The refrain from that old hymn of my childhood years reveals
the detachment that the Second Person of the Trinity had to put into effect in
order to leave behind the glory that was already his in order to enter into
this earthly realm … this world full of misery and grief … in order to save us
from the consequences of sin.
Out of the ivory palaces … into a world of woe … only His
great eternal love … made my Savior go.[1]
His example, from the very moment of his Incarnation in the
one who was the Immaculate Conception and all the way to his Ascension, shows us
the way to live. His life, his words, his example – there simply is no other
way, regardless of the denials and attempts of humans to dismiss the reality and
necessity of The Cross of Christ as the means to enjoy the favor of God both
here and in eternity.[2]
We have, to a great extent, been conditioned to love the
world. The world, after all, does provide us with opportunity for social
status. It does promise us fortune. It does entice us with fame. The world
promises everything that inflates ego and promotes pride. Every manner of
inordinacy, every possible sin, originates in the “I want, I desire, I will” of
the human ego. It was this ego that the archenemy used to coax the couple in
the garden to sin.[3]
The archenemy tried to use this tactic against Jesus during his great fast[4]
before beginning his public ministry.
He is still using this tactic and we are warned to be on
guard against it.[5]
The great tragedy of our times is the rejection and casting
aside of the traditional morals and norms that have been foundational in our
western society. The erosion of these historic foundational morals and norms,
as part of the elevation of secular humanism with its grasp on practically
every human institution [including institutions that are part of the Church],
is having a dire effect on the Church. Sin, in many cases, is no longer sinful
… or at least not as sinful as it once was. Consciences are being seared as
with a hot iron.[6]
Abbot John Climacus tells us that all who have willingly
left the things of the world, have certainly done so either for the sake of the
future Kingdom, or because of the multitude of their sins, or for love of God.[7]
One of the things that stands out in studying monasticism in
those earlier centuries is how entering monasticism as a penitent because of
the multitude of one’s sins was a very real and reasonable reason to enter
monastic life; regardless of the monastic school – Eastern, Western, or Desert.
Men [and women] undertook and lived long years of hard penances. Why? First, the
Church taught that hell is a very real place and the eternal dwelling place for
unrepentant practicing sinners. It also helps to have an understanding of the
doctrine of Purgatory. It helps to understand the historical teaching of the
Church that even when the eternal consequences of sin are forgiven in the
Sacrament of Confession, temporal justice must still be served either here
during physical life or there in the afterlife in Purgatory before entering
into the pure love and glory of God.
Those entering into monastic life understood that they were
engaging in a war against their ego; they understood that theirs would be an
interior battle of conversion that would not be an easy or short battle.
Saint Benedict tells inquirers, “This message of mine is for
you, then, if you are ready to give up your own will, once and for all, and
armed with the strong and noble weapons of obedience to do battle for the true
King, Christ the Lord.”[8]
The first rung of Abbot John’s Ladder calls us to recognize
and renounce our love of the world and its grasp upon us. The second
rung of Abbot John’s Ladder calls us to detach ourselves from the world
and sever our attachments to it.
Saint John Climacus describes different people groups and
tells us that “the Christian is one who imitates Christ in thought, word and
deed, as far as is possible for human beings, believing rightly and blamelessly
in the Holy Trinity. The lover of God is he who lives in communion with all
that is natural and sinless, and as far as he is able neglects nothing good.
The continent man is he who in the midst of temptations, snares and turmoil,
strives with all his might to imitate the ways of Him who is free from such.
The monk is he who within his earthly and soiled body toils towards the rank
and state of the incorporeal beings. A monk is he who strictly controls his
nature and unceasingly watches over his senses. A monk is he who keeps his body
in chastity, his mouth pure and his mind illumined. A monk is a mourning soul
that both asleep and awake is unceasingly occupied with the remembrance of
death. Withdrawal from the world is voluntary hatred of vaunted material things
and denial of nature for the attainment of what is above nature.”[9]
Saint Benedict tells his students that “no one is to
pursue what he judges better for himself, but instead, what he judges better
for someone else. To their fellow monks they show pure love of brothers, to
God, loving fear; to their abbot, unfeigned and humble love. Let them prefer
nothing whatever to Christ, and may he bring us all together to everlasting
life.”[10]
It is one thing to recognize the things that are keeping us
from achieving even small steps in Christian perfection and another thing
altogether to begin letting go of attachments – whether the attachments are an
outright prideful love of sin or an unhealthy attachment to things that hold
our attention and keep us from focusing on God.
[1] Ivory
Palaces, Henry Barraclough, 1915
[2]
Acts 4:12
[3]
Genesis 3:1-5
[4]
Matthew 4:1-11
[5] 1
John 2:15-17
[6] 1
Timothy 4:2
[7]
Ladder, Step 1, paragraph 5
[8]
Holy Rule, Prologue 3
[9]
Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 1, paragraph 4
[10]
Holy Rule 72:7-12
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