Ladder of Divine Ascent Step 15
Step Fifteen on Chastity “Keeping Ourselves Pure”
We have heard from that raving mistress gluttony, who has just spoken, that her offspring is war against bodily chastity.…
Colossians 3:5 - Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Ephesians 5:3 - But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
Romans 13:13 - Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
1 Thessalonians 4:7 - For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
In this step, St. John writes about the struggle for chastity: "The man who decides to struggle against his flesh and to overcome it by his own efforts is fighting in vain. The truth is that unless the Lord overturns the house of the flesh and builds the house of the soul, the man wishing to overcome it has watched and fasted for nothing. Offer the Lord the weakness of your nature. Admit your incapacity and, without your knowing it, you will win for yourself the gift of chastity."
John promises, you will win for yourself the gift of chastity. Sadly, in today's world, these words sound foreign. As a society, we have abandoned the concept of virtue and purity. On our television screens and in the movie theaters, we calmly watch without reaction repeated violations of chastity.
As Christians we have come to accept and tolerate attitudes and behaviors in ourselves and others that at another time would have been unthinkable. In so many ways we have lost sight of the fact that Chastity is not only precious in the eyes of God but a necessary virtue for us to obtain in our ascent to heaven. Holy Scripture makes this clear: "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness . . . and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Gal 5:19,21). For this reason, St. John calls unchastity "a sort of death within us, a sin that is catastrophic."
What then is Chastity? St. John answers: "The chaste man is not someone with a body undefiled, but rather a person whose members are in complete subjection to the soul."
The struggle for chastity begins with controlling the body’s desires. It ends with the transfiguration of the body’s desires. A chaste man is someone who has driven out bodily love by means of divine love, who has used heavenly fire to quench the fires of the flesh. He is pure who expels love with love and who has extinguished the material fire by the immaterial fire.
One must remember that for St. John the body is both adversary and friend: adversary in as much as it has been marred by the fall, friend in as much as it remains God's creation and is called to share in the resurrection glory. For the Christian, the body is not a tomb or prison, not a piece of clothing to be worn for a time and then cast aside, but an integral part of the true self. The Christian's aim is "a body made holy." We are told in Scripture, “Be holy for I am holy” ( 1 Peter 1:16). Likewise, the passions, although a consequence of the fall and therefore no true part of human nature, are merely the distortion of the natural impulses implanted by God. While repudiating the passions, we should not reject the natural God-given impulses that underlie them, but should restore to good use that which has become misdirected as a result of the fall.
Our watchword should be "transfigure" not "suppress"; "educate" not "eradicate". Therefore, physical eros is not to be considered sinful, but can and should be used as a way of glorifying God. In fact, physical love can be a paradigm of our longing for God. The struggle for chastity, then, begins with controlling the body's desires, through prayer and spiritual discipline, and ends with their transfiguration. Having overcome the passion, we are free to be our true selves, free to love others, free to love God.
How do we fight against the spirit of unchastity? St. John speaks a great deal about the necessity of doing serious battle against "evil thoughts" - that is, thoughts provoked by demons. This also includes conceptual images such as fantasies. Never brood by day the fantasies that have occurred to you during sleep.
Chastity begins in the mind!!! John insists that we must never allow ourselves to hear or look at anything unchaste.
We should strive in all possible ways neither to see nor to hear of that fruit we have vowed never to taste. It amazes me to think we could imagine ourselves to be stronger than the prophet David, something quite impossible indeed.
Do you think your stronger than David?
Through ascetical discipline, the practice of self-denial, and prayer we must foster watchfulness - a state of spiritual sobriety, alertness, and vigilance in which one constantly guards the heart and intellect. In our discipline we must be as relentless and cunning as the demons who tempt us. With one difference - - We must in humility recognize our weakness and absolute dependence upon God to attain this virtue.
In the battle for chastity, we must rely only on the grace of God. It alone can transform nature.
Do not imagine that you will overwhelm the demon of fornication by entering into an argument with him. Nature is on his side and he has the best of the argument. So the man who decides to struggle against his flesh and to overcome it by his own efforts is fighting in vain.
John warns that we must not be fooled by periods of continence, bodily restraint, moderation. Rather we must take precautions against the enemy, studying how he works.
When our spiritual foes are drawn up to do battle with us, we should ponder what it is they can do, just as we would take precautions in a visible war. In the battle against ascetics and those leading the solitary life, the devil regularly uses all his force, zeal and low skill, all his intrigue, cleverness, and evil designs to overpower them by means that are unnatural rather than according to nature.
Our relentless enemy, the teacher of fornication, whispers that God is lenient and particularly merciful to this passion, since it is so very natural. He wants you to believe that its just you and it’s a natural trait you have. Yet if we watch the wiles of the demons we will observe that after we have actually sinned they will affirm that God is a just and inexorable judge. They say one thing to lead us into sin, another thing to overwhelm us in despair. And if we are sorrowful or inclined to despair, we are slower to sin again, but when the sorrow and the despair have been quenched, the tyrannical demon begins to speak to us again of God's mercy.
He is relentless, he is not stopping in trying to cause you to step down from who you are.
In the following paragraphs John tells us that in striving for chastity we need not only cultivate temperance, but the virtues of obedience wherein one learns to renounce his own life and desires to God, stillness through which one develops and accurate knowledge of his feelings, thoughts and perceptions, and humility wherein one acknowledges his absolute dependence upon the grace of God. In every way we must be sober and watchful, guarding each of the senses, knowing the times when temptation is most likely to come, and arming ourselves with the necessary weapons for battle.
1 Peter 5:8 (EXB) Control [Discipline] yourselves and be ·careful [alert]! The devil, your enemy, ·goes around [prowls] like a roaring lion looking for someone to ·eat [devour].
The mother of chastity is stillness and obedience. Often the dispassion of body attained by stillness has been disturbed whenever the world impinged on it. But dispassion achieved through obedience is genuine and is everywhere unshakable.
The man who imagines he can conquer the demon of fornication by gluttony and by stuffing himself is quite like someone who quenches fire with oil. And the man who tries to put an end to this struggle by means of temperance only is like someone trying to escape from the sea by swimming with just one hand. However, join humility to temperance, for the one is useless without the other.
The body can be defiled by the merest touch, for of all the senses this is the most dangerous.
We have to be especially sober and watchful when we are lying in bed, for that is the time when our mind has to contend with demons outside our body. And if our body is inclined to be sensual then it will easily betray us. So let the remembrance of death and the concise Jesus prayer go to sleep with you and get up with you, for nothing helps you as these do when you are asleep.
When temptation comes, our best weapons are sackcloth and ashes, all-night vigils standing up, hunger, the merest touch of water and most important of all, humility of heart; and if possible a spiritual director or a helpful brother, old in wisdom rather than years, should also support us. Indeed it would come as a great surprise if anyone could, by his own efforts alone, save his ship from the sea.
Jesus said this kind does not go out but by fasting and prayer (Matt 17:21).
We must guard against becoming prideful or easing up on our discipline. Demons, John warns, often hide themselves in order to bring about a greater fall. Therefore, we must never look upon or listen to those things which may lead to impurity. We must not subject ourselves even once to anything that is sinful. To do so is to weaken our resolve and to expose ourselves to future conflict.
But all of you who wish to practice purity and preserve it would listen now to another cunning stratagem of that deceiver, for I have been told by someone who had to suffer the experience that the demon of sensuality often hid himself completely. Then he would have a monk sit or talk with women. He would inspire him with great piety and even a flood of tears, and then suggest that he speak about the remembrance of death, judgment, and chastity. The unfortunate women, deceived by his words and spurious piety, would rush to him, thinking him to be a shepherd instead of the wolf he really was. Acquaintance would grow into familiarity, and the wretched monk would suffer his downfall.
The serpent of sensuality has many faces. To those who have had no experience of sin he suggests the idea of trying it once and then stopping. Then the crafty creature, exploiting the recollection of having sinned once, urges them to try again. And many of the people without experience feel no conflict within themselves because they do not know what is evil, whereas the experienced, knowing the evil for what it is, suffer disturbance and conflict . . .
John gives us an analysis of the process of temptation in order that we might learn how the demons seek to incite us to sin. He admits, that while one may understand this process, the onslaught of a disturbance and thought is often so swift that it is beyond a man's recognition. This demon is persistent and patient. It is cunning; even when thwarted by our efforts it will always seek a new point of entry. We must fight hard and get into the habit of waging war for, as John warns, this demon tries harder than all the others (Ephesians 6:10).
Captivity is a forcible and unwilling abduction of the heart, a permanent lingering with what we have encountered and which totally undermines the necessary order of our souls. By struggle they mean force equal to that which is leading the attack, and this force wins or loses according to the desires of the spirit.
Captivity is judged in different ways, depending on whether it happens at the time of prayer or at some other time, whether it happens in regard to what is unimportant or in the context of evil thoughts. But passion is unequivocally denounced in every situation and requires suitable repentance or future punishment. From all of which it follows that he who regards the first encounter with detachment cuts off with one blow all the rest that follow.
The most exact of the spiritual Fathers point to another more subtle notion, something they call pararripismos, or disturbance of the mind. John speaks of this as a “flick of the intellect.” What happens is this. In a moment, without a word being spoken or an image presented, a sudden passionate urge lays hold of the victim. It comes faster than anything in the physical world and is swifter and more indiscernible than any spirit. It makes its appearance in the soul by a simple memory, which is unconnected with anything, independent of time and inexpressible, and in some cases comes without the person himself realizing the fact. Someone who has been able to detect such a subtlety, someone with the gift of mourning, may be able to explain how with the eye alone, with a mere glance, by the touch of the hand, through a song overheard, the soul is led to commit a definite sin of unchastity without any notion or evil thought.
Without constant guard or thought of our heart and soul, we are attacked and move into the trap set for us, thus our downfall. Any laxiety is an automatic hit, stay on guard.
After we have fought long and hard against this demon, this ally of the flesh, after we have driven it out of our heart, torturing it with the stone of fasting and the sword of humility, this scourge goes into hiding in our bodies, like some kind of worm, and it tries to pollute us, stimulating us to irrational and untimely movements. This particularly happens to those who have fallen to the demon of vainglory, for since dirty thoughts no longer preoccupy their hearts they fall victim to pride. Such people can discover whether or not this is true if once they have attained a certain stillness they quietly take stock of themselves. For they will then discover that deep down in their hearts, like a snake in dung, is the notion that by their own efforts and enthusiasm they made great advances in purity. Poor wretches! They forget the saying: "What have you got that you did not receive as a gift either from God or as a result of the help and prayers of others?" (cf. 1 Cor 4:7). Let them beware then. Let them with all zeal eject from their hearts the snake mentioned above. Let them kill it with great humility . .
This demon is especially on the lookout for our weak moments and will viciously assail us when we are physically unable to pray against it.
The effort of bodily prayer can help those not yet granted real prayer of the heart. I am referring to the stretching out of the hands, the beating of the breast, the sincere raising of the eyes heavenward, deep sighs and constant prostrations. But go somewhere apart, if you can. Hide for a while in some secret place. If you can, lift up the eyes of your soul, but if not, the eyes of your body. Stand still with your arms in the shape of the cross so that with this sign you may shame and conquer your Amalek. Cry out to God, Who has the strength to save you. Do not bother with elegant and clever words. Just speak humbly, beginning with, "Have mercy on me, for I am weak" (Ps. 6:3). And then you will come to experience the power of the Most High and with help from heaven you will drive off your invisible foes. The man who gets into the habit of waging war in this way will soon put his enemies to flight solely by means of spiritual resources, for this is the reward God likes to bestow on those who put up a good struggle, and rightly so.
There is no way of concentrating on God, of looking upward toward God, while at the same time subsiding to worldly cares, looking downward or the other way, “Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8). To look into opposite directions at the same time is to see nothing either properly or clearly. It is a form of duplicity (contradictory doubleness of thought, speech, or action; especially : the belying of one's true intentions by deceptive words or action). For John, it is like holding your legs together tightly and simultaneously trying to walk quickly. The intellect is “pure” (Katharos) only when it beholds Gods grace, which alone can purify it. Total concentration is, in fact, a mutual, personal relationship with God; then, the intellect speaks to God, in prayer, “face to face” or rather into Gods ear.
All demons try to darken our minds so that they may then suggest to us what they want us to do, and so long as the mind stays awake we will not be robbed of our treasure. But the demon of fornication tries harder than all the others. First, by darkening our minds, which guide us, it urges and inclines us in the presence of other people to do things that only the mad would think of.
In these final paragraphs John poetically describes the mystery of the human person, the disunity that we experience within ourselves and the nature of our quest for personal integration.
By what rule or manner can I bind this body of mine? By what precedent can I judge him? How can I hate him when my nature disposes me to love him? How can I break away from him when I am bound to him forever? How can I escape from him when he is going to rise with me? How can I make him incorrupt when he has received a corruptible nature? How can I argue with him when all the arguments of nature are on his side?
If I try to bind him through fasting, with the result that I am handed over to him again. If I defeat him by not passing judgment I turn proud - and I am in thrall to him once more. He is my helper and my enemy, my assistant and my opponent, a protector and a traitor. I am kind to him and he assaults me. If I wear him out he gets weak. If he has a rest he becomes unruly. If I upset him he cannot stand it. If I mortify him I endanger myself. If I strike him down I have nothing left by which to acquire virtues. I embrace him. And I turn away from him.
What is this mystery in me? What is the principle of this mixture of body and soul? How can I be my own friend and my own enemy? Speak to me! Speak to me, my yoke-fellow, my nature! I cannot ask anyone else about you. How can I remain uninjured by you? How can I escape the danger of my own nature? I have made a promise to Christ that I will fight you, yet how can I defeat your tyranny? But this I have resolved, namely, that I am going to master you.
And this is what the flesh might say in reply: "I will never tell you what you do not already know. I will speak the knowledge we both have. Within me is my begetter, the love of self. The fire that comes to me from outside is too much pampering and care. The fire within me is past ease and things long done. I conceived and give birth to sins, and they when born beget death by despair in their turn. And yet if you have learned the sure and rooted weakness within both you and me, you have manacled my hands. Manacled = A device for confining the hands, usually consisting of a set of two metal rings that are fastened about the wrists and joined by a metal chain, handcuffed. If you starve your longings, you have bound my feet, and they can travel no further. If you have taken up the yoke of obedience, you have cast my yoke aside. If you have taken possession of humility, you have cut off my head."
This is the fifteenth reward of victory. He who has earned it while still alive has died and been resurrected. From now on he has a taste of the immortality to come.
We have heard from that raving mistress gluttony, who has just spoken, that her offspring is war against bodily chastity.…
Colossians 3:5 - Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Ephesians 5:3 - But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
Romans 13:13 - Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
1 Thessalonians 4:7 - For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
In this step, St. John writes about the struggle for chastity: "The man who decides to struggle against his flesh and to overcome it by his own efforts is fighting in vain. The truth is that unless the Lord overturns the house of the flesh and builds the house of the soul, the man wishing to overcome it has watched and fasted for nothing. Offer the Lord the weakness of your nature. Admit your incapacity and, without your knowing it, you will win for yourself the gift of chastity."
John promises, you will win for yourself the gift of chastity. Sadly, in today's world, these words sound foreign. As a society, we have abandoned the concept of virtue and purity. On our television screens and in the movie theaters, we calmly watch without reaction repeated violations of chastity.
As Christians we have come to accept and tolerate attitudes and behaviors in ourselves and others that at another time would have been unthinkable. In so many ways we have lost sight of the fact that Chastity is not only precious in the eyes of God but a necessary virtue for us to obtain in our ascent to heaven. Holy Scripture makes this clear: "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness . . . and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Gal 5:19,21). For this reason, St. John calls unchastity "a sort of death within us, a sin that is catastrophic."
What then is Chastity? St. John answers: "The chaste man is not someone with a body undefiled, but rather a person whose members are in complete subjection to the soul."
The struggle for chastity begins with controlling the body’s desires. It ends with the transfiguration of the body’s desires. A chaste man is someone who has driven out bodily love by means of divine love, who has used heavenly fire to quench the fires of the flesh. He is pure who expels love with love and who has extinguished the material fire by the immaterial fire.
One must remember that for St. John the body is both adversary and friend: adversary in as much as it has been marred by the fall, friend in as much as it remains God's creation and is called to share in the resurrection glory. For the Christian, the body is not a tomb or prison, not a piece of clothing to be worn for a time and then cast aside, but an integral part of the true self. The Christian's aim is "a body made holy." We are told in Scripture, “Be holy for I am holy” ( 1 Peter 1:16). Likewise, the passions, although a consequence of the fall and therefore no true part of human nature, are merely the distortion of the natural impulses implanted by God. While repudiating the passions, we should not reject the natural God-given impulses that underlie them, but should restore to good use that which has become misdirected as a result of the fall.
Our watchword should be "transfigure" not "suppress"; "educate" not "eradicate". Therefore, physical eros is not to be considered sinful, but can and should be used as a way of glorifying God. In fact, physical love can be a paradigm of our longing for God. The struggle for chastity, then, begins with controlling the body's desires, through prayer and spiritual discipline, and ends with their transfiguration. Having overcome the passion, we are free to be our true selves, free to love others, free to love God.
How do we fight against the spirit of unchastity? St. John speaks a great deal about the necessity of doing serious battle against "evil thoughts" - that is, thoughts provoked by demons. This also includes conceptual images such as fantasies. Never brood by day the fantasies that have occurred to you during sleep.
Chastity begins in the mind!!! John insists that we must never allow ourselves to hear or look at anything unchaste.
We should strive in all possible ways neither to see nor to hear of that fruit we have vowed never to taste. It amazes me to think we could imagine ourselves to be stronger than the prophet David, something quite impossible indeed.
Do you think your stronger than David?
Through ascetical discipline, the practice of self-denial, and prayer we must foster watchfulness - a state of spiritual sobriety, alertness, and vigilance in which one constantly guards the heart and intellect. In our discipline we must be as relentless and cunning as the demons who tempt us. With one difference - - We must in humility recognize our weakness and absolute dependence upon God to attain this virtue.
In the battle for chastity, we must rely only on the grace of God. It alone can transform nature.
Do not imagine that you will overwhelm the demon of fornication by entering into an argument with him. Nature is on his side and he has the best of the argument. So the man who decides to struggle against his flesh and to overcome it by his own efforts is fighting in vain.
John warns that we must not be fooled by periods of continence, bodily restraint, moderation. Rather we must take precautions against the enemy, studying how he works.
When our spiritual foes are drawn up to do battle with us, we should ponder what it is they can do, just as we would take precautions in a visible war. In the battle against ascetics and those leading the solitary life, the devil regularly uses all his force, zeal and low skill, all his intrigue, cleverness, and evil designs to overpower them by means that are unnatural rather than according to nature.
Our relentless enemy, the teacher of fornication, whispers that God is lenient and particularly merciful to this passion, since it is so very natural. He wants you to believe that its just you and it’s a natural trait you have. Yet if we watch the wiles of the demons we will observe that after we have actually sinned they will affirm that God is a just and inexorable judge. They say one thing to lead us into sin, another thing to overwhelm us in despair. And if we are sorrowful or inclined to despair, we are slower to sin again, but when the sorrow and the despair have been quenched, the tyrannical demon begins to speak to us again of God's mercy.
He is relentless, he is not stopping in trying to cause you to step down from who you are.
In the following paragraphs John tells us that in striving for chastity we need not only cultivate temperance, but the virtues of obedience wherein one learns to renounce his own life and desires to God, stillness through which one develops and accurate knowledge of his feelings, thoughts and perceptions, and humility wherein one acknowledges his absolute dependence upon the grace of God. In every way we must be sober and watchful, guarding each of the senses, knowing the times when temptation is most likely to come, and arming ourselves with the necessary weapons for battle.
1 Peter 5:8 (EXB) Control [Discipline] yourselves and be ·careful [alert]! The devil, your enemy, ·goes around [prowls] like a roaring lion looking for someone to ·eat [devour].
The mother of chastity is stillness and obedience. Often the dispassion of body attained by stillness has been disturbed whenever the world impinged on it. But dispassion achieved through obedience is genuine and is everywhere unshakable.
The man who imagines he can conquer the demon of fornication by gluttony and by stuffing himself is quite like someone who quenches fire with oil. And the man who tries to put an end to this struggle by means of temperance only is like someone trying to escape from the sea by swimming with just one hand. However, join humility to temperance, for the one is useless without the other.
The body can be defiled by the merest touch, for of all the senses this is the most dangerous.
We have to be especially sober and watchful when we are lying in bed, for that is the time when our mind has to contend with demons outside our body. And if our body is inclined to be sensual then it will easily betray us. So let the remembrance of death and the concise Jesus prayer go to sleep with you and get up with you, for nothing helps you as these do when you are asleep.
When temptation comes, our best weapons are sackcloth and ashes, all-night vigils standing up, hunger, the merest touch of water and most important of all, humility of heart; and if possible a spiritual director or a helpful brother, old in wisdom rather than years, should also support us. Indeed it would come as a great surprise if anyone could, by his own efforts alone, save his ship from the sea.
Jesus said this kind does not go out but by fasting and prayer (Matt 17:21).
We must guard against becoming prideful or easing up on our discipline. Demons, John warns, often hide themselves in order to bring about a greater fall. Therefore, we must never look upon or listen to those things which may lead to impurity. We must not subject ourselves even once to anything that is sinful. To do so is to weaken our resolve and to expose ourselves to future conflict.
But all of you who wish to practice purity and preserve it would listen now to another cunning stratagem of that deceiver, for I have been told by someone who had to suffer the experience that the demon of sensuality often hid himself completely. Then he would have a monk sit or talk with women. He would inspire him with great piety and even a flood of tears, and then suggest that he speak about the remembrance of death, judgment, and chastity. The unfortunate women, deceived by his words and spurious piety, would rush to him, thinking him to be a shepherd instead of the wolf he really was. Acquaintance would grow into familiarity, and the wretched monk would suffer his downfall.
The serpent of sensuality has many faces. To those who have had no experience of sin he suggests the idea of trying it once and then stopping. Then the crafty creature, exploiting the recollection of having sinned once, urges them to try again. And many of the people without experience feel no conflict within themselves because they do not know what is evil, whereas the experienced, knowing the evil for what it is, suffer disturbance and conflict . . .
John gives us an analysis of the process of temptation in order that we might learn how the demons seek to incite us to sin. He admits, that while one may understand this process, the onslaught of a disturbance and thought is often so swift that it is beyond a man's recognition. This demon is persistent and patient. It is cunning; even when thwarted by our efforts it will always seek a new point of entry. We must fight hard and get into the habit of waging war for, as John warns, this demon tries harder than all the others (Ephesians 6:10).
Captivity is a forcible and unwilling abduction of the heart, a permanent lingering with what we have encountered and which totally undermines the necessary order of our souls. By struggle they mean force equal to that which is leading the attack, and this force wins or loses according to the desires of the spirit.
Captivity is judged in different ways, depending on whether it happens at the time of prayer or at some other time, whether it happens in regard to what is unimportant or in the context of evil thoughts. But passion is unequivocally denounced in every situation and requires suitable repentance or future punishment. From all of which it follows that he who regards the first encounter with detachment cuts off with one blow all the rest that follow.
The most exact of the spiritual Fathers point to another more subtle notion, something they call pararripismos, or disturbance of the mind. John speaks of this as a “flick of the intellect.” What happens is this. In a moment, without a word being spoken or an image presented, a sudden passionate urge lays hold of the victim. It comes faster than anything in the physical world and is swifter and more indiscernible than any spirit. It makes its appearance in the soul by a simple memory, which is unconnected with anything, independent of time and inexpressible, and in some cases comes without the person himself realizing the fact. Someone who has been able to detect such a subtlety, someone with the gift of mourning, may be able to explain how with the eye alone, with a mere glance, by the touch of the hand, through a song overheard, the soul is led to commit a definite sin of unchastity without any notion or evil thought.
Without constant guard or thought of our heart and soul, we are attacked and move into the trap set for us, thus our downfall. Any laxiety is an automatic hit, stay on guard.
After we have fought long and hard against this demon, this ally of the flesh, after we have driven it out of our heart, torturing it with the stone of fasting and the sword of humility, this scourge goes into hiding in our bodies, like some kind of worm, and it tries to pollute us, stimulating us to irrational and untimely movements. This particularly happens to those who have fallen to the demon of vainglory, for since dirty thoughts no longer preoccupy their hearts they fall victim to pride. Such people can discover whether or not this is true if once they have attained a certain stillness they quietly take stock of themselves. For they will then discover that deep down in their hearts, like a snake in dung, is the notion that by their own efforts and enthusiasm they made great advances in purity. Poor wretches! They forget the saying: "What have you got that you did not receive as a gift either from God or as a result of the help and prayers of others?" (cf. 1 Cor 4:7). Let them beware then. Let them with all zeal eject from their hearts the snake mentioned above. Let them kill it with great humility . .
This demon is especially on the lookout for our weak moments and will viciously assail us when we are physically unable to pray against it.
The effort of bodily prayer can help those not yet granted real prayer of the heart. I am referring to the stretching out of the hands, the beating of the breast, the sincere raising of the eyes heavenward, deep sighs and constant prostrations. But go somewhere apart, if you can. Hide for a while in some secret place. If you can, lift up the eyes of your soul, but if not, the eyes of your body. Stand still with your arms in the shape of the cross so that with this sign you may shame and conquer your Amalek. Cry out to God, Who has the strength to save you. Do not bother with elegant and clever words. Just speak humbly, beginning with, "Have mercy on me, for I am weak" (Ps. 6:3). And then you will come to experience the power of the Most High and with help from heaven you will drive off your invisible foes. The man who gets into the habit of waging war in this way will soon put his enemies to flight solely by means of spiritual resources, for this is the reward God likes to bestow on those who put up a good struggle, and rightly so.
There is no way of concentrating on God, of looking upward toward God, while at the same time subsiding to worldly cares, looking downward or the other way, “Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8). To look into opposite directions at the same time is to see nothing either properly or clearly. It is a form of duplicity (contradictory doubleness of thought, speech, or action; especially : the belying of one's true intentions by deceptive words or action). For John, it is like holding your legs together tightly and simultaneously trying to walk quickly. The intellect is “pure” (Katharos) only when it beholds Gods grace, which alone can purify it. Total concentration is, in fact, a mutual, personal relationship with God; then, the intellect speaks to God, in prayer, “face to face” or rather into Gods ear.
All demons try to darken our minds so that they may then suggest to us what they want us to do, and so long as the mind stays awake we will not be robbed of our treasure. But the demon of fornication tries harder than all the others. First, by darkening our minds, which guide us, it urges and inclines us in the presence of other people to do things that only the mad would think of.
In these final paragraphs John poetically describes the mystery of the human person, the disunity that we experience within ourselves and the nature of our quest for personal integration.
By what rule or manner can I bind this body of mine? By what precedent can I judge him? How can I hate him when my nature disposes me to love him? How can I break away from him when I am bound to him forever? How can I escape from him when he is going to rise with me? How can I make him incorrupt when he has received a corruptible nature? How can I argue with him when all the arguments of nature are on his side?
If I try to bind him through fasting, with the result that I am handed over to him again. If I defeat him by not passing judgment I turn proud - and I am in thrall to him once more. He is my helper and my enemy, my assistant and my opponent, a protector and a traitor. I am kind to him and he assaults me. If I wear him out he gets weak. If he has a rest he becomes unruly. If I upset him he cannot stand it. If I mortify him I endanger myself. If I strike him down I have nothing left by which to acquire virtues. I embrace him. And I turn away from him.
What is this mystery in me? What is the principle of this mixture of body and soul? How can I be my own friend and my own enemy? Speak to me! Speak to me, my yoke-fellow, my nature! I cannot ask anyone else about you. How can I remain uninjured by you? How can I escape the danger of my own nature? I have made a promise to Christ that I will fight you, yet how can I defeat your tyranny? But this I have resolved, namely, that I am going to master you.
And this is what the flesh might say in reply: "I will never tell you what you do not already know. I will speak the knowledge we both have. Within me is my begetter, the love of self. The fire that comes to me from outside is too much pampering and care. The fire within me is past ease and things long done. I conceived and give birth to sins, and they when born beget death by despair in their turn. And yet if you have learned the sure and rooted weakness within both you and me, you have manacled my hands. Manacled = A device for confining the hands, usually consisting of a set of two metal rings that are fastened about the wrists and joined by a metal chain, handcuffed. If you starve your longings, you have bound my feet, and they can travel no further. If you have taken up the yoke of obedience, you have cast my yoke aside. If you have taken possession of humility, you have cut off my head."
This is the fifteenth reward of victory. He who has earned it while still alive has died and been resurrected. From now on he has a taste of the immortality to come.
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