What Christian Perfection Consists In—The Need for Warfare in Order to Attain It—The Four Things Supremely Necessary for Success in This Warfare

All of us by nature desire—and have a commandment—to be perfect. The Lord commands: ”Be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48); St. Paul urges: ”In evil be like infants, but in understanding be mature” (1 Cor. 14:20); elsewhere in him we read: ”that you may stand perfect and fully assured” (Col. 4:12), and again: ”let us go on to perfection” (Heb. 6:1). This commandment was also set forth in the Old Testament. Thus God says to Israel in Deuteronomy: ”You shall be blameless before the Lord your God” (Deut. 18:13).

And holy David gives the same commandment to his son Solomon: ”And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your fathers, and serve him with a whole heart and a willing soul” (1 Chr. 28:9). After this we cannot fail to see that God requires of Christians the fullness of perfection—requires, that is, that we be perfect in all virtues.

But if you, my beloved reader in Christ, desire to attain such a height, you must first learn what Christian perfection consists in. For without learning this you may stray from the true path and, thinking that you are running toward perfection, be heading in an entirely different direction.

I shall say it plainly: the most perfect and the greatest thing that a person can desire and attain is nearness to God and abiding in union with him.

Yet there are not a few who say that the perfection of the Christian life consists in fasting, vigils, genuflections, sleeping on bare ground, and other similar bodily austerities. Others say that it consists in the recitation of many prayers at home and in standing through long church services. And there are those who hold that our perfection consists entirely in mental prayer, solitude, hermitage, and silence. The majority, however, confine this perfection to the exact fulfillment of all the ascetic practices prescribed by the rule, neither veering toward excess nor falling short in anything, but keeping the golden mean. Yet all these virtues by themselves do not constitute the Christian perfection we seek, but are only means and methods toward attaining it.

That they are means, and effective means, toward attaining perfection in the Christian life, there is no doubt at all. For we see very many virtuous men who practice these virtues as they ought, with the aim of acquiring through them strength and power against their own sinfulness and baseness, of drawing from them the courage to resist the temptations and enticements of our three chief enemies—the flesh, the world, and the devil—and of laying up in and through them the spiritual aids so necessary for all servants of God, especially for beginners. They fast in order to humble their unruly flesh; they keep vigils in order to sharpen the eye of their mind; they sleep on bare ground so as not to be softened by sleep; they bind their tongue with silence and withdraw into solitude so as to avoid even the slightest occasion for doing anything that might offend the All-holy God; they say prayers, attend church services, and perform other works of piety so that their attention may not wander from heavenly things; they read about the life and sufferings of our Lord for no other reason than to know better their own baseness and the tender goodness of God, to learn and be disposed to follow the Lord Jesus Christ with self-denial and the cross upon their shoulders, and to kindle in themselves more and more the love of God and the hatred of self.

But on the other hand, these same virtues can cause greater harm to those who place in them the entire foundation of their life and their hope—not by their own nature, for they are devout and holy, but through the fault of those who do not use them rightly—namely when such people, attending only to these outwardly performed virtues, let their heart run after its own desires and the desires of the devil, who, seeing that they have stepped off the right path, does not hinder them from practicing these bodily disciplines not only willingly but from expanding and multiplying them in accordance with their vain thought. Experiencing certain spiritual movements and consolations in this, they begin to think of themselves that they have already been raised to the rank of the angelic orders and feel within themselves the presence of God Himself; and at other times, having plunged into the contemplation of certain abstract, unearthly things, they fancy that they have completely stepped outside the realm of this world and been caught up to the third heaven.

But how mistakenly such people act, and how far they stand from true perfection, anyone may understand by looking at their life and their character. They typically desire to be preferred above others on every occasion; they love to live according to their own will and are always stubborn in their opinions; they are blind in all that concerns themselves, yet very sharp-eyed and diligent in scrutinizing the deeds and words of others; if someone begins to receive the sort of respect from others that they feel belongs to them, they cannot bear it and openly become hostile toward that person; if someone disturbs them in their devotional occupations and ascetic practices—especially in the presence of others—God forbid! — they are instantly agitated, they instantly seethe with anger and become entirely different, unlike themselves.

If God, wishing to bring them to self-knowledge and to direct them onto the true path of perfection, sends them sorrows and illnesses or allows them to be subjected to persecutions—by which he customarily tests who are his true and genuine servants—then what was hidden in their hearts is revealed, and how deeply they are corrupted by pride. For whatever adversity befalls them, they refuse to bow their neck under the yoke of God’s will, finding rest in his righteous and hidden judgments, and they are unwilling, following the example of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God who humbled himself for our sake and suffered, to humble themselves below all creatures, counting their persecutors as dear friends—as instruments of God’s divine goodness toward them and as helpers of their salvation.

It is therefore evident how great a danger such people are in. Having the inner eye—that is, the mind—darkened, they look at themselves with it and look incorrectly. Thinking about their outward works of piety that these works are good, they believe they have already attained perfection and, growing proud of this, begin to judge others. After this there is no longer any possibility for any human being to turn them around, apart from a special act of God. It is easier for an open sinner to turn to the good than for a hidden one who shelters under the cover of visible virtues.

Now, having learned so clearly and precisely that the spiritual life and perfection do not consist solely in those visible virtues of which we have spoken, learn also this: that it does not consist in anything else either, except in nearness to God and union with him, as was stated at the beginning—in connection with which it consists in the heartfelt confession of the goodness and greatness of God and in the awareness of our own nothingness and inclination toward every evil; in the love of God and hatred of ourselves; in subjecting ourselves not only to God but to all creatures for love of God, in the rejection of every own will and in perfect submission to the will of God; and in willing all of this and doing it from a pure heart, ”for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31), solely for the pleasure of God, solely because he himself so wills and because we are thus bound to love and serve him.

This is the law of love written by the finger of God himself in the hearts of his faithful servants! This is the denial of self that God requires of us! This is the easy yoke of Jesus Christ and his light burden! This is the submission to the will of God that our Redeemer and Teacher requires of us both by his own example and by his own word! For did not our Leader and the Perfecter of our salvation, the Lord Jesus, command us to say in prayer to our heavenly Father: ”Our Father… your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10)? And did not he himself, as he entered upon the ordeal of his passion, cry out: ”Not My will, Father… but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42)? And of his entire work did he not say: ”I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 6:38)?

Now you see, brother, what the matter is. I assume that you declare your readiness and yearn to attain the height of such perfection. May your zeal be blessed! But prepare yourself from the very first steps of your course for toil, sweat, and struggle. You must offer everything to God as a sacrifice and do his will alone. But within yourself you will find as many desires as you have faculties and needs, each of which demands satisfaction with no regard for whether this accords with the will of God. Therefore, in order to reach the goal you long for, you must first suppress your own desires and at last extinguish and mortify them entirely; and in order to succeed in this you must continually resist yourself in evil and compel yourself toward good—in other words, you must continually battle with yourself and with everything that favors your desires, arouses them, and sustains them. Prepare yourself, then, for such a struggle and such warfare, and know that the crown—the attaining of the goal you long for—is given to no one except valiant warriors and fighters.

But just as this warfare is the most difficult of all others—for entering into battle with ourselves we find our opponents within ourselves—so likewise the victory in it is the most glorious of all others and, above all, the most pleasing to God. For if, fired with zeal, you conquer and mortify your disordered passions, your desires and your self-will, you will please God more and serve him more fittingly than if you scourged yourself until you bled and exhausted yourself with fasting beyond all the ancient desert-dwellers. Even if you were to purchase hundreds of Christian slaves from the hands of the ungodly and grant them their freedom, it will not save you if you yourself meanwhile remain enslaved to your passions. And in general, whatever deed—even the greatest—you undertake, and with whatever labor and sacrifice you accomplish it, it will not bring you to the goal you have desired to reach, if at the same time you leave your passions unattended, giving them freedom to live and act within you.

Finally, having now learned what Christian perfection consists in and that in order to attain it you must wage ceaseless and fierce warfare with yourself, you must, if you truly desire to become a victor in this unseen warfare and to be found worthy of the fitting crown for it, plant in your heart the following four dispositions and spiritual practices, as though putting on invisible weapons that are the most trustworthy and all-victorious: (a) never to trust or rely upon yourself in anything; (b) always to carry in your heart a full and bold hope in God alone; (c) to strive without ceasing; and (d) always to abide in prayer.