91
One of
those who love the Lord with a certain insatiable disposition narrated to me as
follows. He said, ‘To me who desired to
know the love of God with knowledge,[1]
the Good One provided the love of God in much [spiritual] perception and inner
spiritual assurance[2];
and I [spiritually] perceived that noble activity[3]
so much that my soul then hastened with a certain unspeakable joy and love to
go out from the body and depart towards the Lord, and to ignore as it were this
manner of temporal life itself.’ Even if
he who comes to be in experience of this love should be despised or injured by
someone a myriad of times (for it happens that he is undoubtedly yet going to
have one of these sorts of things to work on with labour) he does not grow
wrathful with the person but remains as if joined fast even to the soul of him
who has despised or even injured him. He
is kindled only against those who come either against the poor or against God
(as Scripture says, ‘They speak injustice;’) or otherwise to an extent lead an
evil way of life. For he who henceforth
loves God beyond himself—or, rather, he who no longer loves himself but only
God—no longer avenges his own honour but wants only the righteousness to be
honoured of God who has honoured him in eternal honour.[4] He no longer has this as deriving from a
certain small bit of will but henceforth has such a disposition as it were in
habit on account of the great experience of divine love. In addition to these things it must be known
that he who is set by God into the activity of such a love comes to be above
even faith in the time of such activity, as by means of the great love holding
fast in [spiritual] perception of heart him who is honoured in faith. The holy Apostle clearly signifies this very
thing, saying: ‘Now there remain these three things, faith, hope and love; of
these the greatest is love.’ For he who
in a wealth of love, as I said, holds God fast is at that time much greater
than his own faith, as being wholly in love[5].
92
The intermediate
state of holy gnosis prepares us to be not a little sorrowed when because of
some quarrel we make someone our enemy by insulting him. Wherefore they never cease[6]
to prick our conscience until through much rendering of accounts we lead the
one who was insulted back to his previous disposition. The most extreme compunction of this state of
holy gnosis[7]
makes us meditate and reflect greatly even when one of those leading a secular
life has unjustly grown wrathful with us, since, speaking, we have wholly
become a stumbling block to someone from this Age[8]. Whence the mind also then becomes idle in
regard to contemplation[9]
for since the word of gnosis is wholly love, it does not allow the intellect to
be broadened towards the conception of divine contemplations[10]
unless we first regain in love even him who is without reason wrathful with
us. If, then, that person does not want
this to happen or, again, has departed from our paths, the word of gnosis
presses us thenceforth to fulfil the law of love in the depth of the heart by
adding the character of his face to our own disposition in a certain
unconstrained largeness of soul.[11] For it says:[12]
‘Those who wish to have the gnosis of God must in their own intellect look
without choleric conception upon even the faces of those who are choleric out
of season.’ This having come to pass,
the mind is not only faultlessly set into motion as regards theology but will
also ascend to the love of God with great boldness of spirit[13],
hastening unimpededly from the second step to the first.[14]
93
To those
who are beginning ardently to desire piety the road of virtue seems extremely
rough and gloomy not because it is that sort of thing but because human nature
consorts with the full range of the pleasures directly from the womb; to those,
however, who are able to come to the middle of it, the road is shown to be
wholly gentle and easy. For having been
subjected to the good habit by means of the activity of the good, the bad is
destroyed along with the memory of the irrational passions. Whence, the soul thenceforth passes gladly
along all the beaten tracks of the virtues.
For this reason, the Lord, introducing us to the road of salvation,
says: ‘How narrow and strait is the road leading to the Kingdom and few are
they that enter in by it.’ To those,
however, who wish with much purpose to come forth to the keeping of his holy
commandments, he says: ‘For my yoke is good and my load is light.’ Therefore, at the beginning of the struggle
we must work the holy commandments of God with a certain violent act of will so
that seeing our purpose and effort the good Lord send us a certain will ready
to serve extremely gladly the glorious things he wills. For then, ‘The will is prepared by the Lord,’
so that we unceasingly work the good in a certain great joy. For then, really, we will [spiritually]
perceive that, ‘God is he who acts in us both to want and to act for his
approval.’
94
In the same
way that wax that has not been heated or softened for a long time is not able
to accept the seal which has been placed on it, thus a man, unless he be tried
by [ascetical] labours and infirmities[15],
is not able to find place for the seal of the virtue of God.[16] For this reason the Lord says to the divine
Paul: ‘My grace is sufficient for you for my power is perfected in
infirmity.’ And the Apostle himself
boasts, saying: ‘Therefore I would rather boast gladly of my infirmities so
that the power of Christ dwell upon me.’
But in Proverbs it has also been written: ‘The Lord chastises him who he
loves; he whips every son whom he receives.’
And the Apostle calls infirmities the rebellions of the enemies
of the Cross which continually happened to him and to all the saints of that
day so that they not be puffed up, as he himself says, at the abundance of
revelations—but they abided, rather, in the characteristic property of
perfection through humiliation, devoutly guarding the divine gift by means of
the frequent episodes of contempt. But
now we call infirmities the evil thoughts and the bodily anomalies. For because the bodies of the saints
contending against sin were delivered up to deadly tortures and various other
afflictions, the saints were then much higher than the passions which have
entered into human nature out of sin.
Now, however, because the peace of the churches is multiplied on account
of the Lord the body of the contenders for piety must be tried on account of
this by means of continual anomalies and their soul by means of wicked
thoughts—and certainly among those in whom gnosis is active in every
[spiritual] perception and inner spiritual assurance—so that the contenders be
able to be outside every vainglory or even vain imagining, and be able by means
of the great abasement to find space in their hearts, as I said, for the seal
of the beauty of God, according to the saint who said: ‘For the light of your
Face has been stamped upon us, O Lord.’
Therefore, giving thanks, we must patiently await the counsel of the
Lord.[17] For the continuality of the sicknesses and
the battle against the demonic thoughts will be reckoned for us to the account
of a second martyrdom. For he who at
that time said to the holy martyrs by means of those lawless rulers, ‘Deny
Christ; yearn for the glories of this present life;’ even now stands against
the servants of God in person, saying these things unceasingly. He who at that time pained the bodies of the
righteous and insulted to the utmost the teachers of honour through those
ministering to those diabolical habits of thought—that very same one even now
brings the various passions against the confessors of piety with many insults
and acts of contempt, and certainly when for the sake of the glory of the Lord
they help in much power the poor who are oppressed. For this reason it is necessary to work with
sureness and patience on the martyrdom of our conscience before the Lord. For it says: ‘Waiting patiently, I patiently
awaited the Lord and he took heed to me.’
95
Humility is
a hard thing to procure. For in the
measure of its greatness, that much it is accomplished with many
struggles. It comes to those who
participate in holy gnosis in two ways.
First, when the contender of piety is in the intermediate stage of
spiritual experience then either on account of infirmity of the body or on
account of those who show enmity to those who take a care for the right or on
account of evil thoughts, the contender has a somewhat lowlier habit of
thought. Second, when the mind has been
illuminated by Holy Grace in much [spiritual] perception and inner spiritual
assurance, then the soul has humility as something as it were natural. For fattened by the divine Goodness it is no
longer able to be puffed up by the pretension of ambition and even if it
unceasingly works the commandments of God it certainly considers itself lower
than all men on account of the communion in the divine forbearance.[18] The first humility most often has sorrow and
discouragement; the second, joy with an all-wise respect for others. Wherefore, the first humility, as I said,
comes to those who are in the middle of the struggles but the second is sent
down to those who are approaching perfection.
On account of this, the first is often damaged[19]
by the successes of this life while even if someone were to offer it all the
Kingdoms of the world the second neither is passionately excited nor perceives
in any way the terrible arrows of sin—for being wholly spiritual it completely
ignores bodily glories. To come to the
second humility it is in every respect necessary for the [ascetical] contender
to come through the first. For unless
Grace by means of the first humility first soften our free will in the
application of the pedagogical sufferings—as tests and not coercively[20]—it
will not grant us the splendour of the second humility.
96
Those who
are friends of the pleasures of the present life come to the stumbles from the
thoughts[21]. For borne by an undiscerning disposition they
desire to bring almost all their impassioned conceptions[22]
to lawless words and unholy works. Those
however who are endeavouring to accomplish the ascetical way of life come from
the stumbles to the evil thoughts or to certain evil and damaging words. For if the demons see such persons gladly
tolerating abuse [of others] or speaking certain idle and unseasonable things
or laughing as it should not be or angered immoderately or desiring to see
empty and vain glory, then of one accord they arm themselves against them. For taking ambition as an occasion for their
own evil certainly they jump through that ambition as if through a certain dark
window and plunder the souls. Therefore
it is necessary that those who wish to dwell together with the multitude of
virtues not seek glory nor meet with many people nor make use of continual
appearances in public nor abuse certain persons even if those who are abused be
worthy of the abuse nor speak much even if they be able to say all things
well. For dispersing the mind without
measure, loquacity not only makes the mind idle in relation to its spiritual
labour but also delivers it to the demon of accidie[23],
which weakening it without measure delivers it thenceforth to the demons of
sorrow and the demons of anger. The mind
must therefore ever be occupied with the keeping of the holy commandments and
with the deep remembrance of the Lord of Glory.
For it says: ‘He who keeps the commandment will not know an evil word;’
that is, will not deviate into bad thoughts or words.
97
When the
heart receives the arrows of the demons with a certain warm pain in such a way
that it suspects that he who is being warred against[24]
endures real arrows, the soul hates the passions with pain, as being in the
beginning of being purified. For if the
soul should not suffer great pain on account of the impudence of sin it would
not be able to rejoice richly over the goodness of righteousness. Therefore let him who wants to purify his own
heart set it on fire at all times with the memory of the Lord Jesus[25],
having only this as a meditation and ceaseless work.[26] For those who wish to put off their own rot
must not pray[27]
at one time and at another time not pray, but ever occupy themselves with the
prayer[28]
in the keeping of the mind, even if they should have their abode somewhere
outside the houses of prayer. For in the
way that he who wishes to purify gold again makes hard the material being
purified if he let the fire go out under the crucible even if only for a short
time—in that same way he who at one time remembers God and at another time does
not, loses though the idleness whatever he thinks to acquire by the prayer[29]. It is a characteristic of the man who loves
virtue ever to consume what is earthy in his heart by means of the memory of
God, so that the bad thus being gradually expended by the fire of the memory of
the Good, the soul come completely back to its natural brightness with greater
glory.
98
Dispassion
is not the state of not being warred against by the demons, since according to
the Apostle we would then need to have gone out of the world, but the state in
which those who are warred against by the demons remain not warred against.[30] For the warriors who wear armour have arrows
shot at them by their opponents and hear the sound of the archery and also see
almost all the arrows sent against them, yet they are not wounded because of
the hardness of the armour. But they
have the quality of not being warred against when they are warred against by
being fenced by iron. Let us, however,
fully armed with the panoply of the Holy Light and the helmet of salvation, cut
through the dark phalanxes of the demons by means of all good works. For no longer to practise vices does not by
itself bring purity but to set aside vices in power through assiduous attention
to the virtues.
99
When the
man of God has conquered almost all the passions, two demons remain behind to
wrestle with him. The first of these
annoys the soul by bringing it from much love of God to an unseasonable zeal
such that the soul does not want anyone else to please God in the way that it
does; the second annoys the body by inciting it to the desire for intercourse
by means of a certain burning activity.
This happens to the body because, first, this pleasure is a property of
nature as on account of child-bearing and for that reason easily defeated; and,
further, also on account of the permission of God. For when the Lord sees one of the [ascetical]
contenders flourishing in the multitude of virtues, he occasionally permits him
to be sullied by this demon so that he suppose himself to be meaner than all
the men leading a secular life.
Doubtless, annoyance by this passion either follows the attainments or,
on occasion, comes before them, so that in anticipation or in sudden attack of
the passion the soul seem somewhat useless however great its accomplishments
might be. But let us battle the first
passion in great humility and love and the second passion in temperance and
freedom from wrath and the deep conception[31]
of death, so that in consequence ceaselessly sensing [spiritually] the activity
of the Holy Spirit we come to be above even these very passions in the Lord.
100
As many of
us become participants in holy gnosis will render an account of even our
involuntary vain imaginings. For Job
says: ‘You have taken note even if I have transgressed something
involuntarily;’—and justly so. For if
one were not to cease to remember God and were not to neglect his holy
commandments, one would not fall into either a voluntary or an involuntary
fault. We must therefore offer firm
confession to the Master even concerning our involuntary faults, that is, in
regard to the labour of the customary rule[32]
(for it is not possible that being human one has not stumbled in a human way),
up to the time that in tears of love our conscience assure us spiritually
concerning the remission of these faults.
For it says: ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just so that he
forgive our sins and purify us from every injustice.’ We must attend unceasingly to the [spiritual]
perception of confession lest perhaps our conscience speak falsely supposing
that it has confessed adequately to God, for the judgement of God is far
mightier than our conscience even if in complete spiritual assurance one should
bear witness to nothing in himself[33],
as the wisest Paul teaches us, saying: ‘But I do not interrogate myself; for I
bear witness to nothing in myself but in this I have not been justified; the
Lord is he who interrogates me.’ For if
we do not also properly confess concerning these things [that have escaped our
conscience][34]
then at the time of our departure we will find a certain secret cowardice in
ourselves. It is necessary for us who
love the Lord to pray to be found outside all fear at that time for he who is
then found in fear will not pass by the Tartarian rulers in a free way, for
those have the cowardice of the soul as an advocate as it were on behalf of
their own evil. But in the hour of
dissolution the soul which exults in the love of God is borne with the angels
of peace above all the dark ranks. It is
as it were given wing by spiritual love, as bearing without lack love as the
fullness of the Law. Wherefore also in
the Second Coming of the Lord those who depart from this life with such
boldness will be ravished with all the saints.
But those who are even a little cowardly in the time of death will be
left behind in the multitude of all the other men as being under judgement, so
that having been tried by the fire of judgement they receive according to their
own practices the inheritances owed to them by our good God and King Jesus
Christ; for he is the God of Justice and his is over us who love him the wealth
of the goodness of his Kingdom to the Ages of Ages. Amen.
Ascetical
homilies of Saint Diadochos, Bishop of Photiki in Illyria.
100 Chapters, 2,300 lines.[35]
[1] ‘To know … with knowledge’.
Greek: gnostos gnonai. Thus the text. The author is emphasizing the desire to know
consciously the love of the Lord.
[2] Greek: plerophoria.
[3] Greek: energeia, as
elsewhere in this and other chapters.
[4] Thus the text.
[5] Greek: potho. Here, this seems to mean affective
ecstasy. The chapter is describing an
advanced stage of mystic union. This
chapter is difficult to render so that it reads easily and clearly but we have
wanted to tamper as little as possible with such an important description of
mystical union.
[6] ‘They … cease’. Greek: endidwsi. The text does not have antecedent for the
implied plural subject of this verb.
Perhaps it is the demons.
[7] ‘Of this state of holy gnosis’.
Greek: autes. The text
uses a pronoun which does not have a clear antecedent. We have supplied what seems to be the correct
antecedent.
[8] I.e. the world.
[9] Greek: theorias.
[10] Greek: theoremata.
[11] We have accepted Rutherford’s ‘unrestrained (Greek: asustaltw)’ over des Places’
‘unformed (Greek: asustatw)’ with the interpretation of ‘chumati tes
psuches’ as ‘largeness of soul’ based on Liddell-Scott’s chumati tes
kardias = largeness of heart. This
gives a somewhat satisfactory interpretation of the meaning of the text. Introducing only Rutherford’s reading still
requires Rutherford to force the translation somewhat to get a satisfactory
meaning. If ‘chumati tes psuches’
is to retain its literal meaning as ‘humour of the soul’, then we would prefer
des Places’ reading. What the author
means is that if we cannot be reconciled with the other party then, even if we
are not at fault at all, we should introduce his face into our soul so as to have
it before us in love when we are praying.
This does not seem to be a prescription to engage in visualization
exercises but rather to keep the ‘idea’ of the person in our heart while we are
praying. The difference as between
‘unformed’ and ‘unrestrained’ is therefore a matter of how and with what
intensity we keep the person’s image in our soul.
[12] This is not a passage of Scripture; nor do any of the other editors
or translators provide a citation. We
are not aware of any work containing this passage.
[13] ‘Boldness of spirit’: parrisia. This is the good boldness before God.
[14] I.e. from the intermediate degree of love being discussed in this
chapter to the first degree of love discussed in the previous chapter and
elsewhere.
[15] Greek: astheneion. So for ‘infirmity’ and ‘infirmities’
following.
[16] Elder Paisios Eznepides (1924 – 1974) is said to have remarked that
he received more spiritual benefit from his illnesses than from his
(considerable) ascetical labours.
[17] I.e. in our afflictions.
[18] I.e. the ascetic is humbled by his fellowship with God.
[19] Literally: ‘reproached’.
[20] This seems to mean that it is not merely a matter of
long-suffering: the ascetic must accept his sufferings.
[21] Greek: logismon.
[22] Greek: ennoias.
[23] I.e. sloth.
[24] I.e. the ascetic. He is in
such pain that he begins to suspect that he is being shot at with real arrows.
[25] Rutherford drops ‘Jesus’ based on the older manuscripts.
[26] As the author’s continuation clearly indicates this ‘memory of the
Lord Jesus’ is accomplished by the repetition of the Jesus Prayer ‘at all
times’—i.e. continually over a long period of time—‘in the guarding of the
mind’. The author does not explain the
guarding of the mind, which is discussed at length some centuries later by St
Hesychios of Sinai.
[27] Greek: euchesthai. This refers to the Jesus Prayer, as should be
evident from the context.
[28] Greek: proseuche.
[29] Greek: euche.
[30] Thus the text.
[31] Greek: ennoia. Here ennoia
means ‘meditation’ or ‘contemplation’ within the mind: a deep consideration
of our coming death.
[32] Greek: kanonos. This is the customary rule of private prayer
and asceticism of the monk.
[33] I.e. be conscious of no fault in himself, as further on in the
quotation from St Paul. The conscience is treated
with legal concepts both in the text and in St Paul.
[34] Following des Places’ interpretation here.
[35] This is the closing note in the manuscript. Illyria is present day Albania,
somewhat north of Photiki.