LADDER OF DIVINE ASCENT STEP 9
Step Nine On Remembrance of Wrongs “Letting the Past be Past”
ON MALICE (On Remembrance of Wrongs)
Ephesians 4:31-32 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Colossians 3:7-8 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Ephesians 4:26-31 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ...
The remembrance of wrongs, real or imaginary, has senseless anger for its mother. 2 Remembrance of wrongs is the consummation of anger, it is the keeper of sin (this is when we say “I will remember that” and in so doing, we never let go of the offenses done to us). It hates a just way of life, the ruin of virtues, poison of the soul, worm of the mind, shame of prayer, stopping of supplication. It is turning away from love. A nail stuck in the soul, it is a pleasure-less feeling cherished in the sweetness of bitterness. It is a never-ending sin, an unsleeping wrong, a dark and loathsome passion (hourly malice).
When we become angry, upset, and bothered by the actions of others, if we embrace that anger and claim it as our own (rather than rejecting it as belonging to the devil), if we take it into our hearts and into our souls and nourish it, feed it with our memory (which has a tendency to exaggerate what it remembers, tilting it to our favor), we have practiced what is being described here. It is practicing what is called the “broken record” syndrome: playing the hurts over and over again in our minds.
4. He who conquers anger wipes out the remembrance of wrongs, because childbirth continues only while the father is alive…. Remember, this only grows as we provide for it. By rehearsing, pursing, and nursing the remembrance.
5. A loving man banishes revenge; but a man remembering wrong stores up troublesome labor for himself.
When anger is taken into our hearts and fed by our memory, it soon pushes other things out of our hearts. The nature of anger is that it is always growing.
The man who has put a stop to anger has also wiped out remembrance of wrongs. We must learn how to immediately reject the feelings of anger and disturbance as being satan-inspired and spiritually destructive.
Forgive quickly and you will be abundantly forgiven. To forget wrongs is to prove oneself truly repentant….
If we find ourselves unable to forgive the person, we must remind ourselves who is the real source of sin and destruction. To remind ourselves constantly of his ability to deceive is to remind ourselves to stay far away from his devices and stay close to the Holy Church, to listen and obey the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
If you must remember wrongs, think only of the wrongs the devil has done to you. He desires to make your life an ungrateful and treacherous friend. The more you care for it, the more it hurts you. 9 Be malicious and spiteful against the demons……..
10 Remembrance of wrongs is an interpreter of Scripture of the kind that adjusts the words of the Spirit to its own views.
Malice twists the words of Scriptures to suit itself. Malice is gone only when you do not rejoice at the misfortune of him who has offended you. To remove malice, see what your sin did to Jesus. Embrace malice and you will have no forgiveness. To forget wrongs is proof you are repentant. To remember wrongs is proof of an unrepentant soul.
In order to rid ourselves of this vice, we must purge ourselves of anger. Our greatest weapon in this task is the Lord's Prayer (The Jesus Prayer). For we cannot but be put to shame for our maliciousness when we ceaselessly cry out to God to forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
10 Let it be put to shame by the Prayer of Jesus which cannot be said with it. (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me a sinner)….
11 If after great effort you still fail to root out this thorn, go to your enemy and apologize…..
Mark 11:25 (Common English Version) “And whenever you stand up to pray, if you have something against anyone, forgive so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your wrongdoings."
Hard words!! But how much harder is hell!! If in case you don’t see how these words apply to you, consider the following…
12 You will know that you have completely got rid of this rot (decay and corruption of soul) not when you pray for the person who has offended you, nor when you exchange presents with him, nor when you invite him to your table, but only when, on hearing that he has fallen into spiritual or bodily misfortune, you suffer and weep for him as for yourself.
REMEMBRANCE OF WRONGS is the offspring of anger and its culmination. It holds on to another's sin. Climacus describes it as a poison of the soul. The seriousness of this cannot be underestimated for, he states, 13 "a malicious hesychast is like a lurking snake carrying about its own deadly poison." It is deadly to the soul because it makes a mockery of its prayer and stifles true love.
We may also be healed of this passion through looking to the example of Christ's long suffering and his patient endurance of the many wrongs done to him. 14 The remembrance of Jesus’ sufferings cures remembrance of wrongs……..
Reading works such as The Ladder by St. John Climacus is fruitful work for the soul during seasons of repentance. Such writings often show us far more about our hearts than we are ready to learn. The remembrance of wrongs is just one of many burdens which weigh heavily on the soul and make it impossible for it to rise above itself to anything heavenly. Such remembrance also has the capacity to weigh down everything around it.
15 Worms grow in a rotten tree, and malice finds a place in falsely meek and silent people. He who has cast it out has found forgiveness, but he who sticks to it is deprived of mercy.
On the individual level the remembrance of wrongs is a dead end. But it can be a confining memory, one whose existence grows ever smaller until we find our heart so squeezed that nothing but pain can come from it.
17 The forgetting of wrongs is a sign of true repentance. But he who dwells on them and thinks that he is repenting is like a man who thinks he is running while he is really asleep.
19 Never imagine that this dark passion is a passion of no importance, for it often reaches out even to spiritual men…. The ninth step. Let him who has reached it boldly ask the Savior Jesus for release from his sins for the future.
ON MALICE (On Remembrance of Wrongs)
Ephesians 4:31-32 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Colossians 3:7-8 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Ephesians 4:26-31 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ...
The remembrance of wrongs, real or imaginary, has senseless anger for its mother. 2 Remembrance of wrongs is the consummation of anger, it is the keeper of sin (this is when we say “I will remember that” and in so doing, we never let go of the offenses done to us). It hates a just way of life, the ruin of virtues, poison of the soul, worm of the mind, shame of prayer, stopping of supplication. It is turning away from love. A nail stuck in the soul, it is a pleasure-less feeling cherished in the sweetness of bitterness. It is a never-ending sin, an unsleeping wrong, a dark and loathsome passion (hourly malice).
When we become angry, upset, and bothered by the actions of others, if we embrace that anger and claim it as our own (rather than rejecting it as belonging to the devil), if we take it into our hearts and into our souls and nourish it, feed it with our memory (which has a tendency to exaggerate what it remembers, tilting it to our favor), we have practiced what is being described here. It is practicing what is called the “broken record” syndrome: playing the hurts over and over again in our minds.
4. He who conquers anger wipes out the remembrance of wrongs, because childbirth continues only while the father is alive…. Remember, this only grows as we provide for it. By rehearsing, pursing, and nursing the remembrance.
5. A loving man banishes revenge; but a man remembering wrong stores up troublesome labor for himself.
When anger is taken into our hearts and fed by our memory, it soon pushes other things out of our hearts. The nature of anger is that it is always growing.
The man who has put a stop to anger has also wiped out remembrance of wrongs. We must learn how to immediately reject the feelings of anger and disturbance as being satan-inspired and spiritually destructive.
Forgive quickly and you will be abundantly forgiven. To forget wrongs is to prove oneself truly repentant….
If we find ourselves unable to forgive the person, we must remind ourselves who is the real source of sin and destruction. To remind ourselves constantly of his ability to deceive is to remind ourselves to stay far away from his devices and stay close to the Holy Church, to listen and obey the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
If you must remember wrongs, think only of the wrongs the devil has done to you. He desires to make your life an ungrateful and treacherous friend. The more you care for it, the more it hurts you. 9 Be malicious and spiteful against the demons……..
10 Remembrance of wrongs is an interpreter of Scripture of the kind that adjusts the words of the Spirit to its own views.
Malice twists the words of Scriptures to suit itself. Malice is gone only when you do not rejoice at the misfortune of him who has offended you. To remove malice, see what your sin did to Jesus. Embrace malice and you will have no forgiveness. To forget wrongs is proof you are repentant. To remember wrongs is proof of an unrepentant soul.
In order to rid ourselves of this vice, we must purge ourselves of anger. Our greatest weapon in this task is the Lord's Prayer (The Jesus Prayer). For we cannot but be put to shame for our maliciousness when we ceaselessly cry out to God to forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
10 Let it be put to shame by the Prayer of Jesus which cannot be said with it. (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me a sinner)….
11 If after great effort you still fail to root out this thorn, go to your enemy and apologize…..
Mark 11:25 (Common English Version) “And whenever you stand up to pray, if you have something against anyone, forgive so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your wrongdoings."
Hard words!! But how much harder is hell!! If in case you don’t see how these words apply to you, consider the following…
12 You will know that you have completely got rid of this rot (decay and corruption of soul) not when you pray for the person who has offended you, nor when you exchange presents with him, nor when you invite him to your table, but only when, on hearing that he has fallen into spiritual or bodily misfortune, you suffer and weep for him as for yourself.
REMEMBRANCE OF WRONGS is the offspring of anger and its culmination. It holds on to another's sin. Climacus describes it as a poison of the soul. The seriousness of this cannot be underestimated for, he states, 13 "a malicious hesychast is like a lurking snake carrying about its own deadly poison." It is deadly to the soul because it makes a mockery of its prayer and stifles true love.
We may also be healed of this passion through looking to the example of Christ's long suffering and his patient endurance of the many wrongs done to him. 14 The remembrance of Jesus’ sufferings cures remembrance of wrongs……..
Reading works such as The Ladder by St. John Climacus is fruitful work for the soul during seasons of repentance. Such writings often show us far more about our hearts than we are ready to learn. The remembrance of wrongs is just one of many burdens which weigh heavily on the soul and make it impossible for it to rise above itself to anything heavenly. Such remembrance also has the capacity to weigh down everything around it.
15 Worms grow in a rotten tree, and malice finds a place in falsely meek and silent people. He who has cast it out has found forgiveness, but he who sticks to it is deprived of mercy.
On the individual level the remembrance of wrongs is a dead end. But it can be a confining memory, one whose existence grows ever smaller until we find our heart so squeezed that nothing but pain can come from it.
17 The forgetting of wrongs is a sign of true repentance. But he who dwells on them and thinks that he is repenting is like a man who thinks he is running while he is really asleep.
19 Never imagine that this dark passion is a passion of no importance, for it often reaches out even to spiritual men…. The ninth step. Let him who has reached it boldly ask the Savior Jesus for release from his sins for the future.
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