One Seeking Perfection Must...

John Cassian has a collection of writings he called The Institutes. Within these writings lay a number of precious gems for the reader. I wanted to highlight one of those gems - what might the disciple of Christ expect to go through on the path of being of the charter of Christ? Another way to think about this might be to consider Jesus when he says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” How are we to move toward being made perfect in love?

Cassian suggests a series of actions that you can take that reveal the next step to take. As you walk, being able to see only one step at a time, you will come to the Kingdom of Heaven. I have not found a more concise description of what Cassian describes than from Philip Turner’s book Christian Ethics and the Church: Ecclesial Foundations for Moral Thought and Practice. Consider what Turner writes:

The process begins with the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom. Fear drives one to conversion and the search for perfection. The search requires that one, through renunciation, develop contempt for worldly things including family and possessions. Renunciation leads in turn to the virtue of humility from which is generated the dying of desire, and when desire has died the vices are uprooted and wither away. With the expulsion of the vices, virtue begins to grow and bear fruit. When virtue is abundant, purity of heart is acquired and, with purity of heart, the kingdom of heaven.

We start with a fear of the Lord. When we compare ourselves to the Lord we are brought to our knees and we desire conversion. The desire for conversion admits that the current course we are on is not sufficient to the standard of God’s heart, so we renounce our current way of living. But renouncing our current way of living we become a novice to life again and we are humbled. And when we are humbled to this new way of living that we know little about, our past desires atrophy. If we are able to arrive to this point where we renounce our past lives and desires then the vices of our past also die. In this way we are born again, made new. The death of desires and vices is the very fertile ground God uses to plant virtue. When lives around the world are full for good fruit (Matthew 7:17) we discover we all live in a new garden called the Kingdom of God.

And so, take the first step and see what is revealed. Ask yourself, “Do I feel like I am God’s equal?”

Running From What You Do Not Fear

The past several years I have found spiritual companionship with the desert spirituality of the late antiquity period. I am by no means a scholar on this topic or the complexity of the people we call the “Desert Mothers and Fathers.” Much of what we have of their sayings is odd in the surface unless you spend some time with their worldview. It has taken me a while just to begin to make sense of some of these what look to be odd sayings. For instance:

Abba Nisterus the Great was walking in the desert with a brother and when they saw a serpent they ran away. The brother said, “Were you afraid, too, father?” The old man said, “I am not afraid, child, but it’s good for me to flee since then I won’t have to flee the spirit of vainglory.”

Abba Nisterus ran away from something he was not afraid of, but others were. Had he not run away from the serpent, then when Abba Nisterus caught up with the brother who did run away, he might unintentionally make the brother feel less or shameful for being afraid of a serpent. And so, Abba Nisterus runs away from the serpent so that when he faces the brother he will not have to face the prideful idea that he is better or more brave than the brother. It is easier to run from a snake than from pride (aka: vainglory).

It is common to run from what you fear. That makes a biological sense. What does not make much sense at all is running from what you do not fear. Why would anyone run from that which they are not afraid? So that we do not grow prideful. When we are full of pride (in spirit of vainglory) then we begin to think less of others. We begin to consider how brave we are as others cower and run.

For Nisterus, not running from a serpent would mean running toward pride.

And being full of pride can really hurt you.

Slave, Hired Hand, Friend - Relating to God

So many in the world now are experiencing a level of cloistering that we never imagined. We are all looking for “coping” mechanisms and hacks to navigate this new sense of being isolated. For Christians, there is a deep tradition of social distant practices which we in the Protestant world have sort of misunderstood and eschewed. Those are the practices developed by the Abbas/Ammas of the deserts of Syria and Egypt. These proto-monastics have many stories of how to be in relationship with one another and with God while practicing social distancing.

For those of us new to the disciplines of silence, solitude and mystery, it may be tempting to consider how we relate to God before we engage in these practices. Because how we understand our relationship with God, influences how we practice these disciplines. I find the Gregory of Nyssa had a decent way to think about different stages of how we relate to God.

First we could serve God or practices these disciplines out of fear, like a slave would do. Fear that if we do not then God will be displeased and we will bear the wrath of the Master. Gregory goes on to say that rather than that of a slave, sometimes we serve God or practices these disciplines like a hired hand looking for a reward or payment.

Perhaps you have experienced or seen these ways of being in relationship with God. That we should do things so that we don’t get punished or that we should do things for a heavenly reward. The motivation to do things in service for God may be motivating but it also dismisses how the incarnated God known as Jesus, calls us friend.

This is where Gregory suggests we should be serving God and practicing the disciplines - out of friendship with God. Out of pure love of God like that of a child who identifies God as their parent.

So this season of practicing different disciples, consider do you feel like you are slave, hired hand or friend of God. And do not forget that only one of those is Good News.