Reflecting and Responding
John Cassian
Balancing the Active and Contemplative Life
First there is practical, that is active knowledge, which is perfected in correcting moral actions, and purging vices; and second the theoretical knowledge, which consists in the contemplation of divine things and the grasp of the most sacred meanings of Scripture.
CONFERENCES
JOHN CASSIAN (360-435) IS CREDITED with focusing monastic attention on the need to balance the active life and the contemplative life. He was born in the region of Europe now known as Romania. In early adulthood he traveled to the Holy Land where he joined a monastery near Jerusalem, migrated to Egypt and fell under the spell of Evagrius of Ponticus (see Path Two). Shortly after Evagrius’s death in 399, Cassian left Egypt and returned to Constantinople. He accepted a post under John Chrysostom, eventually migrated to southern Gaul and introduced desert monasticism to Western Europe. Eventually Benedict fell under his spell, and the Rule of St. Benedict distills many of Cassian’s thoughts as well as those found in The Rule of the Master, including how to order the monastic life and what qualities we should look for in our leaders. The exact time of Cassian’s death is unclear, but after 432 we never hear from him again, and scholars have estimated that he died somewhere around 435.
Even though Cassian always exalted the life of the monk over the life of the lay person, he displays a grasp of the tensions that exist between the two approaches and shows unusual grace while striking a balance between the two. Cassian’s Conferences was written in the context of spiritual direction, in which a mature director guides young understudies in their spiritual journey. The entire book is based on a series of exchanges that teach discretion and provide guidance on the big issues of our life with God. One of his most provocative thoughts is captured in a well-known passage from the Conferences in which he states, “First there is practical, that is active knowledge, which is perfected in correcting moral actions, and purging vices; and second, the theoretical knowledge, which consists in the contemplation of divine things and the grasp of the most sacred meanings of Scripture.”
Finding the Balance
This famous quote defines the nature of the spiritual path: this life is never simply action or contemplation but a discovery of the balance that exists between the two. Since the beginning of time, followers of Christ have struggled to find this balance. Although the influence of Evagrius on his thinking is undeniable, Cassian develops more thoroughly the way in which our active life opens us up to contemplative prayer and the way in which contemplative prayer becomes an integrating center for our thoughts, reflections and actions.
This understanding recognizes that the balanced spiritual life is a “going out” and a “coming in,” an initiation of active living and a contemplative rest in God alone. We are commanded to love God with our heart, mind, soul and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. This requires a life of prayer but also engagement with the world. As Gregory the Great would so aptly put it, the active life and the contemplative life are not opposed to each other but are two sides of the same coin.
As straightforward as this dynamic seems, the church has not always welcomed or embraced this way of thinking. In 430, the greatest intellect in the Western church passed into his eternal rest. With Augustine’s death an era ended just as a new and disastrous season was beginning; over the next one hundred years the Roman Empire descended into the waste heap of world civilizations. And shortly after Augustine’s death, John Cassian’s untimely demise took the other great spiritual intellect of the time.
Initially friends, Augustine and Cassian ended life as adversaries and theological enemies. The great strain came as a result of Cassian’s unrelenting emphasis on the Christian’s responsibility to become like Christ. Today, the tales of these ancient tensions are hard to fathom. Resting as they do on the important but nonessential doctrines of election and free will, Augustine and Cassian refused to find common ground. For Augustine, God alone initiates and saves. For Cassian, our life with God carries a deeper nuance. Yes, of course, the initiative always begins with God, but that initiative always requires a human response. After all, the Bible reveals God’s initiation in all things but also identifies how we are to respond in love to his activity.
Jesus summarizes the whole law and the prophets with the command to love God and love our neighbor (Mt 22:37-39). It is easy to recognize how an emphasis on loving God becomes deeper and richer when we learn how to love God by loving our neighbor. But if God initiates and all responsibility lies with him, what is our obligation to respond? And if we place even a little of the responsibility on ourselves, are we allowing a works/righteousness emphasis to distort our understanding of grace and the Christian faith? Augustine thought so, but Cassian believed not.
For Cassian, the ultimate goal of the Christian life is a direct, one-to-one encounter with God. “Every art and every discipline has a particular objective, that is to say a target and an end peculiarly its own.” Cassian defines this objective and end as follows: “To gaze with utterly purified eyes on the divinity is possible, but only to those who rise above lowly and earthly works and thoughts and who retreat with Him into the high mountain of solitude.”
How do we achieve this objective? Cassian is specific and direct: “Every kind of knowledge has an appropriate sequence, a logical order.” So in order to achieve our ultimate goal we must follow this appropriate sequence. First, we must master two levels to the active life. We begin by knowing the nature of our sin and the means of finding a cure for our afflictions. Then we discern the order of the virtues and have our spirit shaped by their perfection. Finally, after we have mastered the active life, we are able to cultivate the contemplative life. But we must also recognize that without the active life in proper order, it is impossible to enter into, let alone sustain, the contemplative life. Contemplation rises above action, making us aware of divine things and sacred meanings. The table below provides an overview of Cassian’s thought.
On the lowest plane and the first rung of the active life, we work to eradicate vice. This is where we confront the eight deadly thoughts of Evagrius (gluttony, lust and avarice affect the lowest level; anger, sadness and discouragement affect the middle level; and vainglory and pride affect the highest level). We are ruled on this level by desire—the desire to respond to God’s initiative with a faithful response. We work to hate vice, and the book of the Bible that guides us in our deliberations is Proverbs, with its deep understanding of human wisdom. When we are in a state of mind that recognizes the right response, we renounce the riches of the world. This is the first and formative step in being able to ascend to the next level. The motive in our spirit is a fear of hell and our initial response to God is one of faith. The kind of life that results is one that destroys vice.
The middle level on the active plane leads to the full cultivation of virtue. The faculty that guides us is reason as we recognize the right way to use all aspects of our life. Reason in turn leads to the development of discernment, and our soul’s most important activity is the cultivation of virtue. We are guided in this phase by the book of Ecclesiastes and its recognition of the vanity of everything under the sun. We renounce the transitory nature of all creation and indeed its complete vanity, and our soul’s desire is a longing for heaven. The theological virtue that matters most is hope, and the goal of life is to fully live out the eight godly virtues.
Finally, the highest level is typified by contemplative, theoretical knowledge. The faculty of discernment that matters most is charity. The soul’s most important activity is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbor as our self. Song of Solomon properly understood guides us on this plane, and we renounce our mind’s attachment to the earth so that we can be joined to God in contemplative union. All of this is guided by the desire of the soul to achieve perfection, defined as a state of uninterrupted meditation on God alone. Our primary theological virtue here is love, and the kind of life that results is one in which we see God face to face in fulfillment of the biblical promise.
This entire scheme reflects Cassian’s conceptualization of the spiritual life.
Table 6.1. Ordering the Active and Contemplative Life
Levels of Reality
Lowest
Middle
Highest
Types of Knowledge
Action eradicating vice
Action leading to virtue
Theoretical, contemplative knowledge
Faculties of Discernment
Desire
Reason
Charity
Activities of the Soul
Hatred of vice
Love of virtue
Love of God and love of neighbor
Books of the Bible
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Three Renunciations
Despise the riches of the world
Vanity of all creation
Mind transcends all earthly concerns
Desires of the Soul
Fear of hell
Longing for heaven
Perfection
Theological Virtues
Faith
Hope
Love
Goal of Life
Destroy vice
Master virtue
See God face to face
The Role of Discernment
Discernment is the linchpin for Cassian’s system. He refers to discernment as the mother of all the virtues. As he does throughout the Conferences, Cassian articulates his ideas by entering into conversation. All truth comes to light through dialogue. In this case, the dialogue is with Abbot Moses.
We learn through this conversation about the nature of true discernment, how the early fathers of the church defined it, what happened when it was done poorly and how we can find its goodness and value for our own walk with God. Discernment is the virtue that keeps us from the snares of the devil and on the path to God. It is the lamp of the body, the guide of life and the source of sound judgment. It teaches us how to make wise decisions in human affairs and also about God. We will not ascend to the highest levels of our life with God without the proper exercise of discernment. To illustrate this reality Cassian chooses several negative examples.
First, he uses the horrific tale of a monk named Hero. Hero disregards the teachings of the holy community. Despite the ardor of his discipline and the soundness of his life, he goes against the council of the elders and in a delusional state jumps into a deep well believing God will protect him. As the monks draw his broken body from the depths of the deep empty well, they ponder the demise of their once legendary monk.
Cassian follows this graphic story with more germane ones: two brothers, one who is able to discern and one who is not, and the differences that mark their lives. A third man, deluded by Satan, offers to sacrifice his own son. At the last moment he is turned away by the timely intervention of several brothers. As the mother, guardian and guide of all the virtues, discernment is the only virtue that will help us do the right thing at the right time for the right reason in the right way. But discernment requires spiritual maturity, and the key to spiritual maturity is the cultivation of a spiritual disposition that is rare.
“True discernment,” Abbot Moses says, “is obtained only when one is really humble.” In every case, humility allows us to cultivate a spiritual disposition pleasing to God. Humility allows us to listen and receive from the collective wisdom of those who have gone before us and have themselves lived with a spirit of discernment. We do not listen to every person who is older, but only to Spirit-led, trusted friends who have walked with God.
Cassian’s emphasis at this point is a fascinating one. He helps us see that God rarely if ever addresses us directly. Instead, he works through indirection. Indirection requires that we learn how to look for God. He uses the beautiful example of Samuel and Eli to illustrate his point. God could have come to Samuel directly, but instead he wanted Samuel to learn how to look for God. The result was that Samuel relied on Eli to help him understand God’s initiation and our appropriate response.
Another of Cassian’s conferences focuses on turning away from the world and ascending higher in our life with God. This is a remarkable principle, showing that we cannot engineer our own salvation and growth in grace, but we can work to limit the influence of Satan and the deadly thoughts that threaten to undo us.
Throughout the Conferences, the role of spiritual experiences is paramount. Again and again Cassian emphasizes that we cannot teach or understand what we have not experienced. We must grow spiritually if we are to teach faithfully.
The Role of Prayer
Prayer is the other primary vehicle for learning about God. Like his teacher Evagrius, Cassian emphasizes that it is impossible to enjoy uninterrupted communication with God if we are distracted. But what distracts us? Not just one temptation but five elements lead us astray: the concerns of the body, worldly thoughts that invade our mind, anger, lack of true humility and memories that rise up at the most inopportune times.
Our ability to pray develops as our life progresses. In a unique and honest examination, Cassian describes how prayer differs according to the purity of our soul. He concludes this conference by providing a definition of the four dominant types of prayer and then an extended treatment of the Lord’s Prayer that outlines exactly how we should pray and what our expectations regarding prayer should be.
The four types of prayer are supplication, petition, intercession and thanksgiving. Essentially, supplication and petition are the lowest level, intercession is the middle level and thanksgiving is the highest level, where we rise above earthly concerns and see the world and our life as God does. The Lord’s Prayer follows a seven-step pattern that demonstrates the ascent of our soul to God.
The Seven-Step Pattern of the Lord’s Prayer
Prayer plays an important role in shaping our soul. As noted earlier, the ultimate goal of the Christian life is to see God face to face. This can occur only if our soul arrives at a state of perfection exemplified by uninterrupted attention on God alone. But Cassian’s highest form of prayer requires an arduous ascent. The steps to praying well and arriving at our ultimate summit begin modestly. He compares the process to the way a child learns to read: First we learn the individual letters. Then we see their place in the alphabet. Next we learn the rules of grammar. Then we learn to read. Finally, we show complete mastery by learning to write. This is also the grammar of faith and divine ascent.
The key, of course, is purity of heart. Our growth in God requires self-denial and self-discipline. It also requires that we follow the path God has laid for us. Writing empathetically, Cassian notes, “Let every personality try to pursue the chosen path faithfully and there is a chance of perfection.” The path of perfection ends in the perfect love of God.
Ultimately, Cassian is concerned to eradicate the eight deadly thoughts, cultivate the eight godly virtues and find equilibrium between action and contemplation. Humility and charity should always be present if we are to stay on track. Likewise, we need to use our mind discerningly to sort out the options we must pursue, both for our body and for our spirit.
Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge
The last section of Cassian’s work focuses on different aspects of spiritual knowledge and how we complete our ascent to God. Of critical importance is his conference on spiritual knowledge. Here we see Cassian’s view of Scripture and also come to understand the theological framework he uses to make sense of our life with God. Cassian believes that a logical sequence of knowledge can always be found and leads through the lowest level of the active life where we eradicate vice, through the middle or second level of the active life where we cultivate virtue, to the highest level of theoretical or contemplative knowledge where we understand God.
All knowledge derived from Scripture progresses through the appropriate order of the fourfold sense of Scripture. History is simply a knowledge of what went before us and an understanding of the importance of these events. Allegory is discerning from the events of history the deeper meanings they carry that convey the purposes of God. Anagogy reveals the mysteries of heaven, and tropology leads us to apply scriptural teaching to our own life and derive a principle and guide for holy living.
Knowledge of Scripture leads us into a deeper life with God. For Cassian, spiritual knowledge is impossible without Scripture, the community of faith, the guidance of devout believers who have gone before us and a disposition of humility. Ultimately, Cassian launches a theological approach that takes seriously the various levels of meaning of Scripture, the importance of tradition, the right use of reason and a respect and belief in the value of spiritual experience. This would take on greater amplification in the centuries ahead, but Cassian was among the first to coordinate these various theological sources as he worked to help us understand life with God.
REFLECTING AND RESPONDING
John Cassian is, I think, among the most modern of the ancient writers. Why? Because his insights into the spiritual life begin with the world of action—and the world of action is right where the majority of us live the major part of our lives. Of course he doesn’t leave us there, but this is where he starts.
Cassian’s beginning point is fundamental, basic. It is only in the rough and tumble of real life experience that we can truly understand vice and virtue. And truly know the difference between the two. When we watch vice in action we see how very real it is. And how genuinely destructive.
A few years back a group of philosophers gathered at a resort in Aspen, Colorado, for a conference on the problem of evil. As they delivered their learned papers, it quickly became clear that they were having difficulty deciding whether there really was such a thing as evil. I wonder if they might have had more success in their deliberations if the venue for their event had been in the heart of Los Angeles or Hong Kong or any major city in the world, really. I don’t know . . . I am just wondering.
Vice. Evil. Sin. Whatever we want to call it, it is bad—really bad. It destroys human beings and wreaks havoc on all manner of real-life situations. It is death-giving. Conversely, virtue is good—genuinely good. And when we see these two realities played out in the gut-wrenching situations of home and work, we understand by experience that to eschew vice and pursue virtue is the path of life.
So Cassian begins right where we are in the world of action, but the story does not end there. He moves us from the world of action into the world of contemplation. The amazing thing in this, especially given the world from which he comes, is that in moving us into contemplation, he does not leave action behind. No, instead Cassian places us right in the center of a delicate teeter-totter balance between the two.
We need both, says Cassian, both action and contemplation. And why is this? Well, Jesus’ summation of all the law and the prophets requires it. Love God and love our neighbor. We cannot fully love God without contemplation; we cannot fully love our neighbor without action. And so we live in a balance between the two. So simple . . . yet so profound.
This balance of action and contemplation is essential for us today. We moderns have gone completely off the charts on the active side of things. Doing, doing, doing. Our lives are defined by doing. Indeed, our doing can do us in. So it is vital that we listen to Cassian here. Without asking us to leave our doing behind, Cassian invites us into another world, a world of stillness and contemplation. Here we discover the discernment to live rightly, in balance.
Now, it is at the point of discernment that Cassian intrigues me the most. You remember that he calls discernment “the mother of all virtues.” Over the years the most frequent and consistent prayer of my life has been for an increase of the spirit of discernment. What measure of it I have entered into has always left me longing for more. Perhaps you have similar longings. Is it possible that the ancient words of John Cassian could be the most contemporary of words to speak to the haunting yearnings of our heart?
Perhaps it would be helpful to consider how we might begin to bring Cassian’s insights into our everyday experience. I would suggest we begin right where we are. In the jobs we have. In the families we are in. In the ordinary tasks of laundry, work assignments and family responsibilities. We, of course, do not leave these tasks behind; instead we engage in them contemplatively. That is to say, we undertake our daily routine in a listening, attentive spirit. Whispered prayers of guidance and discernment accompany our everyday tasks. “Teach me, Lord, how to work prayerfully.” “Show me new, creative options in this family situation.” “Open to me new doors of loving, caring and blessing.” “Help me to see vice for the slop it truly is, and show me the goodness of rightness.” And more.
Beyond this, it might profit us to set aside a day with the single objective of evaluating our life situation. A quiet day of perhaps six or seven hours. In this time above all else we are asking for an increase of discernment. “What am I doing that could be left undone?” “Are there ways for me to be with my children that are more life-giving?” “My job, Lord; help me approach it with a vision and a hope that is from you.” “What do I do in my work that is life-giving and what is death-giving?” You get the idea.
Balance and discernment. These are things we most certainly will be working toward for many years to come. We could have no better teacher than Cassian.
DISCIPLE: Dearest Lord Jesus, if discernment truly is “the mother of all virtues,” then I want to be seeking hard after it. But where do I begin? How do I begin?
JESUS: My precious child, it is important for you to begin right where you are. Begin with your children and your neighbors and those you work with every day. Listen . . . really listen to what they say. Look . . . really look into their eyes. Discernment begins with loving attention. In time loving attention will grow into heart compassion.
DISCIPLE: Yes, Lord, I see the value of loving attention and of heart compassion . . . though I’m not sure I truly understand heart compassion. Still, I don’t see how these things lead to discernment.
JESUS : First things first, my eager child. The first thing is not discernment but love. So, first learn to be with those around you without demanding anything or getting anything from them. Simply be with them. Enjoy their company, not for what they can give you but for who they are. Take interest in the things they find interesting. Each person in your circle of nearness is of infinite worth. Discover, my child, the great worth in each person. Move past the human superficialities of style and social custom which tend to hide the soul. Stay with them until you can see the soul. Once you see the soul, really see the soul, you will stand back in wonder at the treasure in your midst. This will draw you into heart compassion. In time these things will enable you to see the spirit in a person, and once you see the spirit animating the person the process of discernment will begin. But you don’t want to run ahead of yourself. Begin with love.
DISCIPLE: And so I will. Thank you. Amen.