaiah the Hermit used to say that the warfare of fornication is intensified by five occasions: idle talk, vainglory, much sleep, adorning oneself with clothing, and gluttony.[6] Among the causes that arouse the passion of fornication, two act with particular force and harm: violation of withdrawal from the world, and gluttony. It is difficult to say which of the two is more ruinous—both are destructive. One who has submitted to and been enslaved by either of them will be unable to stand firm in the struggle against his own nature.

To attain purity it is necessary to reject both causes. Having given special attention to guarding oneself from the principal causes that arouse desire, we must not leave the secondary ones without due attention either: we must guard ourselves from these as well. Even a cause of lesser force acquires especial power through habitual indulgence in it and carelessness about it. For instance: some people fast, live in solitude and without possessions, and implore God to bridle the desires of their nature; but at the same time they allow themselves to speak evil, to reproach, to judge their neighbors, to mock them—and the help of God withdraws from them; they are left to themselves and find no strength to resist the sinful impulses of fallen nature. In a certain community there lived a recluse by the name of Timothy. One of the brothers in the community fell into temptation. The superior, learning of this, asked Timothy how he should deal with the fallen brother. The recluse advised that the one who had stumbled be expelled. When he was expelled, the temptation of the fallen brother passed to Timothy and brought him into danger. Timothy began to cry out with tears to God for help and mercy. And there came to him a voice: “Timothy! Know that I have sent you this temptation precisely because you despised your brother at the time of his temptation.” With members of Christ—Christians—one must deal very carefully and wisely:[7] one must share in compassion for their infirmities, and cut off only those who, affording no hope of recovery, merely infect others with their disease.

It is of great importance to preserve the body from falling into fornication; but this alone is not sufficient for that God-pleasing purity by which God is beheld. We bear an inescapable obligation to cleanse the soul itself from thoughts, fantasies, and sensations of lust, as our Saviour commanded us. “As the body”, says the Venerable Macarius the Great, “joining itself to another body, is infected with impurity—so the soul, uniting with evil and foul thoughts and consenting to them, is corrupted. If anyone corrupts the soul and mind by consenting to evil, he is liable to punishment. We must guard both the body from visible sin and the soul from impure thoughts: for she is the bride of Christ.” Having removed from ourselves the occasions of sin—such as frequent association and close acquaintance with women, free intercourse and a scattered manner of life, gluttony and the enjoyment of food and drink, luxury and excess in clothing and other furnishings of the cell, judging our neighbors, evil-speaking, jesting, idle talk, and excessive talking—let us resolve to refuse to take pleasure in lustful thoughts, fantasies, and sensations. We must not arouse them in ourselves, and we must boldly reject them when they arise from our fallen nature or are presented to us by the enemies of our salvation—the demons. St Hesychius of Jerusalem says:[8] “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord”, said the Lord, “shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father” (Mt. 7:21). And the will of His Father is this: “You who love the Lord, hate evil” (Ps. 96:10). Therefore: let us practice the Prayer of Jesus Christ and let us come to hate wicked thoughts. In this way we shall do the will of God. “Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit” (2 Cor. 7:1), the Apostle exhorts us.[9]

The holy Fathers command us to “watch the head of the serpent” (Gen. 3:14–15), that is, to detect the very beginning of a sinful thought and to reject it. This applies to all sinful thoughts, but most of all to the thought of fornication, which is aided by fallen nature and on that account has a particular influence over us. The Venerable Cassian of Rome enjoins a novice monk to confess immediately to his elder any sinful thought that comes to him.[10] This method is excellent; for the novice it is the best; but even for the more advanced it is in some cases extremely necessary and always profitable, as one that decisively severs all friendship with the sin toward which ailing nature is drawn. Blessed is he who can employ this method! Blessed is the novice who has found an elder to whom he can disclose his thoughts! For those monks who have no possibility of constant recourse to an elder, the Fathers command that any sinful thought which arises be immediately rejected, on no account entering into conversation or debate with it—since such engagement will inevitably lead to being drawn in and overcome by sin—and that one turn at once to prayer. This method was employed with the greatest success and fruit by the Venerable Mary of Egypt, as may be seen from her Life.[11] “If anyone”, said the Venerable Nil Sorsky, “at every tribulation that befalls him, and at every thought brought by the enemy, cries out with weeping for help to the goodness of God, he will very soon feel peace, if he prays with understanding.” “Just as fire is naturally fitted to consume dry wood, so are pure tears naturally fitted to consume all defilements of flesh and spirit”, said St John of the Ladder.[12][13]

When we are alone and are assailed by thoughts and fantasies of fornication, or when the body is inflamed in an unusual manner, we must fall on our knees and on our face before the holy icons, imitating the practice of the great Mary of Egypt, and implore God with tears or weeping to have mercy upon us. Experience will not be slow to demonstrate God’s nearness to us and His power over our nature: this will grant us a living faith, and living faith will inspire us with extraordinary strength and will bring us constant victories. Let us not be surprised if even after a prolonged struggle, followed by an equally prolonged peace—which led us to the thought that the poison and death of fornicating impulses in our nature had been extinguished—there arises again a fierce warfare, and unseemly impulses and movements come alive again in the body.[14] Our enemy is shameless; he does not refrain from directing his arrows against the greatest Saints of God, for experience has shown him that the attempt is sometimes successful and brings down and shatters even vessels of the Spirit—as happened to the bearer of the Spirit who walked one evening on the roof of his royal house (2 Sam. 11:2). Our flesh is an unfaithful friend: it desires another flesh not only from its own impulse but also from an alien impulse—from the impulse of the fallen spirit, who finds enjoyment for himself in the defilements of a flesh that does not belong to him. Suddenly its unseemly, impudent, vehement demand appears! For this reason the Venerable Pimen the Great used to say: “As the armor-bearer of a king stands before him always ready, so must the soul be always ready against the demon of fornication.”[5]

The life and practice of the ancient monks can in many respects only be admired by us, but by no means imitated; we can only contemplate them as a divine wonder and glorify God on their account for having granted to frail humanity incomprehensible strength and holiness. Among such practices belongs the method of struggle that the advanced monks of the first centuries of monasticism employed against thoughts and fantasies of fornication. They did not at first resist the thought but allowed it to act somewhat—in their expression, to “enter”—and then wrestled with it. — The Venerable Pimen the Great, before he attained perfection, used to seek edification from the counsel and teaching of holy elders of his own time. He sought counsel also from Abba Joseph, who lived in silence at Panephosis. Once Pimen asked the abba: “How should I act when impulses of desire come to me? Should I resist them, or should I allow them to enter?” The elder answered: “Allow them to enter and wrestle with them.” Having received this answer, Pimen returned to Scetis, where he dwelt in silence. After this a certain monk from the Thebaid happened to come to Scetis; he related to the brethren: “I asked Abba Joseph: if impulses of desire come to me, should I resist them or let them enter? And he said: by no means allow the impulses to enter, but cut them off immediately.” Abba Pimen, hearing that Father Joseph had said this to the Thebaid monk, went again to him at Panephosis and said: “Abba! I did not conceal my thoughts from you, but you said one thing to me and another to the Thebaid monk.” The elder replied: “Do you not know that I love you?” “I know it”, replied Pimen. “Did you not yourself”, continued the elder, “ask me to tell you what I would say to myself? When impulses of desire come to you and you allow them to enter, and then wrestle with them, you thereby become more skilled. I said this to you as I would say it to myself. But when impulses of desire come to novices, it is not profitable for them to let them in; they must immediately reject them.” From the answers of Pimen the Great himself, when he had already become a guide of monastics, in similar circumstances, it is evident that allowing the thoughts of fornication to enter was forbidden to monks who still sympathized with the passion, and was permitted to those who were living a heavenly life. The existence of this practice is explained by the elevated spiritual advancement of monasticism in general at that time: clearly, a state of dispassion was necessary for such an ascetic effort. By the later Fathers this practice, as being very dangerous and presumably in consequence of unfortunate experiences, was forbidden to all monks without exception. “Do not permit”, said St Isaac the Syrian, “your mind to be tempted by fornicating thoughts or by the fantasy of persons who have an influence over you, supposing that you will not be overcome by them; for thus did the wise ones grow dark and were put to shame.” We must hold firmly to this teaching.[15][16][17]

From the lives of the holy servants of God we see that some of them endured a most fierce and prolonged struggle with thoughts and sensations of fornication as they passed from a passionate state to dispassion. This was experienced not only by those ascetics who had previously led a dissolute life—such as the Venerable Moses the Ethiopian and Mary of Egypt—but also by those who had been virgins: Symeon, the Fool for Christ’s sake; John the Many-Sufferer of the Kiev Caves; and others. The fierceness of the struggle drove them to intensified and supernatural ascetic efforts. And since God’s gracious gift is always commensurate and proportionate to the preceding sorrow and labor, the saints just mentioned were granted—in accordance with their extraordinary effort and the ferocity of the warfare permitted them—extraordinary gifts of grace. Their struggle and ascetic effort were unique events in ascetic life and cannot serve as complete guidance for all ascetics. It is possible and proper to imitate as much as possible the strength of will, the resolution, the faith, and the self-denial of these servants of God; but their actual ascetic effort remains inimitable. It is generally recognized by the most discerning Fathers that in the struggle against the impulses of nature, abstinence from food and other bodily efforts must be prudent and moderate, that carnal desire is only restrained by these efforts, and that it is overcome by humility and prayerful weeping, which draw to the ascetic Divine grace—that excessive bodily efforts are more harmful than beneficial when, by over-weakening the bodily forces, they hinder engagement in prayer, weeping, and the works of humility. In The Paterikon the following account is read: “A certain devout man in Egypt left his wife and children, renounced the world, and withdrew into the desert. A fierce warfare from the demon of fornication, bringing him remembrances of his wife, arose against him. He confessed this to the Fathers. Seeing that he was an ascetic and fulfilled everything commanded him, they laid upon him a doubled ascetic effort drawn from various lives of the holy Fathers. From this effort he grew so weak that he took to his bed. By God’s providence, an elder from Scetis came there. In the Egyptian Scetis—the name given to the barren and wild desert situated not far from Alexandria—there dwelt venerable monks who abounded especially in gifts of grace and the gift of spiritual discernment. The Scetan visited the sick man and asked him: Abba! Why are you ill? He answered: I am one who was married, recently come to this desert, and the enemy sent warfare upon me on account of my wife. I confessed this to the Fathers. They laid various ascetic efforts upon me, drawn from the lives of the holy Fathers. When I began to fulfill them, I fell into exhaustion, while the warfare increased doubly in my body. The Scetan elder, hearing this, was grieved, and said to him: The Fathers, being strong, rightly commanded you to act thus. But if you wish, listen to my humble counsel: leave off fulfilling these efforts; take a moderate amount of food at its proper time, perform a moderate rule, and cast all your care upon the Lord—He will conquer the enemy who wars against you.[18] By your own effort you cannot obtain victory in this warfare. The warred-upon brother began to conduct himself according to the counsel of the Scetan elder; within a few days he felt relief from his illness, and the warfare withdrew from him.” The monk of Scetis renowned for his special gift of spiritual discernment, the Venerable Agathon, was questioned about the passion of fornication.[5] He answered the one who asked: “Go, cast your strength in the dust before God, and you will find rest.” Similar answers on this subject were given by other great Fathers as well. This is altogether right and true: if only God can transform nature, then the acknowledgment of the corruption produced in nature by original sin, and humble entreaty for the healing and renewal of nature by its Creator, is the most powerful and effective weapon in the struggle against nature. This weapon is weakened by reliance on oneself, to which excessive and disproportionate bodily effort leads.[19] The Venerable Cassian of Rome observes that “the passion of desire necessarily wars against the soul until the soul acknowledges that this struggle is beyond its strength, until it acknowledges that it cannot obtain victory by its own labor and effort, if it does not have the help and protection of the Lord.” This holy Father spent considerable time among the Scetan Fathers and was imbued with their teaching.