The monks developed methods for practicing the attitude of love, inner clarity and purity, and openness to God. In the monastic writings we find two recurrent images for our struggle to reach a life that we live ourselves, a life that corresponds to God’s image of us: we are the athletes of Christ and the soldiers of Christ the King.
The monks are athletes of Christ. Their struggle is fought above all against the passions. But, unlike athletes in the arena, they will never permanently conquer their opponents, so they can’t rest on their laurels. Rather our life is a continuous fight. The fathers urge young monks on to this struggle. One can sense the joy of battle in many of their sayings, which express the feeling that we are not abandoned to the demons, that we can conquer through the power of Christ. This chance to triumph inspires the monks in their struggle. Evagrius speaks of the monk who renounces his possessions as an athlete who “cannot be tackled around the waist, and a rapid runner who hastens to the prize of the calling from above.”
According to Evagrius, however, we cannot win the battles against the passions unless “we stand in the battle as strong men and soldiers of our victorious king Jesus Christ Of course, in this battle we need as spiritual weapons a strong faith and solid teaching, that is, perfect fasting, powerful deeds, humility, scarcely disturbed or completely undisturbed silence, and unbroken prayer. But I would like to know if there are any who can carry out the struggle in their soul and can be crowned with the crown of justice if they satisfy their souls with bread and water, foment anger, despise and neglect prayer, and meet with the heretics. For, behold, Paul says: ‘Every athlete exercises self-control in all things’ (1 Cor. 9:25) And so it is certainly fitting that when we undertake this campaign we put on our spiritual armor and show the heathen that we will fight against sin to the point of bloodshed.”
Cassian challenges us to command our thoughts and passions, after the manner of the centurion of Capernaum: “We too can attain the rank of a spiritual centurion; we can hold our own amid the turbulence of our thoughts, create order among them thanks to the power of the gift of discernment [discretio], subject the disorderly crowd of our thoughts to the sovereignty of our reason, and beneath the saving sign of victory of our Lord’s cross drive off all cruel enemies from within us. If we attain the rank of centurion, we shall have such power to command that thoughts will not be able to divert us from the path; and we can abide with those that spiritually delight us. Then we shall simply order the evil suggestions ‘Begone!’ and they will be gone, but tell the good ones ‘Come!’ and they will come. We shall also, like that centurion in the Gospel, be able to command our servant, that is, our body, to do everything needed for continence and chastity; and he will obediently serve us — meaning that he will no longer stir at the proddings of desire, but will follow the orders of the spirit.”
In such statements we sense a lust for battle. Admittedly, asceticism is difficult for the monks, but it also brings joy. For in struggling the monks become stronger. But they are inspired above all by the goal of the struggle: entry into the land of peace, the attainment of apatheia, health of the soul, the experience of inner freedom, an unhampered love, and oneness with God.
Asceticism consists first in making the body docile and subjecting it to our will, becoming master of our drives, free from the demands of our needs.
To begin with, the subjection of the body to the spirit takes place in the ascetical control of diet. The monks give up meat; they eat as little as possible. Many fast and eat only every other day. But the monks also constantly warn about exaggerated fasting. The royal way is to eat once a day, and only a little in the evening, so that one doesn’t become full. Asceticism relates to sleep as well. The monks wished to sleep as little as possible. Cutting down on sleep was already customary among the Pythagoreans. And many other spiritual movements use this method. The fatigue it induces was seen as a prerequisite for experiencing God intensively. When I am tired, I am not very receptive. When I concentrate my lowered receptivity entirely on God, I am more open to God than in complete wakefulness. But for the monks night too was an important place for the experience of God. In the night God visits humans and speaks to their hearts. It is a widely shared experience that we are closer to God at nighttime than during the day.
However, the monks keep warning against carrying asceticism too far, of wanting to subject one’s body with no regard to one’s own limits. Thus Anthony says: “There are some who have destroyed their bodies with penitential exercises. But because they lacked the gift of discernment, they drove themselves far from God.” And Mother Synkletika says: “There is an exaggerated asceticism that is from the enemy. For his disciples make use of it too. How, then, do we distinguish the divine, royal asceticism from the tyrannical and demonic kind? Evidently through moderation.”
Asceticism must not turn into a raging against oneself. Then it would only harm us. Poimen notes that “all excess is from the demons.” Asceticism must also not be applied in the belief that we can redeem ourselves. It is, instead, a response to God’s love, to God’s offer of salvation in Jesus Christ. If God is to transform us through his word and his Spirit, we must hold ourselves out to him; we must free ourselves from everything that weighs us down internally, locks us up, and rules over us. But God alone can work our salvation. Thus the monks are aware of the paradox that we must indeed work hard on ourselves, but that basically we cannot make ourselves better through our own efforts. Only God can do that. Thus in asceticism the monks keep experiencing their own powerlessness. They can’t drag themselves out of the swamp. They learn what grace is precisely when they reach a limit in their struggle. Then they sense that God alone can give them the victory, can grant them true peace and lasting love.
~Anselm Gruen, Heaven Begins Within You: Wisdom from the Desert Fathers
