Balance, we have already noted, can only be attained through discretion and discernment. Yet, there is another key virtue that the monk must seek if he is going to walk the royal road according to the Conferences. This is the fifth and final virtue on our list, namely, humility, which, according to Abba Moses, is the foundational virtue lying beneath a Christian’s ability to practice discernment and discretion and thus, by extension, to live a life of balance. For Abba Moses, humility is first approached by the monk who sets aside his own will and judgment, and follows the advice of the elders. It is thus closely related to discretion and discernment as a prerequisite to both.
True discretion, he said, is only acquired by true humility. The first sign of such humility comes when both everything one plans to do and everything one thinks are submitted to the elders for examination, this done to the point that, thinking nothing of his own judgment, one yields to their guidance in everything.38
Abba Moses follows this statement with a story regarding one of the other monks in the desert who had taken to stealing a little bit of food every day, but who ultimately repented and confessed his actions to his elder. By bringing his sin out into the light through this act of humility, the young monk found himself freed from his guilt, his powers of discretion ultimately strengthened by the experience. 39
Humility, like discernment and discretion, begins with a basic distrust of one’s own judgments, and a submission of these judgments to one’s spiritual elders. Yet, it means more than this in the Conferences. The Christian who seeks humility must also become aware of the limited power of his own works, and realize that it is only through God’s grace that he can overcome temptations, embrace virtues, and walk the royal road of balance. In the fifth conference, Abba Serapion makes clear that the monk who manages to conquer some of his vices must not take any credit for the victory himself, but must realize that the victory belongs to God.
Thus, we are assured by actual experience-and taught by countless passages in scripture-that we cannot overcome these powerful enemies by our own strength, but only with the aid and support of God. To him we must credit the whole of our success each day. On this point the Lord (through Moses) declares: “Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has destroyed them in your sight: ‘for my righteousness has the Lord guided me to possess this land, while these nations are destroyed for their wickedness”‘ [Deut 9.4].40
Here, Abba Serapion responds to one of the key problems that the monk (or any Christian) faces as he or she struggles to attain purity of heart. Success in such a pursuit presents the Christian with a paradox-it must be acknowledged for the victory that it is, and yet it cannot be allowed to lead to pride and self-congratulation—things that would pull the Christian down into a worse place than the one from which she began. The solution to this problem, according to Abba Serapion, is simply to remember that the victory over sin belongs to God, and not to the victorious Christian.
This remembrance of the work of God in overcoming vice and sin is central to the life of humility. In remembering that only God liberates the Christian to virtue, a person sets himself aside in much the same way that he does when he follows the counsels of the elders rather than the judgments of his own mind. Ultimately, humility in the Conferences amounts to a pouring out of the self in order that all judgments of the mind, and all credit for attaining virtue, may be replaced by God’s wisdom, and credit given to God. Indeed, when a monk submits himself to the elders it is not ultimately mere human beings in the desert who become his guides, but rather God working through those who, by way of their own humility, have come to be guided by God.
In much the same way, the Christian who credits God’s grace for conquering sin is guided in all things by God, and never by his own mind. In humility, the Christian’s own capacity for personal judgment and self-congratulation will atrophy over time as she becomes so accustomed to following the guidance of God that she becomes incapable of walking any other path. In such a state, the Christian will by definition also have attained the fullness of discernment and discretion, because God cannot but guide the Christian to truth. Through the execution of such discretion and discernment, the Christian will, in turn, find herself living out the life of balance that is necessary for purity of heart.
These, then, are the prime virtues that the Christian seeks. As we have noted, this is not an exhaustive list of all the possible virtues, nor is it even an account of every virtue discussed in St John Cassian’s writings specifically. Indeed, in the remainder of this book we will bring up a few of the many other virtues discussed in the Conferences as each becomes important in a given chapter. These include, for instance, charity, compassion, chastity, and patience. As we have already noted, these relational virtues are better treated in subsequent chapters.
We should make special note that also on the list of virtues that we will treat later on is love. I draw this fact out especially because it may be somewhat surprising. After all, love is of the utmost importance in scripture, prayer, and all of Christian life. It is one of the defining characteristics of purity of heart, as we have seen, and it is frequently presented (including by the Conferences) as the greatest of all Christian virtues. However, our choice not to class love as a primary virtue for discussion here does not reflect any low place of importance. Rather it simply reflects the fact that love is something that is directed to others, or to God. It is a relational category once again. Therefore, it will be better to define Christian love explicitly in chapter two (our discussion of lay life in society).
~Daniel G. Opperwall, A Layman in the Desert
38 Conf. 2.X. I.
39 Conf. 2.XI.I-6.
40 Conf. 5.XV:2.
