Sunday of St. John of the Ladder – Metropolitan of Strumica Nahum
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Refer: Mark 9, 14-31
Ascetic faith and trust in God is one thing, and faith through grace is another. Ascetic prayer is one thing and prayer with grace is another. Ascetic love for our neighbours (fellow man) is one thing, and love with grace is another. The same applies for the struggle in all other virtues. What exactly does that mean?
In the first stage of the spiritual development – purification of the heart from passions, the struggle of every believer in any virtue is more ascetic than virtue with grace.
The heart at this stage is still held captive by the passions, so that the demon, through thoughts and senses, from within, leads man into sin relatively easily. The more freely that man succumbs to the sin, the more God’s grace departs from him.
That is why the struggle at the first stage of the spiritual development, especially at the time when the first grace hides, seems very difficult. A lot of hard work and effort needs to be put into those moments when it seems to us that there is no help from anywhere. We need to keep God’s commandments even when we have no desire or will to do so, and we do not appreciate it as a need within us.
Forcing ourselves is the key moment for which the struggle is regarded as ascetic. The believer can only force himself to do good, in accordance with his obedience, believing that God will help him. That is why the father of the demonized boy says through tears: “Lord I believe, help my unbelief!” (Mark 9, 24) – i.e. he is forcing himself to believe.
Spiritual development (the transition towards enlightenment of the mind with the prayer of the mind in the heart) is possible only at moments when the grace of God remains hidden, and we continue to endeavour to fulfil the virtues. Whenever we fall and cannot fulfil a virtue, in those moments – when we do not feel the grace, we have not passed the test and will have to make another attempt until we succeed in fulfilling the virtue. The Holy Fathers of the Church say that in those moments when the grace is hidden, we should act as if it is present.
Christ teaches the apostles and all of us that demons, and all of their kind “can be cast out by nothing but prayer and fasting” (Mark 9, 29). This means that demons are connected with the passions, with which people are enslaved; and until man is liberated from his passions, he will not be able to free himself from the demon connected with them, as well as from his negative influence in his heart. St. John writes beautifully about all this – in his book “The Ladder”.
A sign that the heart is sufficiently purified from the passions is the manifestation of the grace of the Holy Mystery of Baptism from it (heart) and the receiving of the gift of the prayer of the mind in the heart; then the demon departs from within, and his fight against us must be organized externally – through his people, his servants. This occurs at the second stage of our spiritual development – enlightenment of the mind.
Without participation in the grace of the Holy Mysteries of the Church, under the spiritual guidance of a spiritual father, asceticism with fasting and prayer is fruitless. The demon is cast out from within us only with the cooperation of the grace of the Holy Spirit the God. That is the essence of Christ’s words.
First, we must cast out the demon from within us, then casting out the demon from others, (i.e. the ones who are willing to be free) will be a very easy thing to do. If done in reverse then it will only attract other demons to those who attempt to do so – the ones who teach and “save” others, without enlightenment of the mind and the prayer of the mind in the heart; without obedience. We can recognise them by the fact that they separate themselves from the Church; and publicly attack the Church.
“And Jesus said unto them: ‘The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and after He is killed, on the third day He will rise again'” (Mark 9, 31). He said these words to His faithful disciples in order to forewarn them, which Kingdom they should care for, first and foremost. However, to this day, many Christians do not understand this message and fight only for the earthly kingdom – just like all others who do not know God.
Most-Holy Theotokos, through the prayers of St. John of the Ladder, save us!
Metropolitan of Strumica, Nahum
(10.04.2021 16:03)
