Catecheses 1 part 9/23

For our holy fathers say that, just as the demons are fed by our wicked deeds and grow strong against us, but when we withdraw from evils, they starve and lose their vigor, so likewise I reckon that He who became poor for the sake of our salvation is fed by us, and again, when neglected, goes hungry.

And this we may know and be fully assured of from the very life of the saints; and, that I may pass over the others, who are many and more numerous than the sand, let me give your charity full assurance from one saintly man or woman.

I know that you have heard the life of Mary of Egypt—not as narrated by some other person, but by that very woman, equal to the angels, who, as if in the manner of a confession, discloses her former destitution when she says:

Nor, though many often offered it to me, did I take the wages of sin.

This, she says, I did not because I was well supplied with the necessities—for I fed myself by spinning flax—but so that I might have many lovers ready at hand for my passion.

And when she was about to embark upon the ship and set sail for Alexandria, she was in such poverty that she possessed neither the fare nor any provision for the journey.

But when, having taken leave of the all-immaculate Theotokos, she set out for the desert, she received two small coins from someone, bought loaves of bread, and thus, crossing the Jordan, endured in the wilderness until the end of her life, never beholding the face of any human being — save only that of Zosimas — and this though she had never fed a hungry poor man, nor given drink to the thirsty, nor clothed the naked, nor visited those in prison, nor gathered in strangers;

on the contrary, she had rather driven many into the pit of perdition, and welcomed them into the lodging-place of sin.

How then, tell me, shall she be saved, and enter together with the merciful into the kingdom of heaven — she who neither renounced wealth, nor gave her possessions to the poor, nor ever performed any deed of mercy at all, but rather became to countless others an author of perdition?

You see how, if we should say that mercy comes about only through money and bodily nourishment, and that through this the Lord is fed by us, and that only those who thus feed and give Him drink and simply minister to Him are saved, while those who do not do this are lost — this would appear absurd, since even many of the saints would then be cast out of the kingdom.

But this is not so — it is not so!

For the goods and possessions in the world are common to all, just as the light and this air which we breathe, and the very pasture for the irrational beasts, both in the plains and upon the mountains.

To all, therefore, all things have been appointed as common, for the mere use of enjoyment, but according to lordship they belong to no one;

yet greed, entering into life like a tyrant, apportioned in various ways among its own slaves and servants the things given in common to all by the Master, and, hedging them about with fences and towers, and securing them with bars and doors, deprived all other people of the enjoyment of the Master's good things — the shameless one declaring herself to be the mistress of these things, and contending that she wrongs no one at all.

How then, if out of such possessions — whether from fear of the punishments threatened, or in hope of receiving a hundredfold, or moved by the misfortunes of men — they bring forth a little, or even all, and give it to those who until then had been overlooked in straits and want, shall they be reckoned merciful, or as having fed Christ, or as having done a work worthy of reward?

By no means; but rather, as I affirm, they owe repentance until death for those things which for so long a time they held fast, and of the use of which they deprived their brethren.

And how do we reckon that those who have become poor, as it were — even as Christ our God, being rich, became poor for our sake — in showing mercy to these very ones, are showing mercy to Him who for our sake became as we are?

God became for your sake a poor man; you too, who believe in Him, owe it to become poor like Him.

Consider therefore how you shall feed Him; attend carefully.

He became poor that you might become rich, that He might impart to you the riches of His grace;

for this reason He assumed flesh, that you might partake of His Godhead.

Whenever, then, you make yourself ready for His reception, then He is said to be received by you.

And whenever for His sake you yourself hunger and thirst, these things are reckoned as food and drink to Him.

For through these and such-like works and deeds you cleanse your soul and free yourself from the famine and the filth of the passions;

and God, who has thus taken you up and made all that concerns you His own, and who longs to make you a god even as He became man, reckons that whatever you do to yourself, these very things He suffers, and He says:

「Inasmuch as you have done it to your own least soul, you have done it to Me.」

For by what other works did those in caves and upon the mountains please God, if not altogether through love and repentance and faith? — for, having forsaken all the world and followed Him alone, they received Him through repentance and tears and entertained Him, and fed Him and gave drink to Him when He thirsted. But apart from this, all who through holy baptism are entitled sons of God are utterly the least also, both according to the world and as poor.

Those, therefore, who have come to know in the perception of their soul that they have become sons of God, no longer endure to be adorned with the corruptible world, for they are clothed with Christ.

And what man, arrayed in royal purple, would ever consent to put on over it a filthy and tattered tunic?

But those who do not know this, and are naked of the royal garment, yet have striven through repentance and the other good works, as we have said, and have thus put on Christ — they clothe that very Christ;

for they too are anointed ones (christs), as sons of God from the divine baptism.

But if they do not do this, but clothe all the naked, those in the world, while leaving themselves naked, what have they profited?

Then again, we who have been baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit are called brethren of Christ;

and not this only, but we are also members of Him.

Being therefore His brother and member, if you should honor, entertain, and minister to all others, but overlook yourself, and through all these things fail to strive to ascend to the very summit of life and honor according to God, but rather leave your own soul filthy, squalid, lying in deepest darkness as though dead — by the famine of sloth, or the thirst of negligence, or the closest imprisonment of this filthy body through gluttony or love of pleasure — have you not insulted the brother of Christ?

Did you not fail to visit him when he was in prison?

For this reason, then, you shall also hear:

「You did not have mercy on yourself, you shall not obtain mercy.」

And since, one says, this is so, and we have no reward for the money or goods given by us, what need is there even to give to the poor? Let him listen to the One who is to judge him and to render to each according to his works, as though saying to him:

「Fool, what did you bring into the world, or what visible thing did you yourself make?

Did you not come forth naked from your mother's womb, and shall you not depart naked from this life, and stand laid bare before My judgment seat?

And by what possessions of your own do you say that you show mercy to your brethren, and through them to Me — I who set forth all these things not for you alone, but common to all?

Or do you suppose that I desire anything and am bribed, and do you think that I too am like the money-loving among men who judge?

For this too is something you might reckon out of ignorance.

Not desiring money at all, but having mercy on you; not wishing to take what is yours, but desiring to free you from the judgment concerning these things — for this reason I lay down these laws, and for no other cause whatever.」

For do not think, brother, that God is in want and unable to feed the poor, and that for this reason He commands us to have mercy on them and to make much of this commandment.

But what the devil, through greed, wrought against us and unto our destruction, this Christ, through almsgiving, contrived on our behalf and caused to become unto our salvation.

The devil suggested to us that we should appropriate to ourselves the things set forth for common use, and hoard them up, so that through this greed he might fasten two accusations upon us and make us liable to eternal punishment and condemnation: the one, that of unmercifulness, and the other, that of setting our hope on the money laid up and not upon God. For he who has money laid by cannot hope in God;

and this is plain from what Christ our God said:

「Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.」

He, therefore, who imparts to all out of the money laid up by him, is not owed any reward for these things, but is rather liable to condemnation for the unjust withholding of them up until that time;

and indeed he is answerable for those who from time to time have departed this life through famine and thirst, whom he then, though able to feed, did not feed — burying the goods of the poor and leaving them to die violently by cold and famine, thus being shown to be the murderer of as many as he could have fed.

The good and compassionate Master, therefore, remitting to us the judgment of all these accusations, does not reckon us as holding what is another's, but as our own things, and He promises to give us not tenfold only, but a hundredfold, to those who distribute these to the brethren in gladness.

And gladness is this: not to reckon these things as one's own, but as entrusted to one by God for the stewardship of his fellow-servants, and to scatter them ungrudgingly, with joy and magnanimity, not from grief or of necessity — and especially so that with joy we may empty out the things we have hoarded, in hope of the true promise which God has promised us, to give a hundredfold reward for this.

And let us cease from such hope, and let us gain hearts free from such bonds;

so that, having first become free, we may then walk unhindered to the doing of His commandments, and serve Him in fear and trembling — not as though granting Him any favor, but as being ourselves benefited through this service.

For otherwise it is not possible for us to be saved.

For the rich were commanded first to effect the laying aside of their money, as of some burden and hindrance to the life according to God, and thus to take up the cross upon their shoulders and follow the Master in His footsteps;

for it is altogether impossible for us to carry both.

But those who are without these things, and who live in self-sufficiency, or pass their lives even in want of necessities, have nothing to hinder them, if they are willing to walk the strait and narrow way;

but the one group need only the resolve for this, while the others are already walking in the very way itself; wherefore they ought to pass their lives in patient endurance and thanksgiving.

And God, being just, will make of them, as they journey thus, a resting-place unto eternal life and enjoyment.

But to give away all one's possessions and money, yet not to contend nobly against the onslaughts of temptations and the other afflictions, seems to me the mark of a petty soul, ignorant of the aim of its own benefit.

For just as gold, when it has rusted deep, cannot be well purified and restored to its own splendor in any other way except by being cast into fire and beaten many times with hammers, so also a soul that has rusted with the corrosion of sin and been rendered worthless to its depths cannot be purified and recover its ancient beauty in any other way, unless it consorts with many temptations and enters the furnace of afflictions.

For this is what the very word of our Lord intimates, saying thus:

It is not in the laying aside of your possessions that you shall gain your souls, but in your patient endurance.

For that the distribution of money to the poor and the flight from the world are good and profitable is plain; but this by itself alone cannot render perfect the man who lives according to God, apart from the patient endurance of temptations.

And that this is so, and that it thus seems good to God, hear Him saying to the rich man: 「If you would be perfect, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and take up your cross and come, follow Me」 — by the cross hinting, as has been said, at the afflictions and the temptations.

For since the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force, and it is not otherwise possible for the faithful to enter into it, except through the narrow gate of temptations and afflictions, fittingly the divine oracle enjoins us:

「Strive to enter through the narrow gate,」 He says; and again:

「In your patient endurance gain your souls;」 and:

「You must through many afflictions enter into the kingdom of heaven.」

For he who scatters his own money to those in need, and withdraws from the world and its affairs in hope of reward, bears his conscience along in much pleasure, and there are times when he is even robbed of his rewards by vainglory;

great is the recompense, inasmuch as he has imitated the sufferings of Christ and endured with Him in the days of the onslaught of temptations and afflictions.

For this reason, then, I exhort you, brethren in Christ: let us be diligent, according to the voice of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ — since we have renounced the world and the things in the world — to enter through the narrow gate, which is the cutting off and shunning of our fleshly mind and will.

For unless we are made dead to the flesh and to its desires and to its will, it is not possible to attain the rest and the deliverance from evils and the freedom that come upon us through the consolation of the Holy Spirit.

And apart from this — I mean the coming of the Spirit — no one shall see the Lord, neither in this present age nor in the age to come.

That you have indeed done a good thing, having scattered all your goods among the needy — if indeed you left nothing for yourself, unlike that Ananias — and, in addition to this, having renounced the world and the things in the world, and having fled from worldly life and its cares, having run to the harbor of life, clothing yourself with the form of godliness: I too agree and commend you for this undertaking.

yet not this only, but also that you should put on the garment of light through repentance, which is the Holy Spirit Himself.

But this does not come about in any other way, except through the persevering practice of the virtues and the endurance of afflictions.

For the soul, being afflicted through trials, is moved to tears; and the tears, cleansing the heart, make it a temple and a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. For neither is the mere wearing of the habit and the outward adornment of the statue sufficient for us unto salvation and perfection; but just as the outward man, so also the inner man within us must be adorned with the composure of the Spirit, and we must offer ourselves wholly to God, in soul and body: on the one hand, by bodily exercise training the body for the labors of virtue, so as to be vigorously accustomed to the hardships that are according to God and to bear nobly the bitterness of fasting, the constraint of self-control, the necessity of vigils, and every hardship; and on the other hand, by the godliness of the Spirit to train the soul to think what it ought to think, and ever to meditate upon the things of eternal life, to be humble-minded, gentle, contrite, compunctious, mourning daily, and calling the light of the Spirit to itself through prayer — which things are wont to be added to it through most fervent repentance, when it is purified through many tears, without which the soul's garment can never be cleansed, nor can it run up to the height of contemplation.

For just as a garment defiled deep down from mire and dung somewhere is impossible to cleanse in any other way except through much water and much treading of the feet, so also the garment of the soul, defiled from the mire and dung of sinful passions, cannot be washed clean in any other way except through many tears and the endurance of trials and afflictions.

For there being essentially two kinds of flowings from the body within us — I mean, on the one hand, the tears that flow in from above, and, on the other hand, those from the generative powers — and the latter defiling the soul when emptied contrary to nature and law, but the former cleansing it when they flow from repentance: those whose soul has been defiled by the sinful practice of sin and by the passionate movement of the heart, having engraved within themselves the forms of irrational desires, must be cleansed through many tears and acquire a most pure garment of the soul.

when He comes to him through repentance, it is impossible — if indeed the pure in heart see God.

Let us then be diligent, I entreat you, my fathers and brothers and children, to acquire a pure heart through the careful watching of our ways and the continual confession of the hidden thoughts of the soul.

For the confession of such things which is made by us continually and daily, moved by a repentant heart, works in us repentance for the things done or even meditated; and the repentance stirs up the tear from the depths of the soul; and the tear cleanses the heart and blots out great sins; and when these are wiped away through tears, the soul comes into the consolation of the Divine Spirit and is watered with the streams of most sweet compunction, by which it is daily nourished spiritually and feeds the fruits of the Spirit and, in due season fittingly, like abundant grain, yields them up as inexhaustible food for the soul and unto its incorruptible and eternal life.

And having through diligence come well to this state, the soul is made familiar with God and becomes a house and abode of the Divine Trinity, beholding purely its own Maker and God and conversing with Him daily; it stands outside the body and the world and this air, and ascending to the heaven of heavens and being lifted up by the virtues and by the wings of the love of God, it rests together with all the righteous from its labors and comes to be in the boundless and divine light, where the ranks of the apostles of Christ, of the martyrs, of the holy ones, and of all the powers above dance together.

Let us too, then, brothers in Christ, come to be of such a state, that we may not be left behind by our holy fathers, but that through diligence in good things and the practice of Christ's commandments we may attain unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

For there is nothing that hinders, if only we will it.

For thus we shall glorify God in our own selves, and God will be gladdened by us, and we shall find God as we depart from this present life, as the great bosom of Abraham receiving us and cherishing us in the kingdom of the heavens — which may it come to pass that we all attain, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory unto the ages.

And that he who loves the glory that comes from men gains no benefit from the remaining virtues, even if he has accomplished them all.

Brothers and fathers, do you not see how those who stand before the earthly king consider this itself a great glory and pride themselves upon it, and are set up as objects of envy by the people of the world?

If, then, these men are so disposed toward corruptible and vain things, how much more ought we, who have been enlisted under the heavenly King and have taken up His service, to rejoice and be glad that we have at all been counted worthy to be ranked in His service and have been called to the ministry of His name?

And if we should ever be counted worthy of the sight of His face and be ranked among those who stand in His presence, what praise of blessedness does this not surpass?

For if the things that eye has not seen and ear has not heard and have not entered into the heart of man, the good things which God has prepared for those who love Him, are beyond human comprehension and beyond all visible good things, how much more is God Himself, who has prepared these things!

and not only He Himself, but those also who have been counted worthy to behold Him and to stand before Him and to converse with Him, and who have become partakers and joint-partakers of His divinity and glory, have altogether come to be above the good things prepared for them by God, inasmuch as they have obtained as their lot rather the Lord Himself who prepared the good things.

And that they have become such, and even until now become so — I say, not only after death, but even while yet passing their time in the present life — all God-inspired Scripture teaches this, and all the saints bear witness together to this by their manner of life, together also with our blessed father Symeon the Studite himself, whose memory we keep today, and again those who eulogize the saints through words.

For this most holy father of ours, Symeon, whose life and God-pleasing manner of life we have read, in the midst of a city and in the midst of a most illustrious monastery, practiced such a life and displayed such a manner of life, that he surpassed not only those who shone in his own generation, but also many of the ancient fathers, in the height of his virtues and in accomplishments beyond his strength.

For this reason, having shown himself worthy of us of many praises and eulogies, he is praised and called blessed and eulogized by us according to our ability.

For all praise and calling blessed of the saints consists of these two things: through the orthodox faith and the praiseworthy life, and through the gift of the Holy Spirit and His graces.

For when someone lives well and in a God-loving manner with an orthodox mind, and when he is graced by God and glorified through the gift of the Spirit, there follows for him the praise and the calling blessed from the whole church of the faithful and from all her teachers.

But if faith and works are not laid down without deficiency, it is impossible for the coming of the adorable and divine Spirit ever to take place, or for any of men to receive His gift.

And when He is not present in the man, nor has He knowingly dwelt in him, it is altogether unfitting for that man to be named spiritual.

And he who has not become spiritual, how shall he be holy?

And he who has not become holy, for what other work or deed shall he be called blessed, if blessedness is God?

And he who has not partaken of God — or rather, he who does not have Him whole within himself — how does he seem blessed to me?

For a sun without light, how could it be called a sun?

And a man without the participation of the All-Holy Spirit, how could he be called holy?

For 'Be holy,' said the Lord, 'because I am holy' — unto our imitation of Him through works; the compassionate One, as it were, exhorting us who are examined amid sins, and saying:

Depart from evils, and accomplish all good things; pursue every virtue according to what is possible for you, and as far as is attainable for you, become holy — if indeed you wish to have fellowship with Me.

For I am holy — that is, pure and undefiled.

These things belong to Me by nature; but you, by the practice of the commandments abstaining from the defilement of sins and becoming partakers of Me in the grace of the Spirit, then you too shall be holy.

For this is what 'become' indicates.

And I am rather persuaded that the Lord said this to those who have already received the grace of the Spirit; who, indeed, charging them not to be over-confident in the gift and through slothfulness to turn back to evils, said as it were:

Do not give yourself over to idleness, O you spiritual one, who have received the grace of the Holy Spirit and through it have received Me.

For idleness gives birth to wickedness, and wickedness begets every kind of evil.

By the daily practice of the commandments, therefore, become holy, if indeed you wish, He says, that I should be in you and with you, and you in Me and with Me.

And since the mind is an ever-moving thing, altogether unable to be idle, it is necessary that it be thoughtful and diligent in the practice of the commandments of God.

For thus the whole life of men is full of care and anxious and is unable to have leisure from all things, even though many have striven to do this beyond their own strength and power; but indeed man was from the beginning created such;

for Adam was commanded to work and to keep in paradise, and there exists in us a certain natural movement of working toward good things.

Those, therefore, who give themselves over to idleness and slothfulness — of whatever sort they might be, spiritual and holy — cast themselves into the passion that is contrary to nature.

For just as a spring, ever gushing forth water, when it ceases a little vanishes and passes over into being no longer a spring but a cistern, so also he who ever cleanses himself by the practice of the commandments and is cleansed and sanctified by God, if he falls a little from the practice, falls from holiness in proportion.

But he who is drawn away by even one sin knowingly falls wholly from purity, just as a vessel of water is entirely defiled by a little dung.

I do not mean only the sin that is accomplished through the body, but also the other passions that are accomplished within us invisibly through us.

And do not disbelieve me when I say this, brothers; but knowing this you shall be: that if we exercise every virtue and perform miracles, if we neglect no commandment, whether small or great, but only long for the glory that comes from men, and seek this in whatever way through contrivances, and hasten to obtain it, we have been deprived of the reward of all the rest.

But even when earthly glory is offered, he who receives it with pleasure and joy and prides himself in it and delights in it in his heart shall be condemned as a fornicator.

For such a one is like a man who has chosen to live in virginity and has renounced the company of women, and does not go over to them of his own accord, nor desires to dwell with them, but when some one woman comes to him, straightway receives her with pleasure and fulfills the pleasure of intercourse.

And this, then, comes about likewise in the case of every other desire and every passion.

For whether by envy, or by love of money, or by jealousy, or by strife, or by any other evil one willingly gives himself over, he shall not attain the crown of righteousness.

For God, being righteous, does not endure to have the unrighteous as fellow-partakers; and being pure, He is not defiled together with the impure; and being passionless, He does not lodge together with those subject to passions; and being holy, He does not enter into a defiled and wicked soul.