Fr. Stephen FreemanGlory to God For All Things
The Philokalia, that wonderful collection of writings by the fathers on prayer of the heart, has as its full title, The
Philokalia of the Neptic Saints gathered from our Holy Theophoric
Fathers, through which, by means of the philosophy of ascetic practice
and contemplation, the intellect is purified, illumined, and made
perfect. Little wonder it is known popularly as the Philokalia.
That word, Philokalia, means “the love of beautiful things.” It is not a
reference to expensive, decorative items, but to the things which are
made beautiful by their union with God. All things are beautiful
inasmuch as they are united to God, Who is Beauty itself.
Another important word in the title is the adjective, “Neptic”
(νηπτικός). It has a variety of translations: sober, watchful, vigilant.
It refers to those who, having their earthly senses purified, have
become truly aware of God and dwell in Him. This title is especially
used to describe the fathers of the Hesychast tradition in Orthodoxy, the tradition of ceaseless prayer and inner stillness associated with the monastic life.
To describe these fathers as “sober,” is very insightful. For our
experience with the passions, the disordered desires of our body and
soul, is often an experience of drunkenness.
For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get
drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober,
putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope
of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain
salvation through our Lord jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether
we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him (1 Thess. 5:7-10).
The man who is drunk is famously unaware of his surroundings. He
stumbles physically, mentally and spiritually, barely aware of his own
imbalance. The passions have the same ability to blind us. In anger we
are aware primarily of our own anger. What we see, we see through the
haze of the energy that pulses through our mind and body.
All of the passions have this property. They consume us and become
the primary lens through which we see the world and with which we react.
Thus we are described as in “delusion.” Those who see the world through
their passions do not see the truth of things. They see their own
passions.
There is a social aspect to the passions – they are not restricted to
an individual’s experience. Whole societies, or significant segments
within it, can be drunk with the same passions. Thus a whole society can
be drunk with the passion of fear or hatred. Such a passion is
reinforced by being repeatedly affirmed by those around us. Many aspects
of culture are simply a communion of the passions.
We live in an age where the passions are carefully studied and used
as the objects of marketing. Those things that are sold to us (even
those that supposedly appeal to our intellect) are marketed to our
passions. Apple computer famously researches the “feel” of its
packaging, presenting a sensual experience that is associated with
quality, precision and value. It is a successful strategy across the
whole of our culture.
However, those who are “drunk” with the passions also yield
themselves as victims to their intoxication. Political parties pour
massive amounts of money into their campaigns simply to create and
nurture the passions by which people vote. We are not governed by reason
or informed decisions. Most of what you or I think about political
subjects is a description of the passions to which we are enslaved. The
political cynicism of many is, to a degree, a recognition of our disgust
with the politics of passion.
By the same token, most of the opinions we nurture are equally the
product of our passions. We think, we believe, we decide, we act largely
in accord with the passions to which we are enthralled. Theological
debates are generally arguments between one person’s passions and
another’s. It is a conversation between drunks.
And so the Church values the holy, sober fathers. These are
the men and women who have walked the narrow way of salvation, “putting
to death the deeds of the body.” Inner stillness is the state of freedom
from disordered passions. The neptic fathers do not cease to desire
(they are not Buddhists). But their desires have been purified and
healed – restored to proper order. Sobriety means desiring the right
thing in the right way at the right time. Traditionally, this
purification and healing come as a result of a life of repentance,
fasting and prayer. It slays demons and heals the wounds of the soul.
All things are brought into obedience to Christ.
It is the life that Scripture enjoins:
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil
walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he my devour. Rsist him,
steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced
by your brotherhood in the world (1 Peter 5:8-9).
There is a story in the Desert Fathers that illustrates such
vigilance. A community of monks once heard a rumor that one of their
number was harboring a woman in his cell. They went to the elder and
complained. While they became yet more agitated, the elder slipped away
to the cell of the erring monk. Finding the woman there, he hid her in a
large earthen vessel. He placed the lid on the vessel and sat on it.
Soon the angry monks arrived at the cell and began to search for the
woman. Out of respect for the elder they overlooked the vessel on which
he was sitting. Finding nothing, they apologized to the erring monk and
left. The elder, rose from his seat and said to the monk, “Pay attention
to yourself.”
It is a call to sobriety. The angry monks were drunk with their own
self-righteousness. Their sin was at least as great as the erring monk.
The elder alone was sober. His sobriety hid the sin of a man from those
who would have harmed him, and revealed the sin to the one who needed to
be healed. The word of healing was kind and without judgment. “Pay
attention to yourself.” It is the simple word of St. Peter, “Be sober.”
For all of us, in every moment of the day with regard to all things
and all people, it is good to pay proper attention to ourselves.
This prayer of St. Isaac of Syria, great among the neptic fathers, is one of my favorites:
I knock at the door of Thy compassion, Lord: send aid to
my scattered impulses which are drunk with the multitude of the passions
and the power of darkness.
Thou canst see my sores hidden within me: stir up contrition – though
not corresponding to the weight of my sins, for if I receive full
awareness of the extent of my sins, Lord, my soul would be consumed by
the bitter pain from them.
Assist my feeble stirrings on the path to true repentance, and may I
find relief from the vehemence of sins through the contrition that comes
of Thy gift, for without the power of Thy grace I am quite unable to
enter within myself, become aware of my stains, and so, at the sight of
them, be able to be still from great distraction.
