Institutes & Conferences 1 part 27/44

Yet sometimes, by the munificent liberality of our dispenser God, «who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,» it is granted that he who has not shown himself worthy of gospel preaching by an irreprehensible manner of life should nevertheless, for the salvation of many, obtain the grace of spiritual doctrine. But by what ways the gifts of healings also, for casting out demons, are granted by the Lord, it is fitting that we unfold by a similar discussion, which, rising for refreshment, let us reserve for the evening, because whatever is imparted gradually and without excessive labor of the body is always more effectively conceived by the heart. ON THE DIVINE CHARISMS. CHAPTERS. The discourse of Abbot Nesteros on the threefold nature of charisms.

In what respect one ought to admire holy men. On the dead man raised by Abbot Macarius. On the miracle which Abbot Abraham wrought in a woman's breasts. On the healing of a certain lame man which the same performed. That the merit of each man ought not to be estimated from signs. That the virtue of charisms consists not in wonders, but in humility. That it is more wonderful to have driven out one's own vices than to have cast demons out of another. How far uprightness of life excels the working of signs. A revelation concerning the proof of perfect chastity. After the evening synaxis, intent upon the promised narration, we sat down together as usual on the mats:

and when for a little while we offered silence out of reverence for the old man, he forestalled the silence of our modesty with such discourse. The preceding order of the discussion had reached the point of setting forth the account of the spiritual charisms, which we have learned by the tradition of our elders to be threefold. For the first cause of healing is when the grace of signs accompanies certain chosen and just men on account of the merit of their holiness, as it is manifest that the apostles and many of the saints wrought signs and wonders according to the authority of the Lord, who thus says: «Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons: freely ye have received, freely give.»

The second is when, for the edification of the Church, or of those who bring their sick, or of those who are to be healed, the virtue of healings proceeds even from sinners and unworthy men because of their faith. Concerning whom the Savior in the Gospel says: «Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out demons, and in thy name done many mighty works? And then will I confess to them that I never knew you: depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.» And on the contrary, if the faith of those who bring their sick, or of the sick, be lacking, He does not permit even those on whom the gifts of healings have been conferred to exercise the virtue of healings.

Concerning which matter Luke the Evangelist says: «And Jesus could not do mighty works among them because of their unbelief»; whence the same Lord says: «Many lepers were in Israel under the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian.» The third mode of healings is simulated even by the collusion and contrivance of demons, so that, while a man bound by manifest crimes is, on account of admiration for signs, believed to be a saint and a servant of God, the emulation of his vices too may be persuaded, and thereby, an avenue for detraction being opened, the very holiness of religion may be defamed; or at any rate that he who believes himself to have the gifts of healings, lifted up through pride of heart, may be dashed down more grievously.

Hence it is that, invoking the names of those whom they know to have no merits of holiness nor any spiritual fruits, they pretend to be burned by their merits and to be driven out from the bodies they possess. Concerning whom it is said in Deuteronomy: «If there arise in the midst of thee a prophet, or one who says he has seen a dream, and foretells a sign and a portent, and that which he has spoken comes to pass, and he says to thee, Let us go and follow strange gods whom thou knowest not, and let us serve them: thou shalt not hear the words of that prophet or dreamer; for the Lord your God tempts you, that it may become manifest whether ye love him or not, with all your heart and with all your soul.»

And in the Gospel it says: 'There shall arise false christs and false prophets, and they shall give great signs and wonders, so that, if it were possible, even the elect might be led into error.' Wherefore we ought never to admire in such virtues those who lay claim to them, but rather to observe whether they are made perfect by the casting out of all vices and the amendment of their ways; for this indeed is granted, not on account of another's faith or the diversity of circumstances, but according to each man's own effort, by the dispensing grace of God.

For this is that practical knowledge which the Apostle calls by another name, charity, and which he sets above all the tongues of men and of angels, above the fullness of faith which can even move mountains, above all knowledge and prophecy and the giving away of all one's goods, and finally above glorious martyrdom itself, by apostolic authority. For when he had enumerated all the kinds of spiritual gifts and had said: 'To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another faith, to another the grace of healings, to another the working of miracles,' and the rest, being about to speak of charity and how he would prefer it to all the gifts, mark his few words: 'And yet,' he says, 'I show unto you a more excellent way, surpassing beyond measure.'

By this it is clearly shown that the sum of perfection and blessedness does not consist in the working of those marvels, but in the purity of charity. And not without reason. For all those things are to be done away and destroyed, but charity shall abide for ever. Therefore we have never seen these works of signs sought after by our fathers; nay rather, although they possessed that grace of the Holy Spirit, they never wished to exercise it, unless perhaps some extreme and unavoidable necessity constrained them. As indeed we remember that a dead man was raised by Abbot Macarius, who first discovered a dwelling in the solitude of Scete.

For when a certain heretic, who followed the perfidy of Eunomius, was striving by the art of dialectic to subvert the sincerity of the catholic faith, and had already deceived a great multitude of men, the blessed Macarius, entreated by catholic men who were most gravely troubled by the ruin of so great a subversion, came to deliver the simple folk of all Egypt from the shipwreck of unbelief. And when the heretic had assailed him with the art of dialectic and wished to draw him, ignorant of them, into the Aristotelian thorns, the blessed Macarius, cutting short his verbosity with apostolic brevity, said: 'The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.

Let us therefore go to the tombs, and let us invoke the name of the Lord over the first dead man who shall be found; and, as it is written, let us show our faith by our works, that the most manifest proofs of the right faith may be declared by his testimony, and that we may prove the plain truth, not by the empty disputation of words, but by the power of signs and by that judgement which cannot be deceived.'

When the heretic heard this, constrained by shame before the surrounding crowd, he for the present pretended to give his assent to the proposed condition and promised that he would be present on the morrow; but the next day, while all were waiting, who had eagerly flocked to the appointed place out of desire for this spectacle, terrified by the conscience of his own unbelief, he fled and straightway migrated away from all of Egypt. And when the blessed Macarius, having waited for him together with the people until the ninth hour, saw that he had turned aside because of his own guilty conscience, he took the people who had been corrupted by that man and proceeded to the appointed tombs.

Now the overflowing of the river Nile introduced among the Egyptians this custom: since the whole breadth of that land, like an immense sea, is for no small part of the year covered by the wonted bursting forth of the waters, so that then no means of travel is granted to anyone except by the passage of small boats, the bodies of the dead, embalmed with fragrant spices, are stored away in the higher cells. For the soil of that land, drenched with continual intoxication of moisture, forbids the office of burial. For if it should receive any corpses dug into it, it is compelled by the excess of the inundations to vomit them back up to its surface. When therefore the blessed Macarius had stationed himself beside a certain most ancient corpse, he said:

'O man, if that heretic, that son of perdition, had come here with me, and I had cried out, invoking the name of Christ my God while he stood by, tell me: would you have risen up in the presence of these men who were almost overthrown by his deceit?' Then that man, rising, answered with the voice of one assenting. And when Abbot Macarius asked him what he had once been while he enjoyed this life, and in what age of men he had lived, and whether he had then known the name of Christ, he answered that he had lived under the most ancient kings, and declared that in those times he had not even heard the name of Christ. Then again Abbot Macarius said: 'Sleep in peace with the rest in your rank, to be raised up by Christ at the end of the ages.'

This virtue therefore and grace of his, so far as it depended on himself, would perhaps have always remained hidden, had not the necessity of the whole imperilled province, and his full devotion toward Christ and his sincere love, compelled him to work this miracle. And that it should be done by him, it was not the ostentation of glory that extorted it, but the love of Christ and the benefit of the whole people; as the reading of the Book of Kings makes manifest that the blessed Elijah also did, who asked that fire should come down from heaven upon the victims placed on the pyre, in order that he might deliver the imperilled faith of the whole people from the tricks of the false prophets. Why should I also recall the deeds of Abbot Abraham, who was surnamed 'ἁπλοῦς', that is, 'the simple,' on account of the simplicity of his character and his innocence?

For when he had gone from the desert to Egypt for the sake of the harvest in the days of Pentecost, and had been besought with tearful entreaties by a certain woman who held out her little child, already wasted and half-dead for lack of milk, he gave her a cup of water to drink upon which he had impressed the sign of the cross; and by the drinking of it, in a marvellous manner, her breasts, which were already entirely dry, straightway flowed with an overflowing abundance of milk.

Or again, when the same man was going to a village, he was surrounded by crowds of mockers, who, jeering, pointed out to him a certain man with a contracted knee, for many years now deprived of the use of walking and crawling from long-standing infirmity; and tempting him, they said: 'Show us, Abba Abraham, if you are a servant of God, and restore this man to his former health, that we may believe that the name of Christ whom you worship is not vain.' Then he, straightway invoking the name of Christ, bent down and, taking hold of the withered foot of the man, drew it out. And at his touch the dry and bent knee was immediately straightened, and having recovered the use of walking, which long-standing infirmity had already consigned to oblivion, the man went away rejoicing.

These men therefore attributed nothing to themselves for the power of such marvels, because they confessed that these things were done not by their own merit but by the mercy of the Lord, refuting human glory amid the admiration of the signs with the apostolic words: 'Men and brethren, why do you marvel at this? or why do you gaze upon us, as though by our own power or piety we had made this man to walk?' And they judged that no one should be praised for the gifts and marvels of God, but rather from the proper fruits of the virtues, which are begotten by diligence of mind and by strength of works. For very often, as has already been said above, men corrupt in mind, reprobate concerning the faith, in the name of the Lord both cast out demons and work the greatest miracles. Concerning whom, when the apostles complained and said:

'Master, we saw a certain man casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he does not follow with us,' although Christ for the present answered them: 'Forbid him not; for he that is not against you is for you,' yet He testifies that He will answer those who say to Him at the end: 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?' — that He will answer: 'I never knew you: depart from me, you workers of iniquity.' And therefore even to those to whom He Himself granted this glory of signs and miracles according to the merit of their holiness, He admonishes, lest they be exalted in them, saying:

'Do not rejoice because the demons are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.' Finally, the very Author of all signs and miracles, when He called His disciples to the school of His teaching, clearly showed what His true and most chosen followers ought especially to learn from Him: 'Come,' He says, 'and learn of me' — not indeed to drive out demons by heavenly power, not to cleanse lepers, not to give light to the blind, not to raise the dead; for these things, even if I work them through certain of my servants, the human condition cannot insert itself among the praises of God, nor can any minister and servant pluck for himself any portion in this, where the glory belongs to the Godhead alone:

'But you,' He says, 'learn this of me, that I am meek and humble of heart.' For this is what it is possible for all universally to learn and to practise; but the works of signs and miracles are neither always necessary, nor suitable for all, nor granted to all. Humility therefore is the mistress of all the virtues; it is the most firm foundation of the heavenly edifice; it is the proper and magnificent gift of the Saviour. For he indeed performs, without the danger of pride, all the miracles which Christ wrought, who follows the meek Lord not by the sublimity of signs, but by the virtue of patience and humility.

But he who longs to command unclean spirits, or to confer gifts of healing upon the sick, or to display some marvellous sign to the people, even though he invoke the name of Christ in his displays, is nevertheless a stranger to Christ, because with a proud mind he does not follow the master of humility. For even when, returning to the Father, He drew up, so to speak, a certain testament, He left this to His disciples: 'A new commandment,' He says, 'I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another,' and straightway He added: 'By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.'

He did not say, 'If you likewise work signs and miracles,' but 'if you have love one for another,' which it is certain that none but the meek and humble can keep. Wherefore our elders never accounted those to be worthy monks nor free from the disease of vainglory, who profess themselves exorcists before men, and amid crowds of admirers proclaim, with most boastful ostentation, this grace which they either earned or presumed. But in vain. For he who leans upon lies feeds the winds; and the same man also follows flying birds. For without doubt that will befall them which is said in the Proverbs: 'As winds and clouds and rains are most manifest, so are they who glory in a false gift.'

And therefore, if anyone should do any of these things in our presence, he ought to be praiseworthy among us not for the admiration of signs, but for the adornment of character; nor is it to be inquired whether demons are subject to him, but whether he possesses the members of charity which the Apostle describes. And in very truth it is a greater miracle to root out from one's own flesh the tinder of lust than to expel unclean spirits from the bodies of others; and it is a more magnificent sign to restrain the fierce impulses of wrath by the virtue of patience than to command the princes of the air; and it is a greater thing to have shut out the most devouring gnawings of sadness from one's own heart than to have driven away the sicknesses and bodily fevers of another.

In short, in many ways it is a more excellent virtue and a loftier accomplishment to heal the languors of one's own soul than those of another's body. For by as much as the soul is loftier than the flesh, so much the more precious is its salvation; and by as much as it is of a more precious and excellent substance, so much the more grievous and destructive is also its ruin. And concerning those cures, indeed, it is said to the most blessed apostles: 'Do not rejoice because the demons are subject to you.' For this was done not by their own power, but by the virtue of the name invoked:

and therefore they are admonished that from this quarter they should presume to claim for themselves nothing of blessedness or glory, which is accomplished only by the power and might of God, but rather from that inmost purity of their life and heart, on account of which their names are deemed worthy to be inscribed in heaven. And that we may prove this very thing which we have said, either by the testimonies of the ancients or by divine oracles, what the blessed Paphnutius felt concerning the admiration of signs or concerning the grace of purity — nay rather, what he learned by the revelation of an angel — we shall more fittingly set forth in his own words and experiences.

For this man, flourishing thus for many years in singular austerity, so that he believed himself entirely freed even from the snares of carnal concupiscence, because he felt that he had been made superior to all the assaults of the demons with which he had long and openly contended, while he was preparing for some holy men who had arrived a dish of lentils, which they call 'athera,' his hand, as it is wont, was burned by the flame flitting over the oven. Being greatly saddened by this, he began silently to turn over within himself, saying: 'Why does the fire not have peace with me, when the fiercer battles of the demons have yielded to me?

Or how shall that inextinguishable fire, the inquisitor of all merits, which is to pass through on that dreadful day of judgement, not lay hold of me, whom now this outward, temporal, and tiny fire has not spared?' And when a sudden sleep had crept upon him as he burned with such thoughts and with sadness, an angel of the Lord came to him and said: 'Why, Paphnutius, are you sad that this earthly fire is not yet at peace with you, when there still resides in your members a stirring of carnal motions not yet purified to perfection? As long as its roots live in your marrow, they will by no means allow that material fire to be at peace with you.

You cannot otherwise feel it harmless, unless you experience in your very self, by these signs, that all inward motions are extinguished: Go, take hold of a naked and most beautiful virgin, and if, while holding her, you feel that the tranquillity of your heart remains unmoved and your carnal heats abide pacified within you, then also the touch of this visible flame will lick you, gentle and harmless, after the manner of those three children in Babylon.'

And so the old man, struck by such a revelation, did not indeed take counsel of the perils of the divinely-shown experiment, but interrogating his own conscience and examining the purity of his heart, and conjecturing that the weight of his chastity did not yet counterbalance the weight of this proof, he said: 'It is no wonder if, though the battles of the unclean spirits have yielded to me, I have felt the burnings of fire — which I believed to be inferior to the most fierce conflicts of the demons — still raging against me. For it is a greater and loftier virtue and grace to extinguish the inward lust of the flesh than to subdue the wickednesses of demons assailing from without by the sign of the Lord and the might of the most high power, or to drive them from possessed bodies by the invocation of the divine name.'

Thus far Abbot Nesteros, bringing to a close his discourse on the true working of the spiritual gifts, escorted us with the instruction of his teaching as we hastened to the cell of the elder Joseph, which was about six miles distant from him. ON FRIENDSHIP. CHAPTERS. What Abbot Joseph first inquired of us. The discourse of the same elder on the untrustworthy kind of friendships. Whence comes indissoluble friendship. The question whether anything ought to be done even against a brother's disapproval. The answer, that perpetual friendship cannot stand except among the perfect. By what means an inviolable fellowship can be retained. That nothing should be preferred to charity, nor anything set after wrath. From what causes dissension arises among the spiritual.

Also on the cutting away of the spiritual causes of discords. On the best test of truth. That it is impossible for anyone who trusts in his own judgement not to be deceived by the illusion of the devil. For what cause the inferior ought not to be despised in a conference. That charity is not only the thing of God, but also God Himself. On the degrees of charity. Concerning those who reinforce either their own or their brothers' agitation by concealing it. On this, that if a brother has any grudge against us, the gifts of our prayers are rejected by the Lord. Concerning those who think that patience should be shown rather to worldly people than to the brethren. Concerning those who, feigning patience, kindle their brothers to wrath by their silence. Concerning those who fast out of indignation.

Concerning the feigned patience of certain persons who offer the other cheek to be struck. The question how those who obey the commands of Christ are defrauded of evangelical perfection. The answer, that Christ is the inspector not only of the deed, but also of the will. That he is strong and healthy who submits to another's will. That the weak are injurious and cannot bear injuries. The question how he is strong who does not always support the weak. The answer, that the weak man does not allow himself to be supported. How wrath is to be repressed. That friendships entered into by conspiracy cannot be firm.

The blessed Joseph, whose institutions and precepts are now to be unfolded, one of the three whom we mentioned in the first conference, was of a very illustrious family and a leading man of his city within Egypt, which is called Thmuis; and he was so carefully instructed not only in Egyptian but also in Greek eloquence, that either with us or with those who were entirely ignorant of the Egyptian tongue he could discourse most elegantly, not, like the rest, through an interpreter, but through his own self.

When he had perceived that we desired his instruction, having first inquired whether we were brothers by birth, and hearing from us that we were bound together not by carnal but by spiritual brotherhood, and that from the beginning of our renunciation we had always been joined in an inseparable union — both in the pilgrimage which had been undertaken by each of us for the sake of spiritual warfare, and in the zeal of the monastery — he made use of such a beginning of discourse: 'There are many kinds of friendship and companionship, which in diverse ways bind together the human race in the fellowship of love. For some a preceding recommendation first made to enter into the intercourse of acquaintance, and afterwards also of friendship.

In some indeed a certain contract, or a bargaining of giving and receiving, has coupled the covenants of charity. Some the likeness and community of business, or of military service, or of art and study, have knit together with the bonds of friendship, through which even hearts savage toward one another grow gentle, so that even those who rejoice in robberies in the woods and mountains and delight in the shedding of human blood embrace and cherish the partners of their crimes.

There is also another kind of love, which is knit together by the instinct of nature itself and by the law of kinship, whereby fellow tribesmen or spouses or parents or brothers and children are naturally preferred to others; which is found to be present not only in the human race, but also in all birds and living creatures. For they so protect and defend their chicks or their young, natural affection urging them on, that frequently they do not fear even to expose themselves to dangers and to death for their sake.

Finally, even those kinds of beasts or serpents or birds, whose intolerable ferocity and deadly venom separate and sever them from all others — such as basilisks or unicorns or griffins, which are said to be pernicious to all even by their very sight — nevertheless among themselves, by reason of the fellowship of their very origin and disposition, remain peaceable and harmless. But all these kinds of love which we have mentioned, just as we see them common to bad and good, and even to beasts and serpents, so it is certain that they cannot endure right to the end. For distance of place, and forgetfulness through time, and a contract of word or cause or business frequently interrupts and divides them.

For just as they are wont to be acquired from various fellowships of gain, or of lust, or of blood-kinship, or of manifold connections, so, upon any occasion of divorce intervening, they are dissolved. Among all these, therefore, there is one kind of charity that is insoluble, which neither the grace of recommendation, nor the greatness of duty or gifts, nor the reasoning of any contract, nor the necessity of nature joins together, but only the likeness of virtues. This, I say, is that which is never severed by any chances; which not only intervals of place or time do not prevail to dissociate or destroy, but not even death itself tears asunder.

This is true and unbroken love, which grows together by the twofold perfection and virtue of the friends, whose covenant, once entered into, neither the variety of desires nor the contentious contrariety of wills shall break. But we have known many established in this purpose, who, though they were bound together in most ardent companionship for the love of Christ, were nevertheless unable to keep it perpetually and unbroken, because, although they leaned upon a good beginning of fellowship, yet they did not hold to the purpose they had undertaken with one and equal zeal; and there was among them a certain temporary affection, because it was preserved not by the equal virtue of both, but by the patience of one:

which, though it be retained by the one magnanimously and indefatigably, must nevertheless be broken by the pusillanimity of the other. For the infirmities of those who more tepidly seek the health of perfection, however much they be supported by the endurance of the strong, are nevertheless not borne by those very persons who are weak. For they have implanted in them the causes of agitations which do not allow them to be at peace: just as those who are held by bodily sickness are wont to impute the loathings of their stomach and infirmity to the negligences of the cooks or servants, and however much the solicitude of those attending them may serve them, they none the less ascribe the causes of their agitation to the healthy, which they do not perceive to be present in themselves through the fault of their own condition.