Categories: spiritual-writings
Date: 15 September 2008 13:17:20
From the chapter [16] Humility in our Dealings with our Neighbour is a Means of Attaining to Love for our Neighbour:
Holy monks constantly remembered Christ's words: Truly I tell you, when you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me [Matthew 25:40]. They did not stop to consider whether their neighbour deserved their respect or not; they paid no attention to his numerous and obvious defects. Their attention was taken up with seeing that they did not somehow fail to realize that our neighbour is the image of God, and that Christ accepts what we do to our neighbour as if it were done to Him.pp. 62-63
This speaks for itself; if I consider my anger and consider it was Christ I was ranting and raving at, then I am to be pitied most above all. A harsh teaching, and a harsh one to follow, but the Christian life is a struggle, a constant struggle against sin until our dying breath, and it is a teaching that I need to hear. Later, St Ignatius quotes from Abba Dorotheus who used to say to his disciple St Dositheus when he was overcome by anger, "Dositheus! You get angry, and are you not ashamed that you get angry and offend your brother? Do you not realize that he is Christ and that you offend Christ?" [p. 63] He also quotes a wonderful example from the life of St Cassian who visited a monastery and was fed well on a fast day, the elder replying to St Cassian's query on this that, "I receive Christ in your person, and I must show him wholehearted hospitality" [p. 64], and continues with quoting Mark 2:19.
Through humility in your dealings with your neighbour, and through love for your neighbour, hardness and callousness is expelled from the heart. It is rolled away like a heavy rock from the entrance to a tomb, and the heart revives for spiritual relations with God for which it has been hitherto dead.
...
It begins to confess its wretched state to God and implore him for mercy.
p. 65
The imagery speaks to me so clearly; it is often that metaphor or simile or poetry communicates eternal truths to me where I find words cannot. The use of the word "tomb", recalling death, death of love for one's neighbour in our hearts, and he heart 'reviving', being made alive again, with the love we show for our neighbour and the love towards God, is, for me, a beautiful image. And one I pray I can hold in my mind, and the fact that this love, and the softening of the heart, will lead to increased prayer with God and prayers for mercy is a blessing indeed.
On the other hand, the prayer of a resentful person St Isaac the Syrian compares with sowing on rock. The same must be said of the prayer of one who condemns and despises his neighbour.
p. 65
There is a note in the text that St Isaac actually calls it "sowing in the sea", which is even more a vivid image and one which illustrates the futility of prayer with such a resentful heart. Of course, we all do struggle, but what I do love about Orthodox thought and Orthodox texts such as this is the calling to be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect [cf Matthew 5:48]. Orthodox Christianity calls me to a high standard, a standard I know I cannot reach on my own, and fear even with the grace of God my own weakness will prevent me making progress. But we are continually called nevertheless, and though we fail, and we will, the Church provides the cure and the mercy: through the Sacraments, particularly the Eucharist, and the Sacrament of Repentance [Confession], we are strengthened to continue the journey.