51
Our Lord
and Teacher of this our sacred way of life, Jesus Christ, was in the Passion
given vinegar to drink by the ministrants of the diabolical commands so that,
it seems to me, he leave us a clear model of the [proper] disposition towards
the sacred [ascetical] struggles. For,
it says, those who are contending against sin must not make use of tasty drinks
or foods but rather sustain the bitterness of the [ascetical] battle with
patience. Let the hyssop also be added
to the sponge of contempt so that the figure of our purification be brought
into the model perfectly. For acridity
is the characteristic of struggles whereas that which purifies is at all events
the characteristic of perfection.[1]
52
Let no one
proclaim that going to the bath[2]
is sinful or absurd; however, I say that to abstain from this for the sake of
temperance is both manly and most prudent.
For then neither does that delightful moisture render our body
effeminate nor do we come into recollection of that inglorious nakedness of
Adam so that we take a care to his leaves to cover the secondary cause of
shame;[3]
and certainly we who have just jumped out of the utter destruction of worldly
life ought to be united to the beauty of chastity in the purity of our body.
53
There is
nothing that impedes summoning doctors in the time of illnesses. For since at some time the art was going to
be gathered by human experience,[4]
for that reason the medicines also pre-existed.
Still, we must not place our hope of healing in doctors but in our true
Saviour and Physician, Jesus Christ. I
say these things to those who accomplish the goal of temperance in cœnobia[5]
and in cities since they are unable to have the ceaseless activity of faith [working]
through love because of the difficult situations which occur, and moreover so
that they not fall into vainglory and the temptation of the Devil. Of whom, some of them proclaim among the
populace that they have no need of doctors.
However, if one should accomplish the anchoretic life in more desolate
places among two or three brothers leading the same way of life, then let him
bring himself in faith only to the Lord, him who heals our every illness and
every infirmity, even if he should fall into any sort of afflictions at
all. For after the Lord he has the
wilderness as sufficient consolation for the illnesses. Whence neither does such a person ever lack
the activity of faith and, to be sure, since making use of the wilderness as a
good screen nor does he find anywhere to exhibit his virtue of patience.[6] For because of this, ‘The Lord makes
solitaries to dwell in a house.’
54
When we are
greatly disgusted with the bodily anomalies that happen to us[7]
we must know that our soul is still enslaved to the desires of the body. On which account, longing for material
successes the soul neither wishes to depart from the good things of life but
also considers it a big distracting business not to be able to make use of the
fine things of life because of the illnesses.
But if with thanksgiving it accepts the troubles that arise from the
illnesses, the soul is known not to be far from the boundaries of dispassion,
whence it then even accepts death with joy, as being the occasion rather of
true life.
55
The soul
would not desire to depart from the body unless its disposition towards this
very air became without quality to it.
For all the senses of the body are opposed to faith, since the former
occur in connection with the present things while the latter proclaims only the
extravagance of future goods. It
therefore befits the contender in asceticism never to ponder on certain trees
with fine branches, or arbours, or fine-flowing fountains, or various meadows,
or comely houses or even times passed with relatives, neither then to remember
chance honours at the festivals, but on the one hand to make use of the
necessary things with thanksgiving and on the other hand to consider life to be
some foreign road desolate of every disposition of the flesh. For only if we thus constrain our intellect
might we return the whole of it to the track of the eternal road.[8]
56
That sight
and taste and the remaining senses disperse the remembrance of the heart when
we have made use of them beyond measure—Eve first speaks to us of such a
thing. For as long she did not look with
pleasure on the tree of the command she kept in careful remembrance the
commandment of God. For which very
reason she was as it were still covered by the wings of divine Eros[9],
whence ignorant of her own nakedness.
But because she looked at the tree with pleasure and touched it with
great desire and, furthermore, tasted the fruit of it with a certain active
pleasure, she was immediately allured to bodily intertwining having been joined
to the passion naked. She then gave her
whole desire over to the enjoyment of present things and through the
sweet-appearing fruit joined Adam too to her own transgression, for which very
reason thenceforth the human mind is only with difficulty able to keep God or
his commandments in remembrance.
Therefore let us who ever look into the depths of our heart with
ceaseless remembrance of God[10]
pass this deceitful life with eyes that are as it were blind.[11] For it is the characteristic of truly
spiritual philosophy ever to preserve Eros unwinged for things seen.[12] This the most experienced Job also teaches
us, saying, ‘And if my heart also followed after my eye.’ Thus the matter constitutes a mark of extreme
temperance.
57
He who ever
sojourns in his own heart is in every way abroad from the fine things of
life. For walking in the Spirit he is
unable to know the desires of the flesh.
Because such a person henceforth takes his walks in the fortress of the
virtues, having those very virtues as it were as door-keepers of the city of
his purity, then henceforth the war-machines of the demons become unavailing
even if the arrows of vulgar Eros should to a certain extent reach right up to
the windows of nature.[13]
58
When our
soul begins no longer to desire the fine things of the earth then a certain
mind of accidie[14]
usually enters into it, neither allowing the soul to serve gladly in the
ministry of the word nor leaving behind in it the intense desire for future
goods; but even devaluing this temporal life exceedingly as not having a worthy
work of virtue; and contemning this very gnosis, either as having already been
granted to many others or as promising to signify to us nothing perfect. We will escape from this tepid passion that
makes us sluggish if we set very narrow boundaries to our intellect, gazing
only towards the remembrance of God. For
only thus would the mind, running back to its own warmth, be able to depart
from that irrational dispersion.[15]
59
When we
have blocked all its exits with the memory of God, our mind at all events
demands of us a work that ought to satisfy[16]
its aptitude. We must therefore give it
only and wholly the ‘Lord Jesus’[17]
towards realization of the goal.[18] For it says: ‘No one says “Lord Jesus” except
in the Holy Spirit.’ But at all events
let this passage be viewed narrowly in one’s own treasure-rooms so that it not
turn aside into some fantasies.[19] For as many as unceasingly meditate on this
holy and glorious name in the depth of their heart—these are at some time able
to see the light of their mind. For when
this name is kept with close care by the intellect it burns up in much [spiritual] perception
all the filth that floats in the soul, for it also says: ‘Our God is a consuming
fire.’ Whence, the Lord thenceforth
calls the soul to much love of his own glory.
For when that glorious and much-longed-for name becomes chronic[20]
in the warmth of the heart through remembrance by the mind, it at all events
creates in us the habit of loving the goodness of God, there thenceforth being
nothing that impedes this. For this is
the most valuable pearl which very thing one is able to acquire having sold all
his property and to have unspeakable joy over his find.
60
One thing
is introductory joy and another thing is perfecting joy. For the former is not free of fantasy while
the second has the power of humility; between these is God-loving sorrow and
painless tears.[21] For really, ‘In an abundance of wisdom is an
abundance of gnosis;’ and, ‘He who has added gnosis will add pain.’ On account of this, therefore, one must with
the introductory joy first call the soul to the struggles, and then the soul
must be cross-examined and tested thenceforth by the truth of the Holy Spirit
concerning the evils it has practised or even concerning the distractions it
still practises. For it says: ‘In
rebukes concerning lawlessness you have instructed a man and you have melted
his soul like a spider’s web;’ so that, the divine reproval having tried it
just as in a crucible, the soul receive in the warm remembrance of God the
activity of joy that is free of fantasy.
[1] The author began this chapter with the image of the vinegar given
to the Lord in his Passion; the vinegar is later represented by the sponge on
which the vinegar was offered. The
vinegar and the sponge represent the bitterness of the ascetical life. The author then completes his metaphor by
introducing hyssop, which in the Old Testament was used for purification. He closes by saying that acridity (vinegar,
sponge) is characteristic of ascetical struggles whereas that which purifies
(hyssop) is characteristic of perfection.
[2] While this chapter was written at a time when the baths were
public—with all the potential for scandal that that entailed—it clearly applies
to more modern conditions where the bath might be more private.
[3] This Greek is unclear as regards the author’s precise meaning.
[4] The author has in mind the plants that in his day were gathered for
use as medicines. He is saying that
since God foresaw that man would develop the art of medicine, He provided that
the appropriate medicinal plants would exist.
[5] I.e. monasteries with many monks or nuns leading a group life.
[6] I.e. the wilderness acts as a screen between the hermit and the
world, hiding him from other people. The
illness allows the hermit to exhibit his virtue of patience which he would not
otherwise be able to exhibit because of his isolation: in the monastery one
exhibits one's patience by bearing with other people.
[7] I.e. in an illness, especially a terminal illness such as cancer.
[8] This is an instruction for the advanced Hesychast to keep his mind
on the contemplation of God, not letting it wander to thoughts and memories of
earthly beauties and honours. In
practice, it would appear, the Hesychast would focus his intellect ever more
straitly on the words of the Jesus Prayer.
The author is saying that only in this way can the Hesychast leave the
ways of the earth for the ways of God.
[9] I.e. Eve’s ardent love for God hid her nakedness from her own eyes.
[10] Unless St Diadochos is to be taken as speaking figuratively, then
we have in this treatise not only the first clear reference to the Jesus Prayer
but also in this clause the first clear reference to keeping the mind in the
heart. Since in the next chapter the saint refers to
sojourning in the heart, it is most probable that he is not speaking
figuratively. For his argument is that
the Hesychast must force his intellect to leave behind material things so that,
dwelling in the heart it should turn wholly to God. But implicit in this instruction is the
Evagrian understanding that the mind must leave behind all mental images of created
things in order to attain to the ‘place of God’ (see Peri Logismon 40,
41). It should also be noted that St
Diadochos is clearly teaching disciples well-informed as to the practical
techniques he discusses. His conciseness
on these matters must be understood in that light.
[11] I.e. to material beauty.
[12] I.e. true asceticism always entails restraining the desire from
flying off after the senses. This
chapter is easier to understand if one considers that it is speaking to someone
accustomed to practising the Jesus Prayer in the depths of his heart. The tension that it describes is between
continuing to recite the prayer in the depths of the heart versus the temptation to look out at the things of physical beauty
around one. This line of thought is
continued in the next chapter.
[13] The basis of this chapter is the ascetic who maintains his mind in
his heart. Doing so, he has the virtues
as custodians of the citadel of his chastity—that is, as custodians of his
inner world of consciousness centred on his heart where he maintains his
mind. In such a case the demons can do
him no harm even if they should to a certain extent reach right up to the
windows of nature—that is, even should they arrive at exciting the ascetic’s
very flesh.
[14] I.e. sloth.
[15] This is an instruction for an advanced Hesychast.
[16] Greek: plerophorein. We
have otherwise translated this word and its relatives as ‘(give) inner
spiritual assurance’. Here the sense is
that since the mind must always be doing something—i.e. thinking. This is a basic principle of Greek ascetical
psychology. We must give the mind
something to do even (or perhaps especially) after we have closed the mind up
in our heart in the memory of God. That
something is the Jesus Prayer.
[17] Assuming that the reading of the critical text in the vocative is
correct, this is to be taken not as a reference to the Lord himself but as a
reference to the particular formula in use among St Diadochos’ disciples for
the recitation of the Jesus Prayer—whether the formula was merely ‘Lord Jesus’
in the vocative or something longer is immaterial to this point.
[18] This very important passage establishes that because it is the
nature of the mind to do something, then when we have withdrawn our mind within
ourselves in the remembrance of God, we must still give our mind something to
do. This something is the Jesus
Prayer—and only and wholly the Jesus Prayer.
[19] I.e. the Hesychast should stick to the letter of the scripture
passage, repeating just the words of the formula of the Jesus Prayer; otherwise
there is a danger that he will give himself over to fantasies, which are to be
avoided even if they are about the Lord Jesus (this would be taking the
scripture passage broadly).
[20] Not in a negative sense but in the sense of something that
continues over time.
[21] This is the so-called ‘gift of tears’—the ability of the Hesychast
to weep over his sins whenever he wants and only when he wants.