On what the Desert Fathers in yesterday’s post have in common

Adhunt was right, humility was what all those Desert Fathers have in common. But, let me go on and make a couple of more comments. You may need to refer back to yesterday’s post as you read my further comments.

Abba Joseph said, “If you will, you can become all flame.” The command to be perfect is one that Our Lord expected we would obey and follow. That is why St. Paul said, “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” And again, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, . . . I myself should become disqualified.“

Notice that St. Peter echoes Jesus’ call to perfection and gives an outline of how to get there. “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

But, the best understanding of the call to Christian perfection is found in the various collections of the sayings of the Desert Fathers. Like Jesus, and many Middle Eastern teachers, they tended to speak in stories and sayings and demonstrations rather than in logical theological language. Go to the Greeks for theological writings, but go to the Desert Fathers for wisdom. And, to grow towards perfection, one must go to the Desert Fathers. In the Desert Fathers, one finds a group of people, men and women, who had an uncanny appreciation of just how sinful we are and how deep that sin goes. They were unremitting and scathing in their analysis of the depths of our sin, even when we think that we are behaving correctly. Not one of them is ever recorded as saying that they have become perfect. As you can see from the quote from Amma Theodora, they were also unswervingly clear that none of their ascetical practices would get them one step closer to God, in and of themselves. To be accepted by God is a total free gift that is merely received in humility. And, as Amma Theodora says, it is that humility and obedience that the demons most fear, because, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus . . . He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

At the same time, like St. Peter and St. Paul, the Desert Fathers were overwhelmingly clear that the person who is not striving to grow in Christ, and is not practicing self-denial, as a voluntary choice in obedience to the commandments of God, is in as much danger of losing what they have as the man who was given only one talent in the Parable of the Talents. Self-control, self-disciplining of your body and mind, is one of the steps in the process that both St. Peter and St. Paul outline if we wish to grow towards perfection. When we do this, we imitate Christ, of whom the Book of Hebrews says, “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. . . .” In part this is why Abba Abraham only copied parts of the book that the scribe requested. You see, there are many truths of the Christian life which will not be understandable nor will they open for us unless we are willing to add virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, etc., to our faith. Do you wish to know our Lord better and to understand His Word better? Learn to discipline your body and bring it under subjection. As St. James says, even the demons have intellectual knowledge. But, wisdom and true knowledge only come to those who discipline themselves.

Finally, an overwhelming theme throughout both Scripture and the Desert Fathers, and one that I have not had time to cover, is the help of the Holy Spirit. And, not only the help of the Holy Spirit, but also the help of the angels of God, and of your fellow saints. It is clear that the Helper is the only possible way in which we can grow correctly into the image of Christ. Without the Holy Spirit, there is no hope of growth. To quote Luther, “. . . the Spirit and the gifts are ours, thru him who with us sideth. Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill; God’s truth abideth still;
his kingdom is forever.”

And, so I counsel you. Many of you have plenty of intellectual knowledge already. It is time to seek wisdom and, yes, perfection. As Abba Joseph said, “If you will, you can become all flame.”