Discourse 30

On the strength and evil operation of sin: by what it is established and by what it ceases. Until a person, with heart and truth, seeks the cause of sin, he is not freed from the operation of the heart. This is the servitude of the tyrant, which stands against a person until the end, by which his freedom is tested in the singleness of love toward the virtues. And this is the power that is named the passions: by whose impulse the weak soul is drawn away, because of the strong inclination placed in it. This is the strong power of sin, by which it shakes the tranquility of the ascetics and stirs up the movements of the passions in those who have never taken the medicine of their knowledge. Here, then, show the benefit, my beloved. This is the sacrifice of martyrdom that is not to be despised, by which the order of solitaries is adorned in the church. In the encounter of this battle, the mind of the ranks is shaken and confounded, if it is not vigilant for the good. Our Lord, who can do all things, the source of all helps, support in these times those who are sacrifices of martyrdom, the souls of those who have offered themselves joyfully to you as a heavenly gift, and give you the assurance of holiness, in all the tranquility of the passions and not in a disturbed manner.

Give power to that which subdues rebellious thorns and every height that is raised up against holiness: without the knowledge of the evil one who set them, by the unbreakable bond of the Church, that one who is crushed in the vessel of blood. Not every time is it in the vessel of asceticism that this difficult contest occurs. Abandonment is good, as if by choice. Woe to the weak one who is delayed in this distinct contest. This has great power: strength that takes from habit, in those who give themselves completely to purification even once. The blessedness of thought is with him. Beware, my beloved, of idleness: death is known to be hidden within it. Without the fall of the solitary one into the hands of his captors, it is not possible. It is not that God judges us on that day concerning the Psalms or concerning the idleness of the services of the liturgy when it is performed. But by their abandonment, it becomes an entrance for demons. And what they find a place: they enter and seize their summer-quarters, they fill them with violence, those who are beneath the decree of divine judgments, binding their doings with the severe pursuit upon them: and they become enslaved because of the abandonment of small things, which in taking up the burden are cared for because of Christ by the wise.

as it is said: whoever does not subject his will to God becomes subject to his own passions. The beginnings of the knowledge of the thoughts that are before these self‑willed ones, that their completion may be within the cell—these which, together with the holders of the orders of the powers of the Church, were established by wisdom for the preservation of life in the spirit of revelation. Their abandonment is considered a small matter by the unwise. But in the transgressions that are born from it, it is not investigated. The beginning and the middle of their path is a freedom that does not issue forth, which is the mother of all sins. To be afflicted, in the taking away of the small things, it breaks forth from that which is not to be told to the place of sin by the expansion from them. This is the freedom that is not sold, whose end is harsh servitude. However much your senses are strong for the encounters of all events, from now on consider yourself dead. For never will the weight of sin be lacking to you in all the changes from your guides, and no power that can stand in yourself is found. If there is one of the solitaries who with those who are warned confesses in his heart: thus, he does not wish that it be known when he swallows. For by his companion a man errs, condemning to cursing, as from the law.

whoever does not subject his will to God becomes subject to his own passions. The beginnings of the knowledge of the thoughts that are before these self‑willed ones, that their completion may be within the man who errs by his own will: it is not fitting to place at the head those who, when they know, do that which they do without knowing, because for that reason the cause is sought from its beginning. This is what is difficult in his eyes: that because its causes are known, he desires that his existence be not known. Or how sweet is the cause of the passions! To the passions he says: cease from existence at some time. And to the future he says: strike. But in their cessation he rejoices many times; but as for the cause that belongs to them, he cannot uproot it. Because of this: even when they do not wish, they are healed by the passions. They are afflicted. But as for the causes that are near to them, they hide them. By sins they do not wish to bring forth. But as for the things that belong to them, they accept them easily. Because of this: they become a double cause for the first ones to the completion. That is, he who wishes to subject the passions to their causes, and when he does not wish, he ceases from his sins, he remains from them. And he who confesses his faults receives forgiveness. And there is no cessation from sins of habit except by the severity of silence, and no receiving of forgiveness except by the confession of faults. To this: the certainty of testing. And to that: the repentance that follows from the shame of the heart.

until the end of their course, he cannot perceive the foulness of the evil deeds that are done, nor their shamefulness, as one who stands in error. Until you cast the garment from yourself, you will not even know to what shame you are exposed, nor the disgrace of it. When later you see your error, then you will know the dishonour that has befallen you. Distance yourself from evil, and you will know its foulness. But if you do not distance yourself, you will not know it. For like a sweet scent, its foulness will meet you, and the nakedness of your separation will be like a covering of glory. Blessed is he who distances himself from darkness and sees himself; he cannot within himself serve sight and discernment. Blessed is he who abandons the tumult of his wine and later sees the vileness of his drunkenness, where it is; then he will be ashamed of his standing. For as long as he stands in error, he is drunk with the drunkenness of sins; everything he does seems fair in his eyes. When the sober one departs from his order, he is equal to one who is drunk with wine and with disturbances. Both are brought out from their proper state. Both are moved by one heat in the body, which they receive. The senses are distinct, but the mixture is one, and the disturbance is one. For there is no equality in the higher senses, but in the recipients there is no difference.

For every beginning, then, that exists, a cessation is set after it. And for every cessation, a beginning. Know that everything in this changeable world has its change, and it receives its change contrariwise, either here or there, either at the time of a man's departure. And especially for the beginning that is from vision, or for the cessation that is opposite to this: that it may be holy. And this, while it is fittingly and mercifully arranged by God, that either in the way itself or at its end, man tastes that abandonment, and then passes on. And because of the abundance of God's mercy, not for this, as if for a ransom, but for that, as for a gift. In that the greatness of the good does not consume its root. Evil, however, is consumed, as it is said: that which is cast into the fire consumes its own fire. Beware of the freedom that precedes servitude; beware of the confidence that precedes battles. Beware of the knowledge of the elder before the encounters of the young. And even more: beware of the love that precedes the completion of repentance. If sinners are restrained, and there is none above their youth, there is none prior in the superfluities to repentance. Remember that all facility is twofold: that of oppression and bitterness. And beware also of the joy that is a change without cause, which is not known with it.

Everything whose end is from above, the cause of its change is found in the knowledge of its beginning. From the equality that is understood of the errant one, who is outside the path that is spoken of by the disputant. He who wisely knows how to steer his ship of the world: change is inevitable for all that is his. Separate from this: a likeness. He is attached to the weariness of the members, the cessation of thoughts. But for labor that is not measured: a cutting off. And for the cutting off again: a cessation. A cessation distinct from a cessation. To that first one: a vessel of truth is attached. But to this one: a removal from tumult, and a change of places. For labors that are measured, when their end is with them in a fixed manner: there are no waters. Their deficiency of these: excess in trembling. Their abundance goes: a place for the solitary. The thirty-first chapter of the pure one who conquers in your body: my brother, because you are destined to be in that wisdom which does not pass the crown of its headship. Do not be troubled by the delusions of the Adamite body, which is destined to be in that delight: whose knowledge is more excellent than the pleasures of those who seek flesh. When that heavenly image is clothed, which is the king of silence. Do not be disturbed before the changes of the members of the pure one. He is full of wrath, for the labor in them is to cause trembling, like the animal of their reception. They became dogs that were accustomed to the butcher.

By voice alone, of the mouth: he fled from him. If then you are cast into his eye, you will make his fierce lions into gentle ones. Flee to a small humility, that you not be hindered by the heat of its strength. A small patience of the small passions becomes the preparation of the coming of the great great passions. It is not possible to conquer great evils without the small victory over the lesser ones. Remember that order which you are about to enter, O brother, that you may not again be in it in the life of your contemptible rags, in which mortality is trodden down. And no longer the extension of the mixture, by the dissolution of whose humility the good youth is destroyed. Bear the labor of the contest which you have entered for the sake of the firstborn, as if to receive a crown and to pass on. For after a little while, you will depart from this world. Remember that sigh which has no end, that life which has no dissolution, that perfect standing of manhood, that conduct which has no beginnings, that equality whose bond is divine love, which reigns over nature.