Rational arguments in the spiritual life

In the spiritual life, rational arguments are not the best that we have at our disposal, even for those of us for whom reason is valued above all else.  

Spiritual medicine for a healthy soul

Jesus Christ provides us all the medicine we need for a healthy soul.  He gives us the proper prescription for every passion.

Saint Dorotheos says:  For vanity He gives the commandment regarding humility; for love of pleasure, continence; for avarice, charity; In brief, each passion has a suitable commandment that is the right medicine for it. 

We have a good doctor.  He is experienced and has proven remedies. If we follow the doctor's direction there is no reason for having an unhealthy soul.  Our only problem is our own. We must be obedient and follow the Doctor's orders.

Saint Dorotheos asks,  Why do we waste our lives? We hear so many things but we do not care and are disdainful.  The way to salvation is given to us.  But do we want to be saved?  Do we care about our spiritual health?  Or, do we let our passions run wild unchecked. It's best to start while we are young because then the roots of our passions are shallow, but as we grow older they become very deep, forming habits that are hard to root out. 

Saint Dorotheos advises,  A person should examine himself every evening as to how he spent the day and again every morning as to how he spent the night. Of course, he must repent about those matters in which he has sinned... Each one of us should say to himself, "Can it be that I have spoken and wounded my brother? Have I seen him doing something and judged him, humiliated or condemned him? Have I asked the cellarer for something and when he didn't give it to me, grumbled about him? Have I abused the cook and hurt him when the food was not well prepared or have I just been disgusted in my heart, and grumbled?” Even if one complains to himself it is a sin.

Remember that both virtue and evil can become a habit if practiced continually. Depending on how we live our lives our habits can either condemn or comfort us.

Saint Dorotheos says, We must struggle and pray to God, night and day, that we might not fall into temptation.  Even if, as humans, we are defeated and we fall into sin, let us try to get up immediately. Let us repent and cry before God's goodness. Let us be attentive. Let us labor and God, seeing our will and our contrition, will give us a helping hand and grant us His mercy. 

The peace from above

 

Love the peace that comes from above at all costs.  Make sure you are seeking the peace from above, not the peace from this world, which is unstable and not very safe. 

On memory of insults

The memory of insults is the residue of anger.  It keeps sins alive, hates justice, ruins virtue, poisons the heart, rots the mind, defeats concentration, paralyzes prayer, puts love at a distance, and is a nail driven into the soul. 

If anyone has appeased his anger, he has already suppressed the memory of insults, while as long as the mother is alive, the son persists.  In order to appease the anger, love is necessary. 

Remembrance of Jesus’ passion will heal your soul of resentment, by making it ashamed of itself when it remembers the patience of the Lord.

Some people have wearied themselves and suffered for a long time in order to extract forgiveness.  By far the best course, however, is to forget the offences, since the Lord says, Forgive at once and you will be forgiven in generous measure.  [cf Luke 6:37-38] 

Forgetting offences is a sign of sincere repentance.  If you keep the memory of them, you may believe you have repented but you are like someone running in his sleep. 

Let no one consider it a minor defect, this darkness that often clouds the eyes even of spiritual people. 

Free will, not fate

We are directed by free will and not, as some say, subjected to the compulsion of inescapable fate. 

That is why God has given us the promise of His kingdom but also threatened us with punishment.  He would not have done that to people in the toils of necessity.  He would not have laid down laws, he would not have given us exhortations if we had been prisoners of destiny.

We are free and the masters of our fate.  Just because we can grow evil from lack of effort or virtuous striving, He uses the medicine of the fear of punishment to correct our course and the attraction of the hope of heaven to steer us towards wisdom.

Not only from this argument but from the way we normally behave, it is clear that our lives are not directed by fate.

For if fate were the cause of our actions rather than our free will, what justification have you for whipping the slave who is a thief?  Why, if your wife has committed adultery, do you take her to court?  When you do stupid things, why are you ashamed?  Why are you intolerant of accusations and regard it as an insult if anyone calls you an adulterer or a fornicator or a drunkard or suchlike?

The myth of a compelling destiny is nonsense.  Our lives are subject to no unavoidable fate.  Everything, as I have argued, points to beauty of free will. 



On insults

An insult is either sustained or destroyed—not by the disposition of those who insult, but by the disposition of those who bear it. 

Mutually beneficial prayer and love

 

 

Let us be mutually mindful of one another, of one heart and one mind.  Let us ever pray for one another, and by mutual love lighten our burdens and difficulties.  And if one of us should, by the swiftness of divine action, depart from here first, let our love continue in the presence of the Lord.  Let not prayer for our brothers and sisters cease in the presence of the mercy of the Father.