Conference Three
Conference Three
THE THREE
RENUNCL\TIONS
I In that troop of saints \\ ho shone like the purest stars in the night of this world there was Paphnutius, a holy man, and we saw his knowledge gleaming w ith the glow of a great fount of light.
I le was the priest for that group of ours w hich was in the desert at Scete. hwen as a very old man he never moved from the cell occupied by him since the time v\ hen he was quite young and which was five miles from the church.
1 le could have come closer, could have spared his old age the weariness of such a long journey every Saturday and Sunday. Nor would he return empty-handed. He would put on his shoulders and carry back to his cell the container for his \\ eek's drinking v\ ater. And when he was over ninety he still would permit none of his younger brethren to perform this task for him.
From the days of his youth he w as so committed to the cenobitic schools that after a short time among them he was enriched as much by his own spirit of submissiveness as by the knowledge he had acquired of all the virtues. Disciplined by humility and obedience, he kept a mortifying grip on the stirrings of his will and in this way every vice was extinguished and perfection was achieved in all those virtues which monastic practice and the most ancient teaching of the fathers had established.
But he had a feverish urge to move ever higher and hurried forv\ ard to enter into the secrets of the desert. Living amid the throng of his brethren he thirsted to get aw ay from the distraction of human company and to be totally at one w ith the D^rd. And once again his im-
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nicnse zeal drove him to surpass the virtues ot even the anchorites.
Racked hv his longing for unceasing contemplation ot Ciod, he kept away from the sight of all, pushed farther and farther into the remote and inaccessible regions of the desert and hid there tor a long time. Indeed he w as rarelv—and onlv with difficulty—found by the anchorites themselves. 1 here w as a belief that he enjoyed each day the delight of meeting with the angels. And because of this longing of his to be away from evervone he w as given the nickname Bubalis, the w ild roamer.
We verv much w ished to get the benefit of his teaching and we w ere goaded on by our ow n thoughts. So one evening we arrived at his cell.
"After a little silence he began to speak about what we had set before us to do. W e had left our home country and, out of love for God, w e had traveled through so many provinces. W'e had striven to endure the poverty and the vastness of the desert. We had struggled to imitate the strictness of that monastic way which even those born and reared amid such need and w ant can scarcely endure.
Our answ er to him was that w e had come in search of his lore and of his teaching so that we could give ourselves up completely to the teachings of a man such as he and to the perfection which, for countless good reasons, we felt to be in him. Also, w e did not wish to be burdened by praises of ourselves. His words must not move us to pride, especially when the dev il himself was tempting us right in our yery cells. So therefore w hat we were begging from him were words which would stir compunction and humility in us and not complacency or pride. i Then Paphnutius spoke: " I here are three kinds of vocation and three kinds of renunciation, and all have a vital bearing for the monk, regardless of how he himself is called.
"First, the three kinds of vocation, and we must look very closely at them.
If we accept that our call to the service of (jod has been by way of the most exalted of the vocations, w e must make the living of our monastic life conform to the exalted status of that call.
It w ill be profitless to have begun sublimely if we are not seen to end up in like fashion.
"But if w e recognize that w e were draw n from worldly preoccupation by the humblest of vocations, then however much w e see the
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lowliness of our start in religious life we ought to ensure that our zeal will push us to reach an end better than our beginning.
"The distinction between the three types of vocation should be clarified. The first is from God, the second comes by way of man, and the third arises from necessity.
"The vocation from God comes \v henever some inspiration is sent into our sleepy hearts, stirring us with a longing for eternal life and salvation, urging us to follow God and to cling with most saving compunction to His commands. And so we read in the holy Scriptures how
God's voice called Abraham away from his native land, from the love of his family, and from the house of his father. The Lord said: 'Come av\ ay from your native land and your family and the house of your father' (Gn
12:1).
"1 know that the blessed Antony was called in the same way. He realized that his summons to the monastic life came only from God. For he had gone into a church and there he heard the Lord saying in the Scriptures: 'He who does not hate his father and his mother, his children and his wife, his lands and even his o\\ n life, he cannot be my disciple' (Lk 14:26). And also this:
'If you want to be perfect, go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor and you \v ill have treasure in heaven; then come and follow me' (.\lt 19:21).
It seemed to Antony that this advice was addressed directly to himself and, with utter compunction of heart, he accepted it and straightaway renouncing everything, he went and follow ed Christ. No human advice or teaching had called him.
"The second type of calling is, as I have said, that which comes through human agency when the example and the advice of holy people stirs us to long for salvation. By God's grace, this is how'
I w as called.
I w as moved by the counsel and by the v irtues of Antony and hence
^ •' w as seized by a zeal for this mode of life. In similar fashion, as we see in Scripture, the sons of Israel were freed from Egyptian slavery by Moses.
"4 he third kind of vocation is that w hich comes through necessity.
Imprisoned by the riches and pleasures of this w orld, we are suddenly put to the test. Fhe danger of death hangs over us.
Fhe loss or seizure of our property strikes us.
Fhe death of those w e love reduces us to sadness. And we are moved to turn in haste to the Ciod w hom we had neglected in the g(X)d times.
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"W'e find this kind of call, the call of compulsion, often referred to in Scripture. Delivered to their enemies as a punishment for their sins, the children of Israel v\ ere weighed down by a terrible and most cruel tyranny and they turned to God and cried out to him: 'And Ciod sent them as a sav ior Aoth the son of Gera, the son of Ciemini who used not just his right hand but both hands' (Jdt 3:15). And again: 'They cried out to the IvOrd who raised up a savior to free them, Othonihel the son of C^enez, the younger brother of Caleb' (Jdt 14:26). Likewise, there is this in the psalm: 'W henever he killed them they then were seeking him, they came back to him and in the morning they came to God and they remembered that the God on high was their rescuer' (Ps 77:3*^— 35). And again: '.\nd they cried out to the Lord in their distress and he freed them from their miseries' (Ps 106:109).
"Of these three types of call, the first two seem to have the better beginnings. Yet I have occasionally found that some who started from the third level, that which seems the lowliest and the least committed, have turned out to be perfect men, most fervent in spirit and very like those who, entering the Lord's service by w ay of the first and best of vocations, lived out the remainder of their lives w ith a praiseworthy zeal of soul. And, again, I have known many who began with this higher calling and who often grew lukewarm and fell down to a most lamentable end.
It w as as if for those of the third kind of vocation it did not matter that they had been converted not so much by their ow n de-
cision as by the presence of necessity, for w hat the kindness of the Lord gave them was this chance to come to compunction. In the case of the others, the glorious beginnings of their entrance to the religious life profited them nothing since they did not strive to reach life's end w ith equal glory.
"Moses was a monk who lived in a part of this desert known as Coalamus.
I le lacked nothing w hich w ould make a perfect saint of him.
\'et he came to the monastery as a refugee because he was afraid that he would be put to death on a charge of murder. He seized upon the fact that he had to change his way of life. Stirred virtuously in his soul he willingly used his situation to reach the summit of perfection.
"By contrast there were many—and I must not recall them by
name—for whom it was of no benefit to have gloriously begun their service of the Lord, fhey fell into the dangerous evil of being lukewarm
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and they tumbled into the deep pit of death because of their cowardly and hard hearts.
"We can clearly see the same thing in the calling of the apostles.
W hat benefit was it to Judas to have taken up the most glorious rank of an apostle, that same to which Peter and the others were called? The beginnings of vocation were glorious, and yet because of his cupidity and his love of money he came to a most terrible end, a parricide of the utmost crueltv who betraved his Lord.
"Again, there was Paul. Suddenly blinded, it was as if he had been dragged unwillingly along the route to salvation. Later he followed the H)rd with utter zeal of spirit. After a forced beginning he gave himself freely and fully, and did he not crown a life, made glorious by so many great virtues, with an end that w as incomparable?
"So it is the conclusion that counts. Someone committed by the beginnings of a glorious conversion can prove to be a lesser man because of carelessness, and someone constrained by some necessity to become a monk can, out of fear of God and out of diligence, reach up to perfection.
"Something must now be said about the renunciations. The tradition of the fathers and the authority of the Scriptures put them at three and it is right that we should strive with maximum zeal to achieve them.
"The first renunciation has to do with the body. W'e come to despise all the riches and all goods of the world. W ith the second renunciation we repel our past, our vices, the passions governing spirit and flesh. And in the third renunciation we draw our spirit away from the here and the visible and we do so in order solely to contemplate the things of the future. Our passion is for the unseen.
"W'e read that the Lord instructed Abraham to achieve all three together.
I le said to him; 'Come away from your native land and from vour family and from the house of your father' (Gn 12:1). He said first
'from your native land,' that is, from the riches of this world and from the goods of the earth. Second, 'from your family,' that is, from one's past way of life, character, and faults, which cling to us from birth and are linked to us by a sort of close relationship and blood. He said, thirdly, 'from the house of your father,' that is, from all worldly memory arising before our eyes.
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"Ciod in the person of David sings of tv\o fathers, the one to be left and the one to be sought: 'Mv daughter, hear and see and incline your ear. Forget vour people and the house of vour father' (Ps 44:1 1). Now w hoever said 'Mv daughter' is certainly a father and, ctjually, a father is he w ho instructed his daughter to forget home and people.
"All this happens when, dead with (Christ to all that is in this world, our gaze, as the apostle proclaims, is 'not upon those things w hich are seen but on the unseen; for the things w hich are seen belong to time and the things w hich arc not seen are everlasting' (2 Cor 4:18).
In our hearts we leave this time-ridden, visible house and we firmly turn our eves and mind to w here w e w ill remain forever. And we w ill achieve this w hen, still in the flesh, w e begin to soldier in the Lord, not as flesh w ould have it, but when our deeds and our virtues join the apostle in erving out, 'Our homeland is in heaven' (Phil 3:20).
"I he three f)ooks of Solomon accord w ith these three renunciations. (Corresponding to the first renunciation is Proverbs, in w hich the desire for the things of the flesh and for earthlv sin are excoriated. Corresponding to the second renunciation is Ecclesiasticus, where the vanity of everything under the sun is proclaimed. And applicable to the third is the Song of Songs, in which the mind, rising beyond all things visible, contemplates all that is of heaven and is brought into union with the W ord of (iod.
"Therefore it w ill not be of much benefit to us to undertake the first renunciation in all fidelity if we fail to take up the second with etjual enthusiasm. And w hen we have achieved this we can arrive at the third. Aw ay from the home of our first father, the old man of our birth, away from the time when by nature 'w e were, like the others, the sons of anger' (Eph 2:3), we remember that we once had a father—and we turn the full gaze of our mind to the things of heaven. Something about this father is said to Jerusalem, which had despised God its true father:
'\4)ur father w as an Amorite and your mother a Hittite' (Ez 16:3). And ' fhe devil is your father and vou prefer to do v\'hat your father w ishes' (Jn 8:44). in the gospel there is this:
"S() after we have left our father and have crossed over from the seen to the unseen we shall be able to say with the apostle: 'VVe know' that w hen our dwelling place here on earth is pulled apart we have a house made ready for us by (lod, an eternal home in heaven and not made by human hands' (2 (Cor 5:1). And we shall be able to sav w hat
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referred to a little while ago: 'Our homeland is in heaven and we expect our Savior the Lord Jesus to come from there and He w ill transform our lowly body into a copy of His glorious body' (Phil 3:20-21). VVe shall be able to utter the words of the blessed David:
'1 live on earth, a stranger like all my fathers' (Ps 118:19, 38:13). W'e shall be like those of whom the Lord speaks in the gospel: 'They are not of this world, just as I am not of this world' (Jn 17:16). Or, as He said to the apostles, 'If you belonged to the \\ orld, then the world would love you as one of its own, but because you do not belong to this world, because
I have chosen to take you away from this world, the world has a special hatred for you' (Jn 15:19).
"Now w e shall be w orthy of the true perfection of this third renunciation w hen the mind is no longer dulled by fleshly contagion, when every worldly wish and character has been expertly polished away, w hen unfaltering meditation on the things of Ciod and the practice of contemplation has so passed over to the unseen that there the surrounding frailty and domain of the flesh are felt no longer and there is rapture amid the bodiless realms above.
I he mind is so caught up in this wav that the hearing no longer takes in the voices of outside and images of the passers-by no longer come to sight and the eye no longer sees the mounds confronting it or the gigantic objects rising up against it.
"No one w ill possess the truth and the power of all this unless he has direct experience to teach him. The Lord will have turned the eyes of his heart away from everything of the here and now and he w ill think of these as not transitory so much as already gone, smoke scattered into nothing. He w alks w ith God, like Enoch.
I le is gone from a human way of life, from human concerns. He is no longer to be found amid the vanity of this present world. The text of Genesis relates that this actually happened to Enoch in the body: 'Enoch walked with God and w as not to be found because God had taken him aw ay' (Cin 5:24). 4 he apostle says: 'Because of his faith Pmoch was taken up so that he did not have to encounter death' (Heb 1 1:5). And this is what the Lord has to say about death in the gospel: 'He who lives and believes in me shall never die' (Jn
1 :26).
"If, therefore, we wish to arrive at true perfection, we must hurry to rise above parents, homeland, the riches and pleasures of the w orld.
Our hearts must leave them all, and we must never turn back in longing for what we have left behind. We must not be like those w ho were led out by Moses, who could not go physically back to Egypt but are said
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to have returned there in their hearts.
I'hey abandoned the CJod who had brought them out amid such prodigious signs and they began to worship the Egyptian idols w hich they had once despised.
I his is w hat Scripture tells us: 'In their hearts they w ent back to Egypt and they said to Aaron, make gods tor us w ho w ill w alk ahead of us' (Acts 7:39-40).
.\nd the verdict against us w ill be the same as it was for them. 1 hey had eaten heavenly manna in the desert and vet they longed for the squalid food of sin and of worthlessness.
It might seem that we too would join them in murmuring 'V\'e w ere w ell off in Egypt, w e used to sit before pots of meat and v\ e ate onions and garlic, cucumbers and melons' (Nm 11:18; Ex 16:3; Nm 1 1:.>).
"Eiguratively, that is w hat happened to the Jewish people, but every day w e see this happening w ithin our own rank and profession.
Everyone w ho, after his renunciation of this world, returns to his old w ishes and longings cries out w ith the Jew s in deed and thought,
'I was w ell off in Egypt.' And I have a fear that as many prevaricating monks can be found now as there were among the followers of Moses.
Ehree thousand six hundred armed men are reckoned to have come out of Egypt and of these only two reached the promised land. That is why we must rush to find examples of virtue from the very few and the v ery lare, for, in line w ith the figure I quoted, it is said in Scripture that many are called and few are chosen.
"So, then, the appearance of renunciation w ill be useless for us.
It w ill be merely the body coming out of Egypt. More exalted and more valuable w ill be the renunciation by the heart.
" Ehe apostle had something to say about this appearance of renunciation:
'If I give all my goods to feed the poor and hand over my body to be burned and have no love, it is of no benefit to me'
(1 Cor 13:3). Ehe blessed apostle would never have said this if he had not foreseen in spirit w hat w as to come, if he had not know n that there would be some who would give all they possessed to feed the poor and would, neyertheless, fail to achieve gospel perfection and the high summit of love, and all because they continued to hold on to the sinful practices of their past, their unrestrained ways, w ith pride and impatience mastering their hearts, with no thought of how to cure them. And because of this they could never reach the unfailing lov e of Ciod. Stumbling at the second renunciation they could hardly reach the third and higher one.
"But pay careful attention to the fact that the apostle did not merely say 'if I give all my goods.' It might seem that he was talking of
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the person who, ignoring the gospel command, kept something back for himself, as so many of the lukewarm manage to do. But \\ hat he actually said was 'if I give all my goods to feed the poor,' that is, 'if I make a total renunciation of the riches of the earth.' And to this renunciation he adds a greater:
. and hand over my bodv to be burned and have no love, I am nothing.'
"It is as if he had used other words to say this: If I give all mv goods to feed the poor, doing so in accordance v\ ith that scriptural command in which is said, 'If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all vou have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven' (Mt 19:21); if I make this renunciation and hold back nothing for myself; if I add to this sacrifice the fierv martvrdom of mv flesh; if I hand mv bodv over W
*9 for the sake of Christ; if, nevertheless, I am impatient, prone to anger, jealous, proud; if I become enraged \\ hen wrongs are done to me; if I am on the lookout for mv own interest; if mv thoughts are evil; if I do not patiently and gladly endure all that happens to me; then the renunciation and the martyrdom of the outer man will be of no benefit to me as long as the inner spirit \\ allows in its old and sinful wavs.
It will be of no value that when in the first zeal of conversion 1 despised the simple substance of the world, \\ hich is neither good nor bad but neutral, if I took no care to throw out at the same time the evil goods of a corrupt heart and made no effort to achieve a Godlike love, a love which is patient and kind, which is not jealous, not boastful, which does not show annoyance or is wrong-headed, which is not on the lookout for itself, which thinks no evil, which endures all and sustains all, and which, finally, never allows its faithful follower to slip into the snares of sin.
"We must hurrv therefore to make a total effort to ensure that the inner man shall reject and scatter those sinful riches which he gathered during his earlier way of life. These riches belong to us and hold fast to us in bodv and soul and if we do not cut them out and throw them away while we are still alive they will continue to be our companions after death. Just as the virtues acquired in this life and the love which is their source clothe their possessor after death in shining beauty, so do sins cloak the soul and stain it with the foul colors which will cling to it. Beauty or ugliness of spirit come with the brand of virtue or of sin. Color comes upon the soul to make it shine and make it deserve to hear the prophetic words: 'The king will fall in love with your beauty'
(Ps 44:1 1); or else there is the color that makes it dark, foul, and mis-
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shapen and it speaks out to admit the nastiness of its shame: 'My wounds stink and are festering, the result of my folly' (Ps 37:6) and the lord Himself will ask, 'Why is there no cure for the wound of this daughter of my people?' (Jer 8:22).
"These, then, are the true riches for us. They cling firmly to the soul. No king can grant them and no enemy take them away. There thev are, our very ow n riches which death itself cannot take away from our souls.
"With renunciation we can reach perfection. Bound to worldly riches we are visited w ith everlasting death.
"In Scripture riches are taken in three senses, good, evil, and neutral.
"Evil riches are those of which it is said: 'The rich have gone hungry and thirsty' (Ps 33:1 1). Again: 'Woe to you, the rich, because you have already receiv ed your consolation' (Lk 6:24).
"It is the height of perfection to have thrown away such riches.
I'he signs are there, fhe truly poor are those praised in the gospel by the Lord: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heav en' (Mt 5:3). The psalm has this: 'The poor man cried out and the H)rd heard him' (Ps 33:7). Or again: 'The poor and the indigent shall praise your name' (Ps 73:21).
"Then there are the good riches, and it is the mark of great v irtue and merit to have acquired them. The just man w ho possesses them is praised in the words of Dayid: 'The race of good men shall be blessed.
Cilory and riches are in his house and his justice remains forever' (Ps
1 1:2-3). Again:
' fhe riches of a man redeem his soul' (Pry 13:8). And in the Apocalypse the man w ho does not have such riches is denounced for being poor and naked:
'I w ill v omit you from out of my mouth. You say "I am rich and well-to-do and in need of nothing" and you hav e no idea that you are wretched and miserable, poor and blind and naked.
My adv ice to you is to buy from me gold that has been tested in the fire so that you may become rich, to put on white clothing and to hide the confusion of your nakedness' (Apoc 3:16-18).
" fhen there are the neutral riches, that is, those which can prove to be either good or bad. They lean to one or the other, depending on the will and character of those making use of them, fhe blessed apostle had this to say about them: 'Giv e a warning to those rich in this world's goods that they must not look down on other people. They must not
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put their hope in the uncertainty of riches but, rather, on God w ho generously pours all we need out to us. Tell them to do good, to practice good w orks, to be generous, to store up for themselves in the future a solid treasure with which they may acquire a true life' (1 Tm 6:17-19).
"There are the riches \\ hich the \\ ealthv man in the gospel hangs on to and therefore gives nothing by way of help to the needv. The poor man Lazarus lay in front of his gate hoping for a crumb. And the rich man was thrust into the unbearable fires and the everlasting heat of hell.
"Now w hen w e abandon these visible riches of the world, it is strange goods and not our ow n that w e are leaving. And this is so even if we boast that we acquired them through our ow n efforts or that thev w ere passed on to us as an inheritance.
I sav nothing is ours except what is in our hearts, what belongs to our souls, w hat cannot be taken away by anyone.
•> * "CTrist speaks in criticism of those who cling to the visible riches of the world as though these were their ow n and who refuse to give a share to the needy:
'If you cannot be trusted w ith w hat is not yours, w ho w ill give vou what is your very ow n?' (Lk 16:12). Clearly, then, it is not the experience of everv day which proves these riches not to be yours but the opinion of the Gird proves it by these w ords of I lis.
"Peter, addressing the Lord, speaks of invisible and evil riches:
'W'e have left everything so as to follow you. \\ hat therefore will be in it for us?' (Mt 19:27). Actually, what they left was, clearly, nothing more than cheap and torn nets.
If the 'everything' in this renunciation w as not the great abundance of sin, then w e w ill find that nothing very valuable w as left behind bv the apostles and that the Lord had no very compelling reason to bestow on them the glory of such blessedness that thev could deserve to hear this from Him: 'At the time of regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on his throne of glory, vou yourselves will sit on tw elve thrones to judge the tw elve tribes of Israel' (Mt
19:28).
"But should it happen that those who have completely abandoned the visible riches of the world are nevertheless, for some reasons, unable to attain that third more sublime step of renunciation, which is characteristic of only a fev\', what must they think of themselves?
I hey falter in the full practice of the first renunciation, easy though that is, and holding on to the infidelity of their earlier days they cling to perishing riches, glorv in being monks, and in fact are that only in name.
"So, then, the first renunciation is, as I have said, the giving up of
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goods which do not belong to us. Hence it is not enough in itself for the achievement of perfection. One must pass on to the second renunciation, bv which we give up what really is ours.
".\nd having achieved this, having driven all sin out, we will climb up to the high point of the third by which w e come to despise, in heart and mind, not only all that is done in this world or possessed individuallv bv men but the very superabundance of all the elements w hich are deemed everywhere so magnificent. We pass beyond that superabundance w hich is the slave of vanity and soon to die, and, as the apostle savs, 'w e look not at the things which are seen but at the unseen, for the things w hich are seen belong to time and the things unseen are forever' (2 Cor 4:
1 8). And we do this so that we may earn the right to hear w hat was said to Abraham: 'Come into the land which I shall show' you'
(Gn 12:1). And what this clearly means is that unless the three renunciations are achieved w ith all the fervor of the mind it will not be possible to reach this fourth, the return and reward for perfect renunciation, that is, to enter the promised land where the thorns and the spikes of sin do not grow , a land gained in this life when all passion is ousted and the heart is pure, a land which neither the virtue nor the effort of a toiling man w ill open up but which the Lord Himself promised to reveal. 'Come,' He said, 'into the land which I shall show' you'
(Gnl2:l).
"All this clearly demonstrates that the beginning of our salvation is the Lord's call to 'come out of your native land' and the end, the crowning perfection and purity, is when He says, 'Come into the land w hich I shall show' you.' What I le means is, 'You cannot come to know' it by yourself nor find it by your own effort, and yet to you, ignorant and uninquiring as you are, I shall reveal it.' From all of which it is clear that, inspired by the Lord's call, w e hasten on to the road of salvation and, with 1 lim to guide and enlighten us, we are led along and come to the perfection of utter bliss."
II (lermanus: "What then constitutes the freedom of our w ill and what praise is due to our efforts if it is God who launches and who crow ns everything that has to do with our perfection?"
Paphnutius: "You would be right to be upset over this if it were indeed the case that in every work and discipline there was only a be-
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ginning and an end—and no middle. Now we know that God arranges the opportunities for salvation in different wavs. Our situation is that we respond eagerly or in a laggardly manner to these opportunities made available by God to us. God made the call 'come out of vour homeland'; Abraham bv coming out was exercising obedience. There was the instruction 'come into the land'; it was done, and that was the work of obedience. But the addition 'v\ hich I shall show you' has to do with the grace of God, who gave a command—and a promise.
"However, of this much we must be sure. Never by our sole diligence or zeal nor bv our most tireless efforts can we reach perfection.
Human zeal is not enough to win the sublime rewards of blessedness.
The H)rd must be there to help us and to guide our hearts toward w hat is good. Everv moment we must join in the prayer of David; 'Direct my footsteps along your paths so that my feet do not move astray' (Ps
16:5) and 'He has settled my feet on a rock and guided my footsteps'
(Ps 39:3)—all this so that the invisible guide of the human spirit may direct back toward love of virtue our free w ill, which in its ignorance of the good and its obsession w ith passion is carried headlong into sin.
"We read this clearly in the one verse of the prophet's song:
'1 was pushed and whirled and about to fall' (Ps 117:13). There the weakness of the free w ill is manifested. 'And the Lord came to my rescue' (Ps
117:13). Thus, the Lord's help is always there. Lest our free w ill should bring us to utter ruin, I le is there, a hand stretched out to rescue and strengthen us when He sees us stumbling.
"Again there is this: 'When I said I am slipping'—because of the vacillation of my free w ill—'your mercy. Lord, was there to help me'
(Ps 93:18). Once again he links God's help to his own wavering, since if the footsteps of his faith do not go astray thus—as he admits—it is not as a result of his ow n efforts but because of the D)rd's mercy.
"Again, 'In the middle of all my troubles,' which certainly arise out of the freedom of my w ill, 'your consolations reach my spirit and make me happy' (Ps 92:18).
I hey come as a breath from you into my heart and restore the sight of the good things to come, the things which you have made ready for those toiling for the sake of your name, and not only have they taken all worry away from my heart but they have bestowed a supreme happiness.
'If the Lord had not helped me, my soul w ould soon have gone " to live in hell' (Ps 93:17). He bears w itness that because of the w ickedness of his free w ill he w ould have dwelt in hell had he not been saved by the help and protection of the D)rd. 'The footsteps of a man are
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guided hv the I>()rd' (Ps 36:23) and not by the freedom of the will.
'W hen the just man stumbles' because of his free will, 'he shall not fall dow n' (Ps 36:24). W hy? 'Because the Lord gives a hand to him in support' (Ps 36:24).
"I'he plain meaning of what is said here is this: No just man suffices unto himself for the winning of justification, fhe divine mercy must alw ays hold out a hand to his footsteps as they falter and almost stumble, and this is so because the weakness of his free will may cause him to lose balance, and if he falls he may perish forever.
"1 loly men have never claimed that their own efforts would have enabled them to find a sense of direction along the road they w ere traveling to perfect virtue. Rather, they sought it from the Lord, praying, 'Direct me in your truth' (Ps 24:5) and 'direct the road
I take in your sight' (Ps 5:9). And someone else asserts that he grasped this not only through faith but in a direct experience of how' things are:
'I learned, D)rd, that a man is no master of the road he takes nor is it in man's power as he goes his way to control his steps' (Jer
10:23). The Lord 1 limself had this to say to Israel:
'I will lead him on, like a greening firtree, and the fruit you bear comes from me' (Hos
14:9).
" Fhey long for a know ledge of the Law'—not through the labor of their ow n reading but through the guidance and illumination of God. d'his is w hat they pray for each day. 'Lord, point out your w ays to me; make your paths know n to me' (Ps 24:4). 'Open my eyes and I will look upon the wonders of your Law' (Ps 118:18). 'Teach me to do w hat pleases you, because you are my God'
(Ps 142:10), the God 'who teaches know ledge to men' (Ps 93:10).
" fhe blessed David asks the Lord for understanding with which to recognizx* those commands w ritten, as he very well knew, in the book of the Law'.
'I am your servant; give me understanding so that 1 may learn your decrees' (Ps 1 18:125). Now', understanding was something w hich nature had granted him, and as for a know ledge of God's commands, these were laid dow n in the readily available Law . Yet he mf prayed to the Lord for a better grasp of them, for he knew' that natural endow ment does not suffice unless God's light guides reason, enabling
CONFERENCE THREE
it to enter into the spirit of the Law and to see in a clearer light \\ hat it enjoins.
"W hat I am saying here is expressed very much more clearly by that Vessel of election,' Saint Paul.
'It is God,' he says 'who, for His own kindly purpose, puts both the will and the action into you' (Phil
2:13). W hat could be plainer? He is saying that God is the author of our goodwill and of the completion of our task. 'You haye been giyen the priyilege not only of belieying in Christ, but of suffering for him as weir (Phil 1:30). 1 hat is to say, the impetus to conversion, to faith, and to the endurance of suffering comes from the Lord. Dav id recognized this and he too prayed for the mercy of the Lord: 'O God, make strong what you are hurting in us' (Ps 67:29). Here he is show ing that the introduction to salv ation, made av ailable to us by God's gift and grace, is not itself sufficient.
It has to be brought to perfection by (iod's mercy and
1 is ev eryday assistance.
"It is not free will but 'it is the Lord vv ho sets the captives free' (Ps 145:7).
It is not our own v irtue but 'it is the L>ord who lifts up those who were laid low' (Ps 145:8).
It is not application to reading but 'it is the H)rd who brings light to the blind' (ibid.)
( I he Cireek version is 'The Ivord gives widsom to the blind.') It is not our cautiousness but 'it is the Ivord who protects the stranger' (Ps 145:9).
It is not our endurance but 'it is the Lord who raises or gives support to the fallen' (Ps 144:14).
"7 he teacher of the gentiles knew' this too. He knew' well that it was neither his efforts nor his merits w hich made him a suitable minister of the New Testament. 'WV are not qualified to claim anything as our own work; our qualifications come from (iod' (2 (]or 3:5). And 'it is he who made us suitable ministers of the New Lestament' (2 (7)r 3:6).
"I'he apostles were very sure that everything of theirs which had to do w ith salvation was a gift to them from Ciod. 'Increase our faith'
(IT 17:5). fhey did not presume that the fullness of faith would come to them merely because they freely opted for it. fhey believed, rather, that it w as a gift of Ciod which would have to be granted to them.
"Also, the Author of human salvation teaches us that our faith is wavering, weak, and unable to sustain itself unless the help of (iod comes to prop it up.
Phis is what He said to Peter: 'Simon, Simon. You must know that Satan has got his w ish to sift you all like w heat. But I have prayed to my father for you that your faith may not collapse' (Lk
22:3 1-32).
JOHN CASSIAN
"And there w as someone else who felt this happening within himself.
\ le saw his faith earried, as it v\ ere, on a tide of unbelieving toward the roeks of dreadful shipw reck and he cried out to the I^ord and asked
I lim to come to the aid of his faith. 'Lord, help my unbelief (Mk 9:23).
"Yes, the evangelists and the apostles knew very well that every good is achieved through the help of the Lord, and such was the lack of confidence in their ability to hold on to their faith through their own efforts and through the workings of their own free will that they begged the l>ord to help it along within them or even to make a gift of it to them.
If the faith of Peter needed the help of Ciod to keep from faltering, who w ill be so presumptuous and so blind as to think that he can preserve his ow n w ithout daily help from the Lord? 1 his is how it is, especially in yiew of what the Lord 1 limself says in the gospel: 'As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself but must remain part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me' (|n 15:4). 'You can do nothing without me' ([n 1 5:5). Since I le says this, since I le asserts that nobody can showforth the fruits of the spirit unless he has been inspired by God and has worked w ith God, it would surely be foolish, indeed sacrilegious, to attribute any good actions of ours to our ow n effort rather than to the diyine grace.
'Everything good and everything perfect comes from above from the father of light' (Jas 1:17). And Zechariah says: 'The good comes from I lim and the best comes from Him' (Ze 9: 17). The blessed apostle regularly says the same: 'VV'hat have you got that you did not receive? And if you received it why boast as though you had not received it?' (1 Cor 4:7).
"That supreme endurance by means of w hich we can w ithstand the onslaught of temptation comes not from our own virtue but from the mercy and the guidance of God.
Phis is w hat the blessed apostle says: 'The trials that you have had to bear are what people have usually to suffer. But God is to be trusted. He w ill not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. He w ill give you a w ay out of temptation so that you w ill be able to put up with it' (1 Cor 10:13).
"I le also tells us that it is God who makes our souls ready and gives them help for every good work and that He works in us those things w hich please Him: 'The Ciod of peace who brought Jesus Christ back from the dead to become the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood that sealed an eternal covenant, may He make you ready to do His will
CON FERENCE EH REE
in any kind of good action and may He produce in you whatever is pleasing to him' (Heb 13:20-21). He prays that this might happen for the Thessalonians: 'May our Lord lesus Christ and God our Father who has given us His love and, through His grace, such everlasting comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen you in every w ork you do and in every good word you utter' (2 Thes 2:15-16).
"The prophet Jeremiah, speaking in the place of God, tells us that from above there comes the very fear of (iod by w hich w e may cling to I lim.
'I shall give them one heart and one wav so that they may fear me during all their days, so that all w ill be well for them and for their sons after them. And I w ill make an everlasting covenant w ith them and I shall not cease to do good things for them and, as a gift,
I shall put fear of me in their hearts so that they may never go aw ay from me' (jer
32:39-40).
Ezechiel speaks in similar terms: 'And I shall give them a single heart and I w ill put a new spirit in them and I will remove the strong heart from their bodies and I w ill give them a heart of flesh instead. And I shall do this so that they may w alk as I command and respect mv decisions and carry them out. Ehen they shall be mv people and I shall be their (lod' (Ez 1 1:19-20).
"Quite obviously all this teaches us that the first good stirring of the will in us comes under the Lord's inspiration. He brings us along the road to salvation either Himself or by wav of the exhortation of •>
some man or through necessity. And our virtues are perfected also as a gift from Him. Our task is, laxly or zealously, to play a role w hich corresponds to His grace and our reward or our punishment will depend on whether we strove or neglected to be at one, attentive and obedient, with the kindly dispensation of His providence toward us. This is something which is clearly and openly set out in Deuteronomy. 'When the Lord vour God has led vou into the land of which you* are to take
possession He w ill bring many peoples low before you, the Hittite and the Gergashite, the Amorite and the Canaanite, the Pherizite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, seven nations greater in number and stronger than yourselves, and He will hand them over to vou and vou will strike them until they are wiped out. You w ill make no covenant with them nor w ill you join them in marriage' (Dt 7:1-3). Scripture makes clear that it is a
JOHN CyXSSIAN
grace of (lod to be led to the promised land, to have peoples wiped out before one, to have the more populous and stronger nations delivered into one's hands.
"But Scripture makes clear that it is Israel itself which either lays them low in death or lets them live, which does or does not make a covenant, w hich does or does not make marriage alliances with them.
So there is clearlv expressed for us in this testimony what it is we must attribute either to free will or to the decision and daily assistance of the I^)rd.
V\ e are characterized by whether we respond zealously or lackadaisically to the kindlv dispensations of God.
"This perspective is plainly expressed in the healing of the two blind men. Jesus w as passing by, a fact made possible by (lod's provident grace. And the achievement of their own faith and belief was to crv out 'Lord, son of David, have pity on us' (Mt 20:3 1). The restored sight of their eves is the gift of divine mercy.
I hat upon receiving a gift it is as much the working of reason and the free will as the grace of God w hich endure is manifested by the ten lepers w ho were cured at one and the same time. Only one of them freely chose to give thanks.
I he Lord praises him—and inquires about the nine others, thereby show ing His unfailing concern even for those w ho are forgetful of the good He has done them. For this too is a gift of
1 is coming—to receive and acknowledge the grateful one and to ask after the ingrates.
"It is right for us to believe, w ith unshaken faith, that nothing is done in this world w ithout God.
It must be admitted that everything happens either by I lis will or w ith I lis permission. The good is achieved w ith Ciod's will and help; the opposite happens w ith His permission when as a punishment for our misdeeds and for the hardness of our hearts I le abandons us to the devil's mastery or to the ignoble passions of our bodies.
I his is the very clear teaching of the apostle when he says: 'I'his is why God has handed them over to the ignoble passions' (Rom 1:26). 'Because they did not trouble to know God, God handed them over to reprobate sensuality so that they might do what was unfitting' (Rom 1:28). And the Lord Himself speaks through the prophet: 'My people did not listen to my voice and Israel has not obeyed me.
That is why I have abandoned them to the contrivances of their own hearts and they shall walk in accordance with their own decisions'
(Rs 80:12-13).
c()nfe:rence thrp:e
Germanus: "That indeed is a text w hich most openly shows the freedom of the w ill:
'If my people had only listened to me' (Ps 80:14) and 'my people did not listen to my yoice' (Ps 80:
1 2). The words 'if my people had listened' show that it was in the power of the people to say yes or no. But how is it that although God has giyen us the capacity to hear or to refuse to hear, yet sahation is not to be construed as depending on us?'
Paphnutius: "You haye quite rightly judged 'if my people had listened.' But you haye not giyen attention to w ho it is that addresses the one listening and the one refusing to listen. Nor haye you paid attention to the rest of the text, v\ hich is:
'I w ould haye surely laid low' its enemies and I would hav e raised my hand against those who w ere disturbing it'
(Ps 80:15). No one may tw ist the meaning of the texts I have cited through a faulty interpretation w hich, showing that nothing happens w ithout God, tries then to assert the freedom of the w ill and tries to deny (lod's grace and daily assistance w ith the texts 'and my people did not listen to my voice,'
'if my people had listened to me, if Israel had walked in my ways,' and so forth. The fact is, if only one looks at it, that w hile the freedom of the w ill is demonstrated by the disobedience of the people, the daily prov idential help of Ciod is shown by God as He cries out to His people and adv ises them. W hen He says,
'If my people had listened to me,' He show s that earlier He had actually spoken to them. And Ciod does not speak solely by w ay of w ritten law
But every day He is giving adv ice, as Isaiah proclaims: 'Every day I have stretched out my hands to my people, w ho do not believe in me and w ho speak out against me' (Is 65:2).
"In fact, free will and div ine grace are show n by this text: 'If my people had listened to me, if Israel had w alked in my ways, I would have surely laid low its enemies and I would have raised my hands against those who were disturbing it.' k'ree w ill is shown by the disobedience of the people. Prov idence and Cjod's help appear at the beginning and the end of the passage where Ciod reminds us that I le had sj>oken earlier and that I le would have laid low the enemies of Israel if only Israel had listened to I lim.
"So in citing these texts I was not trying to undermine the freedom of the will. W hat I really wanted to show was that every day
JOHN CASSIAN
and every moment the help and grace of God are very necessary to the will."
The monk Paphnutius, having instructed us with these words, sent us away.
It was just before midnight. VVe left his cell with more regret than joy. For w hat was the most obvious result of the talk he had given us? VVe had believed that in giving ourselves wholeheartedly to the first renunciation we had come w ithin sight of the summit of perfection. And here w e were now with the beginnings of an awareness that even in our dreams we had not glimpsed the heights of monastic life.
In the cenobitic communities we had heard something about the second renunciation. But as for the third, in which all perfection is gathered and w hich surpasses the other two in every possible way, we knew' that before now^ we had never heard tell of it.