LADDER OF DIVINE ASCENT STEP TWO
Step 2 On detachment
“Blessed are the poor in spirit…..” Hold all things with open hands (Don’t cling to things).
Detachment = not connected, separate, disinterested in worldly things
There are three general categories of things that we cling to. So long as our hands cling to them, we are not free to cling to the Lord.
First, most of us need to detach from material possessions. Detachment is such a foreign concept to contemporary Western believers. Our lives are surrounded by so much materialism that we have adopted more or a worldly orientation than we begin to realize. Rather than grasping our possessions, we must learn to hold all things loosely. We enjoy them as blessings from the Lord, but do not claim them for our own. As we release our death grip on all that we possess, we discover a new freedom in life.
Second, we tend to cling to people. God has given us others to love and from whom we can receive love. Relationships are some of the greatest blessings in this life. However, when we begin to cling to those closest to us, we run the risk of turning them into idols. Instead, we must hold all people as a gift from God and not grip them so tightly that we try to draw our life from them.
Third—and most insidious—we cling to ourselves. As fallen human beings, we hold onto our wants, our comforts, our way of doing things. We also defend our plans, our agenda and even our own concepts of how we want to grow spiritually. Just as much as we cling to material possessions, we tenaciously clutch our own spiritual agenda. Our fallenness creeps into our own way of doing spiritual formation. Again, we need to detach.
The man who really loves the Lord, who has made a real effort to find the coming Kingdom, who has really begun to be troubled by his sins, who is really mindful of eternal torment and judgment, who really lives in fear of his own departure, will not love, care or worry about money, or possessions, or parents, or worldly glory, or friends, or brothers, or anything at all on earth. But having shaken off all ties with earthly things and having stripped himself of all his cares, and having come to hate even his own flesh, and having stripped himself of everything, he will follow Christ without anxiety or hesitation, always looking heavenward and expecting help from there, according to the word of the holy man: My soul sticks close behind Thee (Psalm 62:9), and according to the ever-memorable author who said: I have not wearied of following Thee, nor have I desired the day (or rest) of man, O Lord (Jer 17:16).
John does not hide the difficulty of the struggle ahead for those who have entered the religious life, and provides little hope for an easier way to progress in virtue. To give oneself up to God requires a stripping of oneself of all possible attachments, concerns, anxieties, possessions, and even certain loves and friendships. In short, one must strip oneself of anything and everything and live solely for God. Only in doing this, John states, can one be truly able to pray as the psalmist, "I will cling close to you" (Ps 62:9).
“My soul is glued behind Thee…” St. Augustine asks: “What is that glue? It is love….”
Chrysostom compares this close union to the nails of the Cross.
After our call, which comes from God and not man, we have left all that is mentioned above, and it is a great disgrace for us to worry about anything that cannot help us in the hour of our need—that is to say, the hour of our death. For as the Lord said, this means looking back and not being fit for the Kingdom of Heaven(Luke 9:62).. Knowing how fickle we novices are and how easily we turn to the world through visiting, or being with, worldly people, when someone said to Him: ‘Suffer me first to go and bury my father,’ our Lord replied, ‘Leave the dead to bury their own dead.’ (Matt. 8:22, Luke 9:59-60).
Luke 9:59-60, 62… Matt 8:22, These passages highlight “Faith before Family.”
Jesus said to “let the dead bury their own dead” implying that those who forsake the kingdom for perfunctory obligations (a routine, indifference) are already as good as dead. They are the dead who bury the dead. If you want to really know life, Jesus would say, “Then die and come follow Me.” - Michael Card “Luke”
In light of Jesus absolute lordship, nothing, absolutely nothing comes before Him. All our obligations vanish when we take up the Cross. – Michael Card “Matthew”
What is the difference between renouncing the world and living a life of detachment? One, it seems, is a decision, the other is the act of accomplishing it. This is shown in Christ’s encounter with the man who asked to go bury his father before coming to follow. The man wished to renounce the world, but was still attached to obligation and family. The truth is that whoever puts his hand to the plow, but then looks back is not fit for the kingdom of heaven. (Luke 9: 62) This is a truth that pervades spirituality the world over. We can neither know the divine, nor achieve true peace while we allow ourselves to be fettered and attached to possessions, persons, honors or any other thing.
After our renunciation of the world, the demons suggest to us that we should envy those living in the world who are merciful and compassionate, and be sorry for ourselves as deprived of these virtues. The aim of our foes is, by false humility, either to make us return to the world, or, if we remain monks, to plunge us into despair. It is possible to belittle those living in the world out of conceit; and it is also possible to disparage them behind their backs in order to avoid despair and to obtain hope.
There are many things, John calls them demons, which try to attack a monk after he has renounced the world. In convincing a monk that he is no better off for the renunciation, the monk either returns to the world, or falls through his grief into despair.
“The aim of our foe…. False humility…”
False humility is pride masquerading in humble words. Its when a person says all the right words in a situation to appear to be more humble than they really are.
Let us listen to what the Lord said to the young man who had fulfilled nearly all the commandments: ‘One thing thou lackest; sell what thou hast and give to the poor and become a beggar who receives alms from others.’ (Mark 10:21).
Mark 10:21 “Then looking at him, Jesus loved him and said….” The word in this passage Mark uses for “looking” implies seeing someone with your mind.. Better “gazing.” It is a form of the word the Gospels use to describe the distinctive way Jesus looks at Peter in Luke 22:61, John 1:42….
In this distinctive look the young man received a command from Jesus…”Go sell all you have….” This look and challenge is that of detachment to things… Can you detach and walk away?
Having resolved to run our race with ardour and fervour, let us consider carefully how the Lord gave judgment concerning all living in the world, speaking of even those who are alive as ‘dead’, when He said to someone: Leave those in the world who are ‘dead’ to bury the dead in body. (Matt 8:22).. His wealth did not in the least prevent the young man from being baptized. And so it is in vain that some say that the Lord commanded him to sell what he had for the sake of baptism. This is more than sufficient to give us the most firm assurance of the surpassing glory of our vow.
It is worth investigating why those who live in the world and spend their life in vigils, fasts, labours and hardships, when they withdraw from the world and begin the monastic life, as if at some trial or on the practising ground, no longer continue the discipline of their former spurious and sham asceticism. I have seen how in the world they planted many different plants of the virtues, which were watered by vainglory as by an underground sewage pipe, and were hoed by ostentation, and for manure were heaped with praise. But when transplanted to a desert soil, in accessible to people of the world and so not manured with the foul-smelling water of vanity, they withered at once. For water- loving plants are not such as to produce fruit in hard and arid training fields.
I would say that the question is what is the “real soil” of their foundation made of… Is it sewer? Full of personal praise and not praise toward God.. Is it vain, foul smelling in vanity… This foundation does not hold up when dry times come.. (Matt 13:1-9)
The man who has come to hate the world has escaped sorrow. But he who has an attachment to anything visible is not yet delivered from grief. For how is it possible not to be sad at the loss of something we love? We need to have great vigilance in all things. But we must give our whole attention to this above everything else. I have seen many people in the world, who by reason of cares, worries, occupations and vigils, avoided the wild desires of their body. But after entering the monastic life, and in complete freedom from anxiety, they pollutedthemselves in a pitiful way by the disturbing demands of the body.
Key word here… “polluted.” Disturbing demands of the body, brings forth the pollution of the soul…
Let us pay close attention to ourselves so that we are not deceived into thinking that we are following the strait and narrow way when in actual fact we are keeping to the wide and broad way. The following will show you what the narrow way means: mortification of the stomach, all-night standing, water in moderation, short rations of bread, the purifying draught of dishonour, sneers, derision, insults, the cutting out of one’s own will, patience in annoyances, unmurmuring endurance of scorn, disregard of insults, and the habit, when wronged, of bearing it sturdily; when slandered, of not being indignant; when humiliated, not to be angry; when condemned, to be humble. Blessed are they who follow the way we have just described, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matt 5:3-12)
(See Galatians 5:16-26)
No one will enter the heavenly bridechamber wearing a crown unless he makes the first, second and third renunciation. I mean the renunciation of all business, and people, and parents; the cutting out of one’s will; and the third renunciation, of the conceit that dogs (brings down) obedience. ‘Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate,’ saith the Lord, ‘and touch not the unclean world.’ (2 Cor. 6:17). For who amongst them has ever worked any miracles? Who has raised the dead? Who has driven out devils? No one. All these are the victorious rewards of monks, rewards which the world cannot receive; and if it could, then what is the need of asceticism or solitude?
After our renunciation, when the demons inflame our hearts by reminding us of our parents and brethren, then let us arm ourselves against them with prayer, and let us inflame ourselves with the remembrance of the eternal fire, so that by reminding ourselves of this, we may quench the untimely fire of our heart.
The grief, John tells us, comes from the love of things left behind in the world and, therefore, a monk must be diligent in guarding his heart. Once beginning the difficult journey on the narrow way, John states, it is easy to fall again onto the broad highway that leads to destruction. When the thoughts of the world threaten to overwhelm, the best weapon is prayer.
If anyone thinks he is without attachment to some object, but is grieved at its loss, then he is completely deceiving himself.
And, when you think you have achieved a life of detachment, do not be so sure. If you want to know if you are attached to something, says St. John, when it is taken away are you grieved at its loss? Are you still grieved? If you are, then you are not detached and are only deceiving yourself.
If young people who are prone to the desires of physical love and to luxurious ways wish to enter the monastic life, let them exercise themselves in all fasting and prayer, and persuade themselves to abstain from all luxury and vice, lest their last state be worse than the first. (Matt 12:45). This harbour provides safety, but also exposes one to danger. Those who sail the spiritual seas know this. But it is a pitiful sight to behold those who have survived perils at sea suffering shipwreck in harbour.
This is the second step. Let those who run the race imitate not Lot’s wife but Lot himself, and flee.
If you are to run the race, imitate Lot, not Lot’s wife says St. John. Follow the angel leading you to salvation. Do not turn back to gaze at what you have left behind…..
“Blessed are the poor in spirit…..” Hold all things with open hands (Don’t cling to things).
Detachment = not connected, separate, disinterested in worldly things
There are three general categories of things that we cling to. So long as our hands cling to them, we are not free to cling to the Lord.
First, most of us need to detach from material possessions. Detachment is such a foreign concept to contemporary Western believers. Our lives are surrounded by so much materialism that we have adopted more or a worldly orientation than we begin to realize. Rather than grasping our possessions, we must learn to hold all things loosely. We enjoy them as blessings from the Lord, but do not claim them for our own. As we release our death grip on all that we possess, we discover a new freedom in life.
Second, we tend to cling to people. God has given us others to love and from whom we can receive love. Relationships are some of the greatest blessings in this life. However, when we begin to cling to those closest to us, we run the risk of turning them into idols. Instead, we must hold all people as a gift from God and not grip them so tightly that we try to draw our life from them.
Third—and most insidious—we cling to ourselves. As fallen human beings, we hold onto our wants, our comforts, our way of doing things. We also defend our plans, our agenda and even our own concepts of how we want to grow spiritually. Just as much as we cling to material possessions, we tenaciously clutch our own spiritual agenda. Our fallenness creeps into our own way of doing spiritual formation. Again, we need to detach.
The man who really loves the Lord, who has made a real effort to find the coming Kingdom, who has really begun to be troubled by his sins, who is really mindful of eternal torment and judgment, who really lives in fear of his own departure, will not love, care or worry about money, or possessions, or parents, or worldly glory, or friends, or brothers, or anything at all on earth. But having shaken off all ties with earthly things and having stripped himself of all his cares, and having come to hate even his own flesh, and having stripped himself of everything, he will follow Christ without anxiety or hesitation, always looking heavenward and expecting help from there, according to the word of the holy man: My soul sticks close behind Thee (Psalm 62:9), and according to the ever-memorable author who said: I have not wearied of following Thee, nor have I desired the day (or rest) of man, O Lord (Jer 17:16).
John does not hide the difficulty of the struggle ahead for those who have entered the religious life, and provides little hope for an easier way to progress in virtue. To give oneself up to God requires a stripping of oneself of all possible attachments, concerns, anxieties, possessions, and even certain loves and friendships. In short, one must strip oneself of anything and everything and live solely for God. Only in doing this, John states, can one be truly able to pray as the psalmist, "I will cling close to you" (Ps 62:9).
“My soul is glued behind Thee…” St. Augustine asks: “What is that glue? It is love….”
Chrysostom compares this close union to the nails of the Cross.
After our call, which comes from God and not man, we have left all that is mentioned above, and it is a great disgrace for us to worry about anything that cannot help us in the hour of our need—that is to say, the hour of our death. For as the Lord said, this means looking back and not being fit for the Kingdom of Heaven(Luke 9:62).. Knowing how fickle we novices are and how easily we turn to the world through visiting, or being with, worldly people, when someone said to Him: ‘Suffer me first to go and bury my father,’ our Lord replied, ‘Leave the dead to bury their own dead.’ (Matt. 8:22, Luke 9:59-60).
Luke 9:59-60, 62… Matt 8:22, These passages highlight “Faith before Family.”
Jesus said to “let the dead bury their own dead” implying that those who forsake the kingdom for perfunctory obligations (a routine, indifference) are already as good as dead. They are the dead who bury the dead. If you want to really know life, Jesus would say, “Then die and come follow Me.” - Michael Card “Luke”
In light of Jesus absolute lordship, nothing, absolutely nothing comes before Him. All our obligations vanish when we take up the Cross. – Michael Card “Matthew”
What is the difference between renouncing the world and living a life of detachment? One, it seems, is a decision, the other is the act of accomplishing it. This is shown in Christ’s encounter with the man who asked to go bury his father before coming to follow. The man wished to renounce the world, but was still attached to obligation and family. The truth is that whoever puts his hand to the plow, but then looks back is not fit for the kingdom of heaven. (Luke 9: 62) This is a truth that pervades spirituality the world over. We can neither know the divine, nor achieve true peace while we allow ourselves to be fettered and attached to possessions, persons, honors or any other thing.
After our renunciation of the world, the demons suggest to us that we should envy those living in the world who are merciful and compassionate, and be sorry for ourselves as deprived of these virtues. The aim of our foes is, by false humility, either to make us return to the world, or, if we remain monks, to plunge us into despair. It is possible to belittle those living in the world out of conceit; and it is also possible to disparage them behind their backs in order to avoid despair and to obtain hope.
There are many things, John calls them demons, which try to attack a monk after he has renounced the world. In convincing a monk that he is no better off for the renunciation, the monk either returns to the world, or falls through his grief into despair.
“The aim of our foe…. False humility…”
False humility is pride masquerading in humble words. Its when a person says all the right words in a situation to appear to be more humble than they really are.
Let us listen to what the Lord said to the young man who had fulfilled nearly all the commandments: ‘One thing thou lackest; sell what thou hast and give to the poor and become a beggar who receives alms from others.’ (Mark 10:21).
Mark 10:21 “Then looking at him, Jesus loved him and said….” The word in this passage Mark uses for “looking” implies seeing someone with your mind.. Better “gazing.” It is a form of the word the Gospels use to describe the distinctive way Jesus looks at Peter in Luke 22:61, John 1:42….
In this distinctive look the young man received a command from Jesus…”Go sell all you have….” This look and challenge is that of detachment to things… Can you detach and walk away?
Having resolved to run our race with ardour and fervour, let us consider carefully how the Lord gave judgment concerning all living in the world, speaking of even those who are alive as ‘dead’, when He said to someone: Leave those in the world who are ‘dead’ to bury the dead in body. (Matt 8:22).. His wealth did not in the least prevent the young man from being baptized. And so it is in vain that some say that the Lord commanded him to sell what he had for the sake of baptism. This is more than sufficient to give us the most firm assurance of the surpassing glory of our vow.
It is worth investigating why those who live in the world and spend their life in vigils, fasts, labours and hardships, when they withdraw from the world and begin the monastic life, as if at some trial or on the practising ground, no longer continue the discipline of their former spurious and sham asceticism. I have seen how in the world they planted many different plants of the virtues, which were watered by vainglory as by an underground sewage pipe, and were hoed by ostentation, and for manure were heaped with praise. But when transplanted to a desert soil, in accessible to people of the world and so not manured with the foul-smelling water of vanity, they withered at once. For water- loving plants are not such as to produce fruit in hard and arid training fields.
I would say that the question is what is the “real soil” of their foundation made of… Is it sewer? Full of personal praise and not praise toward God.. Is it vain, foul smelling in vanity… This foundation does not hold up when dry times come.. (Matt 13:1-9)
The man who has come to hate the world has escaped sorrow. But he who has an attachment to anything visible is not yet delivered from grief. For how is it possible not to be sad at the loss of something we love? We need to have great vigilance in all things. But we must give our whole attention to this above everything else. I have seen many people in the world, who by reason of cares, worries, occupations and vigils, avoided the wild desires of their body. But after entering the monastic life, and in complete freedom from anxiety, they pollutedthemselves in a pitiful way by the disturbing demands of the body.
Key word here… “polluted.” Disturbing demands of the body, brings forth the pollution of the soul…
Let us pay close attention to ourselves so that we are not deceived into thinking that we are following the strait and narrow way when in actual fact we are keeping to the wide and broad way. The following will show you what the narrow way means: mortification of the stomach, all-night standing, water in moderation, short rations of bread, the purifying draught of dishonour, sneers, derision, insults, the cutting out of one’s own will, patience in annoyances, unmurmuring endurance of scorn, disregard of insults, and the habit, when wronged, of bearing it sturdily; when slandered, of not being indignant; when humiliated, not to be angry; when condemned, to be humble. Blessed are they who follow the way we have just described, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matt 5:3-12)
(See Galatians 5:16-26)
No one will enter the heavenly bridechamber wearing a crown unless he makes the first, second and third renunciation. I mean the renunciation of all business, and people, and parents; the cutting out of one’s will; and the third renunciation, of the conceit that dogs (brings down) obedience. ‘Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate,’ saith the Lord, ‘and touch not the unclean world.’ (2 Cor. 6:17). For who amongst them has ever worked any miracles? Who has raised the dead? Who has driven out devils? No one. All these are the victorious rewards of monks, rewards which the world cannot receive; and if it could, then what is the need of asceticism or solitude?
After our renunciation, when the demons inflame our hearts by reminding us of our parents and brethren, then let us arm ourselves against them with prayer, and let us inflame ourselves with the remembrance of the eternal fire, so that by reminding ourselves of this, we may quench the untimely fire of our heart.
The grief, John tells us, comes from the love of things left behind in the world and, therefore, a monk must be diligent in guarding his heart. Once beginning the difficult journey on the narrow way, John states, it is easy to fall again onto the broad highway that leads to destruction. When the thoughts of the world threaten to overwhelm, the best weapon is prayer.
If anyone thinks he is without attachment to some object, but is grieved at its loss, then he is completely deceiving himself.
And, when you think you have achieved a life of detachment, do not be so sure. If you want to know if you are attached to something, says St. John, when it is taken away are you grieved at its loss? Are you still grieved? If you are, then you are not detached and are only deceiving yourself.
If young people who are prone to the desires of physical love and to luxurious ways wish to enter the monastic life, let them exercise themselves in all fasting and prayer, and persuade themselves to abstain from all luxury and vice, lest their last state be worse than the first. (Matt 12:45). This harbour provides safety, but also exposes one to danger. Those who sail the spiritual seas know this. But it is a pitiful sight to behold those who have survived perils at sea suffering shipwreck in harbour.
This is the second step. Let those who run the race imitate not Lot’s wife but Lot himself, and flee.
If you are to run the race, imitate Lot, not Lot’s wife says St. John. Follow the angel leading you to salvation. Do not turn back to gaze at what you have left behind…..
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