Speaker 1 0:01

So today we're going to begin reading from the Ladder of Divine Ascent by St John, but before we do I'd just like to read a couple more excerpts from St Silouan the Athenite. The first one is on peace. All men desire peace, but they do not know how to attain it. Paisius the Great, having lost his temper, begged the Lord to deliver him from irritability. The Lord appeared to him and said Paisius, if thou dost wish to avoid anger, desire naught neither judge nor hate any man, and then thou would have no anger. Thus, everyone who renounces his own will before God and other people will always be at peace in his soul. But the man who likes to have his own way will never know peace. That was from page 312. And the second excerpt is from Adam's Lament, page 451, beginning about two-thirds down the page.

Speaker 1 1:26

The Holy Spirit is love and sweetness for soul, mind and body. And those who have come to know God by the Holy Spirit stretch upward day and night, insatiable to the living God. For the love of God is exceeding sweet. But when the soul loses grace, her tears flow as she seeks the Holy Spirit anew. But the man who has not known God through the Holy Spirit cannot seek Him with tears and his soul is ever harrowed by the passions. His mind is on earthly things. Contemplation is not for him and he cannot come to know Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is made known through the Holy Spirit. Adam knew God in paradise and, after his fall, sought him in tears. Saul sought him in tears.

Speaker 1 2:49

O Adam, our father, tell us thy sons of the Lord. Thy soul didst know God on earth, knew paradise too, and the sweetness and gladness thereof. And now thou livest in heaven and dost behold the glory of the Lord. Tell of how our Lord is glorified for his sufferings. Speak to us of the songs that are sung in heaven. How sweet they are, for they are sung in the Holy Spirit. Tell us of the glory of the Lord, of his great mercy and how much he loveth his creature. Tell us of the most holy Mother of God, how she is magnified in the heavens and the hymns that call her blessed. Tell us how the saints rejoice there, radiant with grace. Tell us how they love the Lord and in what humility they stand before God.

Speaker 1 4:12

O Adam, comfort and cheer our troubled souls. Speak to us of the things thou dost behold in heaven. Why art thou silent? Lo, the whole earth is in travail. Art thou so filled with the love of God that thou canst not think of us, or thou beholdest the mother of God in glory and canst not tear thyself from the sight and wouldst not bestow a tender word on us, who sorrow that we might forget the affliction there is on earth? O Adam, our father, thou dost see the wretchedness of thy sons on earth. Why then art thou silent? And Adam speaks. My children leave me in peace and Adam speaks and rejoices in his beauty. How should I remember the earth? Those who live before the face of the Most High cannot think on earthly things. Trouble me not. I see the Mother of God in glory. How can I tear myself away to speak with you? I see the holy prophets and apostles and all they are in the likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Son of God, I walk in the gardens of paradise, and everywhere behold the glory of the Lord, for the Lord is in me and hath made me like unto himself.

Speaker 1 6:09

Just a few words from St Silouan as we turn now to read from the ladder of divine ascent. Ladder of divine ascent. Father Sofroni told me once that professors of theology were afraid to teach from the ladder of divine ascent and that it's very difficult to find a course or lectures on St John Clemicus interpreting his ladder, and I remembered his words so that when I had the opportunity I thought I should do this, perhaps foolishly because I don't know anything. I took St Sophrony's words as a challenge, and so I'm going to try to read and discuss certain aspects of the life in Christ described in the ladder. And I always remember that Father Sofroni considered the ladder so highly he regarded it as second only to the Bible, such was the regard that he has for these amazing writings, amazing writings.

Understanding the Concept of Obedience

Speaker 1 7:42

And so the two major themes in our course are obedience and repentance. I want to begin by reading from the step on obedience, and so let's begin by reading on blessed and ever-memorable obedience, as the tradition has it. Now, in great Lent, let us benefit and be edified by the words of St John of the Ladder, who is so often ignored, remarkably in theological schools, schools, seminaries, colleges. So let's see what we can gain from these words on blessed and ever-memorable obedience. Our treatise now appropriately touches upon warriors and athletes of Christ. As the flower precedes the fruit, so exile, either of body or will, always precedes obedience. For with the help of these two virtues, the Holy Soul steadily ascends to heaven, as upon golden wings and perhaps it was about this that he who had received the Holy Spirit sang. Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly by activity that's praxis and be at rest by divine vision and humility. Divine vision, theoria, translated vision or contemplation and humility. But let us not fail, if you agree. But let us not fail, if you agree, to describe clearly in our treatise the weapons of these brave warriors. How they hold the shield of faith in God and their trainer and with it they ward off, so to speak, every thought of unbelief and change of place, of unbelief and change of place. How they constantly raise the drawn sword of the Spirit and slay every wish of their own that approaches them. How, clad in the iron armor of meekness and patience, they avert every insult and injury and missile. And for a helmet of salvation, they avert every insult and injury and missile. And for a helmet of salvation, they have their superior's protection through prayer and they do not stand with their feet together, for one is stretched out in service and the other is immovable in prayer.

Speaker 1 10:45

Obedience is absolute renunciation of our own life, clearly expressed in our bodily actions. Or, conversely, obedience is the mortification of the limbs while the mind remains alive. Obedience is unquestioning movement, voluntary death, a life free of curiosity, carefree danger, unprepared defense before God. Unprepared defense before God, fearlessness of death, a safe voyage, a sleeper's progress. Obedience is the tomb of the will and the resurrection of humility. A corpse does not argue or reason as to what is good or what seems to be bad, for he who has devoutly put the soul of the novice to death will answer for everything. Obedience is an abandonment of discernment in a wealth of discernment, of discernment in a wealth of discernment. The beginning of the mortification both of the soul's desire and of the bodily members is much hard work. The middle is sometimes laborious, but the end is insensibility and insusceptibility to toil and pain Only when he responsibility of using his own judgment.

Speaker 1 12:53

You who have decided to strip for the arena of this spiritual confession, you who wish to take on your neck the yoke of Christ, you who wish to take on your neck the yoke of Christ, you who are therefore trying to lay your own burden on another's shoulders, you who are hastening to sign a pledge that you are voluntarily surrendering yourself to slavery and in return want freedom written to your account. You who are being supported by the hands of others as you swim across this great sea, you should know that you have decided to travel by a short but rough way, from which there is only one erring path, and it is called self-rule, idiorithmia, one's own rhythm, literally one's own style, one's own manner of life. But he who has renounced this entirely, even in things that seem to be good and spiritual and pleasing to God, has reached the end, before setting out on his journey for obedience is distrust of oneself in everything, however good it may be right to the end of one's life, when motives of humility and real longing for salvation incite us to bend our neck and entrust ourselves to another. In the Lord, before entering upon this life, if there is any cleverness and prudence in us, we ought first to question and examine and even, so to speak, test our helmsman. And even, so to speak, test our helmsman so as not to mistake the sailor for the pilot, a sick man for a doctor, a passionate for a dispassionate man, the sea for a harbour. And so bring about the speedy shipwreck of our soul. About the speedy shipwreck of our soul. But when, once we have entered the arena of piety and obedience. We must no longer judge our good manager in any way at all, even though we may perhaps see in him some slight failings, since he is only human. Otherwise, by sitting in judgment, we shall get no profit from our subjection. It is absolutely indispensable for those of us who wish to retain undoubting faith in our superiors to write their good deeds indelibly in our hearts and constantly remember them, so that, when the demons sow among us lack of faith in them, we may be able to silence them by what is preserved in our memory.

Speaker 1 16:29

I'll pause here, as you can see, as St John says so much in so few words and this is a difficult subject choosing a spiritual father, the spiritual father and child relationship. We've already touched on this, particularly when we took a look at St Simeon, the New Theologian and the two Gregories. But how do you understand, for example, that we ought first to question and examine and even, so to speak, test our helmsman before entrusting ourselves to another? I ask this because some people find this a rather difficult passage to understand. We use the word obedience and, as in so many cases, these words have a very different meaning in the Christian context. We're not talking about the kind of obedience that you have in a military setup, although some people like to liken it to that at times.

Speaker 1 17:41

What is the goal? Do you remember the section that we read just before obedience in Father Sofroni's introduction to Saint Silouan? What was that section? Entitled Discovering the Will of God. We say obedience and again we tend to slip down to the level of do's and don'ts and we think of it as sacrificing your own will. But when you understand that the goal is to discover the will of God for you, you see how positive this thing called obedience is. I mean, if I said to you, give me a dollar and I'll give you a million dollars, would you call that a sacrifice? I'll give you a million dollars. Would you call that a sacrifice?

Speaker 1 18:38

What are we talking about? Living according to the will of God? It's a privilege, isn't it? You see what I mean when I say we get caught up in what we know of, in this case obedience. Our reference point is always to created phenomena which we're familiar with. It's normal. But in fact we're talking about well, being united with Christ, becoming like Christ, acquiring the Holy Spirit, becoming temples of the Holy Spirit, living according to the will of God, living what? Living the life that God himself lives. Is this a sacrifice? And, by the way, I think this was also touched upon?

Speaker 1 19:28

But it's very important to have this clear, because so many times people have been led astray. Because when St John talks about testing the helmsman, it's not about testing and examining again in any crude of the word. It is vitally important that you feel free. This is the paradox. Once again, what is obedience about? It's about freedom, and when you're in a relationship with another person, spiritual or not, and you don't feel free, this is a red flag. You have to develop a sense for this. There are no excuses in the gospel for following after the wrong shepherd. You must be free, as Father Sofroni explains, without freedom you cannot grow spiritually. And so if you meet someone and you go to confession or you talk with that person a man of God and your heart tells you that you are free, you feel that freedom and that joy, that desire to follow Christ, to live the commandments of Christ, you know that you're in the right place. If there is the dynamic that you sense that someone is seeking to impose his will on you or to influence you in some way or to coerce you even worse in some way. It's not a good sign. It's not a good sign.

Speaker 1 21:37

Father Sophrony used to say people who lack genuine spiritual experience tend to rely on the canons of the church. So we are reasonable sheep. We know the shepherd and we can recognize those who are in the image of the great shepherd, and so we joyfully follow them. As St Paul says, be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ. Be ye actually. The word is minite, actually the word is minite. So be ye imitators of me, even as I am of Christ, because there's nothing wrong with copying Christ, copying the saints, following their example. That's what we do. So I don't think freedom is taken from you.

Speaker 1 22:38

There may be a kenosis that's taking place, which you might mistake for a lack of freedom, because when we empty ourselves, you know that when we stand before God and his servants, our spiritual father, spiritual people in general, we have to undergo a certain self-emptying. In other words, we set aside our own thoughts and our own desires and everything that we consider to be characteristic of us, that makes us unique Our own thoughts, our own desires and so on and so forth in order to make way for God's enlightening, allowing God to enter in. We set aside the human in order to receive the divine, because, no matter how good the human may be, the created may be, we know from experience that it can't be as good as what God is offering us. So, yes, there is a sense of, at times you're losing yourself, you're becoming nothing. You're following the way of christ, who became nothing, who emptied himself. But that's only half the story.

Speaker 1 24:22

The investiture is putting on christ. We divest ourselves of all earthly cares in order to put on Christ and acquire the mind of Christ, knowing that there is nothing greater, believing and trusting that there is nothing greater. And of course, this involves many, many. The fathers call them deaths, many deaths, dying toations, until we reach a level where we become stable and united in our desire, not divided, not wanting God, but also being attracted by the world, the world. So I think that we have to be careful, because only in God is there true freedom from the passions, only in God is there true freedom period, because he is supremely free and his life is offered to us. When his life becomes our life, then we become truly free.

Speaker 1 26:03

But you see, again this brings us back to what we were talking about with Saint Maximus the Confessor, because our notions of freedom are, shall we say, distorted by the idea of choice. We think that if we can choose somehow not to go according to the will of God, that's a freedom, but it's not freedom. Freedom is only in God, it can only be in God, and that's why we've said it many, many times, but it bears repeating. St Maximus says God and those worthy of God have one and the same energy, they have one and the same life. And if God is free, then the life that he gives to his saints, which is his very own life, means that they are free.

Speaker 1 27:08

And what is freedom? Freedom from death and corruption. You have the best, you have God's will, which, of course, each one of us is tempted to think otherwise and to live otherwise. But we learn living in the church. We come to see the fruits of our own will and our own choices, and we learn gradually what to prefer, because we taste the results. We know the results of idiorithmia, living according to our own way. And so we learn to despise those fleeting pleasures because we see them for what they are. It's amazing that God has bestowed upon us a sensitivity that we know, we sense, we understand when things are well and we understand when they're not. Of course we're talking about the context of living in the climate of the church all the time, and of course it is possible to trample the voice of our conscience underfoot and weaken it. If we do so constantly and over time we can lose that ability or that faculty, at least not lose it, but it can become very weak and seemingly lost. But we have that and God has given us that for a reason.

Speaker 1 28:56

And you see this, you know, when you come into contact with elders, the saints I have spoken about this many times, but perhaps not so explicitly you know, if they wanted to, if they wanted to, they could completely enchant you and completely, in a sense, take you over. They have that charism and they have the power. And yet what you experience is this humility, this love, this respect for your freedom, so that what they say to you is charged with such discernment that at no point do you feel coerced or imposed upon. You may be standing in the presence of a great saint and he will not do that because he, he above all, will respect your God-given freedom. And I told you Father Sofroni used to insist that only that which is done freely can have eternal significance.

Speaker 1 30:19

That's very important. The Lord loveth the cheerful giver. Only that which is done freely can have eternal significance. Yes, there are times when we don't want to pray and we force ourselves to pray, and it's difficult and all of that, but we are striving. That's an offering. And when you're in that state again, father Sofroni says that two minutes of prayer, where it doesn't come easily but you are prevailing over your lack of inspiration, shall we say that's more valuable than when you have all the inspiration and God is in a sense doing all the work and you're receiving freely and that first grace which is uplifting and it's wonderful, but it's not yours, it's unmerited.

Speaker 1 31:25

Still, I don't want to get into the legalistic language, but you see that St John is making a very important assumption here. He's assuming that you are seeking to discover the will of God, you want to be saved, and so your heart and mind are turned towards God. And so in doing this, you're not judging by yourself, as it were. Your reference point, our reference point, must always be God. When Father Sofroni says, for example, when he says before you do anything, before you say God, and then do say and think what is he trying to get us to do?

Speaker 1 32:30

In fact, isn't it that as we try to put that into practice, we realize that everything should be inspired by God? We have to learn to live by inspiration. I mean, we have a choice. We always have a choice. In everything, every day, everything that happens. We have a choice. We can approach whatever in one of two ways either in a human way or in a divine way. And the human way makes sense on the human level of existence. But we have not been created for a human way of life. That's what we're being taught all the time. We've been created for a divine way of life. We've been created to live in imitation of Christ, to live his life.

Speaker 1 33:36

So as we try this and it's trial and error, that's how life is we learn several things. First of all, we begin to see that the results of how we live and how we interact with others are better when we try to put this into practice. We may forget sometimes, but when we remember and we do it this way, the results are better. God blesses, and whatever it may be is better. That's one thing that we begin to realize, but together with that perhaps the most important thing is that we begin to see how God is present in our lives. We become, in other words, increasingly aware of God's presence in our life. He's there, he's with us, and when we learn to call upon the name of the Lord which is what that's about turning your heart and your mind towards God in all things when we learn to call upon the name of the Lord just instinctively, you know, when it becomes second nature then everything is filled with the presence of God. So it's in this context that St John is talking about everything, whether it be testing the helmsman or whether it be the example of Akakios, which comes later, which seems rather brutal and shocking. But Akakios is aware of the presence of God in his life.

Speaker 1 35:50

So this is, I think, a delicate question. It is vitally important because freedom is important, as we've said, and because no one has the right doesn't matter who that person may be to impose his or her will on anyone else. And that's what's so refreshingly inspiring about the Orthodox spiritual life that it's characterized by freedom. It's not this series of rules. As Father Sofonis says, people who lack spiritual experience fall back on rules. If we are to grow into the likeness of Christ, then that must be done freely. Just as the Lord's passion was voluntary, ours has to be voluntary as well. Click on the Support the Show button in the description box. Voluntary as well.