Discourse 60

It is right that one should not be distressed to run or to seek: that something might come openly into one’s hand or be used for one’s benefit. For at all times the Lord is near to the saints through his helps, without distress he does not show his power in revelations, through actions something that comes about sensibly. Without the helps of our pure faculties and the prepared instruments, and this: while all this is wasted upon them, so that not even one of them ceases from his action in secret, but in everything he leaves them to show their diligence according to their power, and in prayer to him. Then the desire is from the difficulty of the balance of their knowledge, when they were astonished and departed from it, because it is not pure sufficiency; he completes according to the greatness of his power, as is right and he knows that he helps them. As much as he can, in secret he strengthens them, that they may endure against that difficulty. Through the knowledge that he can find them, he causes the perplexity of its confusion to be loosed. And through theory he awakens them to praise, that it may be to the advantage of both sides. Then concerning the revelation of the efficacy of the desire that has ceased, then because of distress he does this. The wise became his interpreters, and they serve the necessities, and it was not for shame.

It is not right that one should be distressed to run after this, or to ask of God and to be eager that wonders and powers should be in his hand. For this is like a man who finds a laughing demon in his mind. But it is a cause for boasting, for filling, and for grief in the end. For in necessity it is right to ask for the help of God. But the short-lived thing that is for the consolation of the Quietist is not this, nor is the true righteous one of this kind. For that which the Lord does when he does not will is found at the end of the saints. That which a man does by his will and runs after this when there is no necessity is a rejection of caution and a casting off of the knowledge of truth. And if in this the one who is worthy is heard, as we said, with our Lord, and finds a place over him, he leads him to another that is greater than it. But the true righteous are not eager for this, and not only do they not think of this, but even when it is given to them they do not desire it. And not only do they not ask for it, but they do not even accept it for themselves. For behold, one of the saints, when because of his simplicity a gift was given to him, and he knew beforehand when a man would come to him, asked of God, while also persuading the others who prayed with him, that the gift be taken away from him.

The fathers, then, not even in times of necessity were they troubled by this presumption. Behold, that blessed holy man truly one of the wonderful fathers: at the time when he was going to the peace of Mar Eustathius, and he wandered in the desert, he did not say to God, "Take me and place me where Eustathius is." When he could have done something similar to this, because of his proximity to God, and the will was possible, as it is said concerning that place: those who wandered in that desert would reach the region of Quadrigae. And concerning all these things, he did not say this to God, but only this one word he said: "Lord, do not let your creature be lost." Do you see the humility, the wisdom of the truth of the fathers? God, then, because of the care he has for the saints, for he knew that the man was true and not shaken in his thought by pride, did as was fitting for the greatness of the man. And when he did not ask, God did what was right. And he slept, and rose, and saw in the form of a human hand suspended above his head in the sky, and it showed him the way, until he went and stood above the cave of the blessed Eustathius.

Did you see the negligence that God has toward his household? For he could have not even let him go astray. But he loved him: he knew how much he had neglected him. And he let him go astray: and then showed him the way again, openly. And not through a human being, but through an angel, and he showed him by means of a sign. O the negligence of God toward the saints! Remember also that of Abba Macarius: when he was going to the Skete, when the baskets had gone astray. And he was amazed and perplexed: and he sat down, because he could not walk. He did not ask anything of God: that he might do for him as his providence does for his children. But he surrendered himself to God, saying: God, you know that I have no more strength. And immediately he was transported, as by a sign, from the providence of God: and he was set down where he had wanted to go, he together with his baskets. The righteous of truth, however, are pleased in themselves with this: that they do not make demands of God. And by this they are proven to be true: that they consider themselves debtors. And that they do not make demands of his care: they truly confess, in secret and in public. And like sinners and the lowly, they show care and patience in everything: and they surrender themselves to God in faith. While they are: they do not remain, according to their ability, from anything that it is right for them to do.

when this is by the spirit that is wise, they do not remain from what they have accomplished of their duty, and from what they have labored as much as they have lived. The time of ease, however, for the world that is to come preserves him. And those in whom God dwells do not return to this place here, that they might be at ease and might rejoice from the clouds, even though a respite is given to them in these things of the spirit, at a hidden time. And the excellence is not this, that when a person reaches it, he remains free from care and from toil. Rather, this is the dwelling of the spirit, that it rules and restrains in a gentle manner, even though there is an opportunity for ease to accomplish the desire. This is the will of the spirit: that for those who dwell in it, it does not bind them with constriction, nor does it set them at ease, but it leads them to labors and to greater affliction. And it teaches them vigilance, and it disciplines them with fasts, and it brings them near to wisdom. This is the will of the spirit, that its hidden things are revealed through struggles. Those who are guided by ease do not have the spirit of God in them, but the spirit of Satan. The spirit of God does not desire bodily ease, nor is it expanded in a dwelling of ease, but in a dwelling of struggles. Satan, however, is expanded in a dwelling full of ease, as the testimony of our Lord shows.

the spirit of the Holy One rests from ease, as it is said to the holy fathers: the spirit of God does not alight in a body that dwells in ease. Rather, it looks to where they afflict themselves, in a body that is constrained, with a soul that is prepared, and it does work for them, and teaches them how their life in this brief time is to be. Those who have pleased God through afflictions of every kind have completed their lives. For all the righteous have sent him out of this world through torments. The more they approached God, the more their torments increased. For one of them said in his discourses: "Every day I die. I say to you, do not boast, my brothers, that I have in my Lord Jesus Christ that every day I die." By this they are distinguished from the rest of the wicked, and in them is God: that they live in afflictions, and the world lives in ease. God did not will that they be eased in their bodily senses, but he desires that as long as they live, they be in affliction in the world. They are constrained, and tormented, and oppressed, and humiliated, and persecuted, and needy, and sick, and despised, and beaten. They have no place of rest. Their heart is broken, their body is humbled, their hands are bent, and their thought is full of bitterness.

they are afflicted in their entire creation. They afflict their dwelling-place, all their members. Their dwelling is solitary and remote, hidden from the sight of the world, empty of all the joyful signs of the world. Stripped of all the pleasures of ease. But joy is found in them, and far from them are afflictions and sorrows. Nor do they have the need of the body fully like every man. Their bed is the earth. Their faces are burned from fasting. Their knees are weakened from exhaustion. Their inner organs are destroyed by the severity of their asceticism from the need beyond natural human custom. They weep, and the world laughs. They are mournful, and the world is joyful. They fast, and the world feasts. The whole creation rests in sweet sleep, and they keep vigil in prayer. For by day they are not, and by night they sing the vigil. The saints live bitter lives in the world, with a humbled body, a constrained soul, with afflictions from every place. Thus is the will of God: that all who approach him live in lowliness, while they humble and abase themselves in their entire soul and body. On the one hand, through the constraints of their will; on the other, through the afflictions from their sufferings; on the other, through the bitter pains that are lost in their bodies.

From fevers, and from chills of the plague, from the burning of fevers, from the burning of demons, from the burning of diseases, from the burning of poverty. And others were persecuted. Others were killed. Others were imprisoned. Others were stoned. Others were drowned in the sea. Others had their limbs cut off while alive. Others were handed over to the hour and to contempt. Others were cast into the mouth of the flame. Others into bonds and the fetters of the mighty. Others fell by the mouth of the sword. Others were rolled about, while clothed in the skins of lambs and goats, and they were like wanderers in the desert. The saints were in torments, in mountains and caves and in the hollows of the earth. For like these men, the apostolic martyr, the world was not equal to them, and it was manifest from all: that in all these, they were not able to be adorned and to be comforted, as the word of the blessed apostle. Glory to their crown-bearer, that even he, in the pain of the cross, completed this path after all, that in his footsteps the saints also might be formed. And the word of our Lord: "It is perfected in deed. In the world, no: in affliction you shall be. But in me, let there be joy for you." By the power of this joy, these saints are strengthened to endure.

Of God, by whose power the holy ones endured these torments and were not shaken in their hope. He confirmed his hope in all. Amen. Without afflictions, there is no life. God knew that two contrary natures cannot exist in one person, and that he cannot be compelled by his love when they strike the body. He withdrew from this. And he hid his compassion in themselves, by means of the separation from all the pleasures of the world. Of Christ, that one concealed his love from death, and the consuming fire, and the sword, and the exile from one's tribe, and the separation from life, and all the torments that do not stand before his love in his lovers. That one revealed himself in the power of his love. Amen. Because of the causes for which God leaves persecutions upon