“The Lord rebuke thee!”
“An Angel of the Lord was rebuking them.”
His Eminence, Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Fili
(+2013)
It is a truth confirmed by
experience that the pious Christian who is struggling, with the Grace of God
and the help of the Saints, to arrive from a state contrary to nature to
a state according to nature—and then proceeds to be raised to a state above
nature—is warred upon night and day by the evil spirits—those fallen former
luminous angels.
The demons’ envy of mankind is
indescribable; for these miserable ones see that people who have been
sanctified in Christ, though mortal and material, inherit the places of light
and glory and blessedness from which the demons themselves fell on account of
their arrogance, and who now inherit gloomy Hades and the eternal fire of Hell.
Spiritual inexperience, a want of
faith, and the cloud of passions usually do not allow us to understand our true
enemies, who, night and day and with various wiles, beleaguer our soul, in
order to separate it from the Light of Christ and to subjugate it to the dark
passions.
“It was said
of a certain Elder that he prayed to God to see the demons. And it was revealed
to him: ‘You have no need to see them.’ But the Elder supplicated, saying: ‘O
Lord, Thou art able shelter me by Thy Grace.’
“And God
uncovered his eyes and he saw [the demons] circling man like bees and gnashing
their teeth at him, while an Angel of the Lord was rebuking them.”
* * *
In the end, however, when we have
overcome the temptation of lack of faith and are convinced that, in essence,
our sole enemies are the unclean spirits, we now meet, with even greater intensity,
the temptation of anxiety, sorrow, impatience, and indignation; for both the
internal and external battle is heavy in the extreme, spontaneous, and
unceasing—thoughts, fantasies, and feelings, like a dark cloud, cover our heart
and mind. We have the intense feeling that people, nature, and
circumstances are all rising up against us!
An immediate danger that
beginners in the life in Christ, in particular, pass through is that of cursing
Satan!
It would be good, in these
critical moments when the intensity of our inner struggle reaches its peak, to
remember how the Chief Commander Michael acted:
“Yet Michael
the Archangel, when contending with the Devil he disputed about the body of
Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said: ‘The Lord
rebuke thee’” (St. Jude 9).
In other words, when conversing
with the Devil—who was disputing with arrogance of mind, desiring to take the
dead body of Moses the God-Seer under his dominion—, the Archangel Michael did
not presume to condemn him with oaths and curses, but rather said to the Devil:
“May God punish you for that. May the Lord rebuke you. May the Lord
do away with you for the wrong you have ventured.” And thus did the
Devil vanish.
“And
consider,” the Saints remark, that “the Archangel Michael indeed
banished the Devil, but not through domination or authority, rather by
surrendering [in humility] all judgment and the expulsion of the Devil to the
God of all.”
Through his example, then, the
Archangel Michael showed us that we must not curse, imprecate, or anathematize
even Satan himself—something that the Sacred Texts of our Faith also teach us:
“When the
ungodly curseth Satan, he curseth his own soul.” (Ecclesiasticus 21:27)
The Saints interpret this verse
as follows:
“For if I
anathematize even Satan himself, insofar as I do such a deed, I anathematize my
own self.”
* * *
A second risk faced by the
fighter of the good fight is that of forgetting his spiritual allies:
the luminous Angels of God! In the revelation to the aforementioned saintly
Elder—let us never forget this point!—, it is true that he saw the demons ferociously
circling man, but: “An Angel of the Lord was rebuking them”!
When, in time, we will be granted
spiritual purity by the Lord’s love for mankind, then we will gain intimacy
with our Guardian Angel and will noetically hear his holy voice assuring us: “I
am here! Do not lose courage! Just be careful!”
The Saints teach us—and
experience confirms this—that when the soul undergoes afflictions and
tribulations, but with patient endurance, humility, and thanksgiving, the
All-Good God provides for the soul to be comforted
“by means of
the noetic ministers—namely, the Angels—who fortify it by most fervent and
sweet tears, refined thoughts, and strength of virtue.”
We must have unswerving faith
that, insofar as we remain firm in the accomplishment of the good commandments
of our Lord, we mystically receive the seal of a Divine Angel. In this
way, the swarm of gnashing demons has no power over us; they will attack us,
but they will vanish. They will come and they will pass away, rebuked.
“As for you,”
the Saints say, “if you remain in the good, God sends His Angel and seals
you, so that the one coming and brandishing a sword will pass you by, through
the prayers of the Saints. Amen.”
* * *
Hence, take heed! When the burden
of the struggle presses heavily upon us, let us not forget who our enemies are
and who our allies are!
The former are dark and
malignant, but weak. Our capitulations and compromises are what give them
power, and they wound us, either with pardonable or deadly sins.
The latter are bright and good.
The purity of our lives and the fragrance of Grace—Which dwells in our hearts
by means of noetic prayer—attract them, and they protect, comfort,
and guide us to the heights of deification.
† Eighth Sunday of
St. Luke
7/20 November 2005
Greek source: Άγιος Κυπριανός, No. 371 (2014), pp. 1-3.
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