A Homily on Salvation and on Christian Perfection (Part 3)

After distributing possessions to the poor and severing bonds with the world, the first task for the follower of Christ must be withdrawal from the midst of temptations into a solitary monastic dwelling. By such withdrawal, previously received sinful impressions are erased and the possibility of contracting new impressions is prevented. To such withdrawal the Holy Spirit Himself invites the true servants of God: “Therefore come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:17–18). And in the very holy monastery it is necessary to guard against acquaintance, against walking about in the cells of the brothers, and against receiving them in one’s own cell, so that the soul may become capable of receiving the seed of God’s Word, and may in its time bring forth spiritual fruit. And material soil also is prepared for abundant grain-bearing by loosening through iron tools and by removing from it all other growths. The Venerable Symeon the Reverent commanded his disciple, the Venerable Symeon the New Theologian, at his entry into the monastery: “Look, child, if you wish to be saved, then by no means converse during the church services and do not walk about in the cells. Do not have free association. Guard your mind so that it does not wander here and there, but that it looks steadily at your sins and at eternal torment.” In the cell one should have only the most necessary items, if possible simple:[1] upon unnecessary and beautiful things, attachment immediately arises in the heart, and the mind, on their account, receives an inclination toward fantasy and distraction, which is very harmful.

The second struggle consists of moderate fasting. Fasting for beginners is determined by the monastery refectory. In the refectory one should consume food, not allowing oneself satiation, though enough so that the body is capable of obedience; outside the refectory it is forbidden to consume food by paternal tradition and monastic rule. Those monks whom God has led to a life of solitude and to constant exercise in prayer and meditation on God should consume food once a day, not to satiation, and consuming all kinds of foods permitted to monasticism, according to what is sent by God.[2] With such freedom, one must strictly observe that it does not give occasion for pleasure or excess. True pleasure awaits us in the age to come, and here, on the path to it, let us renounce pleasure for ourselves, satisfying only the natural need, not the passionate whim. Solitude and fasting are such essential properties of monastic life that from them monks received their name in ancient times: monk (monachos, solitarius, from the Greek word monos, Latin solus—one) means solitary; monks were also called fasters.

The third struggle—watchfulness. A beginning monk exercises this struggle satisfactorily when he diligently attends all church services. For one living a solitary life, the struggle of watchfulness is especially important. Into this struggle the living remembrance of death draws the monk, as though a foretaste of death and the impartial judgment of God that follows it. The monk strives to prevent the terrible standing before that judgment by reverential and trembling prayer, as though before the face and eyes of God Himself. He hopes to obtain and receive here the forgiveness of sins, so that, when the soul departs from the body, it may make the journey from earth to heaven without any fear, and therefore stands constantly at the doors of God’s mercy during his solitary cell prayer, knocks at these doors with weeping, knocks with heavy sighs, with humble words issuing from the depths of a heart grieving over sinfulness. As spiritual sensation of the Fear of God intensifies, the struggle of watchfulness intensifies. But at first one must compel oneself to this struggle, without which it is impossible to obtain final and perfect victory over the passions. One must come to the state commanded by the Lord: “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near the end of the night, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man comes at an unexpected hour” (Lk. 12:35–40). Such a state is provided by the sensation of the Fear of God. Those who have come into it begin to live on earth like travelers in an inn, expecting every hour to depart from it. The time of earthly life is shortened before their eyes when the incomprehensible, majestic eternity opens before them. The thought that they may be called by the Lord unexpectedly keeps them in constant wakefulness, in constant guard against sin constantly attacking. They spend the nights like days, receiving sleep only out of necessary need, by no means allowing themselves to sink deeply into it and to be softened by it. They lie on their hard beds clothed and girded, so that they may immediately rise up when need requires. The struggle of watchfulness must correspond to the bodily strength of man. It, like solitude and fasting, is intensified by the gradual transition of the ascetic from a carnal and soulish state to a spiritual or gracious one. The spiritual man, even though infirm in body, endures a far greater struggle than a carnal and soulish man is capable of. The former is impelled to struggle by Divine grace and encounters fewer obstacles from his body, which ordinarily casts off a significant part of its heaviness upon entering into such a state.

Just as the visible cross requires two beams joined together crosswise, so for the construction of the invisible cross both voluntary sorrows are necessary—the struggles that keep the body in crucifixion—and sorrows from without, restraining and humbling the spirit of man, constantly inclined to pride on account of the damage from the fall. From the totality of these sorrows is composed that cross which we are commanded to take upon ourselves and follow Christ, without which it is impossible to follow Christ. Those who have not crucified their flesh, who have not restrained in it sinful desires and urges, who are drawn away by lustful sensations and thoughts, cannot be in communion with Christ, being through the delight and seduction of sin in communion with Satan. “Those who are unspiritual,” said the holy Apostle Paul, that is, those who conduct a carnal life, who live for their body, abundantly nourishing it, comforting it, caressing it, “cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8). “Those who are unspiritual set their minds on unspiritual things” (Rom. 8:5), that is, those who conduct a carnal life necessarily have a carnal way of thinking, do not remember and do not care about eternity, have a false regard for earthly life, regarding it as endless and acting solely for it, highly value transitory earthly positions and advantages, cannot appropriate to themselves the New Covenant, cannot reject fallen nature, develop it, respect its dignity and progress. “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God: it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot” (Rom. 8:6–7). Such holy submission is foreign and impossible for it. The abandonment of possessions and the world and withdrawal to a monastery will bring us no benefit whatsoever if we continue to gratify the capricious desires of our flesh, if we do not place it on the cross, depriving it of excess and pleasure, allowing it only what is necessary for existence. The first commandment given by God to mankind was the commandment concerning fasting. It was given in Paradise, confirmed in the Gospel. By its violation, the holy Paradise could not prevent destruction; by its violation cannot prevent our destruction the redemption granted to us by the God-man. “For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things” (Phil. 3:18–19). The Apostle, saying this to Christians, urged them to imitate his way of life (Phil. 3:17), which he fulfilled “in labor and toil; through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked” (2 Cor. 11:27).[3] Fasting is the foundation of all monastic struggles; without it it is impossible either to preserve solitude, or to restrain the tongue, or to conduct a watchful and attentive life, or to make progress in prayer and watchfulness, or to acquire remembrance of death, or to perceive the multitude of one’s sins and weaknesses. The monk who neglects fasting shakes the entire edifice of his virtues; this edifice will not stand if the builder does not recover his senses and does not properly care for strengthening the foundation in time. The holy John of the Ladder says: “The chief of demons is the fallen Lucifer, and the beginning of the passions is gluttony.[4] Do not deceive yourself! You will not be delivered from Pharaoh and will not see the Passover on high if you do not constantly taste bitter herbs and unleavened bread. The bitter herbs are the compulsion of fasting and toil, and the unleavened bread is unsatiating wisdom. Let the word of him who said be joined with your life: ‘When they attacked me, I put on sackcloth, and humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned to my bosom’ (Ps. 34:13[5]). If you have made a vow to Christ to walk the narrow and confined path, then constrain your belly. By comforting and expanding it, you violate this vow. Be attentive and hear the one speaking: broad and ‘wide is the way’ of gluttony, ‘leading to destruction’ of fornication, ‘and many are those who take it. But narrow is the gate and difficult the way’ of fasting, ‘that leads to life’ of purity, ‘and there are few who find it’.”

What does it mean to follow Christ (Mt. 19:21), after distributing one’s possessions and taking up the cross? To follow Christ means to conduct earthly life solely for heaven, just as the God-man conducted His earthly life. Those living piously in the midst of the world according to the Gospel commandments already become like the Son of God in good morals and disposition of soul, but those who have renounced the world, who have crucified their flesh through monasticism, who have attracted to themselves the grace of the Holy Spirit on account of the mortification of the flesh for sin (Rom. 8:10), attain a special likeness to the God-man. They are “led by the Spirit of God”, and “are children of God” (Rom. 8:14), through grace, having formed themselves according to the image of the Man of heaven, the second Man, the God-man (1 Cor. 15:47–49). Not the letter, not superficial knowledge according to the letter, which has no significance before God, testifies to them that they are children of God; it is the All-holy Spirit of God Himself who testifies this, having dwelt in them perceptibly to them and having united Himself with their spirit (Rom. 8:16). “If children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). How could such glory arise for a poor and fallen creature—humankind? From living faith in Christ, God, our Creator and Saviour, from living faith, which has taught God’s chosen ones not only to acknowledge the Redeemer with the heart, but to confess Him through life itself, through renunciation of the world, through taking up the double cross, composed of both voluntary and involuntary sorrows, and through the most precise fulfillment of “God’s will, which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). “If we suffer with him, we will also be glorified with him” (Rom. 8:17), says the Apostle to all the company of Christ’s ascetics. Comparing the eternal, heavenly glory prepared for those who suffer for Christ, which the Apostle had experienced, with the brief sorrows through which it is acquired, the holy Paul says: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18). These sorrows mean nothing! Our All-powerful and All-good Champion has put into the very sorrows such spiritual consolation that sorrows for Christ’s sake already in themselves constitute a source of joy. “These bodily torments,” said the great martyr Eustratius about the supernatural sufferings he had endured, in his pre-death prayer to God, “are joy to your servants.”[6] Exactly such a quality is contained in monastic sorrows as well: in their breast flows and bubbles forth a spring of spiritual sweetness and joy, a foretaste in time of blessedness in eternity. The cross is the weapon of victory, the honorable banner of the Christian: “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14).

Worthy of profound contemplation and amazement is the bond between the body and the human spirit. A man’s way of thinking and his heartfelt feelings depend greatly on the condition in which his body finds itself. “When the belly is constrained,” observed the holy John of the Ladder, “the heart is humbled: but when the belly is satisfied, then thoughts are infected with pride.” “The soul cannot come into humility in any other way,” said Pimen the Great, “except by the diminishing of food for the body.” An abbot of some cenobitic monastery asked the Great:[7] “Why do I not feel the fear of God in myself?” “How can you feel the fear of God,” answered the Great, “when your belly is stuffed with pies and cheeses?” With the satiation of the body, our heart cannot fail to produce lustful sensations, and the mind cannot fail to produce lustful thoughts and fantasies, which by their force and seductiveness are able to change the most determined good intention and incline it toward taking pleasure in sin; therefore the holy John of the Ladder said: “The one gratifying his belly while at the same time desiring to conquer the spirit of lust is like one extinguishing fire with oil.” The holy Isaac the Syrian says: “Love poor clothing, so as to annihilate the haughtiness growing in you—I mean pride of the heart.[8] The one who loves splendor cannot acquire humble thoughts, because “the heart within is stamped in accordance with the external appearance.” The holy Apostle Paul, when listing the works of the flesh, named among them ‘enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions’ (Gal. 5:20)—defects belonging properly to the human spirit.[9] For what reason? For this reason, that these kinds of sins reveal the carnal thinking of man, and by carnal thinking is revealed the living according to the flesh, the rejection of the cross of Christ. From ecclesiastical history we see that such were all heresiarchs.[10][11]

This poor word have I, a great sinner Ignatius, written, to arouse myself, in exhortation to monastic life. I have observed that those subjects of spiritual teaching which I set down in writing are especially explained for my own sake, and sometimes are not without benefit for my beloved brothers by reason of their contemporaneous exposition. If anyone reads this word, let him forgive me the shortcomings of my knowledge and speech! If anyone reads this word and finds in it something useful for his soul, I beseech him to give attention to this poor word and, as understanding is provided to him by it, carefully examine himself.

It is necessary, absolutely necessary for all Christians in general to fulfill precisely the commandment of the Saviour, who said: “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will save it” (Mk. 8:35). “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (Jn. 12:25). What does it mean to love one’s soul? It is to love one’s fallen nature, its properties, defiled by the fall, its false-named reason, its desires and urges, its righteousness. What does it mean to save one’s soul in this world? It is to develop the properties of fallen nature, to follow one’s own reasonings and one’s own will, to build one’s righteousness from the supposed good deeds of fallen nature. What does it mean to lose one’s soul for the sake of Christ and the Gospel, what does it mean to hate one’s soul? It is to recognize and acknowledge the fall and disorder of nature by sin, it is to hate the state produced in us by the fall, and to mortify it by rejecting conduct according to one’s own reasonings, according to one’s own will, according to one’s own urges, it is to graft forcibly onto one’s nature the reason and will of nature renewed by Christ, and to arrange one’s conduct according to the all-holy teaching of God and the all-holy will of God, revealed to us by God Himself in the Gospel. Our fallen nature is hostile to God: following the reasonings and urges of fallen nature is a striving toward certain and eternal destruction. For this reason the holy desert Fathers, the instructors of monasticism and all Christianity, pronounced so many terrible sayings against following one’s own will and one’s own reasonings. The Venerable Pimen the Great used to say: “Man’s will is a wall of brass between God and man, a stone striking against God’s will. If a man abandons it, then he too can say: ‘With my God I can leap over a wall. My God, his way is perfect’ (Ps. 17:30–31). But if justification joins with the will, then man becomes corrupt and perishes.” By the word justification one should understand the recognition by us of activity according to our own will as just or righteous: this serves as a sure sign of mental disorder and turning away from the path of salvation. The Venerable Abba Dorotheos says:[8] “I know no other cause for the fall of a monk except following the will and inclinations of one’s own heart. They say: from this or from that does man fall; I, as I have said, know no other cause of falling except this. Did you see someone fallen? Know: he followed himself.” Further, the Venerable Dorotheos relates that he, being in the cenobitic monastery of Abba Seridus, was guided in everything by the instructions of the Spirit-filled elder John, completely rejecting his own reasonings and heart’s inclinations. When some thought of his own about a spiritual matter presented itself to the learned and wise Dorotheos, he would say to himself: “Anathema to you and to your reasoning and to your reason and to your knowledge.” There is an example of blessed hatred of one’s own soul, the hatred commanded by the Saviour of our souls and bodies! There is an example of blessed destruction of the soul for the sake of Christ and the Gospel for the salvation of the soul! There is an example of the relation of the Saints to fallen nature! Let us follow, brothers, the teaching of Christ![12]

Let us follow the way of life, the conduct, the way of thinking of the holy righteous ones of God! Let us not hesitate for our salvation to renounce our fallen nature! For true love of ourselves, let us reject deceptive self-love, our self-esteem! For salvific activity according to the Gospel commandments, let us cast from ourselves activity according to the laws of fallen nature, beloved to the world, hostile to God! Let us hate the supposed good deeds arising from false-named reason, from the movements of the blood, from heartfelt feelings, however lofty, blameless, and holy our feelings and thoughts may seem to us. These deeds are capable only of developing in us harmful conceit, pride, and self-deception. They do not enlighten the eyes of the soul, as the commandment of the Lord enlightens them (Ps. 18:9), on the contrary, they intensify the blindness of the soul and make this blindness incurable. Those who do them will go into eternal torment as those who do the good of fallen nature, good always mixed with evil, good defiled, from which the Lord, as from a satanic abomination, turns His all-holy face away. To accomplish the good deeds of fallen nature there is no need to be a Christian: they belong to all fallen humanity. Where good deeds of fallen nature are accomplished, amid the thunder of praise from the world, the Saviour of the world is excluded and rejected. The deeds of faith, the deeds of salvation, or, what is the same, the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, belong to Christians alone. “Good,” said the Venerable Mark the Ascetic concerning true good, “cannot be believed or done except in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit.” The fulfillment of the Gospel commandments brings man into true knowledge of God and self-knowledge, into true love of himself, of his neighbor, and of God, into communion with God, which develops all the more abundantly the more earnestly and precisely the Gospel commandments are fulfilled.[13] Communion with God, granted to the Christian even during the time of earthly sojourn, is a pledge of heavenly and eternal blessedness. This pledge testifies to its own trustworthiness, testifies so clearly and strongly that many, to preserve it, resolved to submit to the greatest sorrows, preferred it to temporal life. Pitiful and sorrowful is the blindness with which the proud world looks with contempt on the deeds of Christian Faith, with which it pronounces on them a senseless judgment and a verdict destructive for the world. How insignificant the deeds of faith appear to the world in comparison with the loud and picturesque deeds of the world! What apparent good deed is the acknowledgment of one’s sinfulness, on account of which God’s mercy was poured out on the publican?” (Lk. 18:10–14). What apparent good deed is repentance, through which the greatest sinners were reconciled with God and inherited eternal blessedness? What good deed is the confession of Christ, expressed by few and simplest words? And by whom was it expressed? Expressed by a condemned thief. These few simplest words brought the thief into paradise, accomplished what all the brilliant virtues of all humanity could not and cannot accomplish. “The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing”, and so much foolishness does activity according to the Gospel appear to them as well. “To us who are being saved it” is both the message about the cross and activity according to the Gospel “the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18), healing and saving our souls (Lk. 6:19).

The holy Fathers of all times constantly expressed their relation to God’s revealed teaching with the word: I believe. In modern society, which lauds itself as preeminently educated and Christian, ceaselessly sounds the expression of heartfelt relation, a pledge to Divine Revelation, in the word: I think. Whence arose this pledge and word? From ignorance of Christianity. A sorrowful sight it is when a son of the Eastern Church reasons about Christian Faith outside the teaching of his Church, contrary to its Divine teaching, reasons willfully, ignorantly, blasphemously. Is not such reasoning a renunciation of the Church, of Christianity? Let us be alarmed at our ignorance, drawing us into eternal destruction; let us study Christianity; let us love obedience to the holy Church, beloved to all who have knowledge of Christian Faith. Let us become careful fulfillers of the Gospel commandments; let us fulfill them as unprofitable servants (Lk. 17:10) who must fulfill their duty, constantly erring in its fulfillment or fulfilling it very insufficiently. Let the Gospel guide us to good deeds, not the movement of blood and nerves. Let us learn to perform virtues with humility, not with the fervor, which is necessarily accompanied and assisted by vanity and pride or haughtiness. When the Lord pours into us the holy chill of humility, and from its action the waves of heartfelt feelings are stilled, then shall we know that the fervor accomplishing the lofty and loud human virtues is flesh and blood, unable to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven (1 Cor. 15:50).

Be saved, beloved brothers, be saved! “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation” (Acts 2:40), said the holy Apostle Peter to those Jews contemporary with him who from among the people hostile to Christianity were inclined to accept Christianity. “By saving yourself, you will save your own soul,” said the ancient great monks about the true Christians of the last time. This means:[14] salvation for them will be very difficult on account of the special multiplication of sinful temptations and on account of the universal inclination of men toward sin. For salvation there will be needed special efforts, special diligence, special caution and self-preservation, special prudence, special patience. But our all-powerful Guide and Instructor, our Life, our Strength, our Salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, who foretold to us that we shall have tribulation in the world, at the same time encourages us: “Take courage,” He says, “I have conquered the world” (Jn. 16:33). “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Amen” (Mt. 28:20).