LADDER OF DIVINE ASCENT STUDY
LADDER OF DIVINE ASCENT
STEP ONE: TURNING OUR BACKS ON THE WORLD
From the Ladder of Divine Ascent, the structure and emphasis comes from an image of a ladder, Jacob’s Ladder, that was stretching from heaven to earth from Gen. 28:12. The rungs, or steps, originally were one for each year in the hidden life of Christ before baptism. He entered His ministry at age 30. Jewish custom is that a man steps into his call at 30. Until then he is learning.
For us, the steps are what we take, in this life, in following Christ up the ladder to heaven. In his book, St John Climacus, or St John of the Ladder, called this first step: “Renunciation of the World.” By the word renunciation, it means to give up the world, to disown it.
In the Greek Orthodox churches, as well as many others, this book is studied heavily every year at Lent. A time of spiritual inventory of one’s self. Thus, St John introduces us to the first step of the Ladder of Divine Ascent by issuing a serious reminder:
Of all created and rational beings, endowed with the dignity of free will, some are friends of God, some are His true servants, some are useless servants, some are entirely estranged, and there are some who, for all weakness, take their stand against Him.
Of course, the question St John intends to raise in our hearts is: “Which one am I?”
He says, “By friends of God, they are simple people, properly speaking, those intellectual and incorporeal beings (almost angels to others), which surround God. By true servants of God we mean all those who tirelessly and unremittingly do and have done His will. By worthless servants we mean those who think of themselves as having been granted baptism, but have not faithfully kept the vows they made to God. By those estranged from God and alienated from Him, we mean those who are unbelievers or heretics. Finally, the enemies of God are those who have not only evaded and rejected the Lord’s commandment themselves, but who also wage bitter war on those who are fulfilling it.”
We know that not everyone who is baptized makes it successfully to heaven; not everyone enters by the narrow door steadfastly walks the narrow path (see Matt. 7:13-14). Baptism is no guarantee that we will ascend into heaven. A good beginning does not absolutely ensure a good ending! Indeed, the danger always exists that we become useless servants whothink of themselves as having been worthy of the gift of baptism, but have not at all guarded their covenant with Him.
This being the case, then, we must take seriously the direction and focus of our lives. As Jesus warns: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord.’ Shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven” (Matt. 7:21).
But how shall we ascend to God? How do we begin? This is Step One. According to St John, to begin our heaven-bound journey, we must purposely turn our backs on this world as our primary interest and concern. Everyone has this ladder to climb, or fall off of in life. Understand, that as we climb the ladder, our enemy, the devil, shoots arrows at us, some get hit, take a few steps back, but get up and then push on. Some get hit and fall to the down side of the ladder, sometimes hanging to the ladder for dear life. Some fall to the downside, then get hit again and fall to their death.
All people born into this world from the womb of their mother have to climb this ladder. Not all make it, many do. Of those on the ladder St John says: “The irreligious man is the mortal being with a rational nature, who of his own free will turns his back on life and thinks of his own Maker, the ever-existent, as non-existent. (This man known as an atheist). The lawless man is one who holds the law of God after his depraved fashion, and thinks to combine faith in God with heresy that is directly opposed to Him.” I want to call this man an agnostic or heretic. Reason being, Paul states in Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” The word “suppress” means to put down by force, to keep the truth from being known. As an agnostic, he does not say he is atheist, he says he cannot support the truth. “The Christian is one who imitates Christ in thought, word and deed, as far as is possible for human beings, believing rightly and blamelessly in the Holy Trinity. The lover of God is he who lives in communion with all that is natural and sinless, as far as he is able neglects nothing good. The continent man is he who in the midst of temptation, snares and turmoil, strives with all his might to imitate the ways of Him who is free from such….”
Again, every man and women of all walks, of all nationalities, everyone is on this ladder, either to climb up, or fall from…
So how do we do this?
Withdrawal from the world is a willing hatred of all that is materially prized, a denial of (fleshly) nature for the sake of what is above (heavenly) nature. (see Col. 3:1-4).
How easy it is for us to become obsessed with the things of this world! Even while claiming to be concerned for the Kingdom, we can be living fundamentally and principally for this world. St John says this is evidence of our pleasure-loving disposition. How often do we pamper this body of ours and live for earthly satisfaction and pleasure, while ignoring the concerns of the soul? This explains why we must embrace the renunciation of life. We must choose to place the importance of the soul above all else, and we must refuse to be diverted from this primary endeavor.
Of course, this makes sense and sounds good – it even sounds easy…. Until we actually try it. Then we learn that our bodies are opposed to taking second place. They (our bodies) do not like to be said “no” to. This is the result of the Fall. When Adam fell and disobeyed the commandment of God (when he broke the fast, as it were) he unleashed the body and reversed the natural order in man. Before sin, man’s body was the servant of his soul. After the fall, the soul of man became subjected to the body.
Pay close attention here… Before sin, before the fall, the order was spirit, soul and body… After sin, the fall, the order was body, soul and spirit. Note, the order reversed! To ascend to heaven, we must reverse the order within us. We must teach the body to assume its rightful position as the guardian and servant of the soul. This is why St John insists:
“Violence and unending pain are the lot of those who aim to ascend to heaven with the body, and this especially at the early stages of the enterprise, when our pleasure-loving disposition and our unfeeling hearts must travel through overwhelming grief toward the love of God and holiness. It is hard, truly hard….” Watch closely again here… In Matthew 11:12 Jesus says, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” For the longest, this verse was not too clear for me personally, but when you see it in light of the Ladder of Divine Ascent, we can see, that in order to overcome the flesh, its works, its deeds… overcoming our enemy, the devil, we must fight for our life. We have to get violent, spiritually, We MUST crucify the flesh and its deeds, according to Paul (Romans 13:14, Gal. 2:20, 5:24).
Thank God, we so not have to do this alone. For Christ Himself stands ready to help us in our labors. This is sweetness in the midst of our bitter pains and joy in the context of sorrow. Once again, we must remember the goal of our struggle: it is heaven and the enjoyment of the presence of God for eternity. Without this motivation of love and true pleasure-seeking (spiritually), we will not be able to endure the struggle. Many have fainted on the way because they lost sight of the destination.
“The aim of the demon is to make the very outset of our spiritual life lax and negligent…” You see in confession, we need to learn to be accountable and responsible for our soul, and then admit, when we are down and hit by an arrow of the devil. “I am here, at this point, by my own negligence…” Don’t faint, don’t loose sight of the destination!!!!!.
“Let us eagerly run our course as men called by our God and King, lest, since our time is short, we be found in the day of our death without fruit and perish of hunger. Let us please the Lord as soldiers please their king; because we are required to give an exact account of our service after the campaign.”
Hebrews 12:1 “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us….”
Those who enter this contest must renounce all things, despise all things, deride all things, and shake off all things, that they may lay a firm foundation. A good foundation of three layers and three pillars is innocence, fasting and temperance……..” Let no one, lag in the fight… “To lag in the fight at the very outset of the struggle and thereby to furnish proof of our coming defeat is a very hateful and dangerous thing.” The word he uses in this “defeat” is translated also “slaughter.” In the military, our soldiers are told, “Stay together!” If you “lag” you are dead.
Without such objectives the denial of the world makes no sense. God who judges the contest stands waiting to see how it ends for the one who has taken on this race.
Mistakenly, we sometimes succumb to the temptation of believing that the real life is found here below (on this earth), and that the more we ascend to God the further away we will be from “life.” How opposite is the real situation!!!
An impious man is a rational being, one who must die, who runs away from life.. By impious, this means he lacks piety toward God, or better, lacks devotion… There is no life in this world and the things of this world. This is what Holy Scripture reminds us of: “Do not love the world or the things of this world…(For) the world is passing away.” (1 John 2:15-17).
When man fell, death entered into this world. Only by ascending to God will we find true life. For God is life of all beings. How hard is it to keep this perspective! How hard and how laborious at times to stand apart from our fellows who are insistent upon the absolute value of this life and this world, and to live for the eternal values of the Kingdom which will never die.
Hear this closely!
The man who has withdrawn from the world in order to shake off his own burden of sins, should imitate those who sit outside the city amongst the tombs, and should not discontinue his hot and fiery streams of tears and voiceless heartfelt groanings until he, too, sees that Jesus has come to him and rolled away the stone of hardness from his heart, and loosed Lazarus, that is to say, our mind, from the bands of sin, and ordered His attendant angels: Loose him from passions, and let him go to blessed dispassion. Otherwise he will have gained nothing.
John 11:44 Jesus said ,“Loose him let him go.” Lazarus, when he came out of the tomb, gravesite, he was bound hand and foot with graveclothes, his face was wrapped with a cloth. Key words here: he was BOUND. In sin, we become bound by sin. We are, bound by graveclothes. Our face is covered with a cloth, causing blindness of sin. If we remain in this state, we die. Because in sin, we are dead men. Our old man, as it is, must die, and we rise up in the spirit!
We get life in the spirit, from our attending church, hanging with fellow believers, who are on this ladder too. We encourage one another. When one gets shot, we are to help him. Remember the Good Samaritan? That is us to each other! You see, Do not separate yourselves from the church assemblies.
In another place, St John calls this the royal way, the life of stillness (inner peace)shared with others. This is why the Church, the community of the faithful, is so important for us in our journey toward heaven. Others who are struggling to renounce the world encourage and motivate us to renounce the world ourselves. We need each other.
Individually we will fail. But together, as fellow seekers of heaven, we will succeed.
“Woe to the man living alone when he falls into despondency or sleepiness, carelessness or despair, for then he has no one among men to lift him up. “For where there are two or three gathered in My Name, there am I in the midst of them”says the Lord (Matt 18:20).”
So then, who is the wise and faithful Christian?
“It is the man who has kept unquenched the warmth of his vocation, who adds fire to each to fire, fervor to fervor, zeal to zeal, love to love, and this to the end of his life.”
This is the first step. Let him who has set foot on it never turn back.
STEP ONE: TURNING OUR BACKS ON THE WORLD
From the Ladder of Divine Ascent, the structure and emphasis comes from an image of a ladder, Jacob’s Ladder, that was stretching from heaven to earth from Gen. 28:12. The rungs, or steps, originally were one for each year in the hidden life of Christ before baptism. He entered His ministry at age 30. Jewish custom is that a man steps into his call at 30. Until then he is learning.
For us, the steps are what we take, in this life, in following Christ up the ladder to heaven. In his book, St John Climacus, or St John of the Ladder, called this first step: “Renunciation of the World.” By the word renunciation, it means to give up the world, to disown it.
In the Greek Orthodox churches, as well as many others, this book is studied heavily every year at Lent. A time of spiritual inventory of one’s self. Thus, St John introduces us to the first step of the Ladder of Divine Ascent by issuing a serious reminder:
Of all created and rational beings, endowed with the dignity of free will, some are friends of God, some are His true servants, some are useless servants, some are entirely estranged, and there are some who, for all weakness, take their stand against Him.
Of course, the question St John intends to raise in our hearts is: “Which one am I?”
He says, “By friends of God, they are simple people, properly speaking, those intellectual and incorporeal beings (almost angels to others), which surround God. By true servants of God we mean all those who tirelessly and unremittingly do and have done His will. By worthless servants we mean those who think of themselves as having been granted baptism, but have not faithfully kept the vows they made to God. By those estranged from God and alienated from Him, we mean those who are unbelievers or heretics. Finally, the enemies of God are those who have not only evaded and rejected the Lord’s commandment themselves, but who also wage bitter war on those who are fulfilling it.”
We know that not everyone who is baptized makes it successfully to heaven; not everyone enters by the narrow door steadfastly walks the narrow path (see Matt. 7:13-14). Baptism is no guarantee that we will ascend into heaven. A good beginning does not absolutely ensure a good ending! Indeed, the danger always exists that we become useless servants whothink of themselves as having been worthy of the gift of baptism, but have not at all guarded their covenant with Him.
This being the case, then, we must take seriously the direction and focus of our lives. As Jesus warns: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord.’ Shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven” (Matt. 7:21).
But how shall we ascend to God? How do we begin? This is Step One. According to St John, to begin our heaven-bound journey, we must purposely turn our backs on this world as our primary interest and concern. Everyone has this ladder to climb, or fall off of in life. Understand, that as we climb the ladder, our enemy, the devil, shoots arrows at us, some get hit, take a few steps back, but get up and then push on. Some get hit and fall to the down side of the ladder, sometimes hanging to the ladder for dear life. Some fall to the downside, then get hit again and fall to their death.
All people born into this world from the womb of their mother have to climb this ladder. Not all make it, many do. Of those on the ladder St John says: “The irreligious man is the mortal being with a rational nature, who of his own free will turns his back on life and thinks of his own Maker, the ever-existent, as non-existent. (This man known as an atheist). The lawless man is one who holds the law of God after his depraved fashion, and thinks to combine faith in God with heresy that is directly opposed to Him.” I want to call this man an agnostic or heretic. Reason being, Paul states in Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” The word “suppress” means to put down by force, to keep the truth from being known. As an agnostic, he does not say he is atheist, he says he cannot support the truth. “The Christian is one who imitates Christ in thought, word and deed, as far as is possible for human beings, believing rightly and blamelessly in the Holy Trinity. The lover of God is he who lives in communion with all that is natural and sinless, as far as he is able neglects nothing good. The continent man is he who in the midst of temptation, snares and turmoil, strives with all his might to imitate the ways of Him who is free from such….”
Again, every man and women of all walks, of all nationalities, everyone is on this ladder, either to climb up, or fall from…
So how do we do this?
Withdrawal from the world is a willing hatred of all that is materially prized, a denial of (fleshly) nature for the sake of what is above (heavenly) nature. (see Col. 3:1-4).
How easy it is for us to become obsessed with the things of this world! Even while claiming to be concerned for the Kingdom, we can be living fundamentally and principally for this world. St John says this is evidence of our pleasure-loving disposition. How often do we pamper this body of ours and live for earthly satisfaction and pleasure, while ignoring the concerns of the soul? This explains why we must embrace the renunciation of life. We must choose to place the importance of the soul above all else, and we must refuse to be diverted from this primary endeavor.
Of course, this makes sense and sounds good – it even sounds easy…. Until we actually try it. Then we learn that our bodies are opposed to taking second place. They (our bodies) do not like to be said “no” to. This is the result of the Fall. When Adam fell and disobeyed the commandment of God (when he broke the fast, as it were) he unleashed the body and reversed the natural order in man. Before sin, man’s body was the servant of his soul. After the fall, the soul of man became subjected to the body.
Pay close attention here… Before sin, before the fall, the order was spirit, soul and body… After sin, the fall, the order was body, soul and spirit. Note, the order reversed! To ascend to heaven, we must reverse the order within us. We must teach the body to assume its rightful position as the guardian and servant of the soul. This is why St John insists:
“Violence and unending pain are the lot of those who aim to ascend to heaven with the body, and this especially at the early stages of the enterprise, when our pleasure-loving disposition and our unfeeling hearts must travel through overwhelming grief toward the love of God and holiness. It is hard, truly hard….” Watch closely again here… In Matthew 11:12 Jesus says, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” For the longest, this verse was not too clear for me personally, but when you see it in light of the Ladder of Divine Ascent, we can see, that in order to overcome the flesh, its works, its deeds… overcoming our enemy, the devil, we must fight for our life. We have to get violent, spiritually, We MUST crucify the flesh and its deeds, according to Paul (Romans 13:14, Gal. 2:20, 5:24).
Thank God, we so not have to do this alone. For Christ Himself stands ready to help us in our labors. This is sweetness in the midst of our bitter pains and joy in the context of sorrow. Once again, we must remember the goal of our struggle: it is heaven and the enjoyment of the presence of God for eternity. Without this motivation of love and true pleasure-seeking (spiritually), we will not be able to endure the struggle. Many have fainted on the way because they lost sight of the destination.
“The aim of the demon is to make the very outset of our spiritual life lax and negligent…” You see in confession, we need to learn to be accountable and responsible for our soul, and then admit, when we are down and hit by an arrow of the devil. “I am here, at this point, by my own negligence…” Don’t faint, don’t loose sight of the destination!!!!!.
“Let us eagerly run our course as men called by our God and King, lest, since our time is short, we be found in the day of our death without fruit and perish of hunger. Let us please the Lord as soldiers please their king; because we are required to give an exact account of our service after the campaign.”
Hebrews 12:1 “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us….”
Those who enter this contest must renounce all things, despise all things, deride all things, and shake off all things, that they may lay a firm foundation. A good foundation of three layers and three pillars is innocence, fasting and temperance……..” Let no one, lag in the fight… “To lag in the fight at the very outset of the struggle and thereby to furnish proof of our coming defeat is a very hateful and dangerous thing.” The word he uses in this “defeat” is translated also “slaughter.” In the military, our soldiers are told, “Stay together!” If you “lag” you are dead.
Without such objectives the denial of the world makes no sense. God who judges the contest stands waiting to see how it ends for the one who has taken on this race.
Mistakenly, we sometimes succumb to the temptation of believing that the real life is found here below (on this earth), and that the more we ascend to God the further away we will be from “life.” How opposite is the real situation!!!
An impious man is a rational being, one who must die, who runs away from life.. By impious, this means he lacks piety toward God, or better, lacks devotion… There is no life in this world and the things of this world. This is what Holy Scripture reminds us of: “Do not love the world or the things of this world…(For) the world is passing away.” (1 John 2:15-17).
When man fell, death entered into this world. Only by ascending to God will we find true life. For God is life of all beings. How hard is it to keep this perspective! How hard and how laborious at times to stand apart from our fellows who are insistent upon the absolute value of this life and this world, and to live for the eternal values of the Kingdom which will never die.
Hear this closely!
The man who has withdrawn from the world in order to shake off his own burden of sins, should imitate those who sit outside the city amongst the tombs, and should not discontinue his hot and fiery streams of tears and voiceless heartfelt groanings until he, too, sees that Jesus has come to him and rolled away the stone of hardness from his heart, and loosed Lazarus, that is to say, our mind, from the bands of sin, and ordered His attendant angels: Loose him from passions, and let him go to blessed dispassion. Otherwise he will have gained nothing.
John 11:44 Jesus said ,“Loose him let him go.” Lazarus, when he came out of the tomb, gravesite, he was bound hand and foot with graveclothes, his face was wrapped with a cloth. Key words here: he was BOUND. In sin, we become bound by sin. We are, bound by graveclothes. Our face is covered with a cloth, causing blindness of sin. If we remain in this state, we die. Because in sin, we are dead men. Our old man, as it is, must die, and we rise up in the spirit!
We get life in the spirit, from our attending church, hanging with fellow believers, who are on this ladder too. We encourage one another. When one gets shot, we are to help him. Remember the Good Samaritan? That is us to each other! You see, Do not separate yourselves from the church assemblies.
In another place, St John calls this the royal way, the life of stillness (inner peace)shared with others. This is why the Church, the community of the faithful, is so important for us in our journey toward heaven. Others who are struggling to renounce the world encourage and motivate us to renounce the world ourselves. We need each other.
Individually we will fail. But together, as fellow seekers of heaven, we will succeed.
“Woe to the man living alone when he falls into despondency or sleepiness, carelessness or despair, for then he has no one among men to lift him up. “For where there are two or three gathered in My Name, there am I in the midst of them”says the Lord (Matt 18:20).”
So then, who is the wise and faithful Christian?
“It is the man who has kept unquenched the warmth of his vocation, who adds fire to each to fire, fervor to fervor, zeal to zeal, love to love, and this to the end of his life.”
This is the first step. Let him who has set foot on it never turn back.
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