Of Aristotle and Anointing with Myrrh

Now for a poser. Aristotle is the well-known exponent of the Golden Mean. Live a life of moderation. Virtue is the middle way between two extremes, the vices at either end.

St. Clement was an urbane Christian, comfortable with recommending the ways of the ancients whenever he could. He was also a philosopher, who appreciated the wisdom of reason. According to Hans (von C), in the Paedagogus, Clement recommends an “etiquette” for Christian life that avoids the extremes of ascetics and of the licentious. The middle way is the way of the Christian, who is free.

But what of zeal? What of the superabundance and overflowing grace of God? Our love for God should not be “moderate,” just as His love is not “moderate” for us. God’s mercy and forgiveness for my sins, which have “increased above the number of the hairs of my head” and have made me into a “sea of sin, unworthy to behold or to gaze upon the height of heaven,” is equally unlimited: “immeasurable is the multitude of thy loving-kindnesses, and the mercy of thy goodness and forbearance beyond telling; and there is no sin that conquereth thy love toward all men.” (from the Prayer before Communion by St. Simeon Metaphrastes)

God does not do salvation by halves.

So how does the ideal of the “good Christian” fit with the boundless love of God? Hans picks up on the problem, but offers no solution. We shall have to go to Clement himself to see if there is an answer there. But first Hans:

Christianity must not be thought of as a merely external commandment or requirement which has to be fulfilled accoridng to the letter of the law. It is rather a matter of the heart, of the whole man, and a Christian ethic is an ethic of intention, in its commitment as in its freedom. Clement therefore has no sympathy with radical ascetic ideals. Paul himself reminded us that the Kingdom of God does not consist in eating and drinking (Rom. 14:17) nor, therefore, in the abstention from meat and drink, but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. One can be rich and poor at one and the same time, have possessions and not have them, use the world and not use the world (1 Cor 7:31). ‘Just as humility consists not in the mortification of the body but in meekness, so too abstinence is a virtue of the soul, which has its being not in the visible but in the hidden places.’ (Strom. III, 48, 3). All external things as such are neutral, adiaphora in the Stoic sense, and the Christian is entirely ‘free’ in regard to them. But this freedom is not synonymous with caprice and licentiousness. All excess is unworthy of a man, and therefore of a Christian. Clement can explain the fact that Jesus’ feet were anointed with precious ointment (Luke 7:37 f.) only by pointing out that the woman who anointed them was unconverted. He uses an allegory to interpret the incident: the extravagant ointment typifies the divine teaching which was to be carried out into the world by the feet of Jesus, i.e. by his apostles. In general, moderation, self-control, unobtrusiveness, usefulness, and common sense are to be commended as Christian virtues, the practice of which is always seemly and therefore to that extent in accordance with the requirements of philosophy. However, the ultimate power which governs Christian freedom is not mere reason but the love that loves God and therefore neighbour also and gives him willingly all that he needs. This love, which had already been enjoined on man in the Old Testament, is in accord with justice and common sense, the basic concepts of the social philosophy of the ancients.

So what are the Christian virtues? Moderation, self-control, unobtrusiveness, usefulness, common sense, seemliness at all times? Or an extravangant love of God, mirroring His extravagant love for us? Surely Clement’s “allegorizing” of the woman anointing the feet of Christ with myrrh is itself an expansive appreciation of the overbounding love of God, shown to the woman, writ small, and shown to all humanity, writ large, in the sending of the Gospel into all the world for the sake of our salvation. Freedom from the passions and attachments of the world means freedom to love God in excess.

Do you see this woman? I entered into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet; but she has washed my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. You gave me no kiss. But this woman since the time I came in has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil. But this woman anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say to you, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. And he said to her, Your sins are forgiven… Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.

The Perfect Gnostic

One of the most famous images in Platonic thought is the Allegory of the Cave. Men are bound in darkness, seeing only shadows and projections on the wall of a cave. One man becomes enlightened, escapes the cave and emerges into sunlight — free to bask in knowledge of the Real. He does not forget his former comrades still chained in the cave.

Here is Hans (von C) again, on Clement:

Clement turns with special love and sympathy to the picture of the perfect ‘gnostic,’ the Christian who is completely at one with God in knowledge and love. The word ‘gnostic’ is therefore by no means limited in this context to the heretics, as it often is in modern usage. On the contrary, Clement’s whole conception of Christianity is consummated in the ideal of the ‘knowing’ Christian.

… Perfection is attained at the highest level of knowledge. The perfect gnostic no longer needs the human teacher, since he has become directly lnked with God through the Logos and thereby become the friend and intimate of God. He has been raised far above the cares of this world; they no longer reach him, although outwardly he continues to live freely and without constraint in the world. He is no longer lured or frightened by visible things. Through the inner attachment of his will to God he has entered the choir of eternally adoring angels. He may travel and associate with other people, rest, read, engage in business — but basically his whole life is an uninterrupted prayer, a continuous intercourse with God, a constant feast. God always hears this striving toward him, though it may not be expressed in words. The true gnostic, however, no longer lives for himself in this state of blessed perfection. In his love for God, the love of God lives in him; he becomes the living, active image of Christ and descends with joy to his fellow-men who are all — like him — called to the Highest and are to enter the kingdom of divine knowledge through him. 

Caught, not Taught

Last night a friend pointed out to me a new catechumen. He is a PhD candidate in Mathematics, she said. He is reading and reading and reading. Oh, I sighed in response, envying the young man. That was such a fun phase of the journey. Now it is struggle and hard work.

I am currently perusing, among other things, Hans von Campenhausen’s Fathers of the Greek Church. Hans — or his English translator — certainly knows how to turn a phrase. He speaks of book learning versus encounter with a spiritual teacher or guide. From the chapter on St. Clement:

Real life-establishing knowledge has to be acquired personally; it can be taught, shown, and witnessed only personally, by word of mouth, in direct responsible encounter. The ultimate knowledge cannot be acquired from books, and it should not be revealed in books. One does not put a knife into the hand of a child. That is why the teacher’s personality is so extraordinarily important and so absolutely indispensable for a living Christianity. Clement urgently exhorts everyone to choose such a spiritual guide and friend as will tell him the truth quite openly, and who is not afraid, if the need arises, to buckle to in earnest, as a means of helping and healing. In the sphere of higher religious knowledge the figure of the teacher attains even more far-reaching importance. He is not merely the vigilant teacher, the Socratic helper and partner on the way to an independent appropriate and appreciation of the truth; as the man who has been caught and consecrated by God, he is the proper mediator of the truth, the first to make it really alive and visible to the beginner. By gradually introducing him to the new world of Christian prayer, vision, and love he transforms the seeker and the simple believer and so for the first time turns him into an understanding, ardent, and radiant ‘knower’ of his Lord. Measured against these ultimate realities and experiences, all merely theoretical knowledge can be no more than a preparation, a kind of pre-knowledge and pre-understanding, like such aids to philosophy as geometry and other propaideumata. Even a Christian book, indeed the very Bible itself, in which all wisdom is contained, cannot simply as a book replace the teacher. The fire of the spirit can be kindled only by a living fire.

Trade Spiritually

Many Orthodox Christians have read St. Seraphim of Sarov’s “Conversation with Motovilov.” How tempting it is to zoom through to get to the “good part” at the end, where St. Seraphim shines with the uncreated light! But that is to give short shrift to all that comes before, the most instructive and edifying part for us Christians in our daily struggles. I spent most of the Nativity Fast with St. Seraphim (and his spiritual son Nicholas Motovilov). I am still only about two thirds of the way through this important exhortation from a modern-day saint. Some things have to be read slowly and digested.

The whole conversation is one closely presented exhortation. It is hard to pick out pieces. At the very least excerpts need to be read in context. Nevertheless, here are some key passages that trace the thread of St. Seraphim’s plea. There is a lot I have left out, especially all the Scriptural passages that the saint explains, and most of the history of salvation, which he goes through. I commend you to the original (link below).

St. Seraphim is truly a saint for modern times. The more I meditate on his sayings, the more I understand that he speaks to us.

~*~*~

“The Lord has revealed to me,” said the great Elder, “that in your childhood you had a great desire to know the aim of our Christian life, and that you continually asked many great spiritual persons about it.”

I must say here that from the age of twelve this thought had constantly troubled me. I had, in fact, approached many clergy about it; but their answers had not satisfied me. This was not known to the Elder.

“But no one,” continued Father Seraphim, “has given you a precise answer. They have said to you: ‘Go to Church, pray to God, do the commandments of God, do good—that is the aim of the Christian life.’ Some were even indignant with you for being occupied with profane curiosity and said to you: ‘Do not seek things that are beyond you.’ But they did not speak as they should. And now poor Seraphim will explain to you in what this aim really consists.

“Prayer, fasting, vigil and all other Christian activities, however good they may be in themselves, do not constitute the aim of our Christian life, although they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end. The true aim of our Christian life consists in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ’s sake, they are only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. But mark, my son, only the good deed done for Christ’s sake brings us the fruits of the Holy Spirit. All that is not done for Christ’s sake, even though it be good, brings neither reward in the future life nor the grace of God in this. That is why our Lord Jesus Christ said: He who gathers not with Me scatters (Luke 11:23)…

~*~*~

“What do you mean by acquiring?” I asked Father Seraphim. “Somehow I don’t understand that.”

“Acquiring is the same as obtaining,” he replied. “You understand, of course, what acquiring money means? Acquiring the Spirit of God is exactly the same. You know well enough what it means in a worldly sense, your Godliness, to acquire. The aim in life of ordinary worldly people is to acquire or make money, and for the nobility it is in addition to receive honours, distinctions and other rewards for their services to the government. The acquisition of God’s Spirit is also capital, but grace-giving and eternal, and it is obtained in very similar ways, almost the same ways as monetary, social and temporal capital.

“God the Word, the God-Man, our Lord Jesus Christ, compares our life with a market, and the work of our life on earth He calls trading, and says to us all: Trade till I come (Lk. 19:13), redeeming the time, because the days are evil (Eph. 5:16). That is to say, make the most of your time for getting heavenly blessings through earthly goods. Earthly goods are good works done for Christ’s sake and conferring on us the grace of the All-Holy Spirit.

~*~*~

“How great is God’s compassion to our misery, that is to say, our inattention to His care for us, when God says: Behold, I stand at the door and knock (Rev. 3:20), meaning by ‘door’ the course of our life which has not yet been closed by death! Oh, how I wish, your Godliness, that in this life you may always be in the Spirit of God! ‘In whatsoever I find you, in that will I judge you,’ says the Lord. [5]

“Woe to us if He finds us overcharged with the cares and sorrows of this life! For who will be able to bear His anger, who will withstand the wrath of His countenance? That is why it has been said: Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation (Mk. 14:38), that is lest you be deprived of the Spirit of God, for watching and prayer bring us His grace.

“Of course, every good deed done for Christ’s sake gives us the grace of the Holy Spirit, but prayer gives us it most of all, for it is always at hand, so to speak, as an instrument for acquiring the grace of the Spirit. For instance, you would like to go to Church, but there is no Church or the Service is over; you would like to give alms to a beggar, but there isn’t one, or you have nothing to give; you would like to preserve your virginity [6], but you have not the strength to do so because of your temperament, or because of the violence of the wiles of the enemy which on account of your human weakness you cannot withstand; you would like to do some other good deed for Christ’s sake, but either you have not the strength or the opportunity is lacking. This certainly does not apply to prayer. Prayer is always possible for everyone, rich and poor, noble and humble, strong and weak, healthy and sick, righteous and sinful.

~*~*~

“Yes, Father, but what about other good deeds done for Christ’s sake in order to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit? You have only been speaking of prayer!”

“Acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit also by practicing all the other virtues for Christ’s sake. Trade spiritually with them; trade with those which give you the greatest profit. Accumulate capital from the superabundance of God’s grace, deposit it in God’s eternal bank which will bring you immaterial interest, not four or six percent, but one hundred percent for one spiritual ruble, and even infinitely more than that. For example, if prayer and watching give you more of God’s grace, watch and pray; if fasting gives you much of the Spirit of God, fast; if almsgiving gives you more, give alms. Weigh every virtue done for Christ’s sake in this manner.

“Now I will tell you about myself, poor Seraphim. I come of a merchant family in Kursk. So when I was not yet in the Monastery we used to trade with the goods which brought us the greatest profit. Act like that, my son. And just as in business the main point is not merely to trade, but to get as much profit as possible, so in the business of the Christian life the main point is not merely to pray or to do some other good deed. … If we understand the commandments of Christ and of the Apostles aright, our business as Christians consists not in increasing the number of our good deeds which are only the means of furthering the purpose of our Christian life, but in deriving from them the utmost profit, that is in acquiring the most abundant gifts of the Holy Spirit.

“How I wish, your Godliness, that you yourself may acquire this inexhaustible source of divine grace, and may always ask yourself: Am I in the Spirit of God or not? And if you are in the Spirit, blessed be God!—there is nothing to grieve about. You are ready to appear before the awful judgement of Christ immediately. For ‘In whatsoever I find you, in that I will judge you.’ But if we are not in the Spirit, we must discover why and for what reason our Lord God the Holy Spirit has willed to abandon us; and we must seek Him again, and must go on searching until our Lord God the Holy Spirit has been found and is with us again through His goodness. And we must attack the enemies that drive us away from Him until even their dust is no more…

“That’s it, my son. That is how you must spiritually trade in virtue. Distribute the Holy Spirit’s gifts of grace to those in need of them, just as a lighted candle burning with earthly fire shines itself and lights other candles for the illumining of all in other places, without diminishing its own light. And if it is so with regard to earthly fire, what shall we say about the fire of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God? For earthly riches decrease with distribution, but the more the heavenly riches of God’s grace are distributed, the more they increase in him who distributes them.

~*~*~

~ St. Seraphim’s conversation with Motovilov

http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/wonderful.aspx

Great Statesmen

The topic of leadership is in the air, especially episcopal leadership. What are the qualities of a good leader?

Paul Johnson, the historian, offers his perspective in “Heroes: What Great Statesmen Have to Teach Us.”

An excerpt:

The fifth and last of the virtues we learn about heroes is magnanimity: greatness of soul. It is not easy to define this supreme quality, which few even among the greatest leaders possess. It is a virtue which makes one warm to its possessor. We not only respect and like, we love Lincoln because he had it to an unusual degree. It was part of his inner being. And Churchill, who also had it, made it one of the top quartet of characteristics which he expected the statesman to show. A passage he penned as the First World War was about to end reads: “In war, resolution. In defeat, defiance. In victory, magnanimity. In peace, good will.” This is a sentiment which all those in public life should learn by heart. It encapsulates the lessons of history better than entire books.