Opusculum

Macarius the Great. On the Guarding of the Heart. Discourse 1. How can any ordinary person say, "Fasting, living as a stranger, and distributing my possessions, I am holy"? Is a person holy who has not purified the inner man? For abstinence from evils is not purification, but purification is complete according to conscience. Enter, then, O man, through the intensity of your thoughts to your captive mind, which is a slave of sin, and see the serpent that creeps and lurks in the lower part of the mind and deeper than the thoughts, in the so-called storehouses of your soul, the serpent that has slain you through the more vital members of your soul; for the heart is an unfathomable abyss. And if you kill this serpent, boast to God concerning purity; but if not, be humbled as one needy and sinful, beseeching God concerning your hidden things. 2. True death is hidden within the heart, and the man is dead within. If, therefore, anyone has passed from death to life in the hidden part, that one truly lives for the ages and does not die; but even if the bodies of such persons are dissolved for a time, they are nevertheless sanctified and rise with glory; hence we call the repose of the saints sleep. 3. The whole struggle of the adversary is this, that he may be able to draw our mind away from remembrance and love of God, using earthly enticements, and diverting it from what is truly good to what seems, but is not truly, good.

For everything good that a person does, the evil one wishes to stain and defile, and struggles to mix in his own addition of vainglory or self-interest with the commandment, so that the good deed may not be done for God alone and out of good zeal. 4. What then? We who have not entered into the heart at all, how shall we begin? Standing outside, we knock through fasting and prayer, as the Lord commanded, saying, "Knock, and it will be opened to you." For if we abide by the word of the Lord, and by poverty, and by humble-mindedness, and by all the virtues of the commandments, knocking night and day at the spiritual door of the Lord, we shall be able to obtain what we seek. For through this door every one who wishes to flee the darkness can obtain deliverance. For there he finds the freedom of the soul, and recovers his thoughts, and acquires the heavenly king, Christ. 5. When the mind forgets the intellectual and pious distress, then it has also forgotten the commandments; and wherever it seems to run, it is turned aside from the smooth path, and lives crookedly. Because of this, it encounters wild beasts. For if we did not cut off the labor of prayer and hope, we would not have transgressed; for to those distressed about the soul, Scripture says, "God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear"; but the undisciplined will meet with evils.

6. Just as the external eyes see thorns and precipices from afar, so also the foreseeing mind, being swift, foresees the arts and preparations of the opposing power, and secures the soul, being its eye. 7. There is need of great struggle and hidden, invisible toil, to make an examination of thoughts, and to exercise the weakened senses of our soul for the discernment of good and evil. It is necessary always to rekindle through the mind, by urgency toward God, the enfeebled members of the soul, our mind calling upon the Lord always, that it may become one spirit according to the saying of Paul. This hidden struggle and meditation of the Lord and toil by night and day we must have for every practice of a commandment, whether praying, or eating, or serving, or drinking, or doing something else, so that every good practice that occurs may be for the glory of God. For then the whole sequence of the commandments is sanctified and purely accomplished by you, through the uninterrupted memory of God, and fear and love toward God, and we become free from that which defiles the commandments of God. 8. For indeed the patriarch Abraham offered from the first fruits to the priest of God Melchizedek, and thus received the blessing from him. What else does the Spirit intimate through these things, but, indicating a higher contemplation somewhere, the extremities and the bones of the whole composite of our nature?

that is, one must always first bring to God the mind itself, the conscience itself, the disposition itself, the reasoning itself, the loving power of the soul itself, the firstfruit of our entire human being, the sacred sacrifice of the heart; the firstfruits and the highest of good thoughts, keeping them constantly occupied in that same memory and meditation. And thus we are able day by day to receive increase and progress, being aided by divine grace, and the burden of the righteousness of the commandments will appear light to us, as we fulfill them purely and blamelessly, being assisted by the Lord himself through our faith in him. Concerning visible ascetic practice, and which good discipline is greater and primary, know this, beloved, that all the virtues depend on one another and are bound together with one another, and like a sacred spiritual chain, one is suspended from another: prayer from love, love from joy, joy from gentleness, gentleness from humility, humility from service, service from hope, hope from faith, faith from obedience, obedience from simplicity. Just as, on the contrary, the evils are discharged from one.

hatred from anger, anger from pride, pride from vainglory, vainglory from faithlessness, faithlessness from hardness of heart, hardness of heart from negligence, negligence from slackness, slackness from contempt, contempt from listlessness, listlessness from faint-heartedness, faint-heartedness from love of pleasure, and the remaining parts of evil are suspended from one another. Likewise in the good part, the virtues are linked together. The head of every virtue and the summit of all right actions is perseverance in prayer, through which we are able to acquire the remaining virtues daily by asking from God. 9. Unless humility, simplicity, and goodness adorn us, the form of our prayer will benefit us nothing. And we speak not only about prayer, but also about every labor, or toil, or virginity, or prayer, or any kind of labor and work undertaken for the sake of virtue: unless we find within ourselves the fruits of love, peace, joy, gentleness, humility, simplicity, guilelessness, faith, and patience, our labors have been in vain and to no purpose; for all that work and those labors ought to be for the sake of the fruits. And if the fruits of love and peace are not found in us, the whole work is in vain and to no purpose.

For those who labor without these things are shown to be like the five foolish virgins on the day of judgment, who, because they did not carry away from here the spiritual oil in the vessels of the heart—which oil is the aforementioned virtues—were called foolish and were shut out from the spiritual bridal chamber of the kingdom. And the labor of virginity, through the lack and deprivation of the virtues and of the manifest dwelling of the Spirit, was accounted as nothing. For just as in the cultivation of the vine, all care is undertaken for the enjoyment of the fruits, and if no fruits are found on the vine, all the toil of the labor is in vain and useless; so, if we do not recognize in ourselves, through the energy of the Spirit, fruits of love, peace, joy, humility, and the rest mentioned by the Apostle, in full assurance and spiritual perception, then the labor of virginity, and the toil of prayer, psalmody, fasting, and vigil are shown to be in vain and amount to nothing. For these labors of soul and body ought to be performed in hope of spiritual fruits; and the fruit-bearing of the Spirit in the virtues is a spiritual enjoyment in incorruptible pleasure, in faithful hearts energized by the Spirit; for with great discernment of understanding, the labor, toil, and efforts of nature are to be guided, through faith and hope, being energized by the Holy Spirit in those who are worthy. Fasting, vigil, and exile are good; but these are the peak of a good way of life.

Yet the order of Christians is more interior than these things, and one ought not to place confidence in these alone. It happens that some are partakers of grace, and evil, still present, contrives and willingly yields, and does not act, but makes a person think that his mind has been purified; and thereafter he bears the conceit that he is a perfect Christian, and after this, when the person thinks, "I am free," and is without care, then in a thievish manner evil comes to him, making an ambush, and tempts him, and casts him down to the lowest depths of the earth. For if men, often being robbers or soldiers against enemies, know how to contrive, and lie in wait, and make an ambush, and take the backs of their enemies, and surround them suddenly, and kill them, how much more does evil, which has this as its work for so many thousands, having destroyed so many souls, know how to make an ambush in the heart, at times not acting, so as to bring the soul into the conceit of perfection? 10. The foundation of Christianity is this: that if a person performs acts of righteousness, he should not rest in them and consider himself great, but should be poor in spirit; and if he becomes a partaker of grace, he should not think that he has attained something, and be conceited that he is someone, and begin to teach; but rather, while being of good sojourn and conduct, fasting much, sojourning, praying, partaking of grace, he should not consider his soul precious.

But then especially, when a beginning of grace occurs, so that he may have toil, thirst, so that he may not consider himself sated and righteous or rich in grace; but rather be mourning and weeping. And just as if there is a mother, and she has an only son and raises him, and when he becomes a man, it happens that he dies; and then however many there are who console the mother, they rather stir up her grief, and she is inconsolable; so must the Christian weep over his fall, and weep unceasingly; and above all have a crushed heart. 11. Just as if a king’s house has many chambers and different courts, and many porches, and inner rooms, where the king dwells, and the purple, and the treasures are stored; then one entering into the outer courts should not think that he has already come into the inner rooms, where the glory of the king is, and the purple, and the treasures; so in the spiritual realm, those who fast, those who keep vigil, those who sing psalms and pray, should not think that they have entered into the resting place, but rather they are still entering into the porches and into the courts, not where the purple and the treasures are. Therefore, brothers, they ought not to trust in the external discipline and say, “I am someone”; but even if one becomes a partaker of grace, he should not be conceited as if he had arrived, or become very close to the king; for he is still lingering in the outer rooms. He ought not to investigate each one, whether he found the treasure in the earthen vessel, or put on the purple of the Spirit, or found the king and rested.

For such is the soul: it has a certain depth and many members; and then sin, having entered, occupies all its members and the thoughts of the heart. Then, when the man seeks, grace comes to him and occupies two members of the soul. The inexperienced man, being consoled by grace, thinks that grace, having come, has occupied all the members of the soul and that sin has been uprooted; but then the greater part is held by sin and one part by grace, and he is deceived and does not know it; for grace often works continuously, in the way that the eye in the body is engaged; and sin is present, deceiving the mind; and the undiscerning man, as if already having grasped, thinks something of himself and is puffed up as though liberated. But the matter is not so; for as I said, Satan makes a hidden trap, not working at times, in order to make the man think, "I am pure and perfect." Does the one who plants a vineyard immediately take grapes, or make wine? Or does the one who sows seed in the ground already reap and take fruits? Or can a newborn child immediately become a full-grown man, or a raw recruit become an officer? For he must first labor, and having entered battle, take the victory prizes and be crowned.

It is good, then, to have poverty, psalmody, fasting, and vigil, and to receive the grace of God; but one has not yet even begun to dig and lay the foundation as one ought. And in such things the mind must be blameless, a partaker of grace; then it thinks highly of itself and holds its soul in honor. Look at Jesus, from what glory, being Son of God and God, he came to what sufferings and crucifixion. Because of this humility, then, he was exalted exceedingly, seated at the right hand of the Father; and the serpent from the beginning sowed pride in Adam, that you would become like God; through this pride, you see, then, to what dishonor the race of Adam has fallen. I seek, indeed, a man poor in spirit, and I do not find one; as if someone were rich, having treasures in his house, and were needy, and poor, and begged from all. Thus are Christians who have grace: rich toward God, they are poor in spirit, as having nothing. There are, for example, one hundred litrai of gold which one ought to acquire; the one who took five litrai was satisfied. And there are some who have, for example, ten ounces of grace, and they make them a hundred, boasting. And there are often those who have five ounces of sin, and they make them half an ounce; this happens to them either through ignorance, because, being stolen away in that grace itself, they do not know; or through vainglory, being ashamed to say that evil is active; for they already proclaim themselves to be perfect. But the just thing is for a man to do and to speak: both to acknowledge the things of grace and the activity of sin.

For such a one lies when he says he has a pure heart; for matters are not such that as soon as grace arrives, the man at once becomes pure. They are handed over to the enemies and to the temptations for exercise and discipline, in the same manner as Job was to temptation. For evil cooperates with good, though with an intention that is not good. But the Christian, having five ounces of sin, must say, "I have twenty, and I am full of evil." And having, for example, twenty ounces of good, must say, "I have half an ounce." But if he is ashamed to say this out of vainglory, let him at least speak the truth. Let him acknowledge both the activity of grace and also the sin in part. As, then, I said earlier about the soul, that it has depth, we use examples to delineate its parts. Just as there is the sun, and from it many rays; or as there is a tall tree, and it has branches; or as there is a great city, and it has many neighborhoods; so is the intellectual substance, the immortal soul, a precious beauty beyond all created things, an image and likeness of God. Then, when grace arrives, it shines upon two rays of the soul, or upon the whole

of a tree into two branches, or from the whole city into two neighborhoods. Moreover, the greater parts of the soul are held by sin; and he thinks that the whole, through and through, has become of the good part and of grace and brightness; as if, having acquired five pounds of gold, he thinks he has acquired a hundred pounds. Is the embryo in the womb already a man? Or, having laid one foundation stone, has he already completed the building? Or has the seed cast into the ground already become an ear of grain? Does the merchant, as soon as he begins his business, already fill the storehouse? And does one who partakes of a small grace thereby become a Christian? Still, the first and the great are in relation to perfection as the official is to the governor, or as a small stream to the river Euphrates. He who has the intention to go to a distant city thirty miles away, if he goes two or three miles, let him not think that he has entered the city. Since, therefore, the opposing power is persuasive, not compulsory; and divine grace is persuasive because of the free will and simplicity of nature, then if a man does evil, being persuaded by Satan, Satan is not judged in his place; but the man himself is punished and chastised, as one who has become obedient to evil by his own will. Likewise, if a man turns to the good and grace of God prevails, grace does not ascribe the good to itself, but attributes it to the man and glorifies him; because the man himself became the cause of the good; for this is of his nature.

and it is not as if grace comes to him and by a compulsory power binds his will, and thereafter makes him, whether willing or unwilling, unchangeably good; but it leaves room for free will, and the divine power is present together with it, so that the will of the man may be shown, whether he honors the soul or does not honor it, whether he agrees or does not agree. For many have honored and agreed. Others have turned aside. For the Apostle says, "Having begun with spirit, you now complete with flesh." For law is not laid upon nature, but upon free choice, which is capable of turning to good and evil. Therefore the Lord says, "I came to cast fire upon the earth, and I wished to see if it was already kindled." The Lord wishes the heavenly fire to be kindled in the hearts of men, and some wish it, others do not. Again he similarly says, "How many times did I wish to gather you together, as a hen her own chicks, and you did not wish it?" You see that the Lord wishes, and men do not wish to draw near to the Lord and find mercy.

14. Whoever wishes to approach the Lord, to be deemed worthy of eternal life, to become a dwelling place of God, and to be deemed worthy of the Holy Spirit, so that he may be able to produce his fruits blamelessly and purely according to the Lord's commandments, must begin in this way. First, he must believe in the Lord firmly, and devote himself entirely to the words of his commandments, and renounce the world in all respects, so that his mind is in no way occupied with any of the visible things. And he must always persevere in prayer, and not despair, always expecting the Lord's visitation and help, keeping the aim of his mind on this at all times. Then he must always force himself toward every good thing and toward all the Lord's commandments, even if his heart is unwilling because of the sin that dwells in it. For example, he must force himself to be humble before all people, and to consider himself lower and worse than everyone, not seeking honor or praise or glory from anyone, as it is written in the Gospel, but always keeping only the Lord and his commandments before his eyes, wishing to please him alone. Likewise, let him force himself toward gentleness, even if his heart is unwilling, as the Lord says: "Learn from me, that I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Likewise, let him accustom himself by force, as much as he is able, to be merciful, kind, compassionate, and good, as the Lord says: "Become good and kind, as the

Your heavenly father is compassionate; and again he says: If you love me, keep my commandments. And again: Exert yourselves, for those who exert themselves seize the kingdom of heaven; and: Strive to enter through the narrow gate. Let the Lord’s humility and way of life and conduct always be before your eyes, as a pattern in an unerring memory; and with all your might, persevere in prayers, constantly beseeching and believing, that the Lord may come and dwell in you and perfect and strengthen you in all his commandments, and that your soul may become a dwelling place of Jesus Christ; and thus what you now do with effort and against the will of your heart, accustom yourself continually to the good and always to remember the Lord, and to await him always in great goodness and love. And when the Lord sees such your purpose and your good zeal, how you always force yourself into his memory, and always into the good, and into humility, and meekness, and love; and you constrain your unwilling heart and lead it, with all your might, with effort, he works his mercy upon you; and he delivers you from your enemies and from the sin dwelling within; filling you with the Holy Spirit, and thus henceforth without effort and toil you always perform all the Lord’s commandments truly; rather, the Lord performs in you his own commandments and the fruits of the Spirit, when you bear fruit purely.

One must first approach the Lord, and then compel oneself toward the good, even when the heart is unwilling, while always expecting his mercy with unwavering faith; and one must force oneself to pity and to have a compassionate heart, to force oneself to be despised, to be patient, and when scorned or dishonored not to be indignant—according to what is said: Do not avenge yourselves, beloved. One must also force oneself to prayer, even when one does not yet have the prayer of the Spirit. And thus God, seeing one who struggles in this way and forcibly leads himself toward the good, even when the heart is unwilling, gives the true prayer of Christ, gives bowels of compassion, true kindness, and in short preserves for him the fruit of the Spirit. But if someone forces himself only to prayer, not having prayer, in order to obtain the prayer of grace, and does not force himself to humility, love, and the other commandments of the Lord, sometimes the prayer of grace is given to him, and he is partially in rest and joy according to his request, but in his ways he is similar to what he was before. For he does not have meekness, because he did not earnestly seek it and did not prepare himself to become so. He does not have humility, because he did not ask for it and force himself to it; he does not have love for all, because he had no concern and struggle for this in his request for prayer. For each one must, just as he forces and constrains himself to prayer even when the heart is unwilling, so also force himself to love, to meekness, and to all endurance and patience with joy, according to what is written.

Thus one must compel oneself to be disregarded, and to consider oneself worse and lower than all, as one who is of no use, not to converse; but always to meditate on the words of the Lord and to speak them with mouth and heart; thus, not to become angry, according to what has been said: "Let all bitterness, and anger, and outcry be removed from you, together with all malice"; so that the Lord, seeing his intention, may give him all these things without toil and without compulsion, which before he was able to preserve only with violence, because of the sin dwelling in him; and all these practices of virtue become like nature to him; for thereafter the Lord, having come, having come and being in him, himself performs his own commandments in him without labor, filling him with the fruits of the Spirit. 14. But if someone compels himself to prayer until he receives some gift from God, yet does not likewise compel himself to these things, namely to humility, to love, to meekness, and to the remaining virtues, and strains himself, sometimes divine grace comes to him as he asks and prays; for God is good and kind, and gives to those who ask him what they request; but if he has not prepared himself and has not habituated himself to the aforementioned virtues, he either loses the grace, or receives it and falls, or does not advance because he has become proud; since he does not give himself willingly to the commandments of the Lord. For the dwelling place or resting place of the Spirit is humility, and love, and meekness, and the remaining commandments of the Lord.

Those who wish truly to please God, and to receive from him the heavenly grace, and to increase and be perfected in the Holy Spirit, must first compel themselves to guard all the virtues, even when the heart is unwilling, according to the saying: "For this reason I was brought to fulfillment in all your commandments." For just as one compels and constrains oneself in the endurance of prayer until one accomplishes this, so likewise in all the practices of virtue one compels and constrains oneself, and acquires a good habit. And thus, continually asking and beseeching the Lord, and obtaining the request, the gift of the Spirit grows and flourishes in him—the gift that was granted to him, reposing in his humility and in the remaining virtues, and it teaches him true love, true meekness, which he previously compelled and sought. And so, having increased and been perfected in God, he is deemed worthy of the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. For the humble one never falls. For where can he fall, being beneath all? Humility is a great exaltation; and lowliness of mind is honor and dignity. Let us therefore accustom and constrain ourselves to humility, even when our heart is unwilling, beseeching and entreating God in faith, hope, and love unceasingly in this expectation, that he may send his Spirit into our hearts, so that we may pray and worship the Father in Spirit, and that the Spirit itself may pray in us.

so that the Spirit itself may teach us true prayer, humility, meekness, love—which now we cannot do by force—compassionate bowels, kindness, and all the Lord's commandments, and may teach us to perform them in truth, without toil and without compulsion; as the Spirit itself knows how to fill us with its fruits. And thus, with the Lord's commandments fulfilled in us through his Spirit, which alone knows the will of Christ and cleanses us from the stain of sin, it will present us as beautiful, pure, and spotless brides to Christ, we resting in God and Christ resting in us for endless ages. Glory to his compassions, and to his mercy, and to his love, because he has deemed the human race worthy of such honor, deeming and addressing us as his own brothers and sons of the heavenly Father. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.