A Sketch of the Inner State Illumined by Grace, in the Words of Macarius the Great. Ways to Stir and Strengthen the Resolve to Live Well

I cannot wait. I take up my pen and begin once more to speak to you about the same thing—the attractiveness of the state of grace—in order to set you on the path toward attaining it, making it your own, and becoming firmly established in it. Only this time I will not offer you my own words, but the utterances of the divinely wise Macarius the Great, and specifically from his eighteenth homily.

“If someone in the world is wealthy and has a hidden treasure, with that treasure and wealth he acquires everything he desires. In the same way, those who have found and already possess the heavenly treasure—grace—acquire for themselves every virtue by means of that treasure, and by that same treasure they add to themselves still greater heavenly riches. The Apostle says: ’We have… this treasure in earthen vessels’ (2 Cor. 4:7), meaning that while still in the flesh, they were counted worthy to find within themselves that treasure—the sanctifying power of the Spirit.

Whoever has found and possesses within himself this heavenly treasure of the Spirit performs by it every righteous work according to the commandments, and every deed of virtue, blamelessly and purely—without compulsion and without difficulty. Let us therefore beseech God, let us seek and ask that He would also grant us the treasure of His Spirit, and that in this way we might be able to remain blamelessly and purely in all His commandments, and to fulfill all righteousness purely and perfectly.

One must compel oneself to ask the Lord to count one worthy to find and receive the heavenly treasure of the Spirit, and to come into a state of performing all the commandments of the Lord blamelessly and purely—without effort and with ease—commandments which formerly one could not fulfill even with the greatest exertion. This treasure is acquired through earnest seeking, faith, and patience in the labors of that seeking. With heartfelt contrition and faith one must ask God to grant us to find in our hearts His riches, in the power and working of the Spirit.”

What happens with those in whom the grace of God has begun to manifest its workings in a perceptible way, the holy Macarius describes as follows: “At times they are gladdened as though at a royal banquet, and they rejoice with joy and gladness unspeakable. At other times they are like a bride, resting in divine repose in the company of her bridegroom. At times, like the incorporeal Angels, while still in the body they feel within themselves the same lightness and buoyancy. At times they are as in the repose of drink, gladdened and set at rest by the Spirit, inebriated with divine spiritual mysteries. At times the Spirit inflames them with such love that, if it were possible, they would embrace every person within their heart, making no distinction between the wicked and the good. At times, in the humility of the Spirit, they abase themselves before every person so greatly that they count themselves the very last and least of all. At times their soul rests in a kind of great stillness, in quiet and peace; at times it is made wise by grace in the understanding of something, in unspeakable wisdom, in the knowledge of that which it is impossible to utter with the tongue. At times, again, the person becomes as one of the ordinary.”

What a desirable state! And here is yet another brief sketch of the inward condition illumined by grace.

“When the soul ascends to the perfection of the Spirit, having been completely cleansed from all passions and having come, in unspeakable communion, to unity and commingling with the Spirit the Comforter—and being commingled with the Spirit, itself is counted worthy to become spirit—then it becomes all light, all eye, all joy, all repose, all love, all compassion, all grace and beauty.”

This is what the holy ascetics strove for and labored to attain! You will agree that there was, and still is, something worth toiling for. But access to this realm is open to all. It is not an enclosed meadow or garden. Such blessings are promised to all, and the earnest-money for their acquisition has been given—the grace of the Holy Spirit—in baptism and chrismation. What remains for us is simply to dig within ourselves and unearth this treasure. The treasure is in our own garden—we need only take a spade and begin to dig. From the very first strokes of the spade, silver and gold will begin to clink. And then, lo—there is the whole treasure. The joy then will be beyond measure.

Well then! What is holding us back now?!

In my last letter I pointed out the path by which one arrives at resolution, but I did not mention the particular thoughts from which this resolution arises and reaches its final intensity. Let me briefly indicate the most important of these now.

The attractiveness of a thing arouses energy, yet here it remains possible to put the matter off until tomorrow. But when, alongside this, one clearly recognizes on the one hand the extreme need and inevitability, and on the other hand the ready means at hand, then the decision is made irresistibly. Here is an example. A certain homebody sits in his room and you cannot draw him out; but let him see that there is a fire, and he will find energy from somewhere—he will dash out in an instant. Precisely the same thing must be done with ourselves, and in the case of our own irresolution, we must set a disaster ablaze around us, that is, persuade ourselves that either we act in such and such a way, or we are lost forever. The moment this is vividly conceived in the mind, our entire moral energy will rise to its full strength and pull us irresistibly toward action. How to do this with respect to the subject we are speaking of—take the trouble to think through for yourself. For my part I will mention: death comes today or tomorrow, and after death—what then? Consider that which happened to the wicked servant: ”Take from him the mina” — the gift of grace (Luke 19:24), ”and cast him into outer darkness!” Or what befell the foolish virgins: the door is shut and you hear the words, “I do not know you!” (Matt. 25:10–12). Surely one thing or the other will certainly come to pass, if we do not rekindle grace within us and are not illumined by it. Place yourself clearly in such a position, and I do not think your indecision—if such there be—will withstand it. This consideration is the most powerful of all. Even the ancient sage declared: ”Remember your last end, and you will never sin.” (Sir. 7:36). Take the trouble to picture this more clearly, and having once grasped it clearly, do not weaken or obscure this awareness. As an aid to yourself, take the little book “Arise, O Sleeper” and read it. It was given to you previously.

The ready availability of means is the second element which, in the face of a sense of extreme urgency, gives courage and confidence that one can escape the danger, and thereby gives wings for action. Whereas without this, the sense of inescapable extremity drives one to despair. In the example given, if there were no free door or open window, the one caught in the fire would have nothing left but to tear his hair. So too in our subject: given the absolute extremity in which we truly find ourselves—that without grace one cannot escape the loss of the Kingdom of Heaven—if there were no means readily available to us, then upon recognizing such extremity one could only fall into despair. But thanks be to the Lord, all has already been prepared for us by which we may avoid the inescapable extremity beyond the grave—everything is ready and at our hands, and even within us. Nothing remains but to set to work and act. Are we really going to keep dawdling and putting things off from day to day, even knowing all of this?

In regard to you in particular, I will add that you do not face the task of beginning anything extraordinary. Live in the spirit in which you were raised, and hold to those devout ways that you see in your family and among your relations. And the whole of what I have been saying I direct to this one end: that you choose wholeheartedly precisely this manner of life and freely resolve to live this way to the end. Your life up to now has been, so to speak, not quite your own—you were guided in this direction. That is a great blessing, but it is not durable if you do not by your own choice select this very manner of life and make it for yourself an inviolable law. If you do not do this now, the evil spirit of secular life will sweep you away, or you will become neither one thing nor the other, as I have already mentioned.

For God’s sake, think over all of this and make haste to settle your resolutions. God bless you, O Lord!