Looking back through the posts I’ve been making, I’m noticing a downturn in the quality of the work, and an increasingly incomprehensible focus. Thus, it’s time for a revamping of the blog, and a change in the way I do entries. I started this with a different mind than I have now, so I need to reflect that. Watch for some changes over the next little while as I redefine what Speaking the Truth is all about, and how it’s going to look.
See you soon.
Christ-bearer
It is by warfare that the soul makes progress.
Abba John the Short
The onward and upward nature of the soul being sanctified.
In big, grey letters about thirty feet high, the simple word War dominates the enclave of the Skulls. A movie made some years ago and spun off into less than successful sequels contains the seeds of what we can draw from this insight from – forgive the literary pun – Little John. In the same way, we are given a deceptively simple statement from which so much comes. There’s always a war being fought somewhere, and this remains true for spiritual war just as much as physical war. We walk amidst flaming darts and amidst deceptions and attacks on a daily basis, and we sing our songs in the face of spiritual assaults that grow faster and harder as we move deeper into relationship with Christ. And so much of the time, we don’t recognize them for what they are, we offer them ingress, and they succeed in their object, which is destruction. But we must remember – it is by warfare that the soul makes progress.
The Christian life is a life of truth, lived and told. Not a truth, or even mostly a truth, but truth. It is only in spiritual warfare that the soul makes progress towards the goal, which is Christ. And it is only by taking up the Word against these attacks that the soul truly makes progress towards coping with life now as well as the life eternal we are promised. Thus, again…it is by warfare that the soul makes progress.
I’m lost on this one right now, sos I’ll leave it at that.
Christ-bearer.
Souls that love truth and God, that long with much hope and faith
to put on Christ completely, do not need so much to be put in
remembrance by others, nor do they endure, even for a while, to be
deprived of the heavenly desire and of passionate affection to the
Lord; but being wholly and entirely nailed to the cross of Christ,
they perceive in themselves day by day a sense of spiritual
advance towards the spiritual Bridegroom.
St. Macarius the Great
The crucifixion and redemption of the justified soul
There are two humilities that Christians need to deal with. The first is false humility, a putting on of faces and the public acts of false contrition. If we honestly examine ourselves, we can’t say that we aren’t guilty of this at some point in each of our lives. The second, and that which we need to realize does come, although sometimes it may take a while, is true humility, the humility of the man who beat his breast and cried Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. Perceptive Macarius is offering encouragement as a beginning here, giving us one of the most relevant truths of a life redeemed by Christ. Let’s think on this for a minute.
What Macarius suggests here is that the true seeker, he who perseveres in joyful and loving life in Christ, does not need to concern himself with the salvation or non-salvation of his soul; those objections have long since been put to rest. Rather, what he perceives is the process of sanctification, the day by day advance towards the spiritual Bridegroom, Christ. He uses this title knowingly, and I’m going to include one of the most pertinent passages to this sort of relational thinking as a guideline to sanctification. Look at Ephesians 5:25-29
5:25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
5:26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
5:27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
5:28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
5:29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church
This language often confuses those who have yet to believe on Christ, and the reason I include it here is because it can encourage those who hear it towards a better understanding of their own sanctification, and an encouragement that we are not, perhaps, falling behind, but are rather pushing ahead in very small steps. I know I can understand this view, even though much of my walk is trying to put to rest the mystery of why I am where I am at this moment and in this place.
I want to spend some time now on the second part of Macarius’ statement, looking at the innocuous phrase ‘being wholly and entirely nailed to the cross of Christ’. To understand the process of sanctification means that you also need to accept the process of taking on sin, and also of purification. The saved soul is one that must needs be fully reconciled to the death of Christ as the entire atonement and ultimate sacrifice for our mucked-up lives. The process of sanctification is the moving towards this understanding in the life of the believer, and the progress of the bride down the aisle to her great Bridegroom. I’ll tie all of this together in the next one in this series, but I think a little diversion is in order after this. These are pretty weighty entries, after all, and even I’m getting bogged down in them.
Christ-bearer
Remember, O my soul, the terrible and frightful wonder: that your
Creator for your sake became Man, and deigned to suffer for the
sake of your salvation. His angels tremble, the Cherubim are
terrified, the Seraphim are in fear, and all the heavenly powers
ceaselessly give praise; and you, unfortunate soul, remain in
laziness. At least from this time forth arise and do not put off,
my beloved soul, holy repentence, contrition of heart and penance
for your sins.”
St. Paisius Velichkovsky
I’ve been rather longer getting to this one, but I’m here now. And I’ve been meditating on the fear of the Lord since last I posted. If I didn’t put the fear of the Lord into you, I certainly put it into myself for a time. It’s amazing how much I learn from these postings. More pointedly, it’s amazing how much I haven’t really put into words before, and how it comes out here. Tonight, I begin a sub-series on the soul, the beginnings of its vagaries and meanderings, and hopefully a bit about it’s actuality. I’ll get to St. Paisius eventually, but I want to spend some time on the presence of the soul before God, first.
It is not an easy thing to look upon the fear of the Lord as it should exist. My opinions are only that – opinions;
but the Bible makes clear that the worshiper of God should have a fear of and a reverence for God, in addition to a love for the Lord Jesus. The more we learn of Him, the more we are forced to look at our own sinfulness before God without Christ’s mediation. It’s really not a pleasant sight, but here’s where we have to go before anything else. We are imperfect, sinful, while Christ is perfect, sinless. He was made our sin. He didn’t just take it on, he was made it, and that’s why he had to die. Perfect Christ, dead, buried, alive. Ultimate. It’s in sin that we start, then, and where our souls must be acknowledged before God. We are not good people. We are not even mediocre people, when we look on ourselves with true humility. So in humility we find the first steps to take. Look at St. Paisius’ comments, and digest them:
The beginning -
Remember, O my soul, the terrible and frightful wonder: that your
Creator for your sake became Man, and deigned to suffer for the
sake of your salvation.
Beyond all else, remember this – the Creator of the universe, incarnated. God become man. God in the ditches and hovels and rubbish, and in the palaces, the bungalows, the apartments we call our homes. He who allowed suffering to enter the world in all its manifold cruelties…subjected to it in all its painful realities. This for no cause other than to keep it from us at the end of all things. This because of His love and only for His own glory. Wonder, terrible and frightful indeed.
Remember this: We stand before the Lord in all things, and at the end of all things, the passing away of the old and the beautiful hope of the new.
The core of humility: humiliation -
His angels tremble, the Cherubim are terrified, the Seraphim are in fear, and all the heavenly powers ceaselessly give praise; and you, unfortunate soul, remain in laziness.
Remember this: The heavenlies, who stand with Him, must cover their faces for His holiness. They must cover their feet for His holiness, that He might not be offended by their commonness. They tremble in fear because…because. And He has made us His in Christ. What do we offer back? No praise, no glory. Remember, we are as nothing and he came into our lives, made us everything for love. And yet we stand condemned because we are in laziness. We lie in our wallowings, we manufacture meaning out of wind and fog, and we DO NOTHING. And yet, and yet…
Hope…a beginning -
At least from this time forth arise and do not put off,
my beloved soul, holy repentence [sic], contrition of heart and penance
for your sins.
Remember this: No act, no deed we do can ever repay that which Christ did for us. But that remains no excuse for us to stop doing them. Holy repentance – a gift. Contrition of heart – a gift. Penance for our sins – a gift. Not that we need to punish ourselves again, but that we are given the gift of refining. “Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.” (Acts 5:41) Oh, that we might be counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Christ. That we might forsake the respect of the world for Him. That we might consider dishonor a blessing if it means that we have glorified Him! And so we start in humility.
Remember this.
Christ-bearer.
When you are praying alone, and your spirit is dejected, and you
are wearied and oppressed by your loneliness, remember then, as
always, that God the Trinity looks upon you with eyes brighter
than the sun; also all the angels, your own Guardian Angel, and
all the Saints of God. Truly they do; for they are all one in God,
and where God is, there are they also. Where the sun is, thither
also are directed all its rays. Try to understand what this means.
St. John of Kronstadt
I’ve got a better grasp on this one tonight, mostly through having lost half of my body weight in hair. This one’s getting into some tricky areas for me, mostly because of the borderline mysticism it evokes. Of course, to question mysticism is to question areas of the supernatural realm that I’m simply not qualified to examine at this time. My position currently is simply this…supernatural intervention happens, it just hasn’t been overtly present as I’ve been moving through life and walking my own walk. Still, I’m not outside accepting its presence in the lives of others, but I tend to hedge my bets, testing and approving to see if it is of God. Biblically, Kronstadt’s statement departs from some sections of Genesis and Revelation, as well as areas in many of the prophets. Angelic orders seem to be separated from God, that they might glorify Him as creatures independent of Him. Also, with the belief in Christ’s sacrifice being a perfect atonement for sinful man’s actions, thoughts and desperately sick hearts central to our own growth as spiritual man, we (at least I) cannot help but question Kronstadt’s understanding here, that all the saints become one with God. I don’t believe we were created to be a part of God so much as we were created to be worshipers of God outside Himself, able to praise Him with our own free will because He is who He is. Notice, however, that Kronstadt’s further statement, that ‘where the sun is, thither also are directed all its rays’ contains an interpretation of worship that could stand a bit of unpacking.
What I understand Kronstadt’s statement to be suggesting is that the rays of the sun move in two directions – from God comes the light of truth, worship, praise , service, etc. out through his worshipers, but from them reflecting back to Him is the light of His glorification through them. Understanding this opens things up a bit more clearly for the first section of his statement, so:
The believer, in the midst of loneliness and dejection, praying with a seeming hopelessness, is enabled to recognize that there are others suffering the same spiritual darkness and that even that is directed towards the glory of God.
It’s time now to get into some meditations on the soul, again using some of the desert fathers but with a more focused perspective. First:
“Remember, O my soul, the terrible and frightful wonder: that your
Creator for your sake became Man, and deigned to suffer for the
sake of your salvation. His angels tremble, the Cherubim are
terrified, the Seraphim are in fear, and all the heavenly powers
ceaselessly give praise; and you, unfortunate soul, remain in
laziness. At least from this time forth arise and do not put off,
my beloved soul, holy repentence, contrition of heart and penance
for your sins.”
St. Paisius Velichkovsky
the humility of the worshipful and contrite soul.
Second:
Souls that love truth and God, that long with much hope and faith
to put on Christ completely, do not need so much to be put in re
membrance by others, nor do they endure, even for a while, to be
deprived of the heavenly desire and of passionate affection to the
Lord; but being wholly and entirely nailed to the cross of Christ,
they perceive in themselves day by day a sense of spiritual
advance towards the spiritual Bridegroom.
St. Macarius the Great
The crucifixion and redemption of the justified soul
Third:
It is by warfare that the soul makes progress.
Abba John the Short
The onward and upward nature of the soul being sanctified.
And after these, back for a few more meditations and then a change in topic. You’ll know as I know.
Talk to you soon.
Christ-bearer.
When you are praying alone, and your spirit is dejected, and you
are wearied and oppressed by your loneliness, remember then, as
always, that God the Trinity looks upon you with eyes brighter
than the sun; also all the angels, your own Guardian Angel, and
all the Saints of God. Truly they do; for they are all one in God,
and where God is, there are they also. Where the sun is, thither
also are directed all its rays. Try to understand what this means.
St. John of Kronstadt
I’m not sure what I was thinking when I picked this one up for commentary. It seems I’m not really in a thinking about it mode tonight, mostly because I’m tired. But I hope to give you a bit more tomorrow.
God is a fire that warms and kindles the heart and inward parts.
Hence, if we feel in our hearts the cold which comes from the
devil – for the devil is cold – let us call on the Lord. He will
come to warm our hearts with perfect love, not only for Him but
also for our neighbor, and the cold of him who hates the good will
flee before the heat of His countenance.
St. Seraphim of Sarov
My regular pattern is going to be essentially as you see before you now, blogs from Monday to Friday with the weekend off. They always appear late, although I do do them Monday to Friday, so today’s post is going to be listed as Tuesday, but was in fact conceived for Monday. That’s all the setup I feel like doing, so let’s get to work.
Recovering the warmth of the Father’s love is something that the Western church has trouble with, because, generally speaking, our culture is not a warm one. We are insular, isolating ourselves in our own pains and bearing our own burdens because we have lost a sense of community and of Christian fellowship. Early church 101: Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32-35. Read them now, and see what we’re missing:
2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
2:43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
2:44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
2:45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
2:46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
2:47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
*****
4:32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.
4:33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
4:34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold
4:35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
I cite these things to illustrate a point; namely, that there is something here that has gone missing through the growing alienation that the church feels from the culture, and that the culture feels from the church. I ask you, what is it that you have in common with your friends? Is it a shared interest, a unifying belief or creed, or something else? Or do you feel as if you are the only sane one in an insane world, even when you are out having a drink with your friends, or dancing, or simply spending time with them? I know that many in the Western church feel this; I’ve heard it, and I’ve experienced it. I fear to imagine how those outside of it feel.
Looking at these verses from Acts, I’m actually quite struck by the fact that we have misplaced the warmth of shared experience. Our thoughts are twisted into strange shapes of community, seeking approval and affirmation through that which the world sins in. Temple prostitution, for example, finds echoes in orgies. Dancing before the Lord, as David did, we seek to emulate in clubs and bars, looking for relationships that we can pick up and put down as our whim takes us (Why do we use the phrase ‘pick up’ to describe one night stands, do you think?). We lose ourselves in the experience of forgetfulness, rather than the fires of remembrance. All of this is not the heat of His countenance, it is the cold of His absence. Christ seems often to be locked up in stained glass windows, in cold baptismals, in darkened churches and congregations sitting far apart, quiet and concealing themselves before the service. This is why Seraphim’s point strikes home to me. I know that my heart is cold, and I know that I seek all the time. I think that part of this is the culture I’ve been born into, grown up in, and now partake of, and I think too that this meditation comes precisely because I do not call on the Lord to bring His countenance before me. I can’t help but think of the Aaronic blessing…Numbers 6:24-26:
6:24 The Lord bless you and keep you;
6:25 The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
6:26 The Lord life up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
which to me takes on new meaning in the light of the search after the heat of His love that Seraphim puts his finger on in tonight’s observation.
Not as comforting as I’d thought it might be, but that means simply that we need to look at this in a different way. As the Shinto have their koans, and the Confucians their sayings, we have these nuggets of meditation to guide us further into His truth, as we have the Word. I do take great comfort in the hope of calling on the Lord, though as I said before and will say again, I don’t call for the revelation of His countenance nearly as often as I should. But that’s a topic for a later time. Next time;
When you are praying alone, and your spirit is dejected, and you
are wearied and oppressed by your loneliness, remember then, as
always, that God the Trinity looks upon you with eyes brighter
than the sun; also all the angels, your own Guardian Angel, and
all the Saints of God. Truly they do; for they are all one in God,
and where God is, there are they also. Where the sun is, thither
also are directed all its rays. Try to understand what this means.
St. John of Kronstadt
After this next one, I’m going to spend three posts on the soul, its postures and prayers and its true existence and maintenance. I’ve been looking at some of the sayings about the soul, and I’ve got my mind on Augustine’s Confessions as well. Talk to you soon.
Christ-bearer.
When a man walks in the fear of God he knows no fear, even if he
were to be surrounded by wicked men. He has the fear of God within
him and wears the invincible armor of faith. This makes him strong
and able to take on anything, even things which seem difficult or
impossible to most people. Such a man is like a giant surrounded
by monkeys, or a roaring lion among dogs and foxes. He goes
forward trusting in the Lord and the constancy of his will to
strike and paralyze his foes. He wields the blazing club of the
Word in wisdom.
St. Symeon the New Theologian, The Practical and Theological
Chapters
Such vivid images, and such powerful faith. “He wields the blazing club of the Word in wisdom” indeed. Tonight, the fear of the Lord gets put into your heart.
I’ve long been thinking about fear and its effects on faith, such that it occurs to me that the loss of the fear of the Lord in the hearts of the righteous, besides being sinful itself, torments the spiritual man to no end. What need we fear in a world which provides for our material needs outside of Saviour Christ and outside of the Lord God Almighty, after all? Even more frightening, what does it mean that our fear is not of the Lord but it is a fear, rather, that we will lose what false security we find ourselves enwrapped in? We are hanging suspended by a thread of grace, a whisper of cobweb that we cannot find purchase on to hold ourselves up, and we are slipping closer and closer to the flames of damnation with every second of sinfulness but for the reach that exceeds our grasp. Our lives are as they are because God has decreed that we will live this minute, now this minute, now this minute. Our loving Father declares that we have one more day of opportunities for thanksgiving and praise; one more day of the hope of glory, Christ in us as He wills it. And we turn our backs on the promises of Matthew 6:25-34, and the warning of Mark 13:32-37 despite this. Here’s Mark, just to remind you:
13:32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
13:33 Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.
13:34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake.
13:35 Therefore stay awake – for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock crows, or in the morning -
13:36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.
13:36 And what I say to you I say to all: stay awake.
We are a generation who knows not the fear of the Lord, but the fear of man, the fear of silent strikes from dark places, and knives in our backs, and sensationalist media…and most insidiously, the fear of being alone. This is the truth that we need to remember about our unholy and unrighteous fear…not that we are creatures under a Creator who can make or unmake us as He deems fit, but that we fear that we are creatures alone in an uncaring universe, which makes our lives – each second – meaningless against the greater darkness. What news, then, gives us hope?
Here’s where St. Symeon comes in. The fear of the Lord is not the fear of the unknown, nor of the uncaring, but rather a fear of an overwhelmingly caring Father, who would do anything to prevent his children from falling ever further. What we fear is the fact that Someone cared so much for us, when we care not for others. What we fear is the responsibility for the lives of those the Father has entrusted to us, when we know in our hearts that we can’t handle it. And what we fear the most in a fear of the Lord, I think, is the fact that we can approach the Holy of Holies freely by the blood of the Lamb. This God, who created us and allowed sin to enter into our lives that He might redeem us, has opened the way, and we don’t dare to use it because we know the wretchedness of our state before Him.
I’ll be coming back to this, but for next time, refreshment:
God is a fire that warms and kindles the heart and inward parts.
Hence, if we feel in our hearts the cold which comes from the
devil – for the devil is cold – let us call on the Lord. He will
come to warm our hearts with perfect love, not only for Him but
also for our neighbor, and the cold of him who hates the good will
flee before the heat of His countenance.
St. Seraphim of Sarov
Let us charge into the good fight with joy and love without being
afraid of our enemies. Though unseen themselves, they can look at
the face of our soul, and if they see it altered by fear, they
take up arms against us all the more fiercely. For the cunning
creatures have observed that we are scared. So let us take up arms
against them courageously. No one will fight with a resolute
fighter.
St. John Climacus
As I said, when next I post. I’ve been without computer access for a time, so I’ve been unable to get back to this, but I’m here tonight. And I hope it’s going to be a doozy.
Our Western consciousness doesn’t really make allowances for spiritual warfare. See, much of what we call Christianity and what we witness in the hypocrites is a self-absorbed, not necessarily self-aware spirituality, a distraction from the issues that we need to confront head on and even, as Climacus says, a fear of the territories we tread. I don’t put myself any higher than these, because the Lord knows I’ve been among the worst, and still am, for being self-focused. And fearful. Making changes, stretching oneself, these are fearful actions for even the best of us. And if our enemy can sense fear, he can use it. He will use it, either to turn us down paths we need not go down, or more overtly, to come against us as a roaring lion. So what I find here is a battle cry as much as it is a spiritual maxim. “So let us take up arms against them courageously. No one will fight with a resolute fighter.” True. But how many of us are resolute fighters? And more importantly, why aren’t we?
To the first, I can’t give an answer. The state of each of our souls is an affair between ourselves and the Lord of Creation, and our conditioning for war comes from that. To the second, I can hazard an opinion or two. I think that we have forgotten how to fight, that we have become such slaves to the depraved and sinful condition of this place that we can’t really muster the energy to overcome it. I think now of Romans 1 : 18-32, a selection of verses that have been running over and over in my head for some months now. A friend once told me of a man who holds the position that North America is under the curse and the depravity demonstrated here (you want to tell me who that is again, Steve?) I believe it more and more as my days go on. Working with the general public, as I do, gives one some unfortunate insights into ruined lives, idolatrous hearts and desperate beliefs. Spending time, too, with those who know only the false hope that the devil sets out before us in choice portions, and the twisted truths of religion rather than Christianity, gives me cause for thoughts about my own resoluteness in the war before us. Still, all of that doesn’t change my heart for the lost generations here, and the many opportunities to see God reclaim some of His own here.
Essentially, what I’m saying here is that resoluteness comes from a proper awareness of two things. First, that the heart is deceitful and desperately sick. Second, that we must use that heart nonetheless for the war we fight daily, and we must use it as Christ sees it, washed in His blood. Furthermore, that we must be aware of the areas in which we fall short of the heart of a warrior, and of the ways we fail in our mission, so that we might bring them daily before He who can cleanse us from them and gird us anew. For next time:
When a man walks in the fear of God he knows no fear, even if he
were to be surrounded by wicked men. He has the fear of God within
him and wears the invincible armor of faith. This makes him strong
and able to take on anything, even things which seem difficult or
impossible to most people. Such a man is like a giant surrounded
by monkeys, or a roaring lion among dogs and foxes. He goes
forward trusting in the Lord and the constancy of his will to
strike and paralyze his foes. He wields the blazing club of the
Word in wisdom.
St. Symeon the New Theologian, The Practical and Theological
Chapters
