Homily 57
From the Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian
On those who live near to God and pass all their days in the life of knowledge
Blessed is he who lives a vigilant life in this world! A certain elder wrote various words on the walls of his cell. When he was asked what these meant, he replied: ‘These are the righteous thoughts that come to me from the angel who stands by me, and also from the upright stirrings of nature. I write them down when they come to me, so that I might reflect upon them in my periods of darkness, and that they might deliver me from delusion.’ So ought a man to do all his days.
When another elder was called blessed by his thoughts which said, ‘Instead of this fleeting world, you have been deemed worthy of the hope that is imperishable,’ he answered and said, ‘I am still on the road, and so you praise me in vain; I have not yet come to the end of my path.’ Verily this reflection is just. It is proper that the day of death should be set as the banner of our victory. Before death no one can be proclaimed a victor. For his enemies are living, his path lies before him, and he does not know what might stand in his way; his path is not safe, and he has not reached the time of security. Therefore neither should that man despair who is enmeshed in evil deeds, since it is possible for him to gain life, for he still lives. There is hope for him even as there is for the man who leads an honorable life.
Why, O man, do you buffet the sinner? The labors of your commerce have not yet entered harbor, and God has not yet cut off hope for him over whom you exalt yourself. Shortly he might surpass you in virtue and become nearer to God than you are. For death has not yet come and sealed either his mode of life or yours. For so long as a man lives there are many changes in his life, but God looks to the consummation and not to what lies in between. There have been many righteous men who have fallen from their righteousness, and many sinners who have climbed up and taken their place. Therefore, let not the righteous man exalt himself, for lo, he still lives; nor let the sinner despair, because God is near to him if he seeks Him, and is prepared to receive him if he makes a change in his way of life and turns toward Him.
If you practice an excellent virtue without perceiving the taste of its aid, do not marvel; for until a man becomes humble, he will not receive the reward of his labor. The recompense is not given for labor but for humility. He who wrongs the latter loses the former. The man who has a foretaste and in truth receives the recompense of good things is superior to him who possesses the work of virtue. Virtue is the mother of mourning, and from mourning humility is born, and upon humility a gift is bestowed. Therefore the recompense is not for virtue, nor for toil on account of virtue, but for humility that is born of both. But if humility is lacking, the former two are in vain.
The working of virtue is the keeping of the Lord’s commandments. An abundance of these labors is the good formation of the mind, and this is made steadfast by humility and watchfulness. When the strength of the former (the virtuous works) fails, this takes their place. Christ demands not the doing of the commandments, but the soul’s amendment, because of which He gave His commandments to rational beings. The body works equally in matters of the right hand and those of the left, but the mind is either justified or transgresses according to its volition. There are some men who through God’s wisdom attain to life by means of things from the left, and there are some who traffic in sin under the guise of divine pursuits.
The shortcomings of those who watch over themselves are the custodians of their righteousness and are permitted by God so that their transgressions and failings should be a cause of humility. This humility protects the labor of great men, not only by preserving them from pride, but also by humbling them with the recollection of their failings; in this manner they also receive a greater recompense.
A gift free of trials is a disaster to those who receive it. If you do something good before God, and He grants you a gift on account of your uprightness toward Him, so as to spur you on the more and gladden you in your labor, persuade Him to give you knowledge of how it befits you to be humble, or to appoint a guardian over the gift, or to take it from you, lest it prove the cause of your ruin. For not every man is able to keep wealth without doing himself harm.
The soul that has concern for virtue and lives in exacting diligence and the fear of God must necessarily suffer sorrow daily, because the virtues are interwoven with sorrows. He who flees afflictions most certainly separates himself from the virtues also. If you desire virtue, surrender yourself up to every kind of suffering, for afflictions give birth to humility. God does not wish that the soul be without care, and the man who wishes to be free of care is estranged from the will of God in his thinking. We speak not of care for material things, but care for things that cause affliction and that accompany good works. Until we have attained true knowledge, which is the revelation of mysteries, we advance toward humility by means of trials. He who rests on his virtue without suffering tribulation has the door of pride open before him.
Who then is the man that desires his thought to be unafflicted by sorrows? The mind cannot abide in humility without buffetings; and without humility neither can it persevere with limpid purity in prayer to God. First a man withdraws his mind from his proper care and thereafter the spirit of pride approaches him. When he tarries in pride, the angel of providence, who is near him and stirs in him care for righteousness, withdraws from him. And when a man wrongs this angel and the angel departs from him, then the alien (the devil) draws nigh him, and from henceforth he has no care whatever for righteousness.
‘Before ruin cometh pride,’ says the wise man (Prov. 18:12); and before a gift comes humility. By the quantity of pride visible in a man’s soul is determined the weight of the bruising nigh to being sent upon her by God. God does not withdraw far from a man for one sort of sin, nor does He abandon him completely and abhor him, until He finds his mind engrossed in intercourse with pride or blasphemy; and the first of these [passions] is the cause of the second. Those who in their thinking depart from the path of humility and are stripped of God’s help, either fall into the disgrace of lasciviousness, or into blasphemy against divine things, or into harm to their mind. Those who exalt themselves for their virtuous way of life fall for the most part into disgraceful lasciviousness. But those who exalt themselves for their knowledge and intellectual employment fall into blasphemy against the things of God or into derangement of the mind.
Pride is not when a proud thought passes through the mind, nor when a man is overcome by pride for a time, but when it permanently abides in him. In the first instance there can be compunction; but he who has loved pride knows no compunction. For if he felt compunction, he would not persist in pride. The grievous thing is not so much to commit sin or to speak evil against God, as to continue in such evil. The former indicates a feebleness of nature, but the latter, audacity of the will.
But it is also by the praise of the sons of men that a man becomes deranged in his understanding and is smitten with insanity, as when he desires to perform deeds among men that are beyond his measure, so that the praise of his greatness may increase and men will perceive him to be near to God. Many have excelled in their disciplines, have grown rich in gifts from God, and been honored with the grace of working signs. But afterward these same men, who were formerly so honored, underwent a change and were smitten of God, because they were unable to bear the many gifts they had received and were carried away by pride. Therefore they were rejected by God as dross and became strangers to the lofty rank they had enjoyed. Many have there been who were quiet and stable of mind, whose words were weighed, whose life was chaste, whose knowledge was envied, but who have become an object of terror to those who knew them and a most lamentable sight for those who see them.
Therefore, with great lamentation, raise your voice to God and beg for humility. Fill your mouth with weeping and sprinkle dust on your head. Do not rise from the earth, nor lift your head from the ground, until God has had pity on you and caused you by death to pass away from this life, or has shown you mercy and given you humility. Do not still your mourning until you perceive in your soul that you have received it, lest perhaps you suddenly be found as one of those men. But although you should receive humility, do not raise up your eyes, or look into heaven, or fill your gaze with the sight of men, or give your heart rest from fear and supplication. In such a way you will, perhaps, be preserved from the evils prepared for us by the demons along the pathway of this our manner of life, a pathway filled with shadows, narrow, beset with many stumbling-blocks, defying our knowledge by reason of its incomprehensibility to human nature.
Believe me, my brother, and give credence to my words: you are not sufficient to comprehend all the power of the demons, and your knowledge is not sufficient to withstand their artifices. Now, therefore, permit much light to be shed forth within you, even that light wherein the love of Christ is found, and you will be laid up within the rampart of divine mercy, because of the honor of the humility you have attained.
But if you enter into the gloom of temptations because this light (humility) recedes, and you are permitted to be tried by that dense darkness of soul which they experience who are abandoned by God and are surrendered into the hands of the demons, then you will know that you are before them like an infant who knows not where to turn. All your knowledge will be in turmoil like that of a little child. And your mind which was firmly established in God, the accuracy of your knowledge, and your sound thinking will be in the midst of a sea of doubts. By one thing alone can you vanquish them (the demons): by humility. As soon as you take hold of this, all their power vanishes.
Do not consider it a sign that your soul is healthy when you smoothly wend your way with joy in God, but when the bonds of earthly matters do not distract your mind from the love of God and neighbor, and when your ties with certain persons do not distract you from your care for our Lord, to Whom be glory, and may He keep us near Him and in converse with Him! Amen.
