On Guarding the Truths One Has Come to Know

One should not needlessly open one’s heart to another; among a thousand, you might find only one who would keep your secret.

When we ourselves do not keep it within us, how can we hope that it will be kept by another?

With a person of a merely human disposition one must speak of human things; but with a person who possesses spiritual understanding one must speak of heavenly things.6 People filled with spiritual wisdom judge the spirit of any man by Holy Scripture, examining whether his words are in accord with the will of God, and from this they draw their conclusion about him.

When one happens to be among people in the world, one should not speak of spiritual things—especially when no desire to hear them is evident in those present.

In such a case one must follow the teaching of holy Dionysius the Areopagite: “Having yourself been made divine through knowledge of divine things, and having hidden holy things in the sanctuary of your mind from the uninitiated people, as things of one form, keep them safe; for it is not right, as Scripture says, to cast before swine the pure, luminous, and precious adornment of spiritual pearls” (Holy Martyr Dionysius the Areopagite, “On the Celestial Hierarchy,” ch. 2).

One must keep in mind the word of the Lord: “Do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you” (Matt. 7:6).

Therefore one must strive by every means to conceal within oneself the treasure of gifts.

Otherwise you will lose it and not find it again. For, according to the experiential teaching of St. Isaac the Syrian: “The help that comes from guarding… is greater than the help that comes from deeds”7 (St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 89).

When necessity demands it, however, or when the occasion arises, one must act openly to the glory of God, according to the word: “Those who glorify Me I will glorify” (1 Sam. 2:30), for the path has already opened.