|
|
Question 114.
Dear Father,
Fr Seraphim Rose in one of his quotes states the following:
"Don't criticize or judge other people - regard everyone else as an
angel, justify their mistakes and weaknesses, and condemn only yourself
as the worst sinner. This is step one in any kind of spiritual life."
This seems like a very difficult thing to do. I hear people say that if
you are too nice, magnanimous and forgiving in this world, others will
use this to their advantage and you will be stepped on and crushed and
will never prosper. I guess they are right and wrong simultaneously.
What response am I suppose to give them? Also Fr Seraphim Rose says this
is step 1 in living a spiritual life. It appears that step 1 is one of
the hardest steps to accomplish. If we can't achieve step 1
successfully, how will we be able to move to steps 2,3,4.....etc? This
world is full of pride and it seems impossible to condemn ourselves and
regard ourselves as the worst sinners on this planet. How are we suppose
to see others as holy and as Angels and only consider ourselves as the
worst sinners?
Regards, John
Answer to
Question 114.
Dear John,
All the steps of the spiritual life are intertwined and when you have
mastered the first the rest just full into place. I haven't read Fr.
Seraphim's work on the spiritual life but I'm sure it is the same
teaching as all the fathers. To stop judging others you need to learn
humility and love for your neighbour. I have mentioned this before in my
answer to your question regarding faith.
When Christ was asked which is the greatest commandment he replied "Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the
second [is] like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On
these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matth. 22:
36-40)
We cannot acquire love for God until we have acquired love for our
neighbour and the first step to acquiring love for our neighbour is
through humility. Humility is not just learning to turn the other cheek;
it involves coming to know your true self, it is learning to keep your
eyes on the one evil person for whom you must give an account before God
– yourself. Christ said: "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with
what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye
mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote
that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in
thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own
eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote (splinter) out
of thy brother's eye.) (Matth. 7:1-5) In other words why do you consider
and judge the sins of your brother which are lighter transgressions than
yours and you can't see your own transgressions which are far greater?
These sayings and many more are to teach us that we must humble
ourselves so that like St. Paul we can say that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Tim. 1:15) This will
come with spiritual exercise and learning to see only the good in
others, to not consider the faults of others but only our own, to learn
to see in others the image of God. By loving our neighbour we acquire
love for Christ.
Today we have entered the spiritual period known as Great Lent. I has
copied and pasted from my talks on the preparation for Lent because I
think it will help you to understand how humility and love are all we
need to learn to begin climbing the spiritual ladder.
The whole period of lent is a spiritual journey and its destination is
Pascha, the Feasts of Feasts. The purpose of Great Lent is to strengthen
and prepare us spiritually to understand the meaning of the great and
unique joy of the Resurrection and its significance and meaning to our
own life.
Great Lent is our return journey back to Christ and the Kingdom of God,
but this return will not happen if we do not take Lent seriously. The
help the Church gives during this period is not a set of negative rules
and obligations that she imposes on us. Many people observe Lent as a
law imposed on them by the Church and if they don't observe it to the
letter, God will punish them. If we see Lent in this way then we have
lost the meaning before we even begin. The purpose of Lent is not to
deprive us of certain foods or to force upon us certain obligations, but
to soften our heart so that it may open itself to the realities of the
spirit. It is an atmosphere into which we voluntary enter and which for
seven weeks penetrates and saturates our entire life. Lent needs a state
of mind where the person acknowledges his alienation from God and
hungers to re-establish the lost relationship and communion with him.
But this state of mind does not happen overnight: it needs its own
preparation. So before the actual beginning of Lent the Church announces
its approach and invites us to enter into the period of pre-Lenten
preparation.
Preparation for lent began five Sundays ago with the Sunday of Zacchaeus.
(Luke 19:1-10) During the Gospel reading for that day, we hear about the
Chief publican called Zacchaeus. Publicans were people who bought from
the Romans, the rights to collect the taxes from the people, but instead
of collecting the proper taxes that the Romans asked for, they burdened
the people with double or triple amounts and were therefore very much
hated as despicable men. Now Zacchaeus was a short man who couldn’t see
Jesus because of his height, but his desire was so strong that he
climbed up a sycamore tree to see him. Jesus responded to his desire and
went with him to his house. From that moment, Zacchaeus’ life changed
drastically. Half of all that he had he gave to the poor and to those he
cheated by overcharging on the taxes he gave back fourfold. So the
Church teaches us that the first thing we need to begin our journey is
desire to see Christ. Zacchaeus desired the right thing, he wanted to
see and approach Christ. He is the first symbol of repentance, because
repentance begins with the desire for God, his righteousness and for
true life. Zacchaeus made that first move, in his desire to see Christ
he climbed that tree. If our desire is as strong as Zacchaeus’ then
Christ will also respond to our desire and come to our house, he will
come to live in our hearts and then our lives will also change as
drastically as Zacchaeus’ and Christ will give us the strength and grace
to climb even higher.
The next Sunday of preparation is called the Sunday of the Publican and
the Pharisee. The Gospel for the day tells us about these two men who
come to the temple to pray. The Pharisee is self-assured and proud of
himself and justifies himself before God that he is righteous, and not
like other men, and especially not like the Publican who he saw standing
nearby, and as we have already seen, Publicans were hated and held in
contempt as being the lowest of all men. The Pharisee cannot see his own
wretched condition; he cannot see his own sins, but only the sins of
other men. He keeps to the letter of the law by fasting twice a week and
contributes to the temple according to what the law tells him to
contribute. In contrast to the Pharisee, the Publican, stood afar off,
and because he recognized his sins and felt his unworthiness before God,
couldn’t lift his eyes up to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying,
God be merciful to me a sinner. The Publicans humility justifies him
before God. So the Church teaches us that the next step on our journey
is to learn humility, something which is extremely difficult since our
society, our whole way of life teaches men that humility is a weakness,
a sign of a loser. But God himself is humble and if we want to follow in
Christ’s footsteps we must also learn to be humble as Christ said ‘Learn
from me for I am meek and humble in heart’. It takes a strong man to be
humble. It is not just turning the other cheek; it means to have
Christ-like love, to love all people and to be able to forgive them deep
down in one’s heart, to be able to truly say, ‘forgive them for they
know not what they do’. Humility means not to blame others for our own
errors, not to look around and judge at what others do. Many times in
confession people try to justify their sins by blaming other. They will
say things like – I said this but the other person first said that to me
or, I did this, but it wasn’t my fault I was forced to do it. In other
words we try to justify our actions by loading them on to others. It
takes us back to the original sin of Adam who blamed God for giving him
the woman.
On the third Sunday of preparation we hear the parable of the Prodigal
Son. This is probably one of the most touching stories which properly
understood should bring us to the brink of tears. It tells us of a man
who had two sons and the younger of the two asked his father to give him
his share of the inheritance that belonged to him. When he received his
share he left and went into a far country and there wasted all his
inheritance by leading a wasteful and reckless life. When he had wasted
everything away, a great famine arose in that land and he started to be
in need and was starving. So he went to work for one of the citizens of
that land who put him to herd the swine. But his hunger was so great
that he wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but
no one would give him to eat. [In the Greek text, the word for husks is
κερατίων which was in fact something we have a great deal of in Cyprus.
Κερατίων were the carobs from the carob trees.] At some point, he came
to his senses and said to himself “how many of my father’s servants have
more than enough to spare and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go
to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against
heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son:
make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his
father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him, and
had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the
son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy
sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said
to his servants, Bring forth the best [first] robe, and put it on him;
and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And kill the fatted
calf, let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive
again; he was lost, and is found. Now when his elder son came to the
house, he heard music and dancing and having learnt that his brother had
returned was angry, and would not go in: Therefore his father came out,
and entreated him. And he answering said to his father, All these many
years I have serve you, and kept your commandment to the letter: and you
never once gave me a kid, that I might have a party with my friends: But
as soon as this you son was come, who wasted everything you gave him
with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf. And the father said to
him, Son, you are forever with me, and all that I have is yours. It was
right that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was
dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.
In the parable the father is God himself and the two sons represent
people similar to the Publican and the Pharisee. The inheritance that
God gives them are the spiritual graces of the Holy Spirit which we
receive at Baptism. The far country is our self-imposed exile far from
God and the Church, and the younger son represents those who waste the
spiritual graces of the Holy Spirit living a reckless and sinful life.
The point when the Prodigal son comes to his senses is the time we
realize our wretched condition, when we realize that we are spiritually
starved, it is the beginning of our repentance and our desire to return
to God. And we begin our small effort to return to God with prayer and
fasting and God seeing our desire, doesn’t wait for us to reach home,
but sees us while we are still a long way away and runs to us and
embraces us and kisses us. Notice in the parable that the son said that
he will go to his father and say: I have sinned against heaven, and
before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one
of thy hired servants. But the father doesn’t allow him to say: make me
as one of thy hired servants. He stops him because he accepts him back
again as a son and orders the servants to bring forth the best robe, a
ring and shoes. The best robe is in fact a wrong translation. In Greek
it is (την πρώτη στολή) the first robe, which properly interpreted means
the first body that Adam had before the fall and together with the ring
and the shoes signify the return of the Spiritual graces of Baptism. The
ring also signifies his reinstatement as a son and heir because rings
were worn by free men, by lords and masters, by someone with authority
and power and not by servants. The shoes again represent wealth and
power because servants had to go barefooted. The fatted calf is Christ
himself who is sacrificed for us and by whom we are nourished through
Holy Communion. St John Chrysostom in his Easter Sermon, describing the
joy of Holy Communion says: “The table is fully laden; all of you
delight in it. The calf is plenteous, let no one depart hungry. Let
everyone enjoy this banquet of faith. Let everyone take pleasure in the
wealth of goodness”. Now the older son represents all those who have
always been close to God, who have always been close to the Church and
who have never transgressed at any time the commandments. They keep the
fasts and everything the Church requires of them, in other words they
appear externally as good Christians, very much like the Pharisee who
appeared as a good Jew. They believe that they are righteous and better
than other people, but their true self, hidden until now, appears when
they see a sinner, who they know has led a wicked life, return to the
bosom of the Church and be accepted on an equal level as themselves.
They see the grace of the Holy Spirit shine brighter in them than in
themselves and are overcome with envy. They cannot understand why after
all those years of devoting themselves to the Church with prayer and
fastings, they shouldn’t shine brighter.
Thus Christ is now telling us, “If you have never left the house, always
did what you were told, and stood fast by the father, don't be like the
elder brother.” The kingdom of heaven is about love that surpasses all
understanding and if we do not have the compassion and love of the
Father then we have no place in our father’s house. If we have this
Christ-like love then we would welcome and embrace every stranger, every
returning prodigal who has sought to return to the bosom of the father.
This should fill our hearts with joy and make us want to celebrate as
did the father and the angels of heaven. It does not matter if someone
was once a member of the house who left and committed the gravest sins,
he has now repented and returned from a far county as a re-born person.
It does not matter what race or colour they are, whether cradle or
convert, rich or poor – what matters is that they have given up
everything to find eternal salvation in the bosom of the father. Thus in
an indirect way the parable says beware! Don’t come so far in your
spiritual journey only to allow the sin of pride to hold you back.
On the fourth Sunday of preparation [Meatfare Sunday] we hear Christ’s
parable of the Last Judgement. In the parable Christ tells us what to
expect at the Last Judgement. At that time he will separate the people
as a shepherd separates the goats from the sheep, and some he will put
to his right and others to his left. But the criterion with which he
will judge us will not be whether we fasted, neither our prayers or how
good a Christian we might appear to be, but our attitude towards our
fellow men. Christ said that whatever help we offer even to the lowest
man it is as though we offered that help to him, and whatever help we
didn’t offer to someone who was in need it is as though we didn’t help
him. In other words love is the criterion by which we shall be judged.
If we cannot love our fellow men then in truth we don’t love Christ,
because he has created each man in his own image and likeness. Christian
love transcends above someone’s physical appearance, social standing,
ethnic origin, intellectual capacity and reaches the soul, the unique
personal root of a human being where the image of God is.
The next Sunday (Cheesefare Sunday), the Sunday that just passed is
called Forgiveness Sunday and is the last Sunday in preparation for
Great Lent. It has two themes: The first we hear in the hymns during
Vespers and Mattins, which is the Expulsion of Adam from the Paradise of
bliss. Man was created for Paradise, for knowledge of God and communion
with Him. Man’s sin has deprived him of that blessed life and his
existence on earth is in exile. Christ, the Saviour of the whole world,
opens the door of Paradise to everyone who follows him, and the Church
revealing to us the beauty of the Kingdom, makes our life a pilgrimage
towards our heavenly fatherland. Thus just before we begin our journey
through Lent we are reminded of how great a loss Paradise was for
mankind and how much Adam must have wept bitterly knowing what he had
lost. A hymn from Vespers for the day says: “Adam sat before Paradise
and lamenting his nakedness, he wept: Woe is me! By evil deceit was I
persuaded and led astray, and now I am an exile from glory. Woe is me!
In my simplicity I was stripped naked, and now I am in want. O Paradise,
no more shall I take pleasure in thy joy; no more shall I look upon the
Lord my God and Maker, for I shall return to the earth whence I was
taken. O merciful and compassionate Lord, to thee I cry aloud; I am
fallen, have mercy on me”.
The second theme of ‘fasting and forgiveness’ is taken from the Gospel
for the day. All the Gospels we heard in the previous weeks taught us
how our inner self should be to be saved. We must first have the desire
of Zacchaeus, the humility of the Publican, the repentance of the
Prodigal Son and the love of Christ. But to accomplish all these things
is by no means an easy task and each man needs a great deal of help to
be able to reach home to the Father. The help comes from Christ himself,
but we must first take that first step. Great lent is that period when
the Church gives us the opportunity to make these first and very
essential steps and gives us the means through fasting and the daily
Lenten services. But the Gospel for this Sunday of Forgiveness warns us
to beware how we use these means at our disposal. It tells us firstly
that if we are to ask of our heavenly Father to forgive our sins, we
must also forgive those who have sinned against us, and if we have not
the love and humility to forgive them then neither will our heavenly
Father forgive us. And when we fast let us not be as the hypocrites who
make themselves look dismal, who disfigure their faces, so that they may
appear to men that they keep to a strict fast. And if that is how you
fast, don’t expect any reward from God because you’ve already received
your reward through the praises of men. In other words let us not tell
people that we fast so that they can say “oh well done! how do you
manage it?” Contrary to this, Christ tells us to keep our fast a secret
that only the heavenly Father who knows the secrets of men can see and
who will reward us openly. And he tells us also of one more thing to
beware of: not to collect earthly treasures which from one moment to the
next can be ruined by moths or rust or can be stolen, but to store up
treasures in heaven where we will have them for all eternity.
Thus our preparation for Lent is complete, and we are ready to begin our
journey to Pascha to that Feast of Feasts. Lent actually begins on the
evening of the last Sunday of preparation during the Vespers service of
Forgiveness. About half way through the service the Priest announces the
Great Prokhimenon. This is the starting point of Lent and while this is
being sung he will take off his bright vestments and wear dark ones.
Towards the end of the service the priest will say for the first time
the Lenten prayer of St. Ephraim and then at the very end of the
service, we have what we could call the ceremony of mutual forgiveness.
The faithful come one by one to the Priest, kiss the Cross and his hand
and exchange a mutual forgiveness. Having done this the faithful also
asks forgiveness of one another. Thus we begin Lent by asking
forgiveness from everyone and not only from those who we know have
wronged us, because many times we upset our fellow men without
realizing. Sometimes an innocent comment, o joking word might cause
reason for misunderstandings because the other person was going through
a difficult patch that we weren’t aware of. Others might have bitter
feelings towards us because at some time they needed our help or our
companionship, but we were totally consumed with our own problems let
alone have time for others. At other times we might be estranged from
someone we love, and although both want to make up, pride doesn’t allow
us to make that first move, which very often is all it takes.
During Lent try to get into the practice of saying the Lenten prayer
daily.
The prayer consists of three verses and after each one we make a
prostration. We then make 12 more prostrations saying “O God be merciful
unto me a sinner” and then repeat the last verse. The Prayer is as
follows:
The Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian.
O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth,
despondency, lust for power, and vain words.
But the spirit of integrity, humility, patience and love, grant unto me
Thy servant.
Yea, O Lord and King, grant me awareness of my own sins and let me not
judge my brother: for blessed art Thou for ever and ever. Amen.
Then 12 prostrations saying:
O God be merciful unto me a sinner
And again
Yea, O Lord and King, grant me awareness of my own sins and let me not
judge my brother: for blessed art Thou for ever and ever. Amen.
In Greek:
Κύριε καὶ
Δέσποτα τῆς ζωῆς μου, πνεῦμα ἀργίας, περιεργίας, φιλαρχίας καὶ
ἀργολογίας μή μοι δῷς.
Πνεῦμα δὲ σωφροσύνης, ταπεινοφροσύνης, ὑπομονῆς καὶ ἀγάπης χάρισαί μοι
τῷ σῷ δούλῳ.
Ναί, Κύριε Βασιλεῦ, δώρησαί μοι τοῦ ὁρᾶν τὰ ἐμὰ πταίσματα, καὶ μὴ
κατακρίνειν τὸν ἀδελφόν μου, ὅτι εὐλογητὸς εἶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων.
Ἀμήν.
Μετὰ ιβ' μικρὰς μετανοίας λέγοντες καθ' ἑκάστην, τὸ
Ὁ Θεός, ἱλάσθητί μοι τῷ ἁμαρτωλῷ, καὶ ἐλέησόν με,
καὶ πάλιν,
Ναί, Κύριε Βασιλεῦ, δώρησαί μοι τοῦ ὁρᾶν τὰ ἐμὰ πταίσματα, καὶ μὴ
κατακρίνειν τὸν ἀδελφόν μου, ὅτι εὐλογητὸς εἶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων.
Ἀμήν.
This short and simple prayer occupies such an important position in the
entire Lenten worship, because it contains all the negative and positive
elements of repentance and continually reminds us of the things we
should be aiming for with our Lenten effort. It begins by asking God to
take from us the spirit of sloth. Sloth or laziness is a disease which
pushes us into negative ways of thinking. It will appear during our
Lenten effort telling us we are wasting our time with fasting. We cannot
change our spiritual condition so why should we deprive ourselves of
everything. Just because a few monks decided that they wanted to suffer
by fasting and these long masochistic services, doesn’t mean that I have
to as well. And so this spirit of laziness poisons the spiritual energy
at its very source. Next we ask to be delivered from the spirit of
despondency. Now despondency follows on from sloth. And it is the state
which the fathers consider the greatest danger for the soul. Someone in
this state cannot see anything good or positive and his thoughts become
negative and pessimistic. It is in fact a demonic temptation trying to
fill his mind with lies about God and the world. And if accepted it
leads to disbelief in God and brings about a spiritual suicide, a death
to the soul. Lust for power is a result of both sloth and despondency
because now God is no longer the Lord and Master of my life. I am now
master of my own life, from now I will evaluate everything according to
my own needs, my ideas, my desires and my Judgment. Without the belief
in God, life inevitable becomes self-centered and it seeks satisfaction
by having power and dominion over others. Which brings us to the last of
the negative petitions ‘Vain words’ or idle talk. Of all created beings,
man alone has been endowed with the gift of speech. The fathers see in
it the seal of the Divine image in man because God himself is revealed
as Word as St. John says in the beginning of his Gospel “In the
beginning was the Word”. But words can be used positively or negatively.
They can do good or they can harm, they can speak the truth or they can
lie, the word can save but it can also kill. When the word is used in
its negative power then it becomes idle or vain. The fathers liken it to
a darkening of the mind. St. Isaac the Syrian in his Ascetical Homilies
says this of the tongue: "He who guards his tongue will never be
plundered by it unto the ages. A silent mouth interprets God’s
mysteries, but the talkative man is distant from his creator.[hom. 15]
The more a man’s tongue flees talkativeness, the more his intellect is
illumined so as to be able to discern deep thoughts; for the rational
intellect is bemuddled by talkativeness.[hom. 15] If you love truth,
love silence. This will make you illumined in God like the sun and will
deliver you from the illusions of ignorance. Silence unites you to God
himself".[hom 64]. So these are the four negative objects of repentance
which must first be removed and because we cannot remove them on our
own, we beseech God to remove them and ask that he replace them with the
positive objects which again are four. Integrity, humility, patience and
love.
In translation of the Greek word Sofrosini, I have used the word
Integrity which more properly translated should be whole-mindedness.
Others used the word Chastity but this leads the mind to think to sexual
purity. Integrity I think comes close to the meaning because it means
honesty and goodness but also completeness and wholesomeness. And this
is want we are now asking of God. A wholesomeness of the mind: the
complete opposite to sloth which is the brokenness of our vision and
energy. The gift of integrity restores our vision to be able to see what
is good for us. It allows God to illumine our minds taking away all
traces of darkness. Humility we have already spoken of in the Parable of
the Publican and the Pharisee. Humility is the Queen of virtues and when
it makes progress in our souls by spiritual growth, we regard all the
good deeds accomplished by us as nothing. He who has been united with
humility as his bride is above all gentle, kind, easily moved to
compunction, sympathetic, calm, bright, compliant, inoffensive, vigilant
and free from passion. Repentance raises the fallen, mourning knocks at
the gate of heaven, and holy humility opens it. If the pride of some of
the angels made them demons, no doubt humility can make angels out of
demons. [Ladder step 25]. Patience is truly a divine virtue and is the
fruit of humility. But to have patience with others we must first have
patience with ourselves. Many begin leading a spiritual life and after a
small effort expect to see in themselves the virtues that many monks
have not acquired even after many years of struggling with the passions.
Others become angry and fainthearted and grieved, thinking that the
heavenly Father is slow in answering their prayers: They want their
request to be fulfilled like lightning. But this is not how things are.
God hears us immediately when we cry out to Him, He hears us even before
we ask and knows what we have need of. God always helps. He always comes
in time, but not in accordance with our own way of thinking. So patience
is necessary. The Lord wants patience. He wants us to show our faith. We
cannot just pray like a parrot. It is necessary also to work towards
whatever we are praying for, it takes prayer with all our soul, and then
to learn to wait. It will definitely happen and when we have forgotten
our request and have ceased asking for it, it will come to us as a
reward for our patience and endurance. And finally we ask God to grant
us the virtue of Love. Love is the crowning of all virtues. It is the
result of all our efforts and as we said earlier love is the criterion
by which we shall be judged. If we cannot love our fellow men then in
truth we don’t love Christ. All this is summarized in the concluding
petition: Grant me awareness of my own sins and let me not judge my
brother. In other words, let me see my own errors and not the errors of
others. Let me see the wooden beam that is in my eye before I try to
remove the speck that is in my brother’s eye. And we repeat this
petition because with all our spiritual struggles there is always the
greatest danger that we will be overcome with the passion that is the
source of all evil: that we will be blinded by pride and all our efforts
will then have been in vain. The fathers are forever warning us of this
evil which conceals itself in a false piety, in a false humility. We
think that because we have kept the fast, because we went to church more
often, because we prayed at very opportunity, because we fulfilled
everything the Church required of us that it makes us a good Christian,
or at least better than that person standing in front of me as we
approach for Holy Communion on Easter night and who I know didn’t even
fast one day.
Have a good Lent
Kalo Stadio
Fr. Christopher
|
|
|