Catecheses 1 part 13/23

And if you should give command, let us make that one superior, for he is able to shepherd the whole brotherhood well.

And let us too strive together with him with all our might, and, believe me, that we may have our reward with him and together with him, and keep our conscience uncondemned.

For indeed in this we shall serve God Himself, and all will praise us, that we did not commend ourselves but him whom God willed.

If then the brother has humility and a soul freed from love of glory, without any partiality toward the other, he too says these things to him, and God assures him of every other evil suspicion;

and then you both speak to the whole brotherhood, and the will of God comes to pass.

But if you indeed speak without partiality on behalf of the more spiritual brother, yet the brother does not hearken to you, but is moved to self-justifications, commending himself, know that he is held fast by love of glory, and take pains in every way, as a servant of Christ, with the pure testimony of your conscience, that the more spiritual brother may become superior.

But if, being prompted by the enemy or even testing you, he says to you:

Then you become it, since I will not allow that one whom you name to become it, but I take delight in you—do not be dragged down together with his passion, nor fall into his downfall, but keep the virginity of your soul incorrupt for Christ, stolen away by no desire toward the desire of pleasure.

But likewise do not out of fear turn aside from the good and consent that the evil one become it, saying within yourself:

Let me not appear to be hindering and contradicting concerning so-and-so, as though he were not worthy of the leadership.

But if you are among the more esteemed, when asked, speak the truth with boldness and strengthen those who are unstable toward the good;

but if perhaps the majority, or even all, agree together upon the evil, and have contrived to have helpers from outside for this, give way, and neither cooperate nor hinder, but let the evil ones be crushed by him whom they judged fit to rule over them, so that they may reap their own labour and find no benefit, since God often gives a ruler to a disobedient people according to their heart.

And let these things be firm and unshaken to you.

But if after the death of the presiding one you see the whole brotherhood around you unstable, wholly shaken by the spirits of wickedness, torn apart by the lusts and pleasures of the flesh and falling down and having no base nor foundation upon the rock, but wholly reeling, and one brother here, another there, stretching out his hands and eager to seize hold of something—not that which saves him but that which drags his body and soul down together into Hades and darkness and the fire of pleasures—and yet others again vigorous and mad after rule, having an uncontrollable desire for it: have mercy, sympathize, be moved with compassion and pity, mourn over such people and weep, recall to mind whether you have been counted worthy to look aright upon the wounds of your brethren, the fractures of your members, the collapse of the whole body, and entreat God from the heart with pain and tears to stay the rushing course of so great an evil and to turn the hearts of the brethren toward the better.

But watch the inclination of your heart, lest you offer the petition on behalf of yourself, that they may prefer you, and instead of a blessing it procure for you a curse and the wrath of God.

If then, acting thus and being so disposed, you see some of your brethren agreeing together upon evil and running about to deceive the simpler among them, and moreover with all diligence and with gifts drawing helpers from outside to their aid, be grieved and in anguish of your heart lament that we monks have come to such audacity and darkening as to undertake to shepherd the sheep of Christ apart from Christ, and for the sake of pleasure and bodily enjoyment and the acquisition of money and honour from men.

Alas for me, the humble and wretched one! By every means we strive to receive the dignity of the apostles, and we buy their authority with gold, neither fearing God nor being ashamed before those who behold us.

No one dares to mount the throne of an emperor unless he himself has willed it; nor, being a layman, does anyone take up the rank of a grammarian or an orator; nor does one who is unlettered read before the people. Yet you seek out, or even accept, the dignity of the apostles, when you have not yet received the grace of the apostles nor beheld its fruits cultivated within you!

And how, brother, can you bear to consider the greatness of such presumption?

Tell me, beloved: if this whole great and populous city were to entreat you, saying:

'We will make you a provost and chamberlain of the emperor; go up alone into the palace, and having entered, speak to the emperor concerning us, and beseech him to do for us this and that'—though you had in fact never entered the palace, but were unknown even to the emperor himself and a stranger to all who are in the palace—would you ever have dared to do this, or to accept the office?

You will certainly admit that you would never have dared to do such a thing; rather, you would have reproached and laughed at those who said these things to you as though they were mad and out of their senses, and you would have flung away the office not as an honor but as the occasion of dishonor and punishment.

And does it seem to you, brother, a light thing rashly to take up the apostolic dignity?

And how is the undertaking of this matter to be regarded as contemptible?

Woe is me, brother! I fear that we have been plunged into utter darkness, and for this reason we do not perceive what manner of things we presumptuously undertake.

For if we knew, we would never have been driven to such a pitch of self-will and audacity as to make sport of divine things, and to keep greater honor and fear for the earthly king than for the immortal King, Christ.

Therefore let us not cease to examine ourselves, and by every means to turn back and cut off from their undertaking those who attempt unworthily to enter upon such an office;

but let us be zealous, so far as is possible, to restrain them from this irrational impulse, that we may both deliver them from judgment and ourselves may live more securely.

But if, as has been said, you see no brother in the monastery who leads a life worthy of witness and is spiritual in deed and word, but see every chance comer simply leaping upon and unworthily grasping at the pastoral office—eager for the harm of the brethren and for the ruin of his own soul—and if, searching diligently, you find yourself freed from all love of glory, having no trace of any pleasure or bodily desire, entirely pure from avarice and the bearing of grudges, possessing perfect meekness and freedom from anger, and having such love toward God that at the mere hearing of the name of Christ you are at once kindled with longing and pour forth tears; and beyond this, if you mourn for your neighbor, and reckon the faults of others as your own, and hold yourself from your soul to be more sinful than all;

and finally, if you see in yourself the grace of the Holy Spirit richly present, enlightening and rendering the interior of your heart bright as the sun, and if you clearly perceive the wonder of the bush being accomplished within you—so that you burn in being united to the unapproachable fire, yet are not consumed, because your soul is freed from every passion;

and further, if you are so humbled as to regard yourself insufficient and unworthy, knowing the weakness of human nature;

yet you take courage in the grace from above and in the sufficiency that comes from it, and eagerly set your hand to the task, being compelled by its fervor and thrusting away every human reasoning, and offering up your very soul for the brethren solely for the sake of God's commandment and love of neighbor;

and in addition to what has been said, if you keep your mind stripped bare of every worldly imagination, and are clothed in the luminous garment of humility, so that you neither—even in the least degree—set your heart upon those who cooperate with you, nor are made bitter toward those who oppose you, but are altogether equal toward all in the simplicity, goodness, and innocence of your heart;

even then do not dare to enter upon the office without the counsel of your spiritual father, but humble yourself and do this with his prayer and command, and enter upon the office solely for the salvation of the brethren.

You will know yourself—or rather, you will learn from the Sun of glory, if indeed you have ever gazed upon the sun.

For this reason we have thought it necessary, through this catechesis, to make known to your charity these few things, from those which we have been deemed worthy to learn and to know;

but as for the rest, lest we should appear to be parading abroad the things that take place in the monasteries, we have restrained our mind and our hand; rather, leaving aside all the affairs of others, let us direct our discourse to the shepherd.

Watch, therefore, and take heed to your own heart, spiritual father; or rather, ever cleanse the eye of your understanding and take care to keep it pure and unclouded, through which you will both see your own heart and rightly discern and fittingly govern the affairs of the sheep committed to you—or rather, of your fathers and brethren.

For the Church, as you hear, is a body, and the one who presides is its head;

just as the other members of the body have, each one, a single function—as the foot for walking, the hand for grasping and working—but the head is the constitution of the whole body, in that it holds within itself all the senses, the mind, and speech itself;

so also the brethren in the monastery: not all can perform all things, but one is fitted by nature to work and minister in one thing, and another in another.

Whence you will scarcely find even one or two of the virtues together in any single subordinate—and this is no wonder;

for they are members in part; but the one who presides is required to have all the virtues within himself—and not only those of the soul but also those of the body—or rather, together with the virtues, the very mystical and great charisms as well.

For just as a man's head has, from its outward form and comeliness, beauty and honor, yet is useless and dishonored in the eyes of all if it does not also have its mind and senses whole and unimpaired, so likewise is it with the one who presides;

for he ought not only to be adorned and made resplendent by the virtues of soul and body, but still more to be beautified by the spiritual charisms, since virtue is one thing and a charism is another.

For the virtues are accomplished by our own zeal and are gathered from our own labors, but the spiritual charisms are gifts from God, given to those who strive.

Fasting and self-control are a virtue;

these are the work of our own free choice;

but to pursue them without affliction and without toil, and to attain to purity and perfect dispassion—this is a gift of God and a most exalted charism.

Again, to master anger and wrath is a matter of wondrous struggle and vehement toil; but to come to the immobility of these passions, and to gain calm of heart and perfect meekness—this is the operation of God alone and a transformation wrought by His hand.

Thus every good and virtuous deed done according to the commandment of the Lord becomes a virtue;

but just as the farmer labors only in plowing and digging and casting the seeds into the earth, while it is a gift of God that these should sprout and yield fruit both late and early, so also in spiritual matters you will find it to be in truth.

It is ours to engage in the work and, with vehement toil and labor, to cast in the seeds of the virtues; but it is the gift and mercy of God alone to rain down the shower of His lovingkindness and grace, and to render fruitful the barren earth of our hearts—so that the grain of the word which has fallen into our souls may partake of the moisture of divine goodness, and having sprouted may grow and reach up into a great tree, that is, into manly perfection, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

You must therefore, as has been said, O shepherd of the sheep of Christ, possess every virtue, both bodily and spiritual, as the head of the rest of the body of the Israelite Church that is under you, so that the brethren, looking to you as to a good archetype, may themselves also engrave upon themselves as far as possible good and kingly characters.

Let not, then, the trumpet within you ever cease to sound; but to some proclaim beforehand the sword that is coming upon the disobedient and the hard-hearted, that you may deliver your own soul even from him who will not hearken, and rescue him from the dread wrath of God; and others admonish, teach, exhort, and at times, when they need rebuke and reproof, come upon them in season and out of season, rebuking, censuring, and cutting short their attempts at evil, according as the divine apostle commands you.

Open your heart of compassion equally toward all your brethren; and you shall have equal love toward all the brotherhood that is with you, but you shall render honor to each one worthily, according to his worth and the greatness of his virtue—not preferring above the spiritual and virtuous man even the one whom you hold first in the ministries of your flock.

For those who minister bear the dignity of the seven deacons recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, who are also as ministering spirits sent forth to service; and, ministering faithfully and without guile as those men did, free from all shameful gain, they will fittingly carry off a great reward both here and there.

But those who persevere in prayer, in stillness, and in the ministry of the word, in the patient endurance of most excellent works of asceticism, bear together with you the dignity of the apostles themselves and of the chief among them; and these you shall have as fellow-workers in the Gospel of your spiritual teaching, taking up the burdens of the brethren and relieving you of your toils—rolling, as it were, in the midst of the rest like precious stones.

There is no rest of body for you in this work, no enjoyment whatever.

The nights, equally with the days, will be spent by you in care for the souls entrusted to you, lest even one of them become the prey of a wild beast—devoured by the bear of desire, or swallowed by the dragon of wrath, or torn asunder by the vultures of the thoughts of pride—and the one become many, being divided into diversity out of unity; but that you may bring back your flock safe and fruitful to Christ the Chief Shepherd, our God—wholly fruitful, full of virtues, enlightened by divine knowledge, bringing back not one that is mangy or crop-eared or in any way lame.

For thus you will save many, making them perfect in perfect works, lacking in nothing whatsoever, wholly chaste, bringing them to your Christ pure from defiled deeds; and you will render yourself worthy of the great rewards from above, becoming a fellow-dweller with the apostles and shepherds of Christ, and reigning together with the very Son of God unto ages without end.

Rather, let him be free of possessions, a hater of vainglory, hating every pleasure of life and every luxury of the flesh; humble, unassuming, easily moved to compunction, gentle, meek, free from anger, free from avarice, undistracted by affairs, tranquil, unpretentious, patient, faithful, self-controlled, watchful, vigilant, diligent, zealous, taking thought for the souls entrusted to him as for his own members, and, if need be, laying down his own soul daily on their behalf, preferring nothing else of the world's affairs above his love for them.

For since you yourself have been chosen above the rest to shepherd the rational flock of your Master and God, you must, according to His word, be the last of all in your disposition and in your humility before God, so that as one who is strong you may bear the infirmities of the weak, as a physician you may heal the passions and the maladies of those who are sick in soul, as a shepherd you may turn back the one that has strayed and make fruitful in virtues the one that is well disposed, but cut off from your rational fold the one that is full of mange and incurably sick, lest he impart his disease also to the healthy ones among your rational sheep.

Hasten, therefore, to increase the flock of your Master.

Do not turn aside to the ease or luxuries of the body, nor evilly consume the wool and the fat of Christ's sheep, storing up the goods of the monastery for yourself rather than for your brethren, for the sake of enjoyment.

Do not, for the sake of human glory, do or say anything of those matters that do not pertain to your monastery; do not love to make frequent journeys abroad on costly mules, with a retinue both following and going before.

For it is enough for you, going out even once a month, to accomplish the more necessary services and business of your flock; the rest the ministers will perform, preserving for you your freedom from distraction in the ministry of the word and, evidently, in your careful attention with prayer, persevering on behalf of the brethren.

Do not prepare sumptuous tables for yourself, while providing for your children lowly, unseasoned, and despised fare; but let the table be common, without any weakness or the entertaining of friends—of those who share your mind and manner of life—for you and for your children alike;

whether it be of boiled vegetables and pulse, or even of fish once a week on the Lord's Day and on a feast of the Master, let it be prepared in common by the cellarer.

You shall not be carried away with temper, anger, and shouting against your children and brethren, when there is no matter that brings peril to the soul; but with a gentle word and utterance you shall teach them how each ought to walk and to conduct himself in the midst of the brotherhood.

The young and the unestablished you shall teach to spare both themselves and the rest of the brethren, lest they become to those who behold them an occasion of harm through their gait, the disorder of their manners, their boldness of speech, and the unruly practices of youth.

Those who have grown old in ascetic practice you shall teach, with a word of understanding, patience in the temptations that come upon them from the enemy, humility, contrition of heart, compunction, tears, diligence and constancy in prayer, blessed mourning, and how to be and become, by word and deed, a benefit to the rest;

according to the word of the Lord, that they may be to all the brotherhood and to those outside divine salt and light, having within themselves the word of life.

But if at some time it is necessary for you to be moved against the disorderly, with rod and staff, in reasonable indignation—so as to effect some check upon the evil and to restrain a pestilential corruption among them, lest the deeds and disposition of wicked practice be extended to something worse—neither has this been judged out of tune by the apostles in their ordinances, nor by our God-bearing fathers.

For every movement and every action of ours which restrains and drives away vice, but which aids righteousness and virtue, is praiseworthy and pleasing to God and acceptable to all the righteous.

And Jesus is witness, who scourged the hard-hearted Jews with a whip of cords, when they had made the house of prayer a house of merchandise, and who overturned the tables of the money-changers.

Do not, then, under a pretense of meekness, merely for the praise of men, when some small matter contrary to God's commandment has occurred, hold in contempt the overthrow of the apostolic canons and ordinances and the outrage done to the evangelical life and the monastic order; but, imitating your Jesus and God, being roused and stirring yourself up dispassionately, exact vindication of the commandments of God and of the canons laid down by His apostles.

Let there be in you, with respect to all, exactness also in the examination of the thoughts of each, so that you may know which of them stand in need of the fellowship of those who pray and commune, and which of separation and of repentance with tears and the standing of the penitents; lest you make the Church of God, instead of a holy temple, a den of robbers or a house of harlotry, whether in ignorance or in knowledge, out of partiality—and so you shall not escape the dread judgment of the wrath of God upon this.

For know that the eyewitnesses of the Word and His disciples fittingly assigned to each of such persons his proper place.

And you must diligently apply yourself to the reading of their ordinances and canons, that you may come to know what are the hidden mysteries of those who believe in Christ, and may not err by doing the things that do not befit the fear of God.

You shall make your spiritual sons reverent, according to that which is written, and shall teach them to be reverent toward the sacred and divine places, together with the vessels of the hallowed temple of God and of His liturgy; since it is written:

'Blessed is the man who is filled with awe before all things out of reverence.'

For know that to the consecrated alone, and to those who have been purified from struggles and repentance through many tears, and who partake of the immaculate mysteries of Christ, being sanctified and most reverent among the monks—to such as these has the ministry of these things and the touching of them been consecrated by the fathers and apostles.

You shall not permit to all, and to whoever wishes, entrance to the divine sanctuary, but only, as has been said, to the consecrated and hallowed among your more reverent brethren and fathers; but as for the rest, and those of the brethren who walk disorderly, see what is said to you—you shall shut it against them.

For know well that many, out of contempt for such things, are cut off from the present life; and if this comes about while you overlook it, the blood of those who are for this cause cut off from life shall be required at your hands.

These things, O shepherd of the sheep of Christ, and still more than these—which you ought to know exactly and to practice diligently for the guarding of your flock—

the grace having been given to you in deed, according to the ordinance and law delivered to you beforehand from above, tend His lambs in the saving pastures of His commandments, until they grow up and run up to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; and you shall have from Him a great reward, in that you become an enthroned companion and fellow-dweller of His apostles.

Know, then, and rather draw yourself back into yourself, if you have any regard for me who am anxious for your salvation; for our God is a consuming fire, to whom be glory unto the ages.

That one ought not to place confidence in men merely on account of their words and promises, but the trustworthiness of their words must be confirmed by their deeds.

And what manner of disposition and love the true teachers have toward those who are being taught by them.

And of what sort are their tender affections and their care.

And how they intercede with God on their behalf.

In like manner also, concerning the measure of your love and faith toward God, you yourselves know.

For I do not know how to speak with precision concerning an invisible matter, and from words alone it is impossible to be fully assured concerning such things.

For often what a man did not promise in word, he has suddenly done in deed; and what another agreed to with oaths, in the needful hour, changing his mind, he has utterly renounced.

And you will find this happening in the greater number.

For rare indeed are those who are not tossed about by the surging waves of this life, nor choked together with its thorns, nor lured by its pleasures and enslaved to riches, on account of which every falsehood is contrived.

For this reason, to hope upon words alone and to lean upon them as upon sure deeds is fitting only in the things of God, in those which He Himself has promised to us.

For He alone possesses immutability, and He has nowhere been found to be false.

For nothing among all other things possesses instability and mutability so much as the reasoning of man, which stands firm only then, when—thrusting aside all things that flow and are created and are seen—it shall pass through the darkness with which it is clothed, and be commingled with the invisible and abiding realities.

Since, then, I reckon these things thus, and I know that you also will bear witness with me to this word, hear also the cause on account of which I say these things to you, and the passion which I have suffered.

You came to us with fervent love and faith, as I judged from your words and from your countenance, and because you were not constrained by anyone, but of your own accord you set out for this.

So then, beholding you thus and hearing from you such Christ-loving words, I welcomed both your faith and your resolve, and above all others I became dispassionately affectionate toward you; and, I confess, I took on a greater love for you, even though I am commanded to love all alike.

He believes me when I say that, as my soul was naturally moved and, so to speak, set aflame with longing, he spoke words and made a covenant with Christ such as I never expected to hear from him—words which God Himself has inscribed, and which wounded my heart like an arrow; and not only so, but having become fire within it, they continually consume and burn me. For I will not hide the things which I have suffered from you, though I have in no way wronged you: these have made me grieve alike day and night, these have driven away the sweetness of sleep and compel me to thrust away food.

My thirst for water has ceased in my perpetual thirsting for the outcome of these words; and the light of the perceptible sun I have no wish at all to behold, for I long to see one day my brother drawing near in warmth to the noetic Sun.

My tears too flow most warmly and are offered to Christ on behalf of the one I have longed for, that through them he may be washed clean, and having recovered noetic sight, may come to know his own Maker.

Groanings are sent forth from the depth of my heart, that from the abyss of evils I may bring back up the soul which I have loved.

Calling upon the Almighty Lord, I cry aloud, that He may snatch away from the bonds of the ruler of this world the one who is willingly held captive.

And I do and say perhaps other things also, which it is not fitting to write, but which are known to God alone, to whom they are also directed.

And if I am lying, or if I have spoken these things carelessly and at random, even down to a single word only, and have not fulfilled them in deed, may I not be reckoned among those who believe in the Lord, nor behold the glory of the saints, but may I fail of the hope for which I have forsaken the world.

These are the things I have suffered from you, and these the wrongs I have endured.

Tell me, then, you also: to which of you did we occasion such grief?

Render, brothers, an equal love, you too, to me who am held in tyranny by love.

Confirm your words with deeds, that I may find a little refreshment.

Make manifest to me, if you truly love me, the counsels of your hearts.

Let me too know, not by words only but by deeds, that God has come to be with you and that I have not labored in vain.

A burden which works in me both unspeakable joy and boundless grief—a most paradoxical thing.

Joy, indeed, because I pray on your behalf and rejoice, hoping to receive you back; but grief, because I fear lest you be choked together with the world, and being deceived, prove false to Christ—which, when I consider it, I shudder and am beside myself.

And this is the consuming of my soul, and it does not allow me to rest or to rejoice.